OF GODS & GAMBLES: the History of Dice

Dice are one of the big entertainments of antiquity and still enjoy today a prominent role in most games, both physical and digital. The famous (or infamous) RNG (random number generator) is today’s most common modern equivalent of conventional dice. The history of dice is the history of the concept of chance, and the history of chance is the history of fortune and the divine.

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DISCLAIMER: this video is for educational purposes and no copyright infringement is intended.

OTHER FACTS AND CURIOSITIES

● The image shown in 1:20 is a clay model used for hepatoscopy, the divination by the liver of an animal or a bird. In the Etruscan culture, the haruspex was the person trained to perform these kind of rituals.
● Divination by pebbles is commonly refer to as psepomancy.
● The sticks shown in 1:30 are known as Kau Chim, also known as lottery poetry, a fortune telling practice that originated in China.
● The depiction of Moses at 6:57 is not an actual image of the distribution of land from the Bible. In this picture, Moses is depicted with horns, as it’s the case with many other medieval manuscripts. This is due to a mistranslation by St. Jerome, the author of the Vulgatae.
● At 8:46, I misspelled the name of Rodolfo Lanciani (I said Manciani)
● The picture displayed at 9:05 is not an actual depiction of nut gambling.
● In 15:13 it is written “grey sea”. This is most likely a typo from perseus (see online resources), but I decided to leave it as they wrote it.

RESOURCES USED FOR THIS VIDEO

Published Resources:
● Arnold, P. The Encyclopedia of Gambling. Chartwell Books, 1977.
● Collins, A. “Alexander’s Visit to Siwah: a New Analysis”, Phoenix 68 (1), 2014, 62-77.
● David, F. N. Games, Gods and Gambling. Hafner Publishing Company, 1962.
● De Voogt, A. & Eerkens, J. W. “Cubic Dice: Archaeological Material for Understanding Historical Processes”, Kentron [online] 34, 2018, 99-108.
● Iles Johnston, S. Ancient Greek Divination. Blackwell, 2008.
● Lanciani, R. “Gambling and Cheating in Ancient Rome”, The North American Review 155 (428), 1982, 97-105.
● Reith, G. Gambling in Western Culture. Routledge, 1999.
● Richter, W. Die Spiele der Griechen und Römer. E. A. Seemann, 1887.

Online Resources:
● https://online.stat.psu.edu/stat100/l...
● https://nrich.maths.org/6120
● https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/1...
● https://www.awesomedice.com/blogs/new...
● https://archaeologicalmuseum.jhu.edu/...
● http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/t...

Music:
Intro & Main theme: Fredji - Happy Life (Vlog No Copyright Music)
●   • Fredji - Happy Life (Vlog No Copyrigh...