"'Historians have traditionally treated dice and probability as Old World innovations,' researcher Robert Madden said. '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.'"
"'But they were intentionally creating, observing, and relying on random outcomes in repeatable, rule-based ways that leveraged probabilistic regularities, such as the law of large numbers,' they said. 'That matters for how we understand the global history of probabilistic thinking.'"
The discovery of two-sided dice from the last Ice Age indicates that gambling has been integral to North American culture for over 12,000 years. Researchers from Colorado State University found these dice at an archaeological site, predating the oldest known dice by over 6,000 years. The findings suggest that ancient Native American groups intentionally created objects for random outcomes, using them in structured games. Nearly 600 probable dice were identified, dating back to 12,800 to 12,200 years ago, showcasing early forms of probabilistic thinking.
Read at Mail Online
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