Medieval game pieces emerge from the ruins of a German castle

I grew up not far from this site but have been living in Oregon for 30 years. One of the things that still strikes me when I go back to visit is just how much old stuff was around me in my childhood. Over there it's like "oh, let's put a nail salon in this 400 year old building". Here it's like: "oh, there's a 100 year old barn, we must turn it into a heritage site."

I do find it amazing that even in a place like Germany with excellent state-level surveying and archaeology services, as well as at least two centuries of enthusiastic amateurs, there are still undiscovered castles lurking in the forests...

I had trouble loading the article, so here&#x27;s the image:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.artnet.com&#x2F;app&#x2F;news-upload&#x2F;2024&#x2F;06&#x2F;medieval-gaming-pieces-1024x701.jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.artnet.com&#x2F;app&#x2F;news-upload&#x2F;2024&#x2F;06&#x2F;medieval-gam...</a>

Nice that they provide the 3d scans.<p>I want to 3d print the knight and it seems so strange that I can do that with a thing someone made 800 years ago.

&gt;“In the Middle Ages, chess was one of the seven skills that a good knight should master,”<p>Where is that attested in writing of the time?

Funny. It&#x27;s far more common to see medieval castle ruins emerge from German game pieces.

Ha, cool, this was found literally 5 minutes from where I live.<p>I hadn&#x27;t known about this if I hadn&#x27;t seen this article on HN

Original press release in German: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.staatsanzeiger.de&#x2F;landesgeschichte&#x2F;schachfigur-aus-dem-mittelalter&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.staatsanzeiger.de&#x2F;landesgeschichte&#x2F;schachfigur-a...</a>

Do opposite sides of the D6 they found add to 7, the way God intended?

That little chess piece totally looks like he’s ready to be the central character of a wordless stop-motion animation.

Carved from antlers. What tool would you use to make such clean, deep, small, circular features such as the pips and eyes on the figurine?

I&#x27;m amazed that the six-sided dice is so old and yet we still use it since it&#x27;s such a great tool to get a random number for a game.

Very cool, and I love the 3D models they&#x27;ve made available to view and zoom in on.

Sounds like something that would happen in Broken Sword.

That &#x27;horse&#x27; looks like a bishop to me. The head is far more person-shaped than horse-shaped. And that necklace - surely homage to a surplice or other ecclesiastical garb or jewelry?