tomasz orzacchi
About 500 years ago, construction workers during construction Chmiev Castle In Poland, simple game boards were carved into sandstone floor slabs as a pastime.At least, that’s one of the possible scenarios he thinks about the existence of a game board recently discovered According to the archaeologist of the castle ruins. It is also possible that the tablet was carved by a child or servant after the castle was completed, or that it was intended as a symbolic message.
As previously reported, there are different types of archaeological evidence. board games around the world Going back thousands of years: Senet and Mehen For example, ancient Egypt, a strategy game called Ludus latrunculorum (“Mercenary Game”) Favored by Roman legions. A 4,000-year-old board discovered last year at an archaeological site in Oman’s Kumaira Valley may be a precursor to the ancient Middle Eastern game known as “The Game.” royal game of ur (or Game of Twenty Squares) is a two-player game that may have been one of the forerunners of backgammon (or was simply replaced in popularity by backgammon). Similar to backgammon, this is essentially a racing game where players compete to see who can move all their pieces along the board before their opponent.
This latest find isn’t that old in terms of the actual carved board, but the game could be just as old. According to archaeologist Tomasz Orzacchi, this is his two-player strategy board game, also known as “Mill”. nine men morris, Merrell, or “Cowboy Checker” in North America. The oldest known mill game board was found carved into the roof shingles of an Egyptian temple in Qurna and is thought to date back to BC. Historians believe that this game was well known to the Romans and may have learned of it through trade routes.
Ovid mentions an early version of this game in his 2nd century AD treatise Ars Amatoria, argued that women should learn the game because “love is often born in play.”and in Shakespeare midsummer night’s dream, Titania talks about how “Nine Men’s Morris is filled with mud”, which is probably referring to a huge outdoor plank carved into the medieval village green. Carved slabs have also been found on the pews in the cloisters of British cathedrals. A game board was discovered in his 13th century church in Opole, Poland, and the tiles of his 15th century stove in Wielkopolska were carved with depictions of people playing the game.
tomasz orzacchi
A typical mill game board is a grid with 24 intersection points, and players must try to line up three of the nine players either horizontally or vertically to form a “mill.” When this happens, he can remove one of the other player’s pieces from the board. He also has variations of 3, 6 and 12 pieces per player. First, each player in turn places his subordinate (black or white in color) on one of the empty points. The best strategy is to concentrate all your subordinates in his one area, which can hinder movement as the game progresses, so instead of trying to form a factory right away, send your subordinates to different locations. is to disperse.
In the second stage, players take turns moving their soldiers to adjacent points to form a mill and attempt to eliminate the opponent’s soldiers. If a player’s piece is blocked and there are no adjacent free spaces, that player loses the game. His other way to win is to reduce the opponent’s soldiers to his two, making them unable to form a mill and losing the game.
According to Olszacki, the carved game board found at Ćmielów Castle is approximately 13.5 cm in size. Built by local nobleman Krzysztof Szydłowiecki between 1519 and his 1531 years, the castle fell into Swedish hands in 1657 and was partially demolished in 1702. The remaining parts were used as a brewery around 1800, a bathhouse in 1905, and a German military hospital. Second World War. The ruined castle was finally put into private ownership in 2009 and continued to decline. However, in 2022 it changed hands again and archaeological work at the site resumed, leading to the discovery of the game board.
Listing image by Tomasz Olszacki
