5,000-year-old gaming tokens found in Turkey

Small carved stones unearthed in a nearly 5,000-year-old burial site could represent the earliest gaming tokens ever found, according to Turkish archaeologists who are excavating early Bronze Age graves.

These sculpted stones unearthed from an early Bronze Age grave in Turkey could be the earliest gaming tokens ever found [Credit: Haluk Sağlamtimur]

Found in a grave at Başur Höyük, a 820- by 492-foot mound near Siirt in southeast Turkey, the elaborate pieces consist of 49 small stones sculpted in different shapes and painted in green, red, blue, black and white.

"Some depict pigs, dogs and pyramids, others feature round and bullet shapes. We also found dice as well as three circular tokens made of white shell and topped with a black round stone," Haluk Sağlamtimur of Ege University in İzmir, Turkey, told Discovery News.

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