The earliest board games were played on a slab of stone, or on the ground itself
Date : 04/05/2024
Existence of ancient Indian civilization on par with the Egypt, Sumer, and later with Greek and Roman civilizations was revealed with the three major excavations done in Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and Lothal in Pakistan and northern part of India. Archeologist found genomic, linguistic and cultural similarities of this Indus-Saraswati civilization with the civilization that flourished in the southern most part of India below the Vindhya mountain ranges which is named as Vaigai River Valley civilisation found around Adichanallur, Athirambakkam, Keeladi and many more archeological sites. This literature review paper points out some more similarities with the artefacts found, games related in particular, in the Keeladi excavations with the excavations done in Indus Valley and others around the world.
There were different kinds of gamesmen found in the various Indus-Saraswati excavations done in the archeological sites for more than a century. Similarly, Keeladi excavations done in this decade present different types of gamesmen as well. Among the various artefacts found in Indus-Saraswati excavations and other excavations done around the world, this paper considers this gamesmen or counters used for various board games and prove that Keeladi archeologist deciphered it as a disc used for a game played by girls instead of game counters of board games.
To drive the point, firstly, artefacts details as per the excavation reports are given; secondly, the details were analysed and synthesised and finally, the cultural perspective of the world civilisations and Tamil civilisation (which is not accepted as an ancient civilisation) are given.
Artefacts of Tamil Nadu Excavations
Tamil people are considered to have a civilisation of their own. Their land is at the southernmost tip of India. In ancient times, the south of Vidhya range area covering the present day states consisting of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, part of Maharashtra and Orissa are considered to have a similar culture, called the Tamil culture (Tamil Civilisation). The artefacts found in the various places in these states stands testimony for that similarity. Recently Keeladi excavations have brought out many ancient artefacts which date back to 6th Century BCE.
Among the artefacts found, the excavation report of Keeladi (Sivanantham, Seran, 2019) in Tamil Nadu mentions “The occurrence of artefacts such as dice, hop scotches and gamesmen, really reflects the past time activities of the ancient people. Majority of the gamesmen recovered from excavations are of terracotta. Keeladi has yielded 600 hopscotches. Even now the same game is prevalent in Madurai and other regions known as Pandi or Nondi Vilayattu. Dices were also recovered from the site. The occurrence of single and double holed terracotta discs represents that either they were used as wheel of the toy cart or twist disc game pieces. Apart from these, 80 chessmen of similar shape but in different sizes were collected from the excavation. So the existence of these game objects posterizes the games and pastime activities of not only the children, but also of the elders of the ancient society.”
Pandi or Nondi Vilayattu mentioned in the report is a game played on a rectangular area divided into 8 equal parts by mostly girls and women.
Keeladi report (Sivanantham, Seran, 2019) says : “In the historic period gamesman were made out of clay material. Two types of gamesman were observed in Keeladi excavation. These objects might be used to play the ancient games like chess. The Keeladi excavation work yielded 26 numbers of gamesmen. They appear to be made of burnt clay and mostly black colour” (pg 46).
The Dices found in Keeladi were similar to the ones found in the places where Indus-Saraswati civilisation flourished.
We find that the gaming culture of Indus and Tamil are similar as well and excavations resulted in similar gaming counters, gaming boards etc. The dating of this Tamil civilisation goes back only to 6th Century BCE while Indus one dates back to much earlier than 15th century BCE. Moreover, this paper is written to investigate the gamesmen found in Keeladi with other regions of the world particularly Indus region and drive the point that Tamil Civilisation is on par with Indus-Saraswati civilisation. However, this is done in lieu with researchers who have found earlier the similarities existing on the seal of bull fight and the anthropomorphic axe between Indus-Saraswati and Tamil Civilisation.
Iravatham Mahadevan mentions it as “One of the cultural traits in the Indus Valley is that they had the bull fight. Some famous seal show a man running towards a bull, catching hold of its horns, doing a somersault over the back of the bull, and landing at the other end. Even today in the Dravidian south bull fighting and bull chasing are very common sports. This is very likely to be one of the traits which connect the Dravidian south with the Indus Valley.”
Ganesan mentions that “In the Ganga-Yamuna doab region, anthropomorphic axe sculptures in bronze are found around 1500 BC, and when they disappear there, monolithic sculptures of anthropomorphic axe are carved in south India using iron chisels in places like Mottur, Udayarnatham and Sittannavasal dating to 800 BC in early Iron Age when horse, iron, paddy cultivation etc., were introduced from the north”.
The smoothened pottery discs are deciphered as hopscotches by researchers of Tamil Nadu. This paper raises the question : Are these discs really hopscotches or gamesmen of the ancient board games? For this, excavation artefacts around the world are considered including Indus-Saraswati excavations.
Literature Review
Pottery discs (named as game stones, gamesmen, counters, tokens, discoidals, inlays), made from re-used potsherds and smoothed to a more or less rounded shape, received only little attention in the reports, but have later been noted by many, both Indus-Saraswati Valley and other sites, and been frequently referred to the realm of play and gaming (e.g. Kenoyer 2000; Rogersdotter 2007, 2008; Rydh 1959). Such pottery discs found in Keeladi has been deciphered as hopscotch counter for Pandi or Nondi Vilayattu.
Keeladi report (Sivanantham, Seran, 2019) says : “The flat portions of the potsherds were generally ground of the edges to bring round shape. Such a gamesman is called Hopscotches (sillu). They were used by children as game pieces. Hopscotches are collected from the entire quadrant. These are of various sizes as well as of different pot sherds like that of black and red ware, coarse red ware and red ware etc. Totally 235 hopscotches were collected from this season of excavation” (pg 45).
At a time when paper, wooden board or ink was not even invented, the earliest board games were played on a slab of stone, or on the ground itself. Many old board games have been found in tombs in various regions of the world. Somewhere around the burial urns (may be for ritualistic purposes). Researchers propose that rich parents may often bury their children with their favourite toys.
Archeologists mention that “the boards on which the men were moved must have been made of wood, for none have survived, and the various positions may have been indicated on them by means of shell inlay, pieces of which have been found in some of the houses. Many boards have been unearthed and extremely likely the board games are similar to ones obtained from Ur.” (Ref)
Findings from Indus-Saraswati civilisation – India (Lothal, Basagra, Khirasara)
There were various archeological sites in the state of Gujarat, western part of India. The most prominent among them is Lothal which is in Bhal region of Gujarat. Researchers posit that the construction of the city began around 2200 BCE. Archaeologists have discovered gold pendants, charred ashes of terra-cotta, cakes and pottery, bovine remains, beads around this site. Gamesmen, beads, unguent vessels, chank shells, ladles and inlays were made for export and local consumption.
Gola Dhoro (Bagasra) site offered many new facts about the ancient Indus civilization's growth and persistence in Gujarat and has disclosed some smoothened pottery discs. Another site Khirasara near Bhuj of Gujarat existed where a big cubical weight, chunks of pottery, sprinklers and spouts of red polished ware were unearthed. This site is supposed to have been a major industrial hub of the mature Harappan period and it flourished from circa 2600 to 2200 BCE.
Findings from Indus-Saraswati civilisation – Haryana (Rakhigarhi)
Rakhigarhi is another site near Haryana of northern part of India. It is considered to be a pre-Indus Saraswati civilisation settlement going back to about 6500 BCE later matured into a modern settlement dating to 2600-1900 BCE. Along with different varieties of colourful jasper beads mostly drum shape and well marked, Lapis lazuli beads shaped in short cylindrical and thick disc were recovered from the site. This raw material for the beads was suppose to have been imported from Afghanistan.
Findings from Indus civilisation – Pakistan (Harappa)
Indus-Saraswati civilisation has spread in the Punjab and Sindh states of Pakistan region. Among them the major Harappan site is situated in state of Punjab in Pakistan.
Harappan report mentions : “A very interesting aspect of the discoveries made in the Indus cities is the large number of toys and objects used in game which have been unearthed at all the … sites excavated. They were made of pottery, shell and ivory, but wood used may have perished.
It is not yet known whether the throwing of dice constituted a game in itself among the inhabitants of the Indus cities, but, even so it seems likely that dice were used in other ways as well, for a number of objects have been discovered in both cities which are undoubtedly ‘men’ used for the type of board game in which dice seen indispensable. The appearance of these ‘men’ varies considerably, some being coarsely made objects of clay, while the best specimens are made of hard stone, such as agate and chalcedony, and show the finest workmanship. It is interesting to note that no two stone gamesmen have yet been found of exactly the same size, and for this reason it might be supposed that they were not used for games at all, but may have been lingas, phallic symbols which are described in. In the case of the halma-shaped pieces, however, four of the same shape, size and colour have been found together” (Pruthi, 2004).
Findings from Indus-Saraswati civilisation – Pakistan (Mohenjo-daro)
Mohenjo-daro meaning 'Mound of the Dead Men' is another archaeological site in the province of Sindh, Pakistan.
Archeologists mention : “A brick has been found at Mohenjo-daro with incised rectangles in three rows of four, which was very probably a game-board, or perhaps only part of one, as it seems to have come from a pavement. One of the spaces on this brick is marked with crossed lines which may have denoted
a ‘home’, and if it be assumed that adjoining bricks, now missing, were similarly marked and that were originally ten rows of three, the game played upon them would have resembled the ancient Egyptian game of Senet… The pavement of a house or courtyard would have been quite a good place in which to mark out a game-board, and many unprofitable hours were no doubt whiled away by the servants who cut this board.
Another brick has been discovered, but with one end missing which seems to have been marked out for a game played with pebbles or beans. Four lines of shallow depressions, best preserved lines having fifteen, are scooped out of one face of the brick, but there is nothing to distinguish one hole from another and the entire arrangement suggests a game board used by various African tribes. This brick, also, may have come from the pavement” (Pruthi, 2004).
Similar findings in other parts of the world
Disc pieces were found from various excavations around the world. The following table lists out some of them around starting from America, Middle East and European countries. All the disc pieces found were considered to be the counters for the board games. There were few game boards found engraved on bricks and stones in some sites.
The counters found in England were are different sizes. The four or five counters are of different sizes and show different degrees of ‘finish’ and wear. One counter is made of bone and the other four are ceramic (made from pottery). This is in general the same for all our findings of counters around the world.
From the above list of discs and game boards found, researchers had deciphered the game boards may be 9 Men Morris board (Barikot) and Ludus latrunculorum (Rome).
Ludus latrunculorum (latrunculi, latrones) was a two-player strategy board game played throughout the Roman Empire. It is said to resemble chess or draughts, but is generally accepted to be a game of military tactics. Latrunculi board and pieces were found at Housesteads Roman Fort or Roman Corbridge, complete with pottery counters and dice containers. 2nd-3rd century CE. Corbridge Roman Town and Museum, English Hertitage. Photo: Historic England Archive.
Nine men's morris (merelles or mill ) is a strategy board game for two players again dating at least to the Roman Empire. There are nine men morris game boards etched in many places all around the world. The list is out of scope of this paper. The game was "probably well known by the Romans", as there are many boards on Roman buildings, even though dating them is impossible because the buildings "have been easily accessible" since they were built. It is possible that the Romans were introduced to the game via trade routes, but this cannot be proven (Berger, 2004).
Discussion:
It is said that board games have been around us more than 4000 years. History says that some of the early board games were thought to have religious purpose. Games played on boards have existed since the very early days of human civilization and were played not only for enjoyment but also for intellectual development. Drawings of games establish that their artists knew that games were played by their contemporaries, but nothing more, and medieval and even modern pictures of games of which we have complete knowledge warn us that it is unsafe to rely on accuracy and detail. The information given by drawings is also limited by the artistic development of their time. The difficulty of game is no criterion of the development of the race playing it: some of the simplest games are played by the more, and some of the most complicated games by less civilized races. Games with extraordinary power inculcate values within culture (Murray, 1952).
This paper proposes that the gamesmen and counters (mentioned as ear ornaments) found in Keeladi are the gamesmen of the game similar to the Egyptian game Senet or a board game played by Indus people (represented in excavated boards). The hopscotches (mentioned as counters used for games known as Pandi or nondi vilayattu prevalent in Madurai and other regions) are the counters of the game similar to board games of Latrunculi or other board games prevalent during that period.
Since, there are mentions about the board games in the ancient Tamil literary works, the existence of game boards can be confirmed.
During the fieldtrips, we found that Tamil Nadu temples have representative game boards sculpted on the temple door steps, floors, pillars and compound walls.
But these were considered as divine symbols instead of considering them as game boards. These excavation findings shows that Tamil people were also game lovers and temporary game boards could have been made by drawing on the floor or wooden blocks since gamesmen were found around the city. The Berger’s statement about the 9 men morris game spread through trade route can be confirmed with such boards etched in the temples of Tamil Nadu which were dated to the Roman period.
Conclusion:
By comparing the artefacts excavated in various regions of the world with the Keeladi findings, it is clear that early men of South India spent their time by game playing during their leisure time as well. The hopscotches, gamesman and dice stand as a proof of this. This study shows that a well civilized people lived in the southernmost part of India as well during the ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, Roman and Greek civilizations. With the historic references of seafaring around the world, it is clear that the gaming culture would have spread from one place to another and played with variations according to the region.
References
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Etowah Mound complex
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