The discovery was made by researchers from the Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw.
In a statement shared with Polish state news agency PAP, the centre said the archaeologists had been excavating a Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement near the village of Ayn Bani Saidah in Oman.
“In one of the rooms of a large building from the Umm an-Nar period [2,500-2,000 BC], we found a game board,” said Prof. Piotr Bieliński, the head of the research team.
He added that such finds were rare, with some similar boards previously discovered in the Indus Valley area and the historical region of Mesopotamia.
The board is made of stone and divided into fields interspersed with hollows, the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology said. According to the scientists, it represents “the most exciting and totally unexpected find of the research season.”
Other notable discoveries at the site include four large towers, of as-yet undetermined function, and evidence of copper-processing activity, the PAP news agency reported.
According to Bieliński, this last find proves the settlement from the Umm an-Nar period was part of a lucrative trade system described in written accounts from Mesopotamia. “During that era, Oman was a superpower in metallurgy,” the scientist explained.
The Polish archaeologists say their latest finds show that a wider research area known as the micro-region of Qumayrah “played a more significant role in ancient times than earlier thought, and still hides many surprises.”
“The abundance of traces of settlement from different periods proves that this valley was an important place in prehistoric times, and perhaps also in the history of Oman,” Bieliński said, as quoted by the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology in its statement.
The Polish archaeological research in Oman, which began in 2015, is financed by Poland’s National Science Centre, PAP reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, pcma.uw.edu.pl