Dice Lore: The World’s Oldest d20 Die
Sometime between 304 and 30 BC, a craftsman in Ptolemaic Egypt shaped what is now accepted to be the world’s oldest 20-sided die. The die is carved from serpentine rock and engraved in Greek letters. Also, it d20 looks remarkably well to be over 2,000 years old.
The die is currently held in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It has resided there without much fanfare since 1910 after being acquired by Reverend Chauncey Murch. The Reverend acquired the d20 during his missionary work in Egypt between 1883 and 1906.
Here are some other fascinating facts about the world’s oldest d20:
The d20 is covered in Greek letters, not Egyptian hieroglyphs. When the d20 was shaped, Egypt was under the control of the Greek Ptolemies, whose dynasty began with the founding of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in 304 BC by the Macedonian general Ptolemy I Soter, upon the death of Alexander the Great.
We know that the d20 dates somewhere between 304 and 30 BC because the Ptolemies dynasty came to a cataclysmic end when Cleopatra died during the Roman leader Octavian’s conquest of Egypt in 30 BC. An event also that also heralded the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire.
The Ptolmemaic d20 would have been shaped before Caesar Augustus annexed Egypt into the Roman Empire.
The d20 was almost assuredly never used to roll for initiative. Simply put, this is not part of a dnd dice set. It can only be speculated for what the d20 was used. It very well could have been used for some sort of game that has been lost to history. Alternatively, it could have been used for divination rituals, for which dice were often used in the ancient world.
Serpentine rock, of which this d20 was made, has long been used for crafted objects and as architectural stone. Harder than marble, yet softer than granite, serpentine was very popular in the United States as late as the early 20th century. The reason you don’t see it often today is because of concerns for worker safety as serpentine is known to contain asbestos.
Like this post? Then check out our History of Dice blog post.
There are many other examples of d20s not quite as old as this one with all sorts of things on the faces (words, gods, etc).
We’ll never be able to literally “prove” they were rolled as dice, but many almost certainly were.
Charles Rebbitt on
This is a clever way of showing the direction of up and down presumably. Similar how we add a line or dot to the numbers 6 and 9 for reference of orientation.
The little v is pointing down, to indicate the letter is an A, and not a V (which is what a U was actually used in lieu of an actual U, because carving a U was difficult, but carving a V was easy)
Jayce Cameron on
Forgot to mention some trivia – Roman soldiers can be seen perhaps playing the game BAFA in the film The Robe (1953).
Midway through the movie, there is a scene – Before Marcellus departs, Pilate orders him to take charge of the detail of Roman soldiers assigned to crucify Jesus. While waiting for the execution to finish, Marcellus wins the robe worn by Jesus in a dice game from Paulus, who tells Marcellus that it will be a reminder of his victory over the King of the Jews.
Naldoman on
You mayb be aware of the Roman dice game, BAFA. From a game description- BAFA is the fast paced game of chance that swept the entire Roman Empire. The game was played by everyone, from the Roman foot soldier and the lowly house slave to Caesar himself. Nero and Ghengis Khan both rolled BAFA for coins, for slace and property, for clothing at Roman orgies or just for fun. I found about 20+ copies of this edition of the game in a pile in a yard rotting away – but the plastic dice were in good shape.
Naldoman on
As the estimable Mr.Wesely notes, Greek does have a system for using letters as numbers. In the period in question, that system would be: Α 1, Β 2, Γ 3, Δ 4, Ε 5, Ϝ 6, Ζ 7, Η 8, Θ 9, Ι 10, Κ 20, Λ 30, Μ 40, Ν 50, Ξ 60, Ο 70, Π 80, Ϙ 90, Ρ 100, Σ 200, Τ 300, Υ 400, Φ 500, Χ 600, Ψ 700, Ω 800, Ϡ 900.
the faces showing are ΑΒΓΔΕΗΙΚΝ and either Ο or Θ, so 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 20, 50 and either 9 or 70.
Given that the wear pattern is consistent with use as a die, one cannot rule that out. What that die would have been used for? Probably a board game or dice game. It might also have been used for teaching geometry, as were the ones Daves Arneson, Wesely, and E. Gary Gygax purchased. Or, it may have been used as a scorekeeping die, much as spindowns are used today, but the wear on a spindown is less even…
Refs
https://omniglot.com/writing/greek.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_alphabet (for the unicode)
William Hostman on