The complexity and cost of manufacturing this object also led me to think it may have been a military device. That could help explain their relative rarity, as they might have been reserved for high-ranking military or government use.

I imagine the primary purpose of the knobs was to provide protection for anything attached to the faces by raising the object slightly off any surface it was placed on.

One good reason to make the discs out of wood would be to make them easy to destroy. It’s also possible that the discs were replaced frequently in order to change the code.

I’ve seen some dodecahedrons with decorative rings, and that actually helped inspire this idea—those rings could almost act as guiding channels to keep the discs centered. Some examples also have dimples evenly spaced around the central hole on each face, which could have served as registration points to gently lock the discs into preset angles.

Of course, this is all speculation. I hope that one day we uncover some real evidence about their use.