A row of about 20 Mancalagame boardshas been observe in a Kenyan wildlife conservancy , suggesting local herders may have whittled their days away playing the democratic strategy game thousands of days ago . The boards were found carved into a stone ledge , and while it ’s out of the question to determine their age , researchers say the discovery transform our understanding of ancient spirit in East Africa .
“ masses run to look at other life asbrutish , awful , and inadequate , ” explained Yale archaeologist Veronica Waweru in astatement . “ But perhaps life story was not all about survival , ” she lend , referring to the evident popularity of Mancala back in the Clarence Day .
Still wreak across the human race today , Mancala is a two - player scheme biz in which participants attempt to capture as many of their opposite ’s pieces as they can . Theoldest make love playacting boardswere found in a Neolithic dwelling in Jordan and have been dated to between 7,500 and 8,000 class ago .
It ’s conceive that the game was later introduced to East Africa by Arabian monger , with Mancala boards from around 700 atomic number 58 having been identified in Eritrea and Ethiopia .
Waweru came across the row of secret plan board while see a situation known for its prehistoric hired hand axes in the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy . Nearby , archaeologist had antecedently give away an ancient interment composite lie in of 19 stonecairns .
notice a words of shallow pits carved into the rock-and-roll , Waweru accredit that the indent were deep enough to hold a handful of stones and were a worthy shape and size for wager Mancala . “ It ’s a vale full of these game display panel , like an ancient arcade , ” she says .
“ yield the erosion of some of the add-in , I believe people were playing these games there a very long time ago , ” continues Waweru . However , because the rock into which the boards were carved is around 400 million days sometime , it ’s not possible to say with any sure thing how long ago the fossa were made .
What ’s clear , though , is that some of the boards were touch - up or re - prod over metre , suggesting that they were in economic consumption across a long period . “ Was there some ritual go on there on a regular fundament over long menstruum of clock time ? ” Waweru ponders .
Despite a lack of solid evidence regarding the personal identity of the ancient Mancala players , Waweru speculates that the biz boards were probably used by shepherds in the distant past . “ Modern people in the region tend to dally games like Mancala when they are out crowd , ” she notes . “ That ’s probably what they were doing here . ”
The first herding high society appeared in the part around 5,000 years ago , so the boards could potentially have been cut up at any time since then .
Overall , life for these prehistoric pastoralists appears to have been rather pleasant , with grounds intimate that when they weren’tgaming , they savor dining on grilled kernel . According to Waweru , marks found on nearby rocks signal that they were used for sharpening metal knives .
“ If they are focalize tongue there , they are probably feasting and perform slaughterhouse and barbecuing , ” she said .
