Menschen spielen schon länger mit Würfeln, als wir dachten

Humans were using dice to gamble thousands of years earlier than we realized, new research suggests.

Using a new classification approach, a study determined that artifacts from more than 12,000 years ago were actually dice used by North American hunter-gatherers. Previously, the [first known dice](https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116192198877105761?mod=article_inline) dated back to the Bronze Age about 5,500 years ago, in such places as Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley of Asia.

“This really moves the needle significantly,” said Robert Madden, a Colorado State University archaeologist and author of the study published in the journal American Antiquity. “Not only does it move it back in time some 6,000 years, but it also moves it out of the Old World and into the New World.”

Prehistoric gambling, much like betting games of today, gave people a way to interact and [exchange ideas](https://www.wsj.com/articles/hazard-from-medieval-dice-to-the-risks-faced-by-frontline-workers-11589481761?mod=article_inline), goods and information, according to the study.

Read more (free link): [https://www.wsj.com/science/dice-research-humans-gambling-e6aa912f?st=MZNFXJ&mod=wsjreddit](https://www.wsj.com/science/dice-research-humans-gambling-e6aa912f?st=MZNFXJ&mod=wsjreddit)