Earlier this week, archaeologists in Azerbaijan found what they believe to be one of the world’s most ancient board games, one played 4,000 years ago by nomadic herders. A series of holes carved into the floor of a rock shelter suggests that the game may be the remains of “58 Holes,” also known as “Hounds and Jackals,” according to LiveScience.
Walter Crist, a research associate with the American Museum of Natural History in New York, studied the findings as one of the oldest known versions of the ancient game. He first came across the cave markings in a magazine photograph, and traveled to Azerbaijan to investigate further. Crist found the cave buried under a housing development.
He presented his research at the American Schools of Oriental Research’s annual meeting last month.
“There is no doubt in my mind — the game [was] played for about 1,500 years, and very regular in the way that it [was] laid out,” Crist said at the meeting.
Crist explained that the game has two rows in the middle and a series of holes that arch around the outside. The fifth, 10th, 15th and 20th holes are always marked in a particular way. The hole on the top is typically a bit larger than the rest.
“That’s usually what people think of as the goal or the endpoint of the game,” he shared.
Archaeologists have found over 70 examples of the board game throughout the Middle East, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia, Business Insider reported. Another version of the game uses playing pieces shaped like hounds and jackals. British archaeologist Howard Carter once found some of these playing pieces in the 18th century B.C. tomb of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Amenemhat IV.
Despite all examples of the game, archaeologists are still unclear about how it’s played. Some research suggests the game may have been an ancient form of backgammon or cribbage. Players would have used counters made of sticks or stones to move around the board until the goal was reached.
Others believe that the game was used in funerary rights involving dice or casting sticks. The movement of the counters could have symbolized divine will. However, none of the examples found so far have contained any remains of dice or casting sticks.
Crist suggested that the game was a tool for interaction with each other as if it were a language, according to ABC News.
“Games were kind of a uniquely human thing, kind of an abstraction — moving stones in blank spaces on the ground has no real effect on your daily life, except for the fact that it helps you interact with another person,” he explained.
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