A pattern of small holes cut into the floor of an ancient rock shelter in Azerbaijan shows that one of the world’s most ancient board games was played there by nomadic herders around 4,000 years ago, according to an archaeologist who has investigated the find.
Walter Crist, a research associate with the American Museum of Natural History in New York, visited the rock shelter in a national park in Azerbaijan last year, searching for traces of the ancient game now known as “58 Holes.”
The game is also sometimes called “Hounds and Jackals.” British archaeologist Howard Carter found a game set with playing pieces fashioned like those animals in the tomb of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Amenemhat IV, who lived in the 18th century B.C.
The distinctive pattern of round pits scored in the rock of the shelter in Azerbaijan came from that same game, Crist told Live Science. But the Azerbaijan version may be even older than the game set found in the pharaoh’s tomb. Read more.
