Artefact found by archaeologists is likely a 4000-year-old ancient board game

Archaeologists have discovered six surfaces of rocks with designs carved on them that make them appear associated with ancient board games and explained how humans entertained themselves thousands of years ago.

The six ancient board games were discovered by archaeologists at different sites on the Abşeron Peninsula and Gobustan Reserve in Azerbaijan.

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The rocks, which date around 2000 BCE, share a resemblance with the hallmark pattern on the basis of which has been created the ancient board gameHounds and Jackals.

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Earlier, the oldest example of the game was found in the tomb of a government official in ancient Egypt.

Archaeologists try to trace origin of the game

Archaeologists Walter Crist, who works at Leiden University in the Netherlands and Rahman Abdullayev of the Minnesota Historical Society, said that the new locations have challenged the origins of the game known as Fifty-Eight Holes.

The game may have originated in southwestern Asia and not Egypt,as was previously believed by experts.

Speaking about how popular were the games most probably, Crist and Abdullayev wrote in their paper, "At certain times in antiquity, particular games were regionally popular, suggesting that they helped to connect cultures that regularly interacted with one another."

"The game ofFifty-Eight Holesprobably served this purpose in the second millennium BCE in Egypt and south-western Asia, because it was the only game that was played throughout the region," they added.

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The board games' history goes backthousands of years and it was most probably very popular across regions.

"We can't know what that something is, but we can piece together an incomplete history based on the artefacts of board games left behind, fromdicetopiecesto the boards themselves," stated the researchers.

"Whatever the origin of the game ofFifty-Eight Holes, it was quickly adopted and played by a wide variety of people, from the nobility of Middle Kingdom Egypt to the cattle herders of the Caucasus, and from the Old Assyrian traders in Anatolia to the workers who built Middle Kingdom pyramids. The fast spread of this game attests to the ability of games to act as social lubricants, facilitating interactions across social boundaries," they added.

(With inputs from agencies)