Die

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cubic dice have been in use in the Near East since the third millennium B.C., with different systems used at different times for distributing the points. In Egypt, examples dating to the New Kingdom are reported as isolated finds at el-Amarna, Lisht and Deir el-Bahri. The numbering of the opposite sides (1-6, 2-5, 3-4), each adding up to seven, comes into more general use only later, as reflected by this die. During the Greco-Roman period, cubic dice became more common and gradually replaced throwing sticks and knuckle bones for use with board games.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art