Cubic Dice: Archaeological Material for Understanding Historical Processes (2025)

Production bias in cultural evolution: An examination of cubic dice variation in experimental and archaeological contexts

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2015

Similar artifact function and conformism to social norms are two models commonly proposed to explain why ancient people shared a particular form of material culture. We propose an additional model for explaining such similarity, production bias, which focuses on interactions between raw materials and the production of material culture. By way of modern replication experiments and a survey of ancient examples, we use dice to exemplify production bias and discuss how it can be recognized in the archaeological record. Although there are 15 possible configurations for cubic dice, all of equal function, only three are common in the archaeological record. Replication experiments show that one is the result of production bias, and is differentially produced by novice dice-makers. The other two are the byproduct of conformist cultural transmission processes. A similar result holds for dot patterns, or how dots are placed with respect to one another to represent a particular number.

Gaming in Pre-Roman Italy: Characterization of Early Ligurian and Etruscan Small Pieces, Including Dice

Applied Sciences, 2022

An interesting assemblage of ancient ceramic materials connected or potentially connected with gaming activities has been characterized from the archaeometric point of view. The materials (washer-like pieces, small spheres, and cubic dice, with and without inscriptions) were found in the Villa del Foro excavation (Alessandria, Italy). They are related to the early Ligurian population of the site and their frequent contacts with Etruscan both in Etruria and in the Po Valley, in a period spanning the early VI century BC till the first half of the V century BC. Starting from the materials evidence, hypotheses are proposed concerning their possible use and cultural meaning. The studied cubic dice are discussed in the wider context of the pre-Roman diffusion of these objects.

GAMBLING WITH ETRUSCAN DICE: A TALE OF NUMBERS AND LETTERS

Archaeometry, 2011

The graphical and linguistic interpretation of the first six Etruscan numerals has long been confronted with the ambiguous assignment of the words huth and sa to either 4 or 6. Here, we show how the systematic combinatorial analysis of the numerals appearing on ancient southern Etrurian dice dated from the eighth to the third centuries BC, together with the careful comparison of the results with the only two existing dice carrying the alphabetical translations of the numerals conserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, finally allows unambiguous mathematical resolution of the linguistic riddle, allowing the firm attribution of the numeral 6 to the graphical value huth and 4 to sa. Combinatorial analysis of the numerals distribution on the six faces of the die shows that only two of the 15 possible numerical combinations were actually in use in southern Etruria, and that during the fifth century BC there was a marked shift from the typical (1-2, 3-4, 5-6) combination used in the early seventh-to fifth-century BC dice to the (1-6, 2-5, 3-4) combination used at later times and still largely adopted today. The largest body of archaeometric data on dice specimens from Etruria is presented, based on macroscopic examination, X-ray diffraction, DRIFT spectroscopy and density measurements.

The Evolution of Cubic Dice

2018

Cubic dice were brought by the Romans to the Low Countries, and are found in small numbers at many archaeological sites dating to the last 2000 years. We report on a systematic analysis of 110 well-dated dice from the Netherlands, showing that shape, pip confi guration, and pip style changed signifi cantly for bone and antler dice from the Roman to the recent historical period. Dice predating 650 CE are highly variable in all attributes, those dating between 1100 and 1450 are highly standardized, and those post-dating 1450 CE are standardized for some attributes, such as symmetry and confi guration, but variable for others, such as material type. There is also a major shift from “sevens” to “primes” and back to “sevens” pip confi guration across these temporal windows, and pip style was simplifi ed over time from a dot-ring-ring pattern to simple dots. We compare these trends to a smaller set of well-dated dice from the United Kingdom and speculate on possible reasons for these chan...

The role of dice in board games history

Board Game Studies, 2015

When looking at variations in games, the board and the playing pieces provide evidence, but so do the number of dice that are part of play. It is shown that the number of dice being used not only affects the game but that the definition of the values for each throw have significant and game-altering implications. All variations under scrutiny in this study do not appear as radically different games physically or perceptually. It illustrates a situation in which significant changes in strategy and playing length due to changes in randomizing instruments did not necessitate changes in the overall board or the number of playing pieces. In other words, players in history may have experimented with randomizing devices and may have used varying sets of them without any visible repercussion on the remainder of the board game implements. In the history of board games it is shown that games may have varying board sizes and number of playing pieces while at the same time different games may be played on the same board, even using the same playing implements Schädler (1998). Such variation that is found with board games complicates our understanding of their development in history. The attestation of a game board is not sufficient to rule out a set of different games being played on that same board, while variations of board design do not necessarily point at different playing communities (Finkel, 2004, p. 54). In order to understand the historical development of board games it is necessary to document what set of rules, boards and playing instruments were present at a particular point in time. Changes in observable variations can then be traced over time and across geographical regions to map the historical development and distribution of board games (see de Voogt, A.J., A.-E. Dunn-Vaturi & J.W. Eerkens, 2013; Murray, 1952, p. 133). This is an ongoing effort in archaeology but even descriptions of contemporary board games allow us to understand what variations are common within a players’ community. In the following study, we analyze a set of games, which have minor variations in board size and number of playing pieces as well as known variations of randomizing implements, in this case cowries and cubic dice. The role of randomizing devices in the history and distribution of board games is not yet informed by a better understanding on how such implements affect a game. For this we looked at both the implications for strategy and playing time, the latter expressed as the average number of moves necessary to complete (part of) a game. While the results of this study do not seem to facilitate conclusions when different types and numbers of dice are attested, they do confirm that players are not bound by these implements and that dice variation should be considered common rather than an unusual phenomenon that requires historical explanation.

GAMING DICE AND DICE FOR PROGNOSTICATION IN THE ANCIENT EAST IN LIGHT OF THE FINDS FROM MOUNT EBAL

The article deals with a unique, white stone die that was found in the excavations at the site at Mount Ebal. Following a description of the die is a discussion about its possible functions based on a comparison with similar archaeological artifacts and written sources. Similar dice to that from Mount Ebal were found in Mesopotamia, Syria and Egypt from the third and second millennia BCE. In most instances these dice were used with game boards. However, beginning from the first millennium BCE, dice found in written sources and archaeological contexts in the Land of Israel and Syria were also used for prognostication. It seems that the die from Mount Ebal belongs to this category.

M. Karwowski; Dice from the Celtic Oppidum of Stradonice in the Collection of the Museum of Natural History in Vienna, [in:] O. Tutilă, N. C. Rişcuţa, I. V. Ferencz (eds.); Archaeological small finds and their significance, Cluj-Napoca 2016, 25-41.

Why are Roman-period dice asymmetrical? An experimental and quantitative approach

Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences

Roman-period six-sided dice are common in archaeological sites across Europe. While some dice approach true cubes, many are visibly non-cubic (i.e., asymmetric/lopsided) and favor certain rolls, especially the numbers 1 and 6. It is unclear if such dice were intentional and distinctive “types” used in specific games or activities, represent “cheaters” dice, or are simply part of a continuum of variation in die shape and configuration. To explore this issue, we examine shape distribution of 28 well-dated Roman-period dice from modern-day Netherlands. Results show that Roman die asymmetry varies in a continuous fashion from true cube to highly parallelepiped, where the long side is over 50% longer than the short side. We then conduct replication experiments to examine how naïve producers configure pips across a range of shapes. Our results show a production bias, where makers place the 6 on the largest die face, not to favor certain rolls, but due to space limitations and/or the order...

The role of the dice in board games history

2015

When looking at variations in games, the board and the playing pieces provide evidence, but so do the number of dice that are part of play. It is shown that the number of dice being used not only affects the game but that the definition of the values for each throw have significant and game-altering implications. All variations under scrutiny in this study do not appear as radically different games physically or perceptually. It illustrates a situation in which significant changes in strategy and playing length due to changes in randomizing instruments did not necessitate changes in the overall board or the number of playing pieces. In other words, players in history may have experimented with randomizing devices and may have used varying sets of them without any visible repercussion on the remainder of the board game implements. In the history of board games it is shown that games may have varying board sizes and number of playing pieces while at the same time different games may b...

The Digital Ludeme Project: Combining archaeological and computational methods for the study of ancient board games

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2023

Archaeologists and computer scientists have both studied board games since the early days of their fields. Early archaeologists had an interest in identifying ways of playing the games of antiquity, and they applied diffusionist models fashionable at the time to trace the development of games from antiquity to the games played in nineteenth century Europe and North America. In time, a huge amount of data on ancient games was collected, and in the last thirty years archaeologists have studied games as they relate to social processes. In parallel to this, artificial intelligence (AI) research has utilized board games, primarily as testbeds for developing AI techniques, but also as an application domain. Archaeological and AI methods are combined in the Digital Ludeme Project, which documents the preserved knowledge of ancient games and uses computational techniques to evaluate research questions that can be addressed through AI playouts of proposed rulesets for games.