Russian archaeologists found an ancient set for an unknown board game in Gonur-Depe
Archaeologists from the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IIMK RAS), together with colleagues from the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, discovered a complete set for an unknown ancient board game during excavations in Turkmenistan. Andrey Polyakov, director of the IIMK RAS, told reporters about this at a press conference at TASS.
“This year we made a unique find - a set of figurines for a certain game was found in one of the burials. Figurines were found earlier too, but they were scattered - here one figurine, there another. And now we have received a set, which includes 12 pyramid-shaped stone figurines, 8 stone balls, 3 processed serpentinite stones, 3 chips in the form of pistachio fruits, 2 shells and imitation cowrie shells. Of course, this is a complete set,” Polyakov’s agency quotes.
According to him, now scientists have a long and painstaking work with the sources, the purpose of which is to understand the purpose, essence and rules of this ancient game, characteristic of the local disappeared culture of people who lived on the territory of the settlement of Gonur-depe in the Karakum desert.
In the Bronze Age, at the turn of the 3rd-2nd millennia BC, oases flourished here, around which the civilization of Margush, or Margiana, was formed.
In the course of the latest excavations, Polyakov said, the scientists of the Institute of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences also managed to find a large seal depicting a bull trampling a snake, and other interesting finds related to the local ancient culture.
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