hist-games: Hist-games: Dominos

[SeaanMcAy at aol.com]

   I thought I would throw in a couple of Dominos factoids while the subject
was being discussed.  The first is that what we know as Dominos were probably
the earliest form of playing-cards.  China, as usual, has the first known
occurance, approx. 900AD.  To this day, the Chinesse still play with Dominos
more like traditional card games than Western Dominos (think of Majong and
Pang-gao).     Dominos are result of all possible combinations of two
six-sided dice (1-1, 1-2, ... 6-6).
   According to David Parlett (a trustworthy author) the earliest known
"positional" playing card games were c1800 (Solitaire style, or Patience, I'm
not sure about when Canefield {also known as Klondike} was first developed).
 The Tarot card fortune telling layout was developed c1780.  These dates are
pretty close to the introduction of Dominos too.  I wonder how and if they
were related?

Michael McKay  (known in the SCA as Seaan McAy)

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