7 ms·

Archaeologists Find 4k-Year-Old Board Game in Oman

88 points by diodorus 5y ago

gfykvfyxgc 5y ago
Was the instruction booklet there too?
ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
Just FYI, folks… Make sure your adblockers are set to “11,” before hitting thst site.
- slabity 5y ago
  Wow you weren't lying. There is literally an ad every 2 paragraphs. And each paragraph is 1-3 sentences.
- pupppet 5y ago
  Just curious, is anyone intentionally not using an ad blocker?
  - wdb 5y ago
    It got ad blocker blocker :(
    - atoav 5y ago
      I didn't notice that ad blocker blocker on Firefox + uBlock Origin.
      - qsi 5y ago
        Neither did I using Brave.
    - cabalamat 5y ago
      There need to be ad blocker blocker blockers!
  - Shorel 5y ago
    If by ad blocker you mean a browser plugin, then I do not have one of these. I use a hosts file that ignores many ad hosts at the DNS level. No need for a low performance solution.
    - causi 5y ago
      uBlock Origin does not noticeably affect the responsiveness of my T100 from 2013 with a Bay Trail atom CPU and 2GB RAM. What exactly are you browsing on?
      - Shorel 5y ago
        Intel i7 1165g7 Anyway, I don't want to waste CPU cycles or battery life on such things.
    - bloqs 5y ago
      Do you regularly update the blacklist yourself? Ublock origin uses close to no memory or cpu for me, and offers instantaneous, effortless disabling in times where it is needed.
      - Shorel 5y ago
        Of course I do update the list! It is taken from here https://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm https://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm And I have another ~40 entries not included in that list. You should try it. It is another layer of protection in case you want to keep using uBlock Origin.
  - benlumen 5y ago
    On desktop sure, but just plain safari on iPhone. If I hit an article like this one I just click straight off it.
    - jackdh 5y ago
      There is actually a fairly good ad blocker for safari available. It's called AdGuard and works quite well.
  - usrusr 5y ago
    Me. I want websites to actually face the consequences of excessive advertising, like driving me away. I'm not happy with the idea of more ads being shoved at a smaller fraction of the visitors.
- lostlogin 5y ago
  It then makes the site unreadable by yelling about ad blockers. Plain old Pihole works though.
  - TacticalCoder 5y ago
    > Plain old Pihole works though Yup: I set up one the other day and it "Just Works [TM]". It's trivial to set up if you've got any experience with the Pi and in case you don't there are many tutorials out there. Highly recommended.
    - lostlogin 5y ago
      I’m doing it in Docker now days and it seems even easier than doing it ‘for real’. A word of warning though, if you run it on a machine with lots of containers, is buggers up internet access for the other containers and it’s a complete pain to solve (and sometimes reverts to broken on reboot).
  - throw0101a 5y ago
    It's surprising how much putting the following in one's hosts(5) file helps: 0.0.0.0 adservice.google.com ::1 adservice.google.com 0.0.0.0 ssl.google-analytics.com ::1 ssl.google-analytics.com 0.0.0.0 www.google-analytics.com ::1 www.google-analytics.com 0.0.0.0 www.googletagservices.com ::1 www.googletagservices.com 0.0.0.0 www.googletagmanager.com ::1 www.googletagmanager.com 0.0.0.0 partner.googleadservices.com ::1 partner.googleadservices.com 0.0.0.0 pagead2.googlesyndication.com ::1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com 0.0.0.0 googleads.g.doubleclick.net ::1 googleads.g.doubleclick.net 0.0.0.0 securepubads.g.doubleclick.net ::1 securepubads.g.doubleclick.net I recently got a new MacBook for work and when I was surfing there was all sorts of popups and ads and such. I got none of these things on my personal iMac. It took a day or two for me to realize that it wasn't about (e.g.) the different version of macOS or Safari that I was running. Once I updated the work machine's hosts(5) file things it was a night-and-day difference. I cannot believe that people tolerate surfing the web without any ad filtering / blocking.
- zwaps 5y ago
  It even blocked the "go back" action of my browser. Like, just, a nice f''k you for good measure. Amazing
  - tejtm 5y ago
    <alt><left-arrow> ... and never return, blacklist them.
    - cobbaut 5y ago
      TIL (I'm 52): <alt><left-arrow> equals the back button. Thank you tejtm!
  - dghughes 5y ago
    That seems to be a common thing on most sites these days to not be able to click back button on a browser. I'm noticing it more and more even on well-known sites like Microsoft. On some sites now after you click a link to it and you're on the site the back button is not clickable to go back. Even a right-click on the button doesn't allow you to select page history. I thought it was a bug on Firefox and it seems people are reporting it as so. I'll have to use another browser to test to see if it's browser-related or site-related.
jay_kyburz 5y ago
OKOK, I'm going to add archaeologynewsnetwork to my rss reader.
apjobs2015 5y ago
djbusby 5y ago
Disappointed there was no details about the game. The one image of the rock(board) seems like cups like mancala.
- stevenwoo 5y ago
  There’s another game trending on Reddit but they have some Babylonian documentation for rules (backgammon precursor) but it appears different from this one? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Game_of_Ur https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Game_of_Ur
- fsiefken 5y ago
  I count 6 holes in the row on top and 8 holes in the row below, perhaps it's a mancala board. Senet has three rows. More ancient board games are listed here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/best-board-games-ancient-world-180974094/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/best-board-gam...
thaumaturgy 5y ago
Slightly better article here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-unearth-4000-year-old-stone-board-game-in-oman-180979340/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-une...
intrasight 5y ago
I'll bet there's a version on the app store within a month.
emkoemko 5y ago
i am so used to 4k being a resolution :)
wly_cdgr 5y ago
Easier to find than a PS5, apparently
- neuronic 5y ago
  Dont worry about it, my PS5 has been collecting dust since a year since there are very few relevant games to play anyway.
joekrill 5y ago
I always wonder how they can be so sure what these things are. In this case, for example, it's described as a "carved grid" and "is hewn into the stone slightly clumsily". Perhaps it was made for storing some specific small item? Or maybe it was used to keep track of something (i.e. move the pebble to the next grid space every time X happens). Or maybe it was just someone bored and carving a design?
- mattko 5y ago
  Same here. All I see is a pile of rocks, but the archaeologist can see the holy grail.
JoeDaDude 5y ago
There is an unexplored archeological/anthropological investigation to be about the relationship between board games and counting boards in ancient history. Counting boards were used for (of course) counting large quantities and doing arithmetic, the classic example being the Salamis board [1]. Separately, were divination methods used to determine the will of the gods, an example of which were the Urim and Thummin of the Old Testament [2], apparently some form of dice. Senet, the Egyptian game, was also closely tied to religious belief and ritual [3]. At some point, no one knows when, these came together and became games that were played for fun. IANAA, but perhaps some caution needs to be exercised before announcing that "XX ancient people were having fun playing gamez!" and consider whether they were trying to count bushels of grain or trying to find out if it would rain the next day. [1]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamis_Tablet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamis_Tablet [2]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urim_and_Thummim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urim_and_Thummim [3]. http://www.eloquentpeasant.com/2010/10/14/its-not-just-a-game-its-a-religion-games-in-ancient-egypt/ http://www.eloquentpeasant.com/2010/10/14/its-not-just-a-gam... PS: All that said, it sure looks like a Mancala board to me.
- dr_dshiv 5y ago
  Reminds me of the Pythagorean tetractys and gnomen. And didn't oracles make extensive use of knucklebones?

88 points by diodorus 5y ago

gfykvfyxgc 5y ago

Was the instruction booklet there too?

ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago

Just FYI, folks… Make sure your adblockers are set to “11,” before hitting thst site.

slabity 5y ago
Wow you weren't lying. There is literally an ad every 2 paragraphs. And each paragraph is 1-3 sentences.
pupppet 5y ago
Just curious, is anyone intentionally not using an ad blocker?
- wdb 5y ago
  It got ad blocker blocker :(
  - atoav 5y ago
    I didn't notice that ad blocker blocker on Firefox + uBlock Origin.
    - qsi 5y ago
      Neither did I using Brave.
  - cabalamat 5y ago
    There need to be ad blocker blocker blockers!
- Shorel 5y ago
  If by ad blocker you mean a browser plugin, then I do not have one of these. I use a hosts file that ignores many ad hosts at the DNS level. No need for a low performance solution.
  - causi 5y ago
    uBlock Origin does not noticeably affect the responsiveness of my T100 from 2013 with a Bay Trail atom CPU and 2GB RAM. What exactly are you browsing on?
    - Shorel 5y ago
      Intel i7 1165g7 Anyway, I don't want to waste CPU cycles or battery life on such things.
  - bloqs 5y ago
    Do you regularly update the blacklist yourself? Ublock origin uses close to no memory or cpu for me, and offers instantaneous, effortless disabling in times where it is needed.
    - Shorel 5y ago
      Of course I do update the list! It is taken from here https://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm https://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm And I have another ~40 entries not included in that list. You should try it. It is another layer of protection in case you want to keep using uBlock Origin.
- benlumen 5y ago
  On desktop sure, but just plain safari on iPhone. If I hit an article like this one I just click straight off it.
  - jackdh 5y ago
    There is actually a fairly good ad blocker for safari available. It's called AdGuard and works quite well.
- usrusr 5y ago
  Me. I want websites to actually face the consequences of excessive advertising, like driving me away. I'm not happy with the idea of more ads being shoved at a smaller fraction of the visitors.
lostlogin 5y ago
It then makes the site unreadable by yelling about ad blockers. Plain old Pihole works though.
- TacticalCoder 5y ago
  > Plain old Pihole works though Yup: I set up one the other day and it "Just Works [TM]". It's trivial to set up if you've got any experience with the Pi and in case you don't there are many tutorials out there. Highly recommended.
  - lostlogin 5y ago
    I’m doing it in Docker now days and it seems even easier than doing it ‘for real’. A word of warning though, if you run it on a machine with lots of containers, is buggers up internet access for the other containers and it’s a complete pain to solve (and sometimes reverts to broken on reboot).
- throw0101a 5y ago
  It's surprising how much putting the following in one's hosts(5) file helps: 0.0.0.0 adservice.google.com ::1 adservice.google.com 0.0.0.0 ssl.google-analytics.com ::1 ssl.google-analytics.com 0.0.0.0 www.google-analytics.com ::1 www.google-analytics.com 0.0.0.0 www.googletagservices.com ::1 www.googletagservices.com 0.0.0.0 www.googletagmanager.com ::1 www.googletagmanager.com 0.0.0.0 partner.googleadservices.com ::1 partner.googleadservices.com 0.0.0.0 pagead2.googlesyndication.com ::1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com 0.0.0.0 googleads.g.doubleclick.net ::1 googleads.g.doubleclick.net 0.0.0.0 securepubads.g.doubleclick.net ::1 securepubads.g.doubleclick.net I recently got a new MacBook for work and when I was surfing there was all sorts of popups and ads and such. I got none of these things on my personal iMac. It took a day or two for me to realize that it wasn't about (e.g.) the different version of macOS or Safari that I was running. Once I updated the work machine's hosts(5) file things it was a night-and-day difference. I cannot believe that people tolerate surfing the web without any ad filtering / blocking.
zwaps 5y ago
It even blocked the "go back" action of my browser. Like, just, a nice f''k you for good measure. Amazing
- tejtm 5y ago
  <alt><left-arrow> ... and never return, blacklist them.
  - cobbaut 5y ago
    TIL (I'm 52): <alt><left-arrow> equals the back button. Thank you tejtm!
- dghughes 5y ago
  That seems to be a common thing on most sites these days to not be able to click back button on a browser. I'm noticing it more and more even on well-known sites like Microsoft. On some sites now after you click a link to it and you're on the site the back button is not clickable to go back. Even a right-click on the button doesn't allow you to select page history. I thought it was a bug on Firefox and it seems people are reporting it as so. I'll have to use another browser to test to see if it's browser-related or site-related.

jay_kyburz 5y ago

OKOK, I'm going to add archaeologynewsnetwork to my rss reader.

apjobs2015 5y ago

djbusby 5y ago

Disappointed there was no details about the game. The one image of the rock(board) seems like cups like mancala.

stevenwoo 5y ago
There’s another game trending on Reddit but they have some Babylonian documentation for rules (backgammon precursor) but it appears different from this one? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Game_of_Ur https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Game_of_Ur
fsiefken 5y ago
I count 6 holes in the row on top and 8 holes in the row below, perhaps it's a mancala board. Senet has three rows. More ancient board games are listed here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/best-board-games-ancient-world-180974094/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/best-board-gam...

thaumaturgy 5y ago

Slightly better article here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-unearth-4000-year-old-stone-board-game-in-oman-180979340/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-une...

intrasight 5y ago

I'll bet there's a version on the app store within a month.

emkoemko 5y ago

i am so used to 4k being a resolution :)

wly_cdgr 5y ago

Easier to find than a PS5, apparently

neuronic 5y ago
Dont worry about it, my PS5 has been collecting dust since a year since there are very few relevant games to play anyway.

joekrill 5y ago

I always wonder how they can be so sure what these things are. In this case, for example, it's described as a "carved grid" and "is hewn into the stone slightly clumsily". Perhaps it was made for storing some specific small item? Or maybe it was used to keep track of something (i.e. move the pebble to the next grid space every time X happens). Or maybe it was just someone bored and carving a design?

mattko 5y ago
Same here. All I see is a pile of rocks, but the archaeologist can see the holy grail.

JoeDaDude 5y ago

There is an unexplored archeological/anthropological investigation to be about the relationship between board games and counting boards in ancient history. Counting boards were used for (of course) counting large quantities and doing arithmetic, the classic example being the Salamis board [1]. Separately, were divination methods used to determine the will of the gods, an example of which were the Urim and Thummin of the Old Testament [2], apparently some form of dice. Senet, the Egyptian game, was also closely tied to religious belief and ritual [3]. At some point, no one knows when, these came together and became games that were played for fun. IANAA, but perhaps some caution needs to be exercised before announcing that "XX ancient people were having fun playing gamez!" and consider whether they were trying to count bushels of grain or trying to find out if it would rain the next day. [1]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamis_Tablet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamis_Tablet [2]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urim_and_Thummim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urim_and_Thummim [3]. http://www.eloquentpeasant.com/2010/10/14/its-not-just-a-game-its-a-religion-games-in-ancient-egypt/ http://www.eloquentpeasant.com/2010/10/14/its-not-just-a-gam... PS: All that said, it sure looks like a Mancala board to me.

dr_dshiv 5y ago
Reminds me of the Pythagorean tetractys and gnomen. And didn't oracles make extensive use of knucklebones?