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Image Credit: Robert Madden
New Study Traces Native American Dice Traditions Back 12000 Years
A new archaeological study argues that dice, games of chance, and gambling were part of Indigenous life in North America far earlier than previously recognized, with possible origins reaching back some 12,000 years to the Late Pleistocene.
The research examined historic Native American dice documented in ethnographic records and used their shared features to build a morphological framework for identifying similar objects in archaeological contexts. Applying this method to published finds from across North America, the study concludes that two-sided dice may have been present from the closing centuries of the Pleistocene and continued through later prehistoric periods.
According to the study, some of the earliest proposed examples come from Folsom-period deposits in present-day Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. These objects are argued to predate the earliest currently known dice from the Old World by several millennia. The author suggests that such artifacts were likely used as randomizing devices in games of chance and gambling, in continuity with historically documented Indigenous traditions.
The study also emphasizes the long-term persistence of these practices, tracing similar objects through the Paleoindian, Archaic, and Late Prehistoric periods. This continuity points to the enduring cultural significance of gaming traditions across diverse Native American societies.
Beyond the artifacts themselves, the research proposes that games of chance may have played a broader social role. Such practices may have helped bring groups together, facilitating interaction, exchange, and the formation of social ties. In this sense, the study presents gaming not only as entertainment or ritualized competition, but also as a meaningful part of social life in ancient North America.
Published on: 02-04-2026
Edited by: Abdulmnam Samakie
Source: American Antiquity