Games. At ancient sites in the Near East, archaeologists have excavated board games consisting of playing boards and various objects that were thrown or moved. At Ur the dice were tetrahedrons. Their faces were not marked, but each die had its vertices shaved flat, with two of the four corners decorated or inlaid in some way to make them stand out. When rolled, each die had a fifty-fifty chance of coming up "marked" or "unmarked." Later dice, probably of Indian origin, have been found at sites throughout Mesopotamia and have been dated to all periods. Made of bone, clay, stone, and even glass, they had the numbers one through six incised on them. Other thrown objects included knucklebones, throw sticks, and stones. Playing pieces came in various shapes, including circles, cones, and pyramids. Texts refer to them as dolls...