Ancient Wooden Board Game Identified in Slovakia

News January 5, 2018

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POPRAD, SLOVAKIA—The Slovak Spectator reports that a wooden game board and green and white playing pieces has been recovered from the 1,600-year-old tomb of a Germanic prince. “It’s the best preserved ancient wooden board game that has been found to the north of the Mediterranean Sea,” said Ulrich Schädler of the Museum of Games in Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Scientists have determined the glass playing pieces were made in the eastern Mediterranean, perhaps in Syria. Karol Pieta of the Archaeological Institute in Nitra thinks the Germanic prince who owned the game may have served in the Roman army and brought it home to the Tatras Mountain region from the Roman Empire. Schädler is trying to figure out how the game was played. For more, go to “The Video Game Graveyard.”