Middle East origin of Mancala?
BJonesWPB
in the new issue of Biblical Archaeology Review (Jan/Feb 2003) claims that an
artifact found in Jericho and dating to the 7th millennium B.C.E. points to the
game's origin in ancient Israel. Would anyone with a knowledge of Mancala's
history like to comment on this possibility?
Fleur Designs
The initial thoughts (prior to reading BAR) is 'crap'.
To summarize:
archaeologists have a notoriously poor reputation at recognising or
describing games and games pieces;
Mancala-type games have historically been played with bits of
pebbles/dung/clay in depressions scooped in the sand 'in situ' leaving
nothing for the archaeologists to discover (even if they popped along a
week after a game was played.
However:
we'd better play fair and look at the evidence - is any part of it on-line
as it's likely to be some weeks (at least) before I can get time in an
academic library with BAR?
--
John Cartmell ~
Fleur Designs - Manchester UK http://www.finnybank.com
~ Original (and unique) Board Games designed using RISC OS computers ~
~ Games in Schools Initiative ~ - e-mail gi...@cartmell.demon.co.uk
Chas
Here's what I understand about the early history of Mancala: Egyptian
boards have been discovered which date from the Empire Age (circa
1580-1150 B.C). Several examples of Mancala-type boards were found among
the other game boards at the Kurna temple in Upper Egypt (Completed in
the reign of Seti I 1366-1333 B.C.), as well as at the temples of Karnak
and Luxor.
It seems I've also read somewhere that there is some unproven
speculation that Mancala-type games -may- have evolved out of a simple
counting tool, perhaps used for things like counting livestock in the field.
Chas
--
MacGregor Historic Games
http://www.historicgames.
Thierry Depaulis
> Mancala is generally thought to have originated in Africa. However, a letter
> in the new issue of Biblical Archaeology Review (Jan/Feb 2003) claims that an
> artifact found in Jericho and dating to the 7th millennium B.C.E. points to the
> game's origin in ancient Israel. Would anyone with a knowledge of Mancala's
> history like to comment on this possibility?
I haven't seen the Jan/Feb 2003 issue of BAR but this is not new. I
think this annoucement was made already in 2001 (but not published in
such a serious journal as BAR!).
I take it as pure bullshit. As John Cartmell says:
> archaeologists have a notoriously poor reputation at recognising or
> describing games and games pieces;
Why should any alignment of depressions be a game? Why should it be a
mancala board??
As Ulrich Schaedler has shown some years ago, if two parallell rows of
holes can be a board game it is not necessarily a mancala game. In
Asia Minor, for example, Schaedler showed such patterns were related
to the Greek game of "Five Lines" (U. Schaedler, "Mancala in Roman
Asia Minor ?, in: Board Games Studies, 1, 1998, pp. 10-25)
Chas wrote:
>Here's what I understand about the early history of Mancala: Egyptian
>boards have been discovered which date from the Empire Age (circa
>1580-1150 B.C). Several examples of Mancala-type boards were found
among
>the other game boards at the Kurna temple in Upper Egypt (Completed
in
>the reign of Seti I 1366-1333 B.C.), as well as at the temples of
Karnak
>and Luxor.
Fiddlesticks! The Kurna (or Qurna) Temple graffiti were published by
Parker in 1909 (although his book dealt with... Ceylon!) and were
reproduced, with some slight "improvements", by Murray in his book "A
History of Board Games other than Chess" (1952). Since then nobody has
seen them! Some archaeologists with an interest in board-game history
have tried to find them but found only a few of them, and their
conclusion is that they cannot be dated with certainty. One of these
designs (reproduced by Parker and, after a drastic simplification, by
Murray) appears to be Coptic! Others are better related to Roman board
games... None of the so-called "mancala" boards have been observed!
All egyptologists say they have never encountered anything like
mancala in the rich Egyptian tradition of table games.
We cannot relie on such a poor evidence.
In fact the earliest certain data we have on mancala games come from
Axum (Ethiopia) and would date from the 6th-7th century AD.
Archaeologists found there, during excavations, some 'gabata' boards
made with clay and easy to date with the context. According to
Pankhurst and others Ethiopia is likely to be the birthplace of
mancalas but this doesn't seem to have happened before the Christian
era.
Thierry Depaulis
Paris, France
Board Game Studies Editor
http://www.boardgamesstudies.org
arslanku...@gmail.com
Dr. Akash D. Gedam
Medo Metaher
We have 100 sudoko puzzle for 1 usd as you like Easy, medium, hard
OR
you can get 50 cryptogram and 50 sudoko for 1usd
OR
You can get 50 number searches with 50 sudoko for 1 usd
WITH ALL OF THEM
A SURPRUSE GUESS WHAT!!!
10Word Scrambles
10Word Matches
10Word Searches FOR FREE
SO, YOU CAN MAKE THE BEST DEAL WITH ME FOR JUST 1 USD, THERE IS NO RISK JUST TRY IT
THE PAYMENT WITH PAYPAL ONLY, THANKS