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The Evolution of Cubic Dice: from the Roman Through Post-Medieval Period in the Netherlands

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The Evolution of Cubic Dice: from the Roman Through Post-Medieval Period in the Netherlands UC Davis UC Davis Previously Published Works Title THE EVOLUTION OF CUBIC DICE: FROM THE ROMAN THROUGH POST-MEDIEVAL PERIOD IN THE NETHERLANDS Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3st2m41f Journal Acta Archaeologica, 88(1) ISSN 0065-101X Authors Eerkens, JW de Voogt, A Publication Date 2017-12-01 DOI 10.1111/j.1600-0390.2017.12182.x Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California THE EVOLUTION OF CUBIC DICE FROM THE ROMAN THROUGH POST-MEDIEVAL PERIOD IN THE NETHERLANDS Jelmer W. Eerkens & Alex de Voogt ABSTRACT Cubic dice were brought by the Romans to the Low (the Early Middle Ages, ca. 400-1000 CE), but dice re- Countries, and are found in small numbers at many ar- appear in the early part of the second millennium, when chaeological sites dating to the last 2000 years. We report dice games were particularly popular. Indeed, hundreds on a systematic analysis of 110 well-dated dice from the of diff erent game rules including those for dice have been Netherlands, showing that shape, pip confi guration, and recorded in historical documents for this period in West- pip style changed signifi cantly for bone and antler dice ern Europe (e.g. Semrau 1909). from the Roman to the recent historical period. Dice pre- At the end of the Middle Ages, ca. 1300-1500 CE, dating 650 CE are highly variable in all attributes, those the role of dice in games changed. In the second half of dating between 1100 and 1450 are highly standardized, the fourteenth century card games became popular, fi rst and those post-dating 1450 CE are standardized for some in Italy and France, and later reaching other regions and attributes, such as symmetry and confi guration, but vari- all layers of the population in the fi fteenth century (Mehl able for others, such as material type. There is also a ma- 2009, 20–21; Murray 1952). Cards became more popular jor shift from “sevens” to “primes” and back to “sevens” than dice as they were useful not only for gambling, but pip confi guration across these temporal windows, and pip also for strategy games. In the fi fteenth century CE Eu- style was simplifi ed over time from a dot-ring-ring pat- rope also saw the development of the lottery that reached tern to simple dots. We compare these trends to a small- the Low Countries around 1440 (Zollinger & Depaulis er set of well-dated dice from the United Kingdom and 2012). This suggests that Medieval game-playing transi- speculate on possible reasons for these changes. The in- tioned into a new era around 1450 CE when dice were formation can be used in future studies in the Netherlands no longer the main material for gambling. As we show to help date sites and/or isolated fi nds, and more broadly, below, the archaeological record in terms of the number can be augmented with similar analyses of dice elsewhere of sites and fi nds largely follows the division between in Eurasia to study ancient interaction networks and the Roman, Late Medieval (i.e. Late Middle Ages), and post- cultural transmission of games involving dice play. Medieval periods, but the possible changes in the physi- cal appearance of dice has remained unclear. Dice typically comprise a minor component of the INTRODUCTION materials produced in excavations. A few notable ex- Cubic dice are found in a wide range of archaeologi- ceptions aside (e.g. Artioli et al. 2011; Brown 1990; de cal contexts, including generalized garbage, domestic, Voogt et al. 2015; Egan 1997; Krüger 1982; van der and mortuary contexts in sites in the Low Countries of Heijdt 2001; Willemsen 2000), dice have not played an Northwestern Europe, and elsewhere in Eurasia (e.g. Hall important role in either the dating of sites, site interpreta- 2016; Margeson 1993, 215-217). While cubic dice date tion, or understandings of ancient human cultures in this to at least the third millennium BCE in southwest Asia part of Europe. Excavation reports typically mention the (Dales, 1968; van der Heijdt, 2001), in the Netherlands, discovery of dice in passing, particularly if they are sur- the fi rst dice appear in the Roman period (0-400 CE). The face fi nds. They occasionally include drawings or photo- archaeological record regarding dice in the Netherlands graphs, and more rarely metrical data on die shape, and is very limited for the remainder of the fi rst millennium are then placed in an “other” or “small fi nds” category in 164 Acta Archaeologica Fig. 1. Map of the Netherlands. Numerals indicate locations of fi nds of six-sided cubic dice in study and the number of samples from that location. Refer to Table 1 for site/area names. archaeological reports. As a result, little is known about Although we shy away from larger interpretations regard- regional-scale morphological variation in dice, especially ing the context and use of dice in ancient human societies, changes over time. the paper sets the stage for such analyses. Although exacavations have produced small numbers of dice in many sites, their numbers are spread across nu- DATA SET merous museums and archaeological depots, complicat- In 2013 we conducted a collection study at 18 museums ing a systematic comparison. Surface fi nds also tend to and archaeological depots in the Netherlands in order to lack a reliable dating. In this paper, we present a synthetic photograph and measure dice that pre-date 1900 CE lead- analysis of the physical aspects of a large database of se- ing to a set of 250 cuboid and ovoid dice. To this database curely-dated dice, which off ers the opportunity to catago- a small number of dice was added from the literature that rize these objects according to time period and/or region, had secure dating and were described and photographed creating a tool for dating dice and their associated sites. in excavation reports. These latter examples have missing The Evolution of Cubic Dice 165 ABC Fig. 2. Examples of dice from the Netherlands showing variation in pip style and symmetry: a) Roman die from Vechten; b) Medieval die from Nijmegen; c) Post-Medieval die from Rasquert. data for some attributes (e.g., such as size or confi gura- site/area name and sample size by time period, ordered tion), but were deemed complete enough for other attrib- by geographic region within the Netherlands. Each row in utes to complement the study. the table corresponds to a location in Figure 1. Approximately one-fi fth of the dice in the fi rst data- Our analysis focused on diachronic change in fi ve at- set represent four-sided dice, especially “Westerwanna” tributes of dice: material type, confi guration, pip style, types (Krüger 1982) from Friesland and Groningen, and and die size and shape. Each variable is explained below. are not included in the analyses below. As well, about half We discriminated fi ve main materials for dice. The fi - of the dice we examined have poor contextual informa- nal sample of 110 includes one stone (marble), two glass, tion (e.g., only a general fi nd location is reported or the four metal (three bronze, one lead), seven fi red clay (one chronological or stratigraphic association was unclear). glazed, six unglazed), and 96 organic (bone, antler, and In addition, we defi ned dating information only as suf- ivory) dice. We grouped bone, antler, and ivory objects fi cient if it stayed within a chronological window of 200 here because they are sometimes diffi cult to diff erentiate, years or less. Those without adequate dating or contextu- especially among poorly-preserved examples. Future ar- al informaton were also omitted from the study. The fi nal chaeometric analyses, such as Raman spectroscopy, could set consists of 110 six-sided cuboid dice. help determine or refi ne the material type for these items. Figure 1 shows the spatial distribution of our sample. Die confi guration denotes the relative position of the Numerals in Figure 1 indicate the number of dice includ- numbered faces relative to one another. With few excep- ed in the sample from a particular site/area. These need tions, modern dice have opposite sides that tally to seven, not represent the exact same “site” or fi nd location. Thus such that the one is opposite the six, two opposite the fi ve, 24 dice from Amsterdam are in the sample, but represent and three opposite the four (commonly written 1-6, 2-5, a wide range of locations within the modern city. Indeed, 3-4). We refer to this as the “Sevens” confi guration, but it most examples of dice from secure contexts include just is just one of many possible confi gurations. A quick cal- one or two associated examples. On the other hand, 32 culation reveals that there are 15 unique possible confi gu- dice were measured from Amersfoort, 31 of which are rations for cubic dice (Artioli et al. 2011; de Voogt et al. from a single medieval period cache (Krauwer & Snieder 2015), and as discussed below, many ancient dice do not 1994). The fi gure shows that the majority of dice in our follow the modern pattern of Sevens. Two additional con- sample are from the central portion of the Netherlands, fi gurations, “Primes” (1-2, 3-4, 5-6), where opposite sides from areas north of the Rhine. This is partly a refl ection add to unique prime numbers, and “Turned” (1-3, 2-4, 5-6), of the intensity of archaeological investigations associ- where the die is turned along one rotational axis to place ated with urban development in the Netherlands in and the numbers sequentially, are also found in ancient dice around Rotterdam and Amsterdam, with comparatively worldwide in higher-than-expected frequencies if confi gu- less excavation in more rural areas.
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