Cheating already existed almost 2000 years ago. The loaded die found in the excavations of the Villa Mageroy proves it. This first rigged dice in history is one of a kind.
A rigged dice discovered 22 years ago in Belgium turns out to be much bigger than expected. In his doctorate, Thomas Daniaux, a young Belgian archaeologist, has just brought to light this object discovered by chance in 2000 on the excavation site of the Gallo-Roman Villa of Mageroy located in Habay-la-Vieille. He has just published an article in the magazine and on the Sciences et Avenir website. His in-depth study focused on the exact functioning of the dice and made it possible to attest that this discovery is a unique case in the Roman world: “This kind of dice is exceptional, in the sense that it has not been found elsewhere in the Roman world. It is the only known specimen with mercury still preserved inside.“, rejoices Jean-François Baltus, archaeologist in charge of the site at the Roman Villa of Mageroy.
For decades, the upper part of the village of Habay la Vieille has been the subject of archaeological excavations. The remains of a Gallo-Roman villa have been unearthed there and continue to emerge from the ground at the rate of successive excavation sites. They revealed an almost continuous occupation of this agricultural domain from the 1is au 4th century (AD) over an area of 3 hectares. A rich villa that everyone can visit today.
On this site, on September 9, 2000, during an excavation organized and supervised by archaeologists, a young 15-year-old volunteer (Julien Minet) discovered a tiny cube (a little over one cm) in sculpted bone. Which broke in 3 inadvertently under the blow of a trowel, releasing droplets of gray mercury. It was this accidental maneuver that made it possible to understand the exceptional side of this discovery.
After analysis, it turns out to be the discovery of the very first rigged playing dice in history, still filled with mercury. This had been carefully hollowed out and filled with a little liquid mercury, which with its heavier weight unbalanced the die. This allowed the thrower to force fate and choose, by tapping the die, one of the 6 values present on the die he was throwing. All he had to do was tap on it to lower the liquid mercury (more dense) towards the face of the dice opposite the number he wanted to achieve, tap face 1 on the table to lower the mercury there and make a 6 for example; the 3 to make a 4 or the 2 to make a 5.
“There are other dice which are hollow in the Roman world, but this one, as the mercury was found inside, there is no doubt, it was a dice intended for cheating“, clarifies the archaeologist.
Mercury dice that some players still use today. These were already, at the time, the subject of games and bets for a lot of money sometimes. But until now, no one had been able to prove that some players were already using this technique almost 2000 years ago. To date, it is the first and only known specimen in the Roman world found with mercury still preserved inside. “We are on a rural site, a Roman villa. We see that if it happened here, it must probably be much more widespread than we think.“, says Jean-François Baltus.
Proof that for a long time, some dice were loaded. A discovery that also teaches us regarding the history of the man, who from the birth of the game, immediately sought to cheat.
A unique object in the world, preserved for many years at the Archaeological Museum of Arlon, and which, in the light of this new study, today benefits from a very beautiful spotlight. “Now, as there is a study on this dice being made at the University of Fribourg, it will go there for analysis. As soon as the analyzes are finished, it will return here to the museum where it will be exhibited in the showcase.“, specifies David Colling, director-curator of the archaeological museum of Arlon.
