World's oldest D20 anyone?

[Nisarg]

These kinds of dice were almost certainly used for soothsaying.
We can't say it beyond the shadow of a doubt, but there are sections on auguries by dice-rolls in the greco-roman magical papyrii.

Nisarg

 

[Jdvn1]

They're Greek letters. It's a matter of some debate whether they represent numbers or not.

On the one hand, Greek letters were used as numbers in Ptolemaic Greece and Egypt and there's a d12 at the Louvre museum in Paris that's clearly numbered with Greek letters from 1 to 12.

On the other hand, the choice of letters used on the d20 does not correspond exactly to any known system. Moreover, a d20 at the Louvre of similar age to the one auctioned has both Roman letters and numbers. The letters and numbers do not match. There's a diagram showing it in a book by F.N. David.

We don't know what the ancient d20s were used for. Until we find a set of rules, we may never figure out what the Greek symbols represent.

... There goes my "It's in Draconic" theory...

 

[Altalazar]

We need an eccentric gamer-billionaire to buy it and then use it as his d20 in his game.

Makes you wonder - ought we now to put a full set of dice in a time-capsule for gamers of the future?

 

[arscott]

They're Greek letters. It's a matter of some debate whether they represent numbers or not.

On the one hand, Greek letters were used as numbers in Ptolemaic Greece and Egypt and there's a d12 at the Louvre museum in Paris that's clearly numbered with Greek letters from 1 to 12.

On the other hand, the choice of letters used on the d20 does not correspond exactly to any known system. Moreover, a d20 at the Louvre of similar age to the one auctioned has both Roman letters and numbers. The letters and numbers do not match. There's a diagram showing it in a book by F.N. David.

We don't know what the ancient d20s were used for. Until we find a set of rules, we may never figure out what the Greek symbols represent.

It's for ΣKATEΓΩPHΣ

 

[JamesDJarvis]

How do you say twenty sided die in Latin?

icosahedron

 

[Zander]

It's for ΣKATEΓΩPHΣ

Let me guess: That's role-playing [game] in ancient Greek. Right?

 

[BlackMoria]

Beats the age of my D20. I still have the D20 I bought in 1974/1975 when this game called D&D came along....

Less worn too. My 30 yr old D20 is a little on the worn side from using it for 30 years.

 

[grodog]

Back when this historical artifact first surfaced, I seem to recall someone pointing to museum-quality replicas of it being made available. Anyone know of such things being available for purchase?

 

[arscott]

Let me guess: That's role-playing [game] in ancient Greek. Right?

Scattergories, actually It's a game that uses a 20 sided die with letters on it.

Misspelled it though. should have been ΣKATTEPΓΩPHΣ
(or IHΣ or IEΣ or EΣ. I'm not sure how to transliterate the 'ies' part)

 

[Zander]

Back when this historical artifact first surfaced, I seem to recall someone pointing to museum-quality replicas of it being made available. Anyone know of such things being available for purchase?

A quality replica of a very similar die is sold as part of a set by the Louvre museum in Paris, France. I don't think they sell them by mail/internet order but if you're in Paris or know someone who is, you (or they) can get them in person. The other dice in the set include a rhomboid d12 and two standard shaped (i.e. cubic) d6's. All the dice in the set have Greek letters. The d6's also have pips.

I believe I have a spare of the d20 from the set and maybe the d12 as well. If you're interested, please drop me an e-mail with "Ancient D20" in the subject line to: afsimkin@hotmail.com

There's a picture of the set in my photo album at the Dice Maniacs' Club. The plastic rhomboid d12 in the bottom right of the pic is not included in the set.

http://groups.msn.com/DiceManiacsClubakaTheRandomFandom/alexandersdice.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=4652