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Archaeologists in Azerbaijan recently discovered something from a 4,000 year old nomadic encampment that wouldn’t be out of place on the shelves of modern-day toy stores. It reminded them of a similar discovery found in an ornate ancient Egyptian tomb. What was it they found may be the oldest board game in history, reports Science Alert.
An ancient board game
Archaeologists, Walter Crist from Leiden University in the Netherlands and Rahman Abdullayev from the Minnesota History Society led the team that uncovered the board game. At six sites across Azerbaijan, Crist and Abdullayev found rocks with carved designs that were eerily reminiscent of the Ancient Egyptian game Hounds and Jackals.
The board games from Azerbaijan dated back to before 2000 BCE, older than the version found in ancient Egypt. The discovery suggests that Hounds and Jackals may be older than historians think, and it may not have originated in Egypt after all.
Hounds and Jackals is played by moving five pieces with heads shaped like hounds and five pieces with heads shaped like jackals through 58 holes. It is a race game where players try to be the first to reach the finish line.
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Connecting classes and cultures
The discovery in Azerbaijan revealed something else surprising. Whereas Egypt’s Hounds and Jackals, also called Fifty-Eight Holes was found in an ornate tomb of a government official, Azerbaijan's oldest game was probably used by cattle herders. Other similarly dated versions of the same game were also found in Azerbaijan-based tombs for wealthy people.
“Whatever the origin of the game of Fifty-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,” Crist and Abdullayev wrote in a study that was published online by Cambridge University Press.
The researchers said that the game probably provided more than just recreation. Game playing likely helped ancient peoples make friends and acquaintances and build trust with each other, much like it does today.
“The fast spread of this game attests to the ability of games to act as social lubricants, facilitating interactions across social boundaries,” the researchers explained.
“At certain times in antiquity, particular games were regionally popular, suggesting that they helped to connect cultures that regularly interacted with one another,” the researchers added. "The game of Fifty-Eight Holes probably 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.”
Ancient Games still played today
Hounds and Jackals is just one of many games that date back thousands of years, a list that according to the Good Games website, includes a number of games still played today. Mehen, a circular shaped game with pieces that move in a spiral towards the center, and Senet, a game similar to Backgammon, were also uncovered in ancient Egyptian archaeological sites.
Meanwhile, Checkers, Chess, Backgammon, Mancala, and Chutes and Ladders are all examples of games found in ancient sites that mankind has been enjoying for thousands of years.
It’s fascinating to think that a pastime from a cattle herder’s camp has something in common with a game played by ancient traders, pyramid builders, and Egyptian royalty alike. Enjoying a game is a timeless activity. Board games, whether they’re scratched into rock or neatly packaged on store shelves, have always brought people together.
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