Mysterious Stone Spheres May be Earliest Ever Board Game
Mysterious Stone Spheres May be Earliest Ever Board Game
Mysterious Stone Spheres May be Earliest Ever Board Game
October 3, 2022
Summary
Key Points: Researchers believe tiny stone spheres found on the island of Santorini could be one of the earliest examples of an Ancient Greek board game.
They used machine learning to analyze 700 stones according to a new methodology that shed light on potential patterning within the stone group.
Archaeologists from the University of Bristol have suggested that mysterious stone spheres found at various ancient settlements across the Aegean and Mediterranean could be playing pieces from one of the earliest ever board games.
The stones, which range from around 4,500 to 3,600 years old, were found at the Bronze Age town of Akrotiri on the island of Santorini.
In the new study, published in Journal of Archaeological Science, researchers examined common features on 700 stones using a new machine learning methodology.
The analysis placed the stones into two groups of larger and smaller stones.
In Akrotiri and in other settlements across the Aegean, researchers have found stone slabs with shallow cup marks where the spheres could have sat or been placed.
Reference
Laboratory Equipment. (2022, October 03). Mysterious stone spheres may be earliest ever board game. Retrieved October 10, 2022, from https://www.laboratoryequipment.com/590552-Mysterious-Stone-Spheres-May-be-Earliest-Ever-Board-Game/