New York Museum Boasts 2,000-Year-Old Ancient Egyptian d20

tzimize

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Mar 1, 2010
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Grouchy Imp said:
I wonder if this is a one of a kind or part of a Set...
Aaahahahahah. Loving it.

Loving the die too. In fact, I love this whole thread. But especially you, for that post. And the die. (I wrote the die twice because of importance)

I want one.
 

Draconalis

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Sep 11, 2008
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Baldry said:
I use counter argument.

The thing about "Egyptian Dragons" is more often then not they're serpents, sure the ones with wings could be considered dragons but more then anything they're winged serpents [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_serpent]. Also if you look at images of most Egyptian Gods that could be considered dragons they don't really look like dragons, some look like cats and some look like straight up snakes.
"Dragons" do not have a 'set structure'. Dragons around the world vary from one another greatly. Original English dragons were great serpents before they ever depicted them with wings. Cockatrices were scaled roosters, but they too, were a dragon. The Tarrasque, made popular via D&D as a unique monster of mass destruction, was a French dragon (that died like a *****, I might add). From the feathered wing serpents of South America to the Gargoyle, all of these are Dragons.

Grouchy Imp said:
I wonder if this is a one of a kind or part of a Set...
My gods man... that was... that was so terrible... yet brilliant.
 

Scrythe

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Jun 23, 2009
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Clankenbeard said:
Scrythe said:
So I tried to lay out a "blueprint" of sorts so I can see about having this custom-made.

I started out using this [http://gfxcorp.q-workshop.com/paperdice/20blank.gif] as a template and drawing the runes out by hand so I can get a rough idea of what this would look like.

That's when I realized that these two images don't show the entire die. There are eight sides not shown in these photographs.

There has to be more somewhere.
The Metropolitan Collection has another D20 from the exact same time period at: http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/100008376?img=0 I didn't compare to see if the symbols overlapped. But maybe clicking on the DICE heading or doing a search on DICE might help fill in your template.
Awesome find, my friend. It is the same symbols, but unfortunately they don't line up the same way as the one in OP's post. I'm just going to have to hunt down a full set of one die and work from there. Thanks anyways, though!
 

aattss

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May 13, 2012
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I'm skeptical about this. For one thing, why D20? Also, there is the possibility that it's a prank or something, and that seems a little more likely.
 

Jfswift

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Nov 2, 2009
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It's not on display because someone probably took it out for game night. They've had 2000 years after all to pre-roll the ones out of it. >:3

http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0099.html (see bottom of page for reference, also a very amusing comic though ^^)
 

GeneralBob

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Oct 15, 2009
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I can't get over how well it's made. The faces are so flat and equal, the carvings are amazingly straight. Someone obviously put a tremendous amount of effort into making this. What did they use for the inlays? How did they achieve such perfect symmetry? It's inspiring.