Ancient 'Arcade' of Games Played for Thousands of Years Discovered

An ancient "arcade" of game boards carved into rock has been discovered by an archaeologist and paleoanthropologist from Yale University in Kenya.

The researcher, Veronica Waweru, noticed rows of shallow pits drilled into a rock ledge at a site along the equator in the East African nation's central highlands.

Waweru, who is the director of undergraduate studies with the Council on African Studies at Yale's MacMillan Center, believes the pits were used by ancient people to play a version of Mancala—a family of two-player, turn-based strategy board games that are still enjoyed across the world today.

These types of games are played with small stones, beans, seeds, marbles or another type of counter. They are placed in rows of holes on a board constructed of various materials or, alternatively, pits dug into the earth or carved into stone.

Evidence suggests that the origins of Mancala-type games stretch back thousands of years. Examples have been uncovered at ancient Egyptians archaeological sites, as well as in other parts of Africa.

During recent fieldwork, Waweru identified about 20 Mancala-style game boards at the Kenyan site that appear to be of differing ages.

Some of the pits carved into the rock are deep enough to comfortably hold a handful of stones, whereas others have eroded so much that they are very shallow. This suggests that some of the pits are older than others, according to the researcher.

"It's a valley full of these game boards, like an ancient arcade," Waweru said in a press release. "Given the erosion of some of the boards, I believe people were playing these games there a very long time ago."

"There are known Mancala game boards on rock in Kenya but I have never seen anything like this. There are multiple games and new ones were superimposed on old ones when the cupules (holes) became too shallow," Waweru told Newsweek.

Exactly how long ago the game boards were created remains something of a mystery, though. The Kenyan site lies within land managed by the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, which sits in a low-lying basin surrounded by highlands. Water flows into the basin from the highlands.

"There is always a water source there," Waweru said in the press release. "That could be a reason why very early human ancestors came there. It's been occupied over and over again throughout time."

Evidence from Lewa indicates the presence of hominins (the group consisting of modern humans, extinct human species and all our immediate ancestors) stretching back more than a million years based on hand axes found in the area.

"They remain undated but this technology starts about 1.8 million years ago to 160,000 years ago in the region. There was something special about Lewa," Waweru told Newsweek, noting that it was occupied by two to three species of hominins.

Dating the game boards precisely is challenging because the rock they are carved into is about 400 million years old. But the researcher said her team is exploring novel techniques to determine their age. Nevertheless, people were likely playing Mancala at the site within the last 10,000 years or so, according to Waweru.

It is not currently clear if the game boards were made by herders or hunter-gatherers—or both—an issue that the upcoming dating work will hopefully shed light on.

Herding first appears in the region in northern Kenya near Lake Turkana—located more than 150 miles away from Lewa—around 5,500 years ago. If the game boards were made by herders it would constrain them to a period of time stretching from around 5,500 years ago to historic times, Waweru said. There is still the possibility, however, that they are older if made by hunter-gatherers.

According to the researcher, modern people in the region tend to play games like Mancala when they are out herding.

"That's probably what they were doing here," Waweru said in the press release. "People tend to look at early life as brutish, nasty and short. But perhaps life was not all about survival."

The researcher also said rocks at the site display wear marks consistent with the sharpening of metal knives.

"If they are sharpening knives there, they are probably feasting and performing butchery and barbecuing," she said.

The discovery of the ancient game boards came after Waweru received a tip from a local contact in Kenya. She was told that tourists were removing stone hand axes from a prehistoric site in the wildlife conservancy. The tip regarding the looting at the site eventually resulted in Waweru uncovering the Mancala boards.

"The discovery of the 'arcade' is really owed to Lewa Conservancy staff [member] Calum MacFarlane—a non-paleoanthropologist. This shows the significance of community involvement in human origins science. He drove us around the park and showed us where they were located. There is no way any researcher would ever have contemplated walking in a park populated by rhinos and other animals looking for prehistoric sites!" Waweru told Newsweek.

"Finally I would like to stress that this is a large project that involves colleagues from Kenya, the U.S. and local farmers and herders in Kenya."

Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about archaeology? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.

Update 2/9/24, 9:03 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional comments from Waweru.

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