One hunter, for example, might say to another, “If the bones land short side up, we will search for game to the south if not, we look north,” thus using the astragali to plumb the future. The line between divination and gambling is blurred. How did these early dice make their way from the shaman to the layman? According to David Schwartz in Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling: The first dice throwers weren’t gamers, though -they were religious shamans who used astragali (as well as sticks, rocks, or even animal entrails) for divination, the practice of telling the future by interpreting signs from the gods.
Antique poker dice box says 818 ivory series#
Which side would be facing up after a toss, or a series of tosses, was as much a gamble to our ancestors as it is to us today. These bones -later called astragali by the Greeks- were chosen because they are roughly cube-shaped, with two rounded sides that couldn’t be landed on, and four flat ones that could. But the direct precursors of today’s dice were bone: the ankle bones of hoofed animals, such as sheep and oxen. The oldest known dice -dating back at least 8,000 years- consisted of found objects such as fruit pits, pebbles, and seashells. The next time you find yourself rolling a pair of dice, know that you’re tapping into something primordial- keeping alive an ancient tradition that began long before recorded history.Īrchaeologists can’t pinpoint the first human who threw dice, but they do know this: Unlike many customs that started in one place and then spread, dice-throwing appeared independently all across the populated world.
The following is reprinted from the book Uncle John's Unsinkable Bathroom Reader.