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==History== Dice have been used since before recorded history, and their origin is uncertain. It is hypothesized that dice developed from the practice of fortune-telling with the [[Talus bone|talus]] of hoofed animals, colloquially known as [[knucklebones]].<ref name="Laird">{{Cite book |last=Laird |first=Jay |title=Encyclopedia of Play in Today's Society |publisher=SAGE Publications |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4522-6610-7 |pages=171β173}}</ref> The [[Ancient Egypt]]ian game of [[senet]] (played before 3000 [[Common Era|BCE]] and up to the 2nd century CE) was played with flat two-sided [[Binary lot#Staves|throwsticks]] which indicated the number of squares a player could move, and thus functioned as a form of dice.<ref name="Aruz">{{Cite book |last=Finkel |first=Irving |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gr5BgOwEJicC&pg=PA151 |title=Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C. |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-58839-295-4 |page=151 |chapter=Board Games}}</ref> Perhaps the oldest known dice were excavated as part of a [[backgammon]]-like game set at the [[Burnt City]], an archeological site in south-eastern [[Iran]], estimated to be from between 2800 and 2500 BCE.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-11-29 |title=8 Oldest Board Games in the World |url=https://www.oldest.org/entertainment/board-games/ |access-date=2022-03-12 |website=Oldest.org |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=NASER MOGHADASI |first=Abdorreza |date=September 2015 |title=The Burnt City and the Evolution of the Concept of "Probability" In the Human Brain |journal=Iranian Journal of Public Health |volume=44 |issue=9 |pages=1306β1307 |issn=2251-6085 |pmc=4645795 |pmid=26587512}}</ref> Bone dice from [[Skara Brae]], Scotland have been dated to 3100β2400 BCE.<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Museums of Scotland - Two bone dice |url=https://nms.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-100-040-457-C |access-date=9 May 2020 |website=nms.scran.ac.uk}}</ref> Excavations from graves at [[Mohenjo-daro]], an [[Indus Valley civilization]] settlement, unearthed [[terracotta]] dice dating to 2500β1900 BCE,<ref>Possehl, Gregory. "Meluhha". In: J. Reade (ed.) ''The Indian Ocean in Antiquity''. London: Kegan Paul Intl. 1996a, 133β208</ref> including at least one die whose opposite sides all add up to seven, as in modern dice.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ashmolean Museum |first=University of Oxford |title=Terracotta Dice |url=http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/collection/4/6739/6741/11231 |access-date=2023-03-19 |website=jameelcentre.ashmolean.org |language=en}}</ref> Games involving dice are mentioned in the [[Outline of ancient India|ancient Indian]] ''[[Rigveda]]'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=www.wisdomlib.org |date=2021-08-27 |title=Rig Veda 10.34.1 [English translation] |url=https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/rig-veda-english-translation/d/doc838881.html |access-date=2024-07-28 |website=www.wisdomlib.org |language=en}}</ref> ''[[Atharvaveda]],'' ''[[Mahabharata]]'' and the [[List of games that Buddha would not play|Buddhist games list]].<ref>2.3, 4.38, 6.118, 7.52, 7.109</ref> Knucklebones was a [[game of skill]] played in [[ancient Greece]]; a derivative form had the four sides of bones receive different values like modern dice.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Good |first=Alexandra |title=Knucklebones |url=http://archaeologicalmuseum.jhu.edu/the-collection/object-stories/archaeology-of-daily-life/childhood/knucklebones/ |access-date=16 April 2015 |website=Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum}}</ref> Although gambling was illegal, many [[Culture of ancient Rome|Romans]] were passionate gamblers who enjoyed dicing, which was known as ''aleam ludere'' ("to play at dice"). There were two sizes of Roman dice. ''Tali'' were large dice inscribed with one, three, four, and six on four sides. ''Tesserae'' were smaller dice with sides numbered from one to six.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Matz |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/dailylifeofancie00matz/page/94 |title=Daily Life of the Ancient Romans |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-313-30326-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/dailylifeofancie00matz/page/94 94β95] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Twenty-sided dice date back to the 2nd century CE<ref>{{Cite web |title=christies.com |url=http://www.christies.com/Lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=4205385 |access-date=18 June 2012 |publisher=christies.com}}</ref> and from [[Ptolemaic Kingdom|Ptolemaic Egypt]] as early as the 2nd century BCE.<ref name="auto"/> [[Dominoes]] and [[playing card]]s originated in China as developments from dice.<ref>{{Cite web |title=domino {{!}} game piece {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/domino-game-piece |access-date=2022-11-20 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> The transition from dice to playing cards occurred in China around the [[Tang dynasty]] (618β907 CE), and coincides with the technological transition from rolls of manuscripts to [[woodblock printing|block printed]] books.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ronan |first1=Colin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CjRAiqGSJ50C&pg=PA55 |title=The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China |last2=Needham |first2=Joseph |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-521-31560-9 |page=55}}</ref> In Japan, dice were used to play a popular game called [[sugoroku]]. There are two types of sugoroku. ''Ban-sugoroku'' is similar to [[backgammon]] and dates to the [[Heian period]] (794β1185 CE), while ''e-sugoroku'' is a [[Race game|racing game]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Salter |first=Rebecca |title=Japanese Popular Prints: From Votive Slips to Playing Cards |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8248-3083-0 |page=164 |chapter=Board Games}}</ref> <gallery mode=packed heights=150px> File:Knuck dice Steatite 37x27x21 mm.JPG|[[Knucklebones]] die, made of [[soapstone]] File:Twenty-sided die (icosahedron) with faces inscribed with Greek letters MET 10.130.1158 001.jpg|Twenty-sided [[serpentinite]] die from [[Ptolemaic Kingdom|Ptolemaic Egypt]]<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |title=Twenty-sided die (icosahedron) with faces inscribed with Greek letters |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/551072 |access-date=28 March 2015 |publisher=metmuseum.org}}</ref> File:Roman dice IMG 4367.JPG|Roman die File:9BFE00 -roman lead die (FindID 103936).jpg|Composite image of all sides of a {{cvt|12|mm|in|frac=4}} [[Culture of ancient Rome|Roman]] die, found in [[Leicestershire]], England File:Wall painting - scenes around the pub - Pompeii (VI 14 35-36) - Napoli MAN 111482 - 04.jpg|Roman wall painting showing two dice-players, [[Pompeii]], 1st century File:historical dice.jpg|A collection of historical dice from various regions of Asia File:Chinese dice from Late Yuan Dynasty to early Qing Dynasty.jpg|Chinese dice from Late Yuan Dynasty to early Qing Dynasty in [[Jiangyin]] Museum, China. </gallery>
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