Worlds Oldest D20 Die Found in Egypt

I searched and hadn't seen this posted yet

hopefully some of you guys find this as cool as I did.
I can only imagine how it would be to sit down and play one of these old games with a group of friends in the past.
Sounds really fun,
anyways here ya go

Romans may have used 20-Sided die almost two millennia before D&D, but people in ancient Egypt were casting icosahedra even earlier. Pictured above is a twenty-faced die dating from somewhere between 304 and 30 B.C., a timespan also known as Egypt's Ptolemaic Period.

Is this the oldest d20 on Earth?

Stange how it has recognizable characters on it.

reply to post by JayDYaknow


It IS from Earth. What type of characters did you expect to see on it?

those characters on the dice

are not ancient egyptian

are not Roman

but they look like either greek or latin

also it doesnt look like it was for a game... i think it could be a priests tool....

I knew it Eygypt was the birthplace of D&D
When I was young I bought a solid gold d20 (Young and too much £ at the time)

reply to post by NeoAstra


I would have been King of the Dorks 30 years ago if I had that sweet D20! I would think that, back then, they probably played Gamma World or something similar. They may have played a game in which they were office workers like Cubicles & Layoffs in which you started out as a first level accountant and worked your way up to a 30th level Master CPA.

OP, interesting article, thanks for posting.

Source

When at rest theres no flat side on the top, I wonder how they decided which surface to read from?

Originally posted by ShadowLink
reply to post by JayDYaknow

 

It IS from Earth. What type of characters did you expect to see on it?

I forgot Egyptians had a written language. Instead of using hieroglyphs.

Or am i wrong? Not sure. Hmmmm.

reply to post by NeoAstra
try reading The Great Pyramid: Man's Monument to Man by Tom Valentine. It will give you a whole new perspective on how old we really might be. How ancient civilizations may have met their end with great cataclysms in the past. Can't quote it now cause my keyboard drives me crazy. But the gist is that civilizations were far advanced to what we are today and lost it all in the blink of an eye and all that was left was small pockets of survivors striped of their technology and forced to start from scratch...hmmm sounds kind of 2012ish, does it not? will try later to put in some interesting quotes from the book.
























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reply to post by VoidHawk


Perhaps that is the intent.
Maybe it was for some unknown game where the dice roll was determined by 2 symbols.
Or maybe its just poor craftsmanship.

I wonder who has the better thac0 progression a Roman Legionnaire, a Greek Hoplite, or an Egyptian Charioteer?

Thanks for posting this OP.

I tend to agree with the poster saying it was possibly a religious tool or some other implement other than gaming. The reason I agree with that, is that most people who gamble like to be able to understand the numbers they are wagering on. Were it a gaming implement we would see at least some recognizable numbers and or letters. I don't know what language the characters on the die are so I have to defer to those who have a better understanding of the languages used historically in the region found. Since the Romans and Greeks both ruled Egypt I wouldn't be surprised if it were Latin or Greek. Also given Egypt's location, it could be from any trading culture like the Phoenecians as well.

reply to post by thePharaoh


True, I can see it having many purposes.

I notice H, B and maybe L or I?

at first when I saw it I thought of throwing runes (dunno if thats what they are called lol) that priests used.
maybe its a more snazzy version of them. haha

reply to post by NeoAstra


The letters are Greek. Greek was the Lingua Franca of the time because of the Greek traders. The New Testament was written in Greek.

Another one

Roman die

Several polyhedra in various materials with similar symbols are known from the Roman period. Modern scholarship has not yet established the game for which these dice were used.”

Dice can be used in divination. Maybe it had a companion piece for when the mystics wanted to throw dem bones.

Dice Fortune Telling Dice have been used for divination and prediction for thousands of years. Long before tarot cards, astrology, rune stones, etc, dice were cast to gain an insight into the future and the unknown. The term for divination by casting dice, or small objects as lots, is cleromancy. African witch doctors of certain tribes use dice for this purpose, although their dice are not the standard ones we use. Indian Hindu's use an ancient divining science called Ramala and the dice used are very similar to standard dice except they are spun on a rod. Both ancient Egypt and Rome used dice for divination.

source

They're millennium items! But instead of Yugioh it's for D&D!

Or they are magical dice that always roll a 20!

An absolutely awesome find and I really want to know what they were used for.

Originally posted by boymonkey74
I knew it Eygypt was the birthplace of D&D

When I was young I bought a solid gold d20

(Young and too much £ at the time)

So the ever popular "Paladin's are OP!" debate is older than we thought.

I think it's interesting how the rune between the "E" and the "B" looks slightly similar to the Mason's symbol.

reply to post by Quyll


That is an alpha. The letters are in sequence. They can correspond to numbers such as www.numeralgame.64g.ru...

Originally posted by VoidHawk
When at rest theres no flat side on the top, I wonder how they decided which surface to read from?

the bottom covered side!