Vascos city mancala boards
From Wikimanqala
In the municipality of Navalmoralejo (Toledo, Spain) there are the ruins of an ancient muslim town, Ciudad de Vascos. In this city there are many games, mostly alquerque boards, dice and mancala boards. Ciudad de Vascos was build on the X century and abandoned on the XI century.
Researchers Cosín and García have found twelve mancala boards, and they classify them in three types:
- Four boards carved on stone, and one portable, made of brick, with two rows of four pits. The portable one could be longer, because the brick is broken.
- Six boards carved on stone, with two rows of four pits and two stores. One has each store at one end of the board; the other five have both stores at the same end of the board, but misplaced from the rows.
- One board carved on stone, with two rows of four pits and one store.
The sizes are from 25 to 33cm the ones without stores, and from 40 to 53cm the rest. The pits are from 4 to 6cm wide and 0.5 to 1.5cm deep.
One of them is next to the Mosque, near a public square. The rest are in the citadel; probably they were played by the soldiers on their free time.
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References
- Cosín Corral, Yolanda & Constantino García Aparicio
- (1998) 'Alquerque, mancala y dados: juegos musulmanes en la ciudad de vascos', in Revista de Arqueología, January, year XIX, number 201, Madrid.
- Turismo Rural y Aventura
- (2000) 'Ciudad de Vascos, una ciudad perdida en la noche de los tiempos' in Turismo Rural y Aventura, Madrid. [Web Page] [21 Jun 2007].
