Scientists from the University of Bristol's Department of Anthropology and Archaeology have discovered mysterious spheres that point to what appears to be the existence of an ancient Greek board-game, reports SciTech Daily
According to the media report, Drs Christianne Fernée and Konstantinos Trimmis have published their findings over a set of mysterious stones were discovered in several ancient settlements in Greece including Santorini, Crete, Cyprus, and other Greek Islands.
Published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, Drs Fernée and Trimmis examined common features on 700 stones—which range from around 4,500 to 3,600 years old—found at the Bronze Age town of Akrotiri on the island of Santorini.
According to the archaeologists the mysterious stone spheres could be game pieces from the oldest board games ever created.
"The social importance of the spheres, as indicated by the way they were deposited in specific cavities, further supports the idea of the spheres being part of a game that was played for social interaction. This gives a new insight into the social interaction in the Bronze Age Aegean." said Dr Trimmis.
Dr. Ferneé said, "The most important finding of the study is that the speres fit two major clusters (one of smaller and one of larger stones). This supports the hypothesis that they were used as counters for a board game with the spheres most possibly have been collected to fit these clusters rather than a counting system for which you would expect more groupings."
