12,000-Year-Old Native American Dice Rewrite the History of Gambling

A new study in American Antiquity shows Native American hunter-gatherers made and used two-sided bone dice about 12,800–12,200 years ago.

The artifacts, found in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, are older than previously known Old World dice by more than 6,000 years.

The study introduces an attribute-based morphological test and compared finds to 293 historic examples, identifying over 600 diagnostic or probable dice across North American prehistory.