Article at Westerndigs.org
Hundreds of Dice, Game Pieces Found in Utah Cave Shed Light on Prehistoric Gambling
A cave on the shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake is giving archaeologists a rare glimpse into a seldom-studied aspect of life in the ancient West — prehistoric gambling.
Researchers exploring the cave, known simply as Cave 1, have identified hundreds of dice, hoops, carved sticks and other trinkets used in indigenous games of chance and skill. Based on what they’ve found so far, they project that there are more than 10,000 such items still waiting to be uncovered, making it likely the largest deposit of ancient gambling artifacts ever found in the western U.S.
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| Excavations have revealed hundreds of gaming pieces, including these split-cane dice and split sticks, which were used in dice and guessing games, archaeologists say. (Photo courtesy Ives and Yanicki) |
And it’s only part of the peculiar bounty that archaeologists have uncovered there. Since the 1930s, Cave 1 has proven to hold a profusion of artifacts — including piles of butchered bison and elk bones and hundreds of moccasins, fashioned mostly for children — most of which date to a span of just 20 to 40 years in the late 13th century.
“The numbers and diversity of gaming artifacts that we see in the Promontory record are unparalleled in western North America,” said Dr. John Ives, an archaeologist who has been researching the Promontory cave complex for years. This to me can be seen as the intersection of three factors: remarkable preservation, a cave population that was thriving during its 20- to 40-year stay, and a real cultural predilection for gaming activities.”
Indeed, Ives added, gaming may have been more than just a predilection.
It may actually have been a useful tool in an epic migration that researchers believe the Promontory people undertook, from their native land in the Canadian Subarctic to their new homes in the American Southwest.
“These gaming artifacts reflect an important strategy of interaction in a tumultuous world, where people were negotiating new relationships with each other,” Ives said.
Ives and his colleagues have already teased out some compelling chapters of the Promontory story from the heaps of animal remains and children’s footwear unearthed in Cave 1. These artifacts suggest that this group was thriving in growing numbers in the late 1200s — even when other cultures, like the nearby Fremont, who lived just a few kilometers away, had given up farming and were struggling to forage during a time of drought.
“In North America, the 13th century saw perhaps unprecedented turmoil, brought about by complex environmental and social factors, one of them apparently being a severe drought in the last quarter of the 13th century,” Ives said.
“But the Promontory Culture cave inhabitants were well clothed and well fed. As nearly as we can tell, surrounding Fremont populations were not doing well and were likely to be disintegrating.”
So one theory to explain the preponderance of gambling gear in Cave 1 is that wagering was simply a form of entertainment for the Promontory, a luxury enjoyed by people with resources to bet and time to spend.
This recreational take on gaming seems to be supported by the fact that most of the game pieces are dice, made from split pieces of cane, one side being decorated with cut or burned lines, the other side plain.
Many of these dice were discovered near the entrance of the cave, Ives pointed out, around a large central hearth, typically seen as a social, domestic space.
What’s more, according to Alberta doctoral student Gabriel Yanicki, who is collaborating on the research, dice games were typically played only by women. [Perhaps in the Promentory culture, but not generally among Native Americans, where men were also keen "dice" players.]
“In women’s games, stakes tended to be smaller: items of personal property or, quite commonly, to decide who had to do chores like cooking,” he said.
Together, these clues suggest that much of the gambling in Cave 1 was done simply as a low-stakes, domestic diversion.
“One can readily imagine a fire going in that hearth,” Ives added, “wisps of smoke, women playing dice on bison robes near the hearth, and other men and women gathered around, some keenly following what was happening, some sewing or repairing weapons… The many cane dice may be telling us about a common, day-to-day activity, breaking up the hard work on hide and meat preparation, sewing, all these things.”
Based on historical accounts of native dice games, the cane pieces may have been used in a kind of board game, in which three to eight dice were thrown to score points. [Yes. The "board" typically was drawn into the earth with a stick, or more elaborately, was painted or stitched in embroidery on a hide. In a few instances, boards drawn on small pieces of flat stone were recorded by Culin - the drawing of the "board" often taking the shape of a serpent. So, here's a test for you, faithful readers: where else have we seen serpent shaped game boards carved in stone? Hints: Ancient Egypt; Shar-i Sohktah ]
Scoring was based on how many of the marked sides fell face-up, and the first player to reach a predetermined score won the wager.
One game, however, could have many outcomes. Because, while men usually didn’t take part in dice games themselves, Yanicki pointed out, they often bet on the results. In historical records of gaming among the Crow, for example, “there are plenty of examples of men and women alike gathered around and gambling on the results of a women’s dice game,” he said. “There are also several artifacts [in the cave] from exclusively men’s gambling games, and these tended [to] be of a very different character.”
A netted wooden hoop and feathered dart from Cave 1, for instance, suggest that other, more physical kinds of competition also took place. “The hoop-and-pole game is, by all accounts that I’ve read, exclusively a men’s game,” Yanicki said. [Maybe so, but this sounds like a form of badminton or basketball to me - a SPORT - the outcomes of which would be betted upon, not a board or dice game, per se.]
“This game generally involved two contestants, one of whom rolled the hoop, and both chased after it as it rolled and tried to pass their arrows or darts through it.”
This, then, presents another possible purpose behind the Promontory’s penchant for gaming.
Games may have been played not only for friendly domestic bets, but also for much higher stakes, involving men from neighboring groups.
“Gambling isn’t just a matter of recreational play,” Yanicki said. “In cases of gambling for very high stakes … gambling took place between members of different social groups, sometimes in lieu of more hostile interactions, such as warfare.” [Hmmm. Isn't that one explanation for the invention of the game of chess -- as a substitute for warfare?]
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