Technology and Science03 April, 20261 min read
New Research Shows Native Americans Invented Dice 12,000 Years Ago
Bone dice were crafted and used by Great Plains Native Americans over 12,000 years ago. Predate Bronze Age Old World dice by thousands of years.
Oldest Dice Found in Americas
The earliest known dice were crafted and used by Native American hunter-gatherers more than 12,000 years ago. These dice predate the oldest known dice from Bronze Age societies in the Old World by over 6,000 years. The artifacts were two-sided binary lots carefully crafted from bone for use in structured games of chance.
Comprehensive Artifact Analysis
Madden re-examined 293 sets of Indigenous dice cataloged in 1907. He identified 659 diagnostic and probable dice ranging in date from 13,000 to 450 years ago. The dice were integral to complex social and probabilistic practices that persisted for millennia.
Longstanding Cultural Tradition
Games of chance have been a persistent feature of Native American culture for at least 12,000 years. Artifacts show continuity across major environmental and social transitions. The discovery reframes global histories of gambling away from a Eurocentric narrative.