Ancient Dice: Native Americans Beat Old World by Millennia
April 2, 2026 at 04:10
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✦ AI Summary
- Native Americans crafted dice over 12,000 years ago
- This predates the earliest known dice from the Old World
- The findings reshape our understanding of ancient probability
A groundbreaking study published in American Antiquity reveals that Native American hunter-gatherers on the western Great Plains created and utilized the earliest known dice over 12,000 years ago, during the tail end of the last Ice Age. This discovery pushes back the timeline of dice-making in human history significantly, as it predates the dice found in Bronze Age civilizations of the Old World by millennia.
These findings not only highlight the ingenuity of Native American cultures but also challenge previously held beliefs about the origins of gaming and probability concepts in human societies.
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