News Archaeology

A carved rock found in Jordan may be the oldest known chess piece

The 1,300-year-old game piece resembles a rook, or castle

chess piece

A small, rectangular stone (right), previously excavated at the Jordanian site of Humayma (shown at left), may be the oldest known chess piece, a rook dating to around 1,300 years ago.

From left: Bashar Tabbah/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); J.P. Oleson

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

SAN DIEGO — A palm-sized sandstone object found in 1991 at an Early Islamic trading outpost in what’s now southern Jordan appears to be the oldest known chess piece.