US EditionNative Americans had dice and games of probability long before other cultures, study finds
The findings push the origins of chance-based games back by more than 6,000 years and identify 565 diagnostic dice items, researchers said.
- On Thursday, archaeologist Robert Madden published findings in American Antiquity identifying Native American dice dating back 12,000 years from sites across the United States. The discovery pushes back the timeline of gaming artifacts by 6,000 years.
- Previously, historians believed dice originated in Old World societies roughly 5,500 years ago. Madden's research reveals Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers were already using these "simple, elegant tools" to generate random outcomes.
- Madden established criteria for identifying "binary lots" by analyzing 293 historic sets recorded by ethnographer Stewart Culin. He classified 565 items as "diagnostic" dice and 94 as "probable" dice across 58 archaeological sites.
- Games of chance served as a "social technology of integration," allowing groups to interact and exchange goods, Madden said. Evidence suggests participants were exclusively women in more than 80% of documented historic dice games.
- Ancient groups were "intentionally creating, observing, and relying on random outcomes" long before formal probability theory emerged, Madden noted. This discovery reframes understanding of early human intellectual accomplishments regarding the nature of chance.
57 Articles
57 Articles
12,900-Year-Old Dice Identified Among Native American Artifacts - Archaeology Magazine
FORT COLLINS, COLORADO—People living in western North America more than 12,000 years ago played games of chance, according to a Live Science report. Robert Madden of Colorado State University identified and examined more than 600 sets of dice, or binary lots, recovered from 45 different archaeological sites in the western United States, on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. The artifacts date from 13,000 to 450 years ago. The objects can be eith…
Scientists find evidence of dice games 12,000 years ago in New Mexico
FORT COLLINS, COLO. — Scientists uncovered new evidence that Native cultures in the Southwest, including in New Mexico, had dice games 12,000 years ago. Archaeologists published the findings Thursday in the Journal of American Antiquity, finding Southwestern cultures had games thousands of years before any other culture in the world. The dice uncovered are made of bone or wood and were used in fast-paced, social games. They also said it points t…
Native Americans gambled long before other cultures
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 61% of the sources are Center
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
