from Hacker News

Medieval game pieces emerge from the ruins of a German castle

by RobertJaTomsons on 6/11/24, 9:51 AM with 98 comments

  • by zwieback on 6/12/24, 4:32 PM

    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."
  • by globalise83 on 6/12/24, 1:18 PM

    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...
  • by 1970-01-01 on 6/12/24, 5:15 PM

    I had trouble loading the article, so here's the image:

    https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2024/06/medieval-gam...

  • by LordHeini on 6/12/24, 5:29 PM

    Nice that they provide the 3d scans.

    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.

  • by Isamu on 6/12/24, 1:56 PM

    >“In the Middle Ages, chess was one of the seven skills that a good knight should master,”

    Where is that attested in writing of the time?

  • by arduanika on 6/13/24, 4:17 AM

    Funny. It's far more common to see medieval castle ruins emerge from German game pieces.
  • by dark-star on 6/12/24, 8:01 PM

    Ha, cool, this was found literally 5 minutes from where I live.

    I hadn't known about this if I hadn't seen this article on HN

  • by croemer on 6/12/24, 9:50 PM

  • by not_your_mentat on 6/12/24, 9:15 PM

    Do opposite sides of the D6 they found add to 7, the way God intended?
  • by egypturnash on 6/13/24, 2:03 AM

    That little chess piece totally looks like he’s ready to be the central character of a wordless stop-motion animation.
  • by sopchi on 6/13/24, 5:10 PM

    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?
  • by tajstar on 6/12/24, 6:08 PM

    I'm amazed that the six-sided dice is so old and yet we still use it since it's such a great tool to get a random number for a game.
  • by msephton on 6/12/24, 9:03 PM

    Very cool, and I love the 3D models they've made available to view and zoom in on.
  • by mike_hock on 6/13/24, 9:53 AM

    Sounds like something that would happen in Broken Sword.
  • by JoeAltmaier on 6/11/24, 10:24 AM

    That 'horse' 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?