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Ice Age dice show early Native Americans may have understood probability
!Image 2: Ars Technica Ars Technica @Jennifer Ouellette
One Sentence Summary
A new study in American Antiquity suggests that Native Americans utilized dice for games of chance over 12,000 years ago, predating Old World dice and indicating an early human engagement with probability.
Summary
This article highlights recent archaeological research published in American Antiquity that challenges the traditional view that dice and probability are exclusively Old World innovations. By analyzing artifacts from Native American sites, researchers have identified 'binary lots'—rudimentary two-sided dice—dating back 12,000 years. The study utilizes ethnographic analogy to confirm that these objects were used in structured games of chance, pushing back the timeline of human engagement with probability and gaming significantly earlier than previously recognized.
Main Points
* 1. Native American dice usage predates Old World examples by millennia.Archaeological evidence indicates that Native American groups were creating objects for random outcomes and structured gaming over 12,000 years ago, challenging the historical narrative that probability concepts originated in the Old World. * 2. The methodology relies on ethnographic analogy to interpret artifacts.Researchers use historical records of similar cultural practices to infer the function of ancient objects, bridging the gap between archaeological findings and their intended use in games.
Metadata
AI Score
81
Website arstechnica.com
Published At Yesterday
Length 279 words (about 2 min)
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Native Americans have been playing with dice in games of chance for more than 12,000 years, according to a new paper published in the journal American Antiquity. And the oldest examples of Native American dice predate the earliest currently known dice in the Old World by millennia.
“Historians have traditionally treated dice and probability as Old World innovations,” said author Robert Madden, a graduate student at Colorado State University. “What the archaeological record shows is that ancient Native American groups were deliberately making objects designed to produce random outcomes, and using those outcomes in structured games, thousands of years earlier than previously recognized.”
Madden’s interest in Native American gaming started with Maya ballgames and then expanded to include Native American dice and games of chance. These were rudimentary dice with just two sides, rather than the six sides of modern dice, typically described as “binary lots.” And Madden found they were common to virtually every Native American tribe. Archaeologists had traced the use of such dice back 2,000 years, but most were hesitant to conclude that dice-like artifacts older than that were, in fact, dice.
“We always have that problem with archeology, which is you find something, and you say, well, what is this, how was it used?” Madden said in a CSU podcast. “One of the things we often rely on is something called ethnographic analogy, which is, do we have some kind of historic record of people using things like this, hopefully in the same area and hopefully with a cultural connection. If we see that, then we can make an inference that maybe the same object made in the way was used for the same purpose.”
!Image 3: Ars Technica Ars Technica @Jennifer Ouellette
One Sentence Summary
A new study in American Antiquity suggests that Native Americans utilized dice for games of chance over 12,000 years ago, predating Old World dice and indicating an early human engagement with probability.
Summary
This article highlights recent archaeological research published in American Antiquity that challenges the traditional view that dice and probability are exclusively Old World innovations. By analyzing artifacts from Native American sites, researchers have identified 'binary lots'—rudimentary two-sided dice—dating back 12,000 years. The study utilizes ethnographic analogy to confirm that these objects were used in structured games of chance, pushing back the timeline of human engagement with probability and gaming significantly earlier than previously recognized.
Main Points
* 1. Native American dice usage predates Old World examples by millennia.
Archaeological evidence indicates that Native American groups were creating objects for random outcomes and structured gaming over 12,000 years ago, challenging the historical narrative that probability concepts originated in the Old World.
* 2. The methodology relies on ethnographic analogy to interpret artifacts.
Researchers use historical records of similar cultural practices to infer the function of ancient objects, bridging the gap between archaeological findings and their intended use in games.
Key Quotes
* Historians have traditionally treated dice and probability as Old World innovations. * What the archaeological record shows is that ancient Native American groups were deliberately making objects designed to produce random outcomes, and using those outcomes in structured games, thousands of years earlier than previously recognized.
AI Score
81
Website arstechnica.com
Published At Yesterday
Length 279 words (about 2 min)
Tags
Archaeology
Probability
History of Science
Native American History
Games of Chance
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