- A set of 12,000-year-old dice was uncovered by historians.
- Studies think games of chance were used with these dice.
CAMBRIDGE, England – Studies out of Cambridge University in England show that historians have uncovered a set of 12,000-year-old dice to which they’ve assumed were used in games of chance.
That said, games like casino craps could’ve been a thing of the past with Native Americans from North America being the ones to have played with these ancient dice. Prior to the discovery, researchers believed that the dice originated much later, around 5,500 years ago.
"There is a deep history of dice, games of chance, and gambling in Native America,” said Colorado State archaeologist, Robert Madden. "This precedes any evidence we have of dice in the Old World by 6,000 years."
Madden continued saying that this is the earliest evidence of humans engaging in games of chance and others of that nature.
Of the dice that were discovered, there are three that were reported to be used by hunter-gatherers across the Pacific Northwest in Wyoming and Colorado, as well as in the southwest in New Mexico. Across 57 archeological sites in the U.S., 659 dice-like artifacts were found.
Based on previous research from anthropologist Warren DeBoer, there are some questions that could be raised with these discoveries, hinting at women paving the way for social innovations.
While there have been suggestions that the dice were used in games of chance, nothing concrete has been discovered.