Study finds Native Americans developed dice games 12,000 years ago

New research suggests Native Americans developed dice and games of probability about 12,000 years ago in what is now the Southwestern United States, according to NBC News. The study, published in American Antiquity, challenges earlier timelines that traced such practices to about 2,000 years ago and indicates they predate similar developments in Europe, Africa and Asia by thousands of years.

The research, led by Colorado State University doctoral student Robert Madden, found evidence of continuous dice use from the end of the last Ice Age through European contact and into the present. The dice, often made of bone or wood, were shaped and marked to produce random outcomes. Madden said the findings show Native American groups were engaging with structured games of chance, while researchers noted the games also served social and cultural purposes within communities.