Bone and Ivory Dice (2nd – 4th Cent. CE)

Bone and ivory dice of various periods. Six-sided dice have existed for millennia, with little change in medium or manufacturing technique from the Bronze Age up till after the introduction of plastic.

With the exception of Caesarea, the amount of dice found in the Temple Mount sifting, along with those found in excavations surrounding the Temple Mount, outweighs that of dice found anywhere else in the country. A likely cause is the wet sifting technique we have developed, which is now utilized in neighboring excavations, allowing better capture of these easy-to-miss, small finds. Most of the dice from excavations surrounding the Temple Mount date to the Late Roman Period, which may provide a hint as to the date of the dice found in the Temple Mount’s soil.