Author(s): Eerkens, JW; de Voogt, A | Abstract: © 2018 by Wiley, Oxford Cubic dice were brought by the Romans to the Low Countries, and are found in small numbers at many archaeological sites dating to the last 2000 years. We report on a systematic analysis of 110 well-dated dice from the Netherlands, showing that shape, pip configuration, and pip style changed significantly for bone and antler dice from the Roman to the recent historical period. Dice predating 650 CE are highly variable in all attributes, those dating between 1100 and 1450 are highly standardized, and those post-dating 1450 CE are standardized for some attributes, such as symmetry and configuration, but variable for others, such as material type. There is also a major shift from “sevens” to “primes” and back to “sevens” pip configuration across these temporal windows, and pip style was simplified over time from a dot-ring-ring pattern to simple dots. We compare these trends to a smaller set of well-dated dice from the United Kingdom and speculate on possible reasons for these changes. The information can be used in future studies in the Netherlands to help date sites and/or isolated finds, and more broadly, can be augmented with similar analyses of dice elsewhere in Eurasia to study ancient interaction networks and the cultural transmission of games involving dice play.

中文翻译：

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立方骰子的演变

作者：Eerkens，JW；de Voogt, A | 摘要： © 2018 by Wiley，牛津立方骰子由罗马人带到低地国家，在过去 2000 年的许多考古遗址中发现了少量。我们报告了对来自荷兰的 110 个过时的骰子的系统分析，表明从罗马到最近的历史时期，骨头和鹿角骰子的形状、点配置和点样式发生了显着变化。公元 650 年之前的骰子在所有属性上都是高度可变的，年代在 1100 年到 1450 年之间的骰子是高度标准化的，而公元 1450 年之后的骰子在某些属性上是标准化的，例如对称性和配置，但在其他属性上是可变的，例如材料类型。在这些时间窗口中，也发生了从“七”到“素数”再回到“七”点子配置的重大转变，并且 pip 样式随着时间的推移从点-环-环图案简化为简单的点。我们将这些趋势与来自英国的一组较小的过时的骰子进行比较，并推测这些变化的可能原因。这些信息可用于荷兰未来的研究，以帮助确定日期和/或孤立的发现，更广泛地说，可以通过对欧亚大陆其他地方的骰子进行类似分析来增强，以研究古代互动网络和涉及骰子游戏的游戏的文化传播.