Dice History

Bones

Have you ever heard the term "throw the bones?" Ever heard dice called knucklebones? Dice throwing - whether for divination or games - is ancient, and a long time ago people made dice from bone, stone, ivory, wood, and even amber.

The origins of some form of throwing dice or casting lots dates well into prehistory. People believed that supernatural forces were at work to influence the outcome. In the ancient Near East and Mediterranean, the knucklebones of animals like sheep and goats, called astragali, were marked on all sides and cast for divination purposes.

The Shona of southern Africa have a very ancient tradition where one will go into a trance and cast lots, called hakata, to determine the future or the will of the spirits that the shaman channels. These are small rectangular wooden tablets carved to fall on one of two sides. One side is typically blank and the other is carved with geometric or other symbolic imagery.

"Bones" dice on this site are similar to some barrel-shaped ones used in Tafl games played by the Norse. A version of this style was discovered in York, UK.

The 6-sided dice we know of today, with dots, or pips, showing the number, are also ancient, originating to at latest Roman times in the modern form. Pips were created by a drilling point that left a circle with a dot in the center, and the earliest dice are almost exactly like our modern-day d6, with the arrangement of pips and all.

Go First Dice

I learned about this from Matt Parker over on his YouTube channel Stand Up Maths. The point of Go First dice is to determine 1) who goes first, 2) ensure there is never a tie, and 3) ensure the odds of any one person winning are exactly the same. This wasn't easy and required some statistical analysis. For 2,3, or 4 people, it's not that hard but 5 people requires a 100-sided die. I've limited it to just 2-4 people. I'm using the correct set of numbers, but for now it's just rendered with a d6.

Learn more about the origin of Go First Dice at Eric Harshbarger's Go First Dice Wiki.

If you'd like to buy some, get them at mathsgear.com. in the UK, or at The Dice Shop on Mathartfun.com in the USA!

20-sided Dice

Theearliest known 20-sided die, or dodecahedron, was discovered in Egypt and is from the Ptolemaic period, around 300BCE. It is made of serpentine stone, and engraved with mostly Greek uppercase letters, plus two Coptic letters, one for 'A', and a 'C' shape instead of a sigma, 'Σ'. It's generally believed this too was for divination. A similar one from the Roman period caught many gamers' eyes in 2003, when it came up for sale at Christies'.