Dominoes are small tiles traditionally carved from ivory or bone with small, round pips of inset ebony. These tiles may be used to play many different games. Our name for these tiles may derive from this black on white look. 'Domino' is the French word for a Christian priest's winter hood which was black on the outside and white on the inside. 'Domino' is also a style of mask featuring a black and white motif.

The oldest domino sets date from around 1120 A.D. Dominoes, as most of the Western world knows them, however, appear to be a Chinese invention. They were apparently derived from cubic dice, which had been introduced into China from India some time in the dim and distant past. Each domino originally represented one of the twenty-one results of throwing two dice. One half of the tile is set with the pips from one die and the other half contains the pips from the second die.

Chinese sets also introduce duplicates of some throws and divide the dominoes into two classes: military and civil. Chinese dominoes are also longer than typical European dominoes. We will explore some of the games played with basic Chinese dominoes later. Over time Chinese dominoes also evolved into the tile set used to play Mah Jong, a game which swept across the United States in the 1920s.

Some time in the early 18th century dominoes made their way to Europe, making their first appearance in Italy. Its surprising that it took this long for the game to make the trip since the silk road would have been open for quite some time before this date. The game changed somewhat in the translation from Chinese to European culture. European sets contain neither class distinctions nor the duplicates that went with them. Instead, European sets contain seven additional dominos with six of these representing the values that result from throwing a single die with the other half of the tile left blank. Curiously, there is also a seventh tile with both halves left blank. Perhaps this was done for symmetry's sake so that each of the resulting suits would contain seven tiles.

Interestingly, American eskimoes also play a game using tiles that are very similar to Dominoes. This makes me wonder if the game doesn't date from before the last eastern migration across the land bridge to the Americas. Is there an anthropologist in the house?

Many of the games we associate with dominoes are quite modern. The block games seem to be the oldest of the European games. While Muggins, also known as Five Up, dates from the early 20th century. I suspect that some dominoe games, such as Reiner Müller's solitaire games, date from the last few decades.