"Medieval Chess Piece Discovered in Norway" Topic

"Archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) found the small medieval chess piece before Christmas during an excavation in Anders Madsens gate in Tønsberg.

Tønsberg is Norway's oldest city and excavations there are followed closely by historians and archaeologists…"

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Armand

It might be a hnfatafl piece. The idea that the designs are Arabic in nature makes me think these guys haven't looked at Celtic or earlier Germanic art as thoroughly as they should have. It looks to me as easily depicting a stylized crowned person as it does a horse. The circle designs are very typical from the Northern European tradition of decorative arts. I have seen the same in pottery, bone work, and loom weights. It's not conclusively, Arabic, or even a chess piece.

So that's were I left it.

They find one small, abstract object, and automatically it's an Arabic chess piece? How in the world did they jump to this conclusion? The article mentions no sign of a chess board and no other pieces. Since it's also decorated on the bottom (which you wouldn't do for a chess piece) it could as easily be a fitting on some piece of jewelry like a broach pin; anything could be stuck in the hole! As for Arabic styles, plenty of Celtic, Germanic and Scandinavian cultures used abstract shapes in their art, especially circles. (What, nobody drew concentric circles but Arabs?). As for not representing human figures, a horse isn't human. Also, I'm not aware of an Islamic prohibition against drawing a horse-- or even human figures, really. Isn't the prohibition only on representations of Allah or Mohammad (or a deity of any sort)? There is certainly considerable Arab art depicting real things! In some ways, this thing might just be a crude artisan's attempt at a horse, or something else entirely.
Unless there's a whole lot more to this discovery than the article states, the conclusion of identity is tenuous at best.

Looks like a styalised Dalek to me.

Friggin time travelers. I expect we have missed the police box in the stave church stained glass window too.

The only thing that gives me pause about ruling out the Arabic connection entirely is the profusion of Arabic dinars and even an Indian Buddha figure found in hoards in the area. But Occam's razor must be applied.