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Ciudad de Vascos mancala boards → German, Portuguese.


The ruins of Ciudad de Vascos, an ancient muslim town in the municipality of Navalmoralejo (Toledo, Spain), is an important archaeological site, where many old games were found, mostly dice games, Alquerque and mancala boards. Ciudad de Vascos was built in the 10th century and abandoned in the 11th century.

Researchers Cosín and García have found twelve mancala boards, all carved in stone except one. They classify them as follows:

  • Five boards with two rows of four pits. One of them was made of brick. It was portable and could have been longer because the board is broken.
  • Six boards with two rows of four pits and two stores. The stores are at the same end of the board.
  • One board with two rows of four pits, but just one store.

The boards, which have no stores, are 25 to 33 cm long, while those with stores measure 40 to 53 cm. The pits are from 4 to 6 cm wide and 0.5 to 1.5 cm deep.

One of them was found next to the mosque near a public square. The other boards were in the citadel. Probably they were used by the soldiers in their spare time.

References

Cosín Corral, Y. & García Aparicio, C.
Alquerque, mancala y dados: juegos musulmanes en la ciudad de vascos. In: Revista de Arqueología 1998; 19 (201): 38-47.

Copyright

© Wikimanqala.
By: Víktor Bautista i Roca.
Under the CC by-sa 2.5.

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