It was not until the 1920’s that mathematicians began to surmise that Archimedes may have created the Ostomachion as an elaborate mathematical challenge: to see how many ways the 14 pieces in the set could be rearranged into a square. In 2003, it was shown that there are in fact 536 distinct ways to form a square using the 14 pieces.
12 of 536 known arrangements of the 14 pieces into a square.