Gaming Pieces Research Articles

Rich weapon burial from the Late Roman Iron Age at Veldbæk, Denmark –

During two campaigns in 1997 and 1999, archaeologists from Esbjerg Museum excavated a spectacular Late Roman Iron Age weapon burial at Veldbæk in Esbjerg, Denmark. In addition to full weaponry, the deceased was buried with magnificent grave goods such as gilded fittings for a military belt, gaming pieces, a gold finger ring, a silver animal fibula, a red carnelian intaglio, and a copper-alloy-clad wooden bucket. The assemblage dates the grave to the transition between periods C1b and C2 of the Late Roman Iron Age, which is to say ca. AD 250 or shortly thereafter. The grave is a crucial new piece in the puzzle to understand how power was distributed in southern Jutland during the Late Roman Iron Age.

Late Iron Age Whaling in Scandinavia

The use of marine mammal bone as a raw material in the manufacturing of gaming pieces in the Scandinavian late Iron Age has been observed and discussed in recent years. New empirical studies have created a chronology as well as a typology showing how the design of the gaming pieces is tightly connected to different choices of raw material; from antler in the Roman and Migration periods, to whale bone in the sixth century, and walrus in the tenth century. Macroscopic examination can, however, rarely go beyond determining that the material is ‘cetacean bone’. The following article presents the taxonomic identifications of 68 samples of whale bone gaming pieces, determined using Zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry analysis. The results demonstrate the consistent use of bones from Balaenidae sp. most probably the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis). This paper presents strong evidence for active, large-scale hunting of whales in Scandinavia, starting in the sixth century. The manufacture of gaming pieces was probably not the driver for the hunt, but merely a by-product that has survived in the archaeological record. Of greater importance were probably baleen, meat, and blubber that could be rendered into oil. This oil might have been an additional trading product in the far-reaching trade networks that were developing during the period. This study supports previous studies suggesting that Iron Age and medieval trade and resource exploitation had a much more severe influence on ecosystems than previously expected. It adds additional insights into anthropogenic impact on mammal populations in prehistory.

:Metal Finds and Coins: Final Publications from the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project II

:<i>Metal Finds and Coins: Final Publications from the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project II</i>

The Throw of Isis-Aphrodite: A Rare Decorated Knucklebone from the Metropolitan Museum of New York

Knucklebones were ubiquitous objects in the ancient world and they had several meanings, from gaming pieces to oracular dice. The study of a new unpublished decorated knucklebone from Graeco-Roman Egypt with a ‘Baubo’ image of a squatting naked woman, preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, offers the opportunity to explore the variety of contexts of use of decorated knucklebones in this area: from play and divination to Orphic rituals and local religious festivals. Its decorated sides represent three Graeco-Egyptian deities whose meanings and magical interactions can be understood through the comparison with other Romano-Egyptian gaming pieces, terracottas, magical gems and papyri.

Amulets, Gaming Pieces, Toys or Offerings? Thoughts on Animal Figurines and Funerary Practices in the Late Bronze Age Aegean

Abstract The assemblage of four cones (ivory, stone) and an astragalus marked with dots from Katsambas in Crete is so far the best evidence of gaming pieces uncovered in an Aegean tomb of the Late Bronze Age. A small faience animal associated with the same burial, that of a child, attracted however little attention, and raises the question whether it may be added as a possible game piece to this set. Although this holed piece was certainly used as a personal ornament or amulet, this paper gives the opportunity to review the functions of small faience, stone and ivory animal figurines in the Aegean, especially the couchant ones. It also introduces the notion of chance and fate linked to playing on the basis of cross-cultural comparisons in the Eastern Mediterranean. Additionally, the hypothesis that small standing terracotta quadrupeds may have initially served as toys before having functioned as votive or funerary offerings in Aegean cult places and tombs is further explored. Special interest is shown on Mycenaean funerary assemblages from Prosymna in the Argolid and Perati in Attica featuring small terracotta animals and cone shells, inasmuch as these objects may be seen as potential toys and gaming pieces.

A Boeotian Die in Context: Gaming Pieces, Jewellery, Seals, Spindle Whorls and Bird Bowls in a Female Burial of Status

Abstract The present paper presents a die in its archaeological context, which is a rich grave in the region of Boeotia. It attempts to understand with what other items this gaming piece coexisted and why, as well as who was the person who played with it during lifetime. The Boeotian die is a solid cube made of clay that presents a peculiarity in its numbering system, for the face normally bearing six dots features twenty-five instead. The date of the die in the Archaic period and the sex of the deceased can be established from its associated grave-group which comprises 48 Boeotian (mostly bird bowls) and Late Corinthian vases, minor objects, such as spindle whorls, and gaming pieces from raw natural materials (such as pebbles, shells, a terracotta animal in secondary use, etc), as well as jewellery such as rings, bracelets, necklaces, brooches, pins, spiraled tubes, seals and rosettes attached on a -now lost- head cover. The age of the dead is estimated as young from osteological analysis, which situates our die and its gaming assemblage in the cultural context of the “mors immatura” in Archaic Greece. Dice among other gaming pieces are known from antiquity, yet undisturbed (and sexed) contexts of the Archaic period are rare. In the 6th century BC dice occur in sanctuaries; none is known from Boeotia, hence the significance of publishing one here in its assorted grave-group.

Gaming pieces, pads or ... anything else? : Late Bronze Age ceramic discs in the light of experimental research

Gaming pieces, pads or ... anything else? : Late Bronze Age ceramic discs in the light of experimental research

Contribuţii la cunoaşterea obiectelor de os şi corn de cerb din Municipium Septimium Apulense. Descoperiri recente / Contributions to the study of bone and deer antler artefacts from Municipium Septimium Apulense. Recent discoveries

Autorii prezintă un lot format din 81 de obiecte, obținute din os și din corn, descoperite în anii 2016 și 2017, la Alba Iulia, în sectorul sudic al Municipium Septimium Apulense, cu ocazia unor cercetări arheologice preventive. Pe baza unora dintre fibulele descoperite, piesele de os și corn au fost încadrate cronologic în secolul al III-lea, mai precis, în intervalul cuprins între începutul secolului și retragerea aureliană. Aproape toate obiectele au fost descoperite în cercetarea întreprinsă în anul 2017. Între acestea, au fost identificate și două piese în curs de prelucrare, datorită cărora luăm în considerare posibilitatea ca, în zona cercetată de noi sau în proximitatea ei, să fi existat un mic atelier de prelucrare a osului și cornului. Amintim aici categoriile de obiecte descoperite : piese de toaletă și podoabă (ace de păr de os, un pandantiv de corn de cerb), piese de uz casnic (ace de cusut, cutii pentru ace, străpungătoare), piese pentru jocuri (jetoane), un instrument muzical (fluier), un instrument medical (spatulă) și câteva piese fragmentare cu atribuire incertă. În cercetările arheologice preventive și sistematice întreprinse până în prezent în canabele romane / municipium Septimium Apulense, au fost descoperite importante cantități de obiecte realizate din os și din corn. Cele mai multe dintre acestea au fost introduse în literatura de specialitate. Piesele publicate în prezentul articol ajută la completarea informațiilor cunoscute despre această categorie de artefacte descoperite la Apulum, în special, și în Dacia, în general.

Gaming pieces from Recent Excavations of the Kyiv Podil

Gaming pieces from Recent Excavations of the Kyiv Podil

ARCHAEOZOOLOGICAL MATERIALS FROM SHESTOVYTSIA NECROPOLIS IN THE COLLECTIONS OF THE INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY

A long-term archaeological study at Shestovytsia necropolis accumulated a significant collection, an important part of which are archaeozoological materials. Most of the finds are stored at the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. V. I. Bibikova determined the bones from 35 Shestovytsia’s burial mounds, excavated in the 1940s—1950s and published by D. I. Blifeld. Currently in the collection, there are osteological remains from 28 complexes and 3 bones without the catalogue numbers, they were identified by Ye. Yu. Yanish. The sample from this site includes 454 fragments of animal origin from 61 individuals minimum.&#x0D; All animal remains belong to the category of «ritually used», because they originate from inventory of burials. These are the animal for sacrific buried along with the human body, the remains of funeral feast and of food placed into the grave, and the personal belongings of the dead, i. e. things of everyday use (combs, pointed tools (fids or marlinspikes), needle- and awl-cases, etc.), amulets, and gaming pieces. They are ranged by degree of treatment from bones without any treatment to complicated bone products. Animals which bones were used for further treatment were adult species. The bones of young individuals, apparently, belonged to the animals used for funeral feast.&#x0D; Total of 11 representative mammal species belong to 3 Oders — Artiodactyla: Bovidae family, Cervidae family, Suidae family; Perissodactyla: Equidae family; Carnivora: Canidae family and Ursidae family; and also Rodentia. In addition, in several graves, chicken bones (Gallus gallusdomesticus), bird’s (obviously chicken) eggs, as well as the shell of the Unio crassus were detected. There are no fish remains in the materials from the necropolis. Domestic species accounted for 68.3 % of the determined mammalian remains. The largest variety is registered in the materials from the burial mound 21 (the mound 22 (121), according to the report, excavations in 1956) and the burial 1 and 4 of the mound 61 (the mound 52 (51), according to the report, excavations in 1957).&#x0D; 87 bones contain traces of influence: the effects of fire, the traces of chopping, cutting, and gnawing by dogs. In the investigated material, there is a bone of small cattle with pathological enlargements, which are the result of the inflammatory process, in this case, most probably after trauma. In addition, the enamel of the horse’s tooth is damaged, which is likely a result of the certain types of feed usage.

Early Makuria Research Project. Royal ornaments of the Late Antique African kingdom, Early Makuria, Nubia (AD 450–550)

After the fall of the Meroe kingdom, three entities – Nobadia, Early Makuria, and Alwa (Alodia) – emerged in northeast Africa between the 4th and the 6th centuries AD. Richly furnished elite cemeteries with tombs of the Nobadian kings are known from Qustul and Ballaña in Lower Nubia (Emery and Kirwan 1938), but until now no royal tombs of Early Makuria have been identified. A comparative analysis of some recently excavated adornments and ornaments from the tumulus cemetery of el-Zuma in Upper Nubia have now enabled the Early Makuria royal tombs (AD 450–550) to be placed there. The assemblages from three large tumuli are dominated by personal adornments (beads, pendants, earrings, chains, crosses, and a ring), royal regalia (cabochons and settings), and other decorated items (metal sheets, an intarsia and ivory gaming pieces). Apart from beads of various materials, like marine mollusk shell, ostrich eggshell, faience and stone, which were made probably in local workshops, the remaining items were imports from the Mediterranean and Sri Lanka/South India (glass beads in the latter case). Moreover, many of the decorated objects and the techniques used to make them find parallels in the elite Nobadian cemeteries of Qustul and Ballaña, hinting at the royal origin of some of the Early Makuria tomb owners at el-Zuma. These parallels induce the thought that there was a single workshop in late antique Nubia producing artifacts for the elite.

Whalebone Gaming Pieces: Aspects of Marine Mammal Exploitation in Vendel and Viking Age Scandinavia

Discussions of pre-Viking trade and production have for many decades focused on products made of precious metals, glass and, to some degree, iron. This is hardly surprising considering the difficulties in finding and provenancing products made of organic matter. In this article we examine gaming pieces made from bone and antler, which are not unusual in Scandinavian burials in the Vendel and Viking period (c.ad550–1050). A special emphasis is placed on whalebone pieces that appear to dominate after aroundad550, signalling a large-scale production and exploitation of North Atlantic whale products. In combination with other goods such as bear furs, birds of prey, and an increased iron and tar production, whalebone products are part of an intensified large-scale outland exploitation and indicate strong, pre-urban trading routes across Scandinavia and Europe some 200 years before the Viking period and well before the age of the emporia.

Quadian bone and antler industry from Slovakia (1. - 5. century AD)

In this Article, I am going to deal with the finds of bone and antler industry in the Germanic-Quadi environment of southwestern Slovakia. They include jewellery, combs, toilet items, items used for textile and leather working, knife handles, parts of board games and semi-finished products. They have been found on both cemeteries and settlements. Germanic tribes worked bones and antler using almost the same techniques as the Romans. These included mostly coarse cutting, soaking and moulding the material into shapes by lathing, sawing, drilling, grinding, polishing, smoothing, riveting, chiseling and so on. Comparing the structure of the studied items with those from the territory of Bohemia, which was settled by the Germanic tribes of the Marcomanni, we notice certain differences. As for jewellery, we have a greater variety of forms bone hairpins. They include also various kinds of amulets, a larger number of drilled animal teeth and bone pearls. In the Marcomannic space we find a larger number of bone gaming pieces, rod dice, fishing tools, various catheters, and a wide range of single-sided and double-sided combs. When we compare the structure of bone and antler products with the finds from the Roman Empire (particularly Pannonia), we can see also clear differences. There is a wider typological range of hairpins; there have been found various parts of furniture, weaving items (spindle whorls, weaving tablets, etc.), gaming pieces, parts of military equipment, various kinds of amulets, writing tools, whistles, and so on.

Heads or Tails? Modified Ceramic Gaming Pieces from Colonial California

Modified ceramic disks have been recovered from historic-era sites across the Americas. Small unperforated disks are commonly interpreted as gaming pieces and larger perforated disks are often classified as spindle whorls. Here, we examine these interpretations in light of collections from three colonial-era sites in central California: Mission San Antonio de Padua, Mission San Jose, and the Rancho San Andres Castro Adobe. We argue that the small unperforated disks from our study sites were two-sided dice. These gaming pieces facilitated the social cohesion of Native people living in the large, multiethnic Indigenous communities that formed around Spanish colonial missions and later Mexican-era ranchos.

Happily Ever After? A Hellenistic Hoard from Tel Kedesh in Israel

A hoard of objects was found in 2008, buried under a floor pavement of a room in the Hellenistic administrative building at Tel Kedesh in northern Israel. The hoard consists of an Eros terracotta figurine, glass astragals and gaming pieces, writing paraphernalia made of metal, and a hairpin. In this article, I explore the hoard, its meaning, and its context in terms of findspot and the geographical location of the site on the periphery of Hellenistic Phoenicia. Based on the objects from the hoard, as well as on literary and visual sources from the Hellenistic world and particularly from the southern Levant, I argue that the objects were the property of a young, upper-class bride who buried them as part of a premarriage ritual. Additional figures can be found under this article’s abstract on AJA Online.

Isotopic provenancing of the Salme ship burials in Pre-Viking Age Estonia

Abstract

Playing Sets from Excavations by P.I. Smolychev from Floodplain Burial Ground at Shestovytsia

Based on the archival sources, the republication of lost today gaming pieces found during the research at the floodplain burial ground by P.I. Smolychev in 1926 is conducted in the article. Systematized is the data on the analogies, on the chronology of assemblages and the typological structure of the pieces, which are found in the 10th century burials, and also as single findings in synchronous cultural layers at the settlements in Kyiv Rus and Scandinavia. Gaming pieces made of glass are concentrated in so called «retinue» centres related with the Scandinavian influence and were the imports for Kyiv Rus. Analogies of glass pieces reveal their belonging to North European cultural circle, irrespectively of their place of production, which is not finally determined today. Discoveries of such findings in barrows at Shestovytsia, with a cremated at the place burial among them containing the remains in urn peculiar for the 10th century Slavs in Ancient Rus millieu, testify that the game was adopted by the local population, though with reservation on localization of such findings at the main trade routs.

Board Games in Boat Burials: Play in the Performance of Migration and Viking Age Mortuary Practice

This contribution explores an aspect of boat burials in the second half of the first millennium AD across Northern Europe, specifically boat burials that included equipment for board games (surviving variously as boards and playing pieces, playing pieces only, or dice and playing pieces). Entangled aspects of identity, gender, cosmogony, performance, and commemoration are considered within a framework of cultural citation and connection between death and play. The crux of this article's citational thrust is the notion of quoting life in the rituals surrounding death. This was done both in the service of the deceased and in the service of those wanting to remember the deceased, the argument distills around the biographical trajectories or the different social and individual uses to which people put ostensibly simple things such as gaming pieces.

A High Resolution Chronology for Steward’s Promontory Culture Collections, Promontory Point, Utah

AbstractDespite the rich array of perishables Julian Steward (1937) recovered during his 1930s excavations, the Promontory Cave assemblages were dated in relative terms with just a handful of radiocarbon assays until recently. Yet Promontory Caves 1 and 2 are the type sites from which the Promontory Culture was defined, and these assemblages have a critical bearing on our conception of three significant issues in western North American prehistory: the terminal Fremont transition, Numic expansion, and the potential presence of migrating ancestral Apachean populations. To better fix the age of the Promontory Phase, we have undertaken an additional 45 AMS determinations for Promontory perishables. Because of a research focus concerning Promontory footwear, most age estimates come from moccasins, but we have also dated gaming pieces, a bow, an arrow, netting, basketry, matting, and cordage. With the exception of a winnowing basket fragment and some ceramic residue dates, all Promontory Phase assays are tightly focused in an interval running from 662 to 826 radiocarbon years before present (a calibrated 2s range spanning A.D. 1166–1391). Bayesian analyses of the Cave 1 and 2 Promontory Phase perishables suggest that this late period occupation comprised one or two human generations, centering on the interval running from ca. A.D. 1250–1290.

Biodegradation of ivory (natural apatite): possible involvement of fungal activity in biodeterioration of theLewisChessmen

Fungal biodeterioration of ivory was investigated with in vitro inoculation of samples obtained from boar and walrus tusks with the fungi Aspergillus niger and Serpula himantioides, species of known geoactive abilities. A combination of light and scanning electron microscopy together with associated analytical techniques was used to characterize fungal interactions with the ivory, including changes in ivory composition, dissolution and tunnelling, and the formation of new biominerals. The research was aimed at providing further understanding of the potential roles of fungi in the colonization and deterioration of ivory in terrestrial environments, but also contributes to our knowledge regarding the possible origins of the surface damage observed on early medieval sculptures made largely from walrus tusks, referred to as 'the Lewis hoard of gaming pieces', that were presumably produced for playing chess. The experiments have shown that the possibility of damage to ivory being caused by fungi is realistic. Scanning electron microscopy revealed penetration of fungal hyphae within cracks in the walrus tusk that showed also widespread tunnelling by fungal hyphae as well as 'fungal footprints' where the surface was etched as a consequence of mycelial colonization. Similar phenomena were observed with boar tusk ivory, while production of metabolites could lead to complete dissolution of the sample. Colonization of ivory and/or exposure to fungal activity lead to extensive secondary biomineral formation, and this was identified as calcium oxalate, mainly as the monohydrate, whewellite.