Basic info

Collection

Archaeology

Object name

Gaming piece

Object category

Anglo-Scandinavian

Description

Jet, possible chess piece - perhaps the rook. Decorated with incised ring and dot. Waterman 1959 describes it as 'A chessman of jet with cleft top and lateral projections was found apparently ... under the Coach and Horses Inn, Nessgate. Both faces bear six ring-and-dot incisions and there are similar incisions on each splay of the head, five on one side, three on the other, of which one in each case is larger than the rest. This piece evidently represents the warder or castle of modern chess and assumes the conventionalised form adopted by the Arabs for the chariot and horses of the original oriental war-game. The date of the introduction of chess into this country remains uncertain and those chessmen known cannot safely be considered pre-Conquest, despite suggestive indications of an earlier date. A jet chessman similar both in size and shape to the York piece, was found in Grime's Graves, Norfolk, unfortunately without associations. It is ornamented on both faces with six ring-and-dot incisions, linked by fine grooves, and on each side of the cleft are six similar incisions, of which one in both cases, as in the York example, is larger than the others.'

Production date start

866

Production date end

1066

Period

Anglo-Scandinavian