- Title: ALBANIA: ARCHAEOLOGISTS FIND WHAT APPEARS TO BE EUROPE'S OLDEST CHESSMAN
- Date: 29th July 2002
- Summary: (W5) BUTRINT, ALBANIA (JULY 28, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SCU SIGN MARKING ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE; LV/HAS ANCIENT CITY OF BUTRINT (5 SHOTS) 0.15 2. SLV PROFESSOR RICHARD HODGES SHOWS THE RUINS, PROBABLY THE REMAINS OF AN ANCIENT HOUSE, WHERE OBJECT WAS FOUND (8 SHOTS) 1.03 3. MV ARCHAEOLOGISTS DIGGING; SCU CHESS PIECE (3 SHOTS) 1.18 4. MV HODGES AND ALBANIAN ARCHAEOLOGIST SAIMIR SHPUZA DISCUSS A COMPUTER IMAGE OF THE PIECE ON A MONITOR; SCU PIECE IN ART HISTORIAN JOHN MITCHELL'S HANDS (4 SHOTS) 1.41 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ART HISTORIAN JOHN MITCHELL OF EAST ANGLIA UNIVERSITY SAYING "The context, place in which it was found is an elite house, a rather grand house, very closely dated the second half of the fifth century. And at that time the games that we know were, on the whole, pretty simple board games, a game called tabula, which is kind of backgammon, which had simple round counters very different from this. This one seems to be more in the line of a game such as chess and that is very interesting because chess is a game which is generally thought to have come to the West a lot later." 2.13 6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ART HISTORIAN JOHN MITCHELL OF EAST ANGLIA UNIVERSITY SAYING "And so it would mean that the elite, the aristocracy in Butrint were playing this game akin to chess, maybe chess itself, as early as the later fifth century." 2.24 7. SLV SPEED BOAT ARRIVING (3 SHOTS) 2.41 8. SCU MITCHELL SHOWS CHESSMAN TO LORD JACOB ROTHSCHILD (ON LEFT, WEARING BLUE SHIRT AND HAT), THE FOUNDER OF THE BUTRINT FOUNDATION WHICH SPONSORS ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIGS ON THE BUTRINT SITE AND ALAN YENTOB (IN MIDDLE, WEARING WHITE SHIRT), THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE BBC 2.53 9. WIDE OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE 2.59 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 13th August 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BUTRINT, ALBANIA
- Country: Albania
- Reuters ID: LVA6VUZAXV8PYZ82LUKJ74ZBBJFR
- Story Text: Archaeologists in Albania have found what appears to be
Europe's oldest chessman, suggesting the game was played on
the continent at least 500 years earlier than previously
thought.
The ivory piece was found on Friday (July 26, 2002) in the
ancient southern Albanian city of Butrint in a Roman palace
dated to the fifth or sixth centuries, said archaeology
professor Richard Hodges of East Anglia University.
Chess is believed to have originated in India in the
fourth or fifth centuries, and came to Europe via the Silk
Road.
"The place in which it was found is an elite house, a
rather grand house, very closely dated the second half of the
fifth century. And at that time the games that we know were,
on the whole, pretty simple board games, a game called tabula,
which is kind of backgammon, which had simple round counters
very different from this," said East Anglia University Art
Historian John Mitchell said.
"This one seems to be more in the line of a game such as
chess and that is very interesting because chess is a game
which is generally thought to have come to the West a lot
later," he added.
Historians believed the game was played by the upper
classes throughout Europe by the early 12th century, based on
the walrus-ivory chessmen found in Scotland's Outer Hebrides
and other pieces from as far as southern Italy. However, the
new find points to chess having been a means of passing the
time much earlier than that.
"And so it would mean that the elite, the aristocracy in
Butrint were playing this game akin to chess, maybe chess
itself, as early as the later fifth century," Mitchell said.
Butrint was a crossroads and commercial centre throughout
history, and by the fourth century B.C. became one of the
major maritime and commercial centers of the Ancient World.
Throughout its history, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and
Venetians have inhabited this location. The present
archeological site, therefore, contains structures and
remnants that represent each period of the city's development.
Butrint was included on the World Heritage List in 1992.
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