Ege University’s Haluk Sağlamtimur presented a remarkable find of 5,000-year-old gaming tokens found in a Bronze Age burial mound at Başur Höyük in Turkey. They take a variety of forms (“Some depict pigs, dogs and pyramids, others feature round and bullet shapes. We also found dice as well as three circular tokens made of white shell and topped with a black round stone”) and suggest a game based in some way on the number four.
The find confirms that board games likely originated and spread from the Fertile Crescent regions and Egypt more than 5,000 years ago (Senet from predynastic Egypt is considered the world’s oldest game board). The tokens were accompanied by badly preserved wooden pieces or sticks. Sağlamtimur hopes they’ll provide some hints on the rules and logic behind the game.
“According to distribution, shape and numbers of the stone pieces, it appears that the game is based on the number 4,” he said.
Oldest Gaming Tokens Found in Turkey [Rossella Lorenzi/Discovery]
(via Geekologie)