8 9-12mm cowrie shells

Great for ancient games like the Royal Game of Ur, Mancala and Senate.

Before 6 sided dice were invented people used to use binary dice - that is they used to throw a bunch of objects that could fall one of two ways. All kinds of objects have been used for binary dice through the centuries including split sticks, coins (heads or tails), pyramids but one of the nicest and commonest has been cowrie shells.

Simply throw the cowrie shells and count how many land face side down.