Study: Native Americans Used Dice for Gambling 12,000 Years Ago
A new archaeological study reveals that Native American hunter-gatherers were using dice for gaming and gambling more than 6,000 years earlier than previously recorded instances in other parts of the world. The research, led by Robert Madden of Colorado State University, indicates that these practices emerged on the western Great Plains of North America at the end of the last Ice Age, over 12,000 years ago. This finding challenges the traditional historical view that dice and probability concepts originated in Bronze Age societies of Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. The study identifies two-sided dice crafted from wood and bone at Late Pleistocene sites in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. These artifacts suggest that ancient Native Americans possessed a working knowledge of chance and randomness, utilizing structured games to facilitate social interactions, exchange goods, and forge bonds between disparate groups. Unlike modern casino gambling, these were fair, one-on-one games without a house advantage. The research highlights the persistence of this practice and its significance in the global history of probabilistic thinking, reclassifying previously overlooked artifacts as intentional tools for generating random outcomes.
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Study: Native Americans Used Dice for Gambling 12,000 Years Ago
A new archaeological study reveals that Native American hunter-gatherers were using dice for gaming and gambling more than 6,000 years earlier than previously recorded instances in other parts of the world. The research, led by Robert Madden of Colorado State University, indicates that these practices emerged on the western Great Plains of North America at the end of the last Ice Age, over 12,000 years ago. This finding challenges the traditional historical view that dice and probability concepts originated in Bronze Age societies of Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. The study identifies two-sided dice crafted from wood and bone at Late Pleistocene sites in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. These artifacts suggest that ancient Native Americans possessed a working knowledge of chance and randomness, utilizing structured games to facilitate social interactions, exchange goods, and forge bonds between disparate groups. Unlike modern casino gambling, these were fair, one-on-one games without a house advantage. The research highlights the persistence of this practice and its significance in the global history of probabilistic thinking, reclassifying previously overlooked artifacts as intentional tools for generating random outcomes.
The Guardian