4,000 Year Old "Hounds and Jackals" Board Found Carved into Rock Shelter in Azerjaiban

Late reporting this - that's what I get for not going through my "emails to myself" which is what I do when I find something I want to post here.  Doesn't work if I don't do it!

From Live Science

4,000-Year-Old Game Board Carved into the Earth Shows How Nomads Had Fun

By Tom Metcalfe December 10, 2018

A pattern of small holes cut into the floor of an ancient rock shelter in Azerbaijan shows that one of the world's most ancient board games was played there by nomadic herders around 4,000 years ago, according to an archaeologist who has investigated the find.

A distinctive pattern of holes scored into the rock of an ancient shelter in Azerbaijan are the remains of a board for one of the world's oldest games.

(Image: © Walter Crist/Gobustan National Park)

Walter Crist, a research associate with the American Museum of Natural History in New York, visited the rock shelter in a national park in Azerbaijan last year, searching for traces of the ancient game now known as "58 Holes."

The game is also sometimes called "Hounds and Jackals." British archaeologist Howard Carter found a game set with playing pieces fashioned like those animals in the tomb of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Amenemhat IV, who lived in the 18th century B.C.

The distinctive pattern of round pits scored in the rock of the shelter in Azerbaijan came from that same game, Crist told Live Science. But the Azerbaijan version may be even older than the game set found in the pharaoh's tomb.

Evidence from rock drawings near this shelter suggested that it dated to the second millennium B.C., or about 4,000 years ago, when that part of Azerbaijan was populated by nomadic cattle herders, he said.

At that time, the game was widespread across the ancient Middle East, including Egypt, Mesopotamia and Anatolia, he said.

"It suddenly appears everywhere at the same time," Crist said. "Right now, the oldest one is from Egypt, but it's not by very much. So, it could just be because we haven't found it from somewhere else older. So, it seems to [have] spread really quickly."

Crist was looking for the remains of another copy of 58 Holes or Hounds and Jackals that he had seen in a photograph in a magazine from Azerbaijan.

But after arranging to fly there, he learned a new housing development had buried the archaeological site near the country's capital, Baku.

So, Crist investigated other archaeological sites in Azerbaijan, which led him to the Gobustan National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the southwest of the country, which is famed for its ancient rock carvings and drawings.

Archaeologists at the park knew about the holes in the rock shelter, but not that they had been used as a board game.The holes are cut into the rock of the shelter in a distinctive pattern that shows how they were used, Crist said. "There is no doubt in my mind — the games played for about 1,500 years, and very regular in the way that it's laid out," Crist said.

Though the rules of 58 Holes are unknown, many think it was played a bit like modern backgammon, with counters, such as seeds or stones, moved around the board until they reached a goal.

"It is two rows in the middle and holes that arch around outside, and it's always the fifth, 10th, 15th and 20th holes that are marked in some way," Crist said of the pattern cut into the rock shelter. "And the hole on the top is a little bit larger than the other ones, and that's usually what people think of as the goal or the endpoint of the game."

Players may have used dice or casting sticks to regulate the movement of counters on the board, but so far, no dice have been found with any ancient game set of 58 Holes or Hounds and Jackals, he said.

While it has been reported that the game is an ancient ancestor of modern backgammon, Crist rejects that idea — they have some similarities, but backgammon was derived from the much later Roman game Tabula, he said.

The game of 58 Holes is old, but it's not the oldest yet found; the Royal Game of Ur, dating from the third millennium B.C., is older, for example. Crist has also studied the ancient Egyptian board games of Senet and Mehen, which appeared starting around 3000 B.C.

Ancient players

Crist said the use of such ancient games throughout a wide area showed that they were able to cross cultural boundaries. [Photos: Ancient Tomb and Board Game Found in China]

"People are using the games to interact with one another," he said. Games were "kind of a uniquely human thing, kind of an abstraction — moving stones in blank spaces on the ground has no real effect on your daily life, except for the fact that it helps you interact with another person.

"So, a game is a tool for interaction, kind of like language — a shared way of being able to interact with people," Crist said.

He presented his findings at the American Schools of Oriental Research annual meeting in Denver in November.

Haaretz Article on Ancient Boad Games in Israel

Unearthed board games shed light on ancient holy land trivial pursuits

A Jerusalem 'artifactologist,' who directs a national storage facility that holds more than a million archaeological items, says games offer insight into human life throughout the ages.

By Nir Hasson | Feb.10, 2013 | 10:53 AM

 

A few years ago, a striking street from the Roman period was discovered in the back part of the Western Wall Square. This eastern cardo area features a wide lane, sidewalks, and entryways for stores. Archaeologists, led by Shlomit Wexler-Bedolah from the Israel Antiquities Authority, discovered an inscription in one of the sidewalk areas − the engraving stretches across two quadrants, each divided into squares, and has a large X in its center. 

    

In another area, an engraving features a rectangle divided into 42 squares. An intensive search uncovered another six inscriptions of various types; and searches in other parts of Jerusalem’s Old City uncovered another 21 engravings − in the Damascus Gate square, around the Dung Gate, at the Jewish quarter’s cardo, and elsewhere. Each is actually a public game-board, dating from the Roman period, similar to public chessboards that can sometimes be found in public parks in Europe.

Jerusalem in Roman times − Aelia Capitolina − is not unusual in this respect. Archaeologist Dr. Michael Saban, who investigates ancient games artifacts, alludes to hundreds of game boards of different types, from all historical periods. The oldest such board dates to the 7th century B.C.E., 9,000 years ago. [In non-Jewish time, between about 2,700 and 2,600 years ago.]

 

Archaeology established that residents of this country started to play games immediately after they built the land’s first settlements; and, apparently, hunter-gatherers were also games players. A circumstance in which two seated game players sit on opposite sides of a board with dozens of spectators looking on, in a competition that is a social event and perhaps also a business contest, characterizes human society in this country no less than familiar situations of wars, conquests and catastrophes.

    

“A game represents an integral part of human life,” says Saban. “It is what enables conversation between people.”
    
Saban, who directs the Antiquities Authority’s artifacts storage facility, is in charge of a huge industrial operation. The storehouse, whose exact location is a type of state secret, holds more than a million archaeological items discovered in excavations throughout the country. The artifacts range from carved flint tens of thousands of years old to huge iron anchors dating from the Crusader period, and from Second Temple period ossuaries ‏(bone depositories‏) to clay pipes from the Ottoman era.
    
Out of all these items, Saban − who describes himself as an “artifactologist” − cultivated a special interest in the ancient game equivalents of the likes of Monopoly, backgammon, checkers and chess. In an article ‏(“Ancient Board Games in the Land of Israel”‏) published recently in the Qadmoniot journal ‏(vol. 45 no. 144‏), he summarizes 20 years of research of game boards discovered in Eretz Israel.
    
Saban started his research of ancient games during excavations at Tel Arad, directed by Prof. Ruth Amiran. This excavation of ancient Arad yielded a bountiful collection of game boards from the Bronze Age, 4,500 years ago. Some 55 boards, or fragments of game boards, were uncovered at the ancient Canaanite city. The expansive but precise character of the excavation conducted at the site yielded these ample finds, Saban believes.
    
Saban claims that relics of games can be found at virtually every archaeological site in the country, or around the world. Generally, crude engravings were made on stone, or simple, shallow holes were drilled on surfaces. Sometimes, excavators uncover more sophisticated game boards, which were used by persons of higher status and were crafted by artisans. The most famous example is the carved Senet game board found alongside the grave of the pharaoh, King Tutankhamun, in Egypt.
    
An ornate ivory game board from the Bronze Age was found at Tel Megiddo in the north; it was used for a game called “Dogs and Jackals.” Archaeologists were also able to find stone dice and other small items used for this game.
    
Saban divides the board games into four types:
    
1. Position games, akin to tic-tac-toe. These are games in which a player tries to position his pieces in a winning position over his opponent’s pieces;
    
2. Race games, as in the ancient Egyptian Senet game, or backgammon, in which a player tries to advance all of his pieces to a defined finish line;
    
3. War games, such as chess or checkers
    
4. Forms of Mancala games − a group of logic games originating in Africa, and which spread around the world together with the slave trade. The game hones tactics of moving seeds into holes.
    
The common denominator linking these games is the gap between the primitive instruments used for playing, and the sophisticated gamesmanship required for victory. In most cases, players needed no more than half a minute to set up the game, by digging a few holes in the sand and collecting a few small stones or twigs that could be used as dice. Some of the games put a premium on luck, but even in these cases the more experienced player who followed a better strategy was more likely to win.
    
Intersection where games meet

Apart from the oldest games, whose names and rules have long since disappeared, Saban and other researchers have been able to recreate rules and features of ancient games. Senet is the oldest game whose rules are known conclusively to Saban. It was clearly the national pastime of ancient Egypt. The game also had a spiritual component because the last five squares on the board represented the soul’s journey after death, and the game’s conclusion symbolized the longed-for union between the deceased person’s soul and the god, Ra. As years passed the game lost its religious character, but it was never forgotten in the hearts of the region’s residents. Today, Bedouin in the Sinai and Negev deserts still play the game, albeit under the name Tab.
    
Eretz Israel was a crossroads where two games enjoyed by two regional empires intersected: the Egyptian Senet and a royal game, of the race game variety mentioned above, which originated in Mesopotamia. Proof of this game-playing cross-fertilization is furnished by two-sided boards: Senet can be found on one side of such boards, and the royal game is on the other. Such double-sided boards, dating to the Bronze Age ‏(3,600 years ago‏), have been uncovered in this country − for instance, at Tel Hazor and Beit Shemesh. In the case of the latter board, archaeologists from Tel Aviv University even found the name of the game’s owner, Hanan, engraved on it.
     
The engraved boards from the Roman period discovered in Jerusalem are a version of a game that came to be known as Nine Men’s Morris. This is a sophisticated positioning game, whose most primitive version is Tic-Tac-Toe. The game was popular in the Roman Empire, and remained a favorite in Europe during the Middle Ages. Centuries after soldiers from the Roman Legion played on the boards near the Western Wall, the game returned to Eretz Israel with the Crusaders; and boards engraved for the game by Crusader knights can be found at Atlit and Kochav Hayarden.
    
Game-playing in ancient times was so widespread that artifacts researched by Saban constitute just a fraction of the phenomenon, and most game artifacts have been lost. “Games are an integral part of being human,” Saban says. “Were you to have wandered around Aelia Capitolina, you would have seen hundreds of such game boards on streets, on sidewalks leading to temples, alongside wells; two people would play each game, with dozens of spectators looking on. It was a kind of encounter. People spoke, made business deals. A game was only for adults − children weren’t involved in these [ancient] eras. Today, adults can be heard saying ‘I have no time for games,’ but they also play games. The biggest religion in the world today is soccer. How many people watch the World Cup final? And all of the spectators are really playing. It’s not 11 men against 11 others on the field if everyone else is watching, cursing − if they are involved, they are playing.”
    
As Saban sees it, board games also retain their vitality. “There isn’t a person on earth who hasn’t played some sort of board game,” he says. He has taught his own children and their friends some of the ancient games, much to their enjoyment. “The need to play, and to watch a game, is branded deep within us, and represents a basic component of human culture,” Saban writes in his article.

Harappan Era "Stone Toys" Discovered in Kutch?

The Lothal artifacts.  Game
pieces, most likely.  But, could
they possibly be chess pieces?

"Stone toys" - could they be what some Indian archaeologists have identified as "chess pieces" from Lothal?  The article is tantalizing, and provides almost no information!

From The Times of IndiaOrnaments of Harappan era found in Kutch
TNN, Jan 5, 2011, 10.50pm IST

BHUJ: In a remarkable finding, officials of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have recovered a number of artifacts belonging to Harappan era from Khirsara (Netra-Gadhwali) in Nakhatrana taluka of Kutch district during an ongoing excavation.

Jitendra Das, superintending archaeologist, excavation branch ASI Baroda, said: "At least two necklaces, resembling present-day gold ornaments, have been recovered beside other artifacts like stone toys, utensils, weighing stones etc. The ornaments are similar to those recovered from a Harappan site in Lothal, near Ahmedabad. The artifacts will be sent to laboratory for determining their age."

A fifteen-member team of ASI has been camping at the site for past 18 months with over sixty labourers deployed at the site. The excavation is being carried out on a ten-acre plot of land.

Nahua God of Games

From The National Geographic:

Gaming God
Image courtesy Barbara Voorhies

A deity of games for the Nahua, an Aztec people of central Mexico, is pictured in a 16th-century illustration.

The Aztec played games of chance and skill, including bowling and checkers.

"The Indian casino thing, in a way, is not anything new—this has always been a popular activity," noted John Johnson, curator of anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History in California, who was not involved in the Chantuto-holes research.

Published December 13, 2010

Ancient Games and Gaming Boards - National Geographic

Mystery Holes
Photograph courtesy Barbara Voorhies

Workers clean a 4,300-year-old clay floor at the Tlacuachero archaeological site in Mexico's Chiapas state (see map) in February 2009.

Mysterious semicircles of holes (center and lower right) in the floor may be dice scoreboards, archaeologist Barbara Voorhies, a professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said recently. (Full story: Prehistoric Dice Boards Found—Oldest Games in Americas? New theory for mysterious 5,000-year-old semicircles in Mexico.)

If so, the circles are the oldest known evidence of games in Mesoamerica, a region that stretches from Mexico to Costa Rica.

In 1988 Voorhies found the buried floor under a mound created by the Chantuto people, foragers who lived along the coast of what's now southern Mexico between about 3,500 to 7,500 years ago.

In 2009 she found another clay floor just below the pictured floor—as well as portions of nine other semicircles. A historical account Voorhies discovered in 2009 revealed that the circles have a "striking similarity" to other Native American gaming boards.

"There's no absolute proof that my interpretation of these strange features [is right]," she said. "But it's a very strong analogy, and that's about as good as it gets for archaeology."

Voorhies received funding for her research from the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)

—Christine Dell'Amore

Published December 13, 2010

More:

Evolution of the Game?
Image courtesy Barbara Voorhies

Tarahumara people of northern Mexico used a scoreboard and stick "dice" to play games (as seen in a 1907 illustration).
When Voorhies read the 1907 book Games of the North American Indians, she discovered the Tarahumara scoreboards resembled the strange Chantuto semicircles.

After that, her previous ideas about the Chantuto holes' purpose—for example that they may have been marks left by an animal pen's fenceposts—became "preposterous," she said.

Published December 13, 2010

Palatine Hill Checkerboards

So what is this place? It is a room in the "House of Gryphons" located on the Palatine Hill in Rome. I don't have time to search it out today, I'm behind my time, darlings, and have got so much to do this last day off before returning to the office tomorrow. Sigh. That black and white checkerboard in the middle of the floor is, as best I could determine in a brief search, dated back to the "Republican" era of the Roman Empire, so perhaps sometime between 300 BCE - 100 CE??? Not sure about the dates, but it's not "archaic." It's gorgeous, isn't it! In addition to the black and white checkered 11 by 6 board in the middle of the floor of the room, which itself has a pattern on which a large board game could be played, the walls have maroon/white checkerboard patterns. There is a related article at The New York Times (published July 3, 2009) about some spectacular preserved relics of the past being opened to the public this year, for the first time ever in some cases, thanks to increased funding to make guards and guides available. There are more lovely photographs. What was the purpose of placing this 11 by 6 black-and-white checkered board (with a border to mark it out, in case you didn't notice it first thing when walking into the room), in the middle of the room? If it was just a design element, why not make it the same colors at the checkerboard patterns that were incorporated into the design on the lower walls? And I cannot make any sense out of the middle "checkerboard" on the back wall (looking at the photographs's back wall, center) that measures 8 by 10. My eyes are not good enough to count the number of squares on the rest of the checkerboards on the walls. Are they all the same, or are each one of them unqiue? Can anyone with particularly sharp eyes help me out here? Is a 6 by 11 board significant? How about an 8 by 10 board? I know the ancient Romans did not play their games on square boards (such as 8x8, 9x9 or 10x10, etc.) Is there any significance to the colors chosen? Inquiring minds want to know!

New York: More Game Pieces

(1) At the Brooklyn Museum, 05/17/09, small ivory lion game piece (next to the larger carved stone lion that is not a game piece). The game wasn't identified but I have seen similar pieces identified as being part of the ancient Egyptian game of Mehen (also called the serpent game, named for the gameboard that takes the form of a coiled serpent). (2) At the Brooklyn Museum, 05/17/09, fragment of Egyptian senet board and pieces (3) At the Brooklyn Museum, 05/17/09, several Egyptian game pieces in the form of lion heads (on raised platform) (4) At the Brooklyn Museum, 05/17/09, Egyptian 20-squares game and pieces. The tag identified this as a senet game, but senet has 30 squares. Sometimes Egyptian board games like this have a 20-squares game on one side and a senet game on the other. We don't know if that is the case with this board.

New York: In Search of Board Games

New York is the city of museums and Mr. Don and I spent our fair share of time snooping about hallowed halls of exhibits looking for evidence of ancient board games. Here are some photos of what we found. (1) At the Met, 05/12/09, fragment of senet (30 squares) board with several game pieces: 12 spool type pieces on the left; 1 "pawn" type piece positioned over the top edge of the identifying card; four "cone" type pieces to the left, with one square die (2) At the Met, 05/12/09, four Egyptian game pieces and two square dice (that's a reflection of me taking the photo). The two taller game pieces have carved faces. (3) At the Met, 05/12/09, three Egyptian game pieces. The piece on the right was identified as a lion. (4) At the Met, Islamic chess pieces

Mehen

Mehen was both a goddess - the protector of Ra - and one of the earliest known board games played in Egypt. (Image: Mehen, British Museum, c. 2800 BCE). While online you'll find many references to Mehen as a "god," in her archaic form Mehen was definitely a female protectoress of the Sun God, perhaps closely allied with (or perhaps, an incarnation of or subsumed into) the Egyptian serpent-goddess and protectoress of Pharaoh, Uadjet. Upon the uniting of Upper and Lower Egypt, the vulture goddess Nekbhet of Upper Egypt and the serpent goddess Uadjet (also known as Buto) of Lower Egypt were united in one of the ceremonial crowns worn by Pharaoh to protect the physical incarnation of Ra on earth.

Stone Mehen board games have been recovered from First Dynasty Egyptian tombs but it's origins lies somewhere in the pre-dynastic period. The game gradually lost favor over the ensuing thousand plus years after the founding of the united Egyptian kingdom and ceased to be played in Egypt during the Intermediate Period. According to Peter Piccione, "Later in the Saite Period, the play of the game is again depicted on the walls of two tombs, as part of the neo-Memphite revival--when Old Kingdom artistic motives and themes were temporarily revived for socio-political purposes. The pattern strongly suggests that the *mehen*-game ceased to be played in Egypt after the Old Kingdom."

By that time, Senet and the 58-hole game (or Hounds and Jackals) were very popular in Egypt and Senet had taken on religious significance and mystical connotations that may have been appropriated from Mehen.

A form of Mehen evidently continued to be played by the Baggara Arabs of the Sudan called "the Hyena game." The modern "Game of the Goose" which also employs a spiral playing board is not, however, related to ancient Mehen.

For general information on Mehen:
P.S. Neely's website entry on Mehen (including post done by Peter Piccione in 1994 on the old ANE network)

Pascal Romain's website entry on Mehen (he posits a date as far back as 6000 BCE for the game outside of Egypt)

See also Board Game Geek, although it really is not known just why Mehen ceased to be played in Egypt, Neely's speculations (based on Kendall's) aside.

Mehen the Enveloper from Barbara Walker's "A Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets:" Egyptian serpent-goddess who enclosed the Phallus of Ra every night, as Hindu phallic gods were enveloped in their sleep cycles by the serpent-goddess called Infinity. See Serpent.

Walker's entry under "Serpent" is 7 pages long! There's a thunderstorm going on here now, I'm going to power down for the night -

Inscribed in Stone Game Boards Found in Iran

From CAIS (Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies) - I'll see if I can find more news on this discovery.

CAIS NEWS ©
LATEST ARCHAEOLOGICAL & CULTURAL NEWS OF IRAN & THE IRANIAN WORLD

Discovery of 3000-Years old Board-Games and a Compass-Rose in Persian Gulf’s Kharg Island

19 April 2008
LONDON,(CAIS) -- An ancient four-pointed compass-rose showing directions of ‘four cardinal points’ and a number of board-games carved on rocks discovered in the Iranian island of Kharg in the Persian Gulf, reported Persian service of CHN on Saturday.

The discovery was made by Shahram Eslami, a local and a member of Kharg’s Friends of Cultural Heritage. The relics were studied and their ancient origins identified by Dr Reza Moradi Ghiasabadi.

"The engravings are between 2000 and 3000 years old. The first discovered carving is located beside an ancient road which is a four-pointed compass-rose showing directions of four cardinal points within a square-shape with rounded angles setting, 50x50cm in diameters. Some sections of the compass-rose have been damaged, apparently as the result of a cracks in the rock," said Ghiasabadi.

He added, "the compass-rose's lines have been placed in a position to determine the cardinal points, which have only two degrees of error based on the Global Positioning System (GPS)".

“Thos is a unique discovery and a great deal of efforts and resources should be made available to safeguard the relic. Also we must not remove it from its original place," according to Ghiasabadi

The remaining carvings which are board-games were discovered in the northwest of the island. The board-games are in a mixture of circular and oblong shape settings, in various diameters, some 4cm and some in 10cm in circumference (see the picture). All these carvings engraved over the rocky-ground’s flat surfaces. The latter ones are located on the hinterland at the top of the cliff overlooking the waters of the Persian Gulf.

These game-boards have been carved on the rocks in various settings and Ghiasabadi have identified seven of them. Some of them could be the proto-type for backgammon.

The Persian Gulf's Iranian island of Kharg is situated at about 30 km northwest of Bandar-e Rig and 52 km northwest of Bushehr. It is the larger and more southerly of two islands (the other being Khargu). Kharg (also Khark) is about 8 km long and, at its widest point, 4 km across. The interior is hilly, terminating in cliffs at the northern and southern ends of the island.

Archaeologists have always believed the oldest settlement on the island dates back to Parthian dynastic era (248 BCE-224 CE), but as the result of a discovery in November 2007 history of the island was re-written, as the archaeologists have discovered an inscription (LINK) executed in Old-Persian cuneiform, dated to the Achaemenid dynasty (550-330 BCE). Since its discovery, the rock-inscription has been left unprotected in its original place at the mercy of looters, vandals, and harsh weather.

Original News bulletin published in Persian by CHN, and translated and prepared by CAIS.

Cartosemiotics - Who Knew?

Pimander a/k/a dondelion explodes on the scene like the meteorite over Tunguska - leaving behind miles of flattened trees and scorched earth - but no clues as to what he's really talking about! LOL! (If you read the post below this one you'll see to what I'm referring).

So, I pulled out my trusty old Webster's dictionary to try and get a grip on Pi's true meaning. I usually need help in interpreting Pi's thought processes - something that I can sometimes almost but not quite understand - for me, an intellectual process rather akin to Parcifal's physical quest for the Holy Grail. Fitting, I guess, since what we're after is, in essence, the Holy Grail of Chess to chess historians: ORIGINS (cue spooky music here....)

Semiotic or semiotics: (paraphrasing here) from the Greek semeiotikos observant of signs, from semeiousthai to interpret signs, from semeion sign; akin to Greek semu sign - more at SEMANTIC: a general philosophical theory of signs and symbols that deals esp. with their function in both artifically constructed and natural languages and comprises syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics.

Semantics: 1. the study of meanings: (a) the historical and psychological study and the clasification of changes in the signification of words or forms viewed as factors in linguistic dvelopment; (b)(1) SEMIOTIC; (2) a branch of semiotic dealing with the relations between signs and what they refer to and including theories of denotation, extension, naming, and truth 2. GENERAL SEMANTICS 3. (a) the meaning or relationship of meanings of a sign or set of signs; esp. connotative meaning (b) the exploitation of connotation and ambiguity (as in progaganda).

So, now that I know (sort of) what semiotics actually means (I have distilled it down to the study of signs and symbols to determine their meanings), I understand (I think) what cartosemiotics means. I know that "carto" has reference to maps - but, interestingly, "carto" is not a defined term in my Websters. The closest terms are cartogram (a map showing statistics geographically) - from the French carte and gramme; cartographer (one that makes maps), and cartography (the science or art of making maps) again referencing the french word carte card, map + graphie - more at CARD. There is also the highly suggestive definitation of cartomancy - literally from the French carte card + mancie -mancy: fortune-telling by the use of playing cards. It's quite probable that the earliest board games had divinatory significance - so this much later linkage of playing cards/fortune telling is like a distant echo of practices having much greater significance in the past.

Under CARD, the etymological roots of the word are fascinating: Middle English carde, modification of Middle French carte, probably from Old Italian carta, literally, leaf of paper, from Latin charta leaf of paprus, from Greek chartes. It's most common meaning is a small stiff piece of paper.

However, there is also cardi or cardio - HEART which, although not shown as related to the root words for CARD, caught my attention because of the concept of the axis mundi The axis mundi (also cosmic axis, world axis, world pillar and center of the world), a symbolic concept representing the mythical point of connection between sky and earth. One of the definitions of HEART is CENTER. The concept of the axis mundi reflects man's thought of a necessary and vital connection between the center of the universe and the center of our world. Out of man's desire to build his local "world" around this centered concept arose, I think, the first mathematics and geometry.

Pulling all of this together, cartosemiotics - simplistically (the way I like it) - the study of the meanings of symbols and signs on maps was, to the ancients, the study of signs and symbols encompassing their understanding of the mystical and/or
spiritual connection (or attempting to understand such a connection) between the Heavens and the Earth as embodied in the axis mundi, as well as using practical means (via divination, for instance) to discern the meaning and intent of such signs and symbols, which they understood to contain messages from the gods.

If we can understand that, then we can begin to understand the significance of the earliest surviving representations of what we call board games. Pimander mentioned two of them: the "Scorpion-man" board game of 16 playing spaces excavated at Jiroft, Iran, and I think he had in mind the second game board show here, excavated
at Beth Shemesh (Stratem V), dating to the Middle Bronze Age, c. 2200 - 1570 BCE. Dating of the Jiroft artifact is uncertain, but is generally thought to be from between 3,000 to 2,000 BCE, the midpoint being 2,500 BCE (about the same date as the game boards discovered by Woolley in the "royal tombs" at Ur and the wooden "serpent" game board excavated at Shar-i Sokhtah (the Iranians call it the "Burnt City" because it was destroyed at least 3 times by catastrophic fires). Shar-i Sokhtah is located in the border area of where modern-day maps show Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan all meet, near the Helmand River.

Ancient Games: Mehen, the Game of the Serpent

From the British Museum:

Ivory gaming piece in the shape of a lion
From a tomb close to the complex of Djer at Abydos, Egypt1st Dynasty, around 3000 BC

How was the 'serpent game' played?

Board games were a very popular pastime in ancient Egypt. The most famous of these games was senet. This game is often depicted in tombs and boards were often included among the personal items of the wealthy.

Several examples were found in the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Senet was not the only game played by the ancient Egyptians, though it is the only one that the rules are known for. One of the earliest games to be depicted is the so-called serpent game. Evidence of this game has been found in tombs dating from the earliest dynasties of the Old Kingdom (about 2613-2160 BC). It was played on a circular board on which a coiled snake was shown, with the body divided into boxes. The gaming pieces consisted of marbles, often inscribed, and lions like this one, but it is not clear how the pieces were used. In a tomb scene of a pair of men playing the serpent game, captions suggest that the game involved the use of strategy, and that part of the game was to capture something, perhaps the opponent's pieces.

The base of this lion gaming piece is worn, probably from sliding it across the board. Some of the incised decoration of the figure is also worn, from being held in the hand during play.

W.M.F. Petrie, The royal tombs of the earlies (London, 1901)
E.R. Russmann, Eternal Egypt: masterworks of (University of California Press, 2001)
A.J. Spencer, Catalogue of Egyptian antiqu-4 (London, The British Museum Press, 1980)
A.F. Shore, 'A 'serpent-board' from Egypt', The British Museum Quarterly-2, 26 (1962)