Oldest Chess set
World's Oldest Chess set!
Hi everyone! You don't see hardly a thing about this online but it's pretty obvious that this here is a chess set. I always get the feeling, when I know a discovery is coming, that the cogs need to turn a few more revolutions in that old head! But one knows when a discovery is coming! The gods, and kings, are supposedly, in order, Antiochus 1, Juno, Zeus, Apollo/Mithras, Artagnes/Heracles/Areas
There is a reconstruction of this which is a lot more pleasant to look at in a development known as Newcity, Turkey, near Antalya.
Implications
Religious Implication: Naturally this does have some interesting implications! The kings of the centuries just before Christ wanted a China-like standing army to guard their tomb, but they literally used chess pieces to do so. Incredible!
Implication for origin of chess:
I am guessing that chess ORIGINATED here. It was passed down from the days of Gobeckli Tepe. The people of the Commagene Civilisation looked back to the glory days of Alexander and his desire to conquer and incorporate the ideas of the east. I do not think chess could possibly be from Egypt. Instead, it is from here. Located on the silk road, this impoverished-landlocked kingdom, hardly able to defend itself, would have derived its income from farming, mining and the limited trade passing along the silk road. Naturally travellers from China would have told of an epic tomb built for the 1st Chinese emperor, including an epic army of chess pawns. Excellent inspiration for Antiochus to build something similar, but with a Seleucid flourish: Why not show WHO invented chess in the first place? What other motive than placing his 'army' here? Other than to protect the tomb?
Gameplay implications: The goddess in the Commagene set is JUNO, paired up with a MORTAL KING! Now we see why the Queen is so powerful in modern chess and can strike like a Greek thunderbolt in any direction! Amazing! WOW!
Watch it here: 1) The Discovery
2) Part Two!