Abstract:
This paper centers on ancient, generally rather scattered and elusive remains of gameplay. Focusing on a discrete assemblage of game-related artefacts from the Bronze Age Indus Valley urban settlement of Mohenjo-daro, it conducts a detailed study of some of the patchy features to see whether more structured elements thereby can be distinguished.
The finds are approached situated in a broader, game-related context through a short recapitulation of findings at roughly contemporary sites in Egypt, Western Asia, and Iran. Thereafter is intra-site, spatial features of the finds explored, as well as particularities in appearance. While the playing of games is a rather universal human enterprise, its forms and
expressions may likewise be seen as highly sensitive to the specific, social environment and fluctuations. Because of this intra-societal affiliation, identifying patterns of ancient gaming is suggested to contribute both to site-specific inquiries and investigations of interregional distinctions and influences.
Machine summary:
Focusing on a discrete assemblage of game-related artefacts from the Bronze Age Indus Valley urban settlement of Mohenjo-daro, it conducts a detailed study of some of the patchy features to see whether more structured elements thereby can be distinguished.
Keywords: Mohenjo-daro; Indus Valley; Gaming remains; Game of Twenty Squares; Play Theory Introduction Material remains of gaming constitute an area of research that has been relatively little studied in archaeology, even though the playing of games forms an almost universal element in human social life.
Another factor, which concerns the remains discussed in this paper, is that a number of these finds, originating from well-known, ‘legendary’ sites in for example ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, or the Indus Valley, were excavated a long time ago with, in view of modern scientific standards inadequate methods.
Context of Gaming Remains: A Regional Anchoring The central areas of the Bronze Age Indus Valley are located within the river systems of the Indus and the Ghaggar-Hakra in what is today Pakistan and IRANIAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDIES 2: 1 (2012) 89 Elke Rogersdotter parts of India.
However, the reports contain in fact several passages where the artefacts and their supposed, game-related purpose are compared with similar finds discovered in other excavations at that time, mainly at Mesopotamian and ancient Egyptian sites (Mackay 1931a; 1938b).
The best preserved row exhibits fifteen IRANIAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDIES 2: 1 (2012) 91 Elke Rogersdotter 92 (View the image of this page) Fig. 4: Brick with scratched grid of rectangles, suggested by Mackay as part of a game board; from the site of Mohenjo-daro (After: Mackay 1938a: Plate CXLII.