To be honest, I wasn’t sure when there use actually came into play. One of the first indications where I knew dice had existed was in the Bible when they talk about “casting lots” in the Old Testament. As a child, I’d been required to learn many of those verses and that concept must have stuck with me. However, I did not know the true history about dice and my research surprised even me. Apparently, dice have been used throughout Asia before recorded history and makes one wonder just how they knew. In an archeological site in southeastern Iran one was found in a 5000-year-old backgammon set at a place known as the Burnt City. It was also big in India, commonplace during King David’s reign and in more ancient kingdoms than we’ll ever know about. It was also known in Rome and in Greece with both upper and lower classes. Amazingly, twenty-sided dice dated to the gambling houses of Rome have been found. The first known game where sides of an object indicated something was called “knucklebones” because the dice were made from the talus of hoofed animals and colloquially known as the knucklebone.
