hist-games: Very Early Domino -- any ideas?

[Jane & Mark Waks]

jcelko212 at earthlink.net wrote:
> Take a look at this image and the details:
>  
> http://www.colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk/s/sept2007finds.htm 
>  
> The literature about dominoes indicates that it is an Asian game and did 
> not arrive in Europe until the 1800s.  If this  find was in the northern 
> reaches of the UK, then one might speculate about Viking involvement 
> since Scandinavians did have earlier contact with Asians. However, there 
> is no record of a domino type game among Viking populations. 

Well, I don't see any reason to bring the Vikings into it -- the 
subtitle says that it's "Georgian", so it's a relatively recent item. 
Might predate the 1800s, but not by all that much, so I don't see 
anything all that terribly strange about it. It just implies that the 
literature might be off by a few decades, and this is a particularly 
early example...

				-- Justin