tour 8 of 20
Buried Treasures Unearthed
The Lewis chessmen
The chess pieces consist of elaborately worked
walrus ivory and whales' teeth in the forms of seated kings
and queens, mitred bishops, knights on their mounts, standing
warders and pawns in the shape of
obelisks.
They were found
in the vicinity of Uig on the Isle of Lewis in mysterious
circumstances. Various stories have evolved to explain why they
were concealed there, and how they were discovered. All that is
certain is that they were found some time before 11 April 1831,
when they were exhibited at the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland.
The precise findspot seems to have been a sand dune where they may
have been placed in a small, drystone
chamber.
The general
condition of the pieces is excellent and they they do not seem to
have been used much, if at all. Ninety-three pieces are known to us
today, which could form - with some elements missing - four
distinct sets. It has been suggested that they belonged to a
merchant travelling from Norway to Ireland.
By the end of the eleventh
century, chess was a very popular game among the aristocracy
throughout Europe. The Lewis chess pieces form the largest single
surviving group of objects from the period that were made purely
for recreational
purposes.
A board large
enough to hold all the pieces arranged for a game played to modern
rules would have measured eighty-two centimetres across. Records
state that when found, some of the Lewis chessmen were stained red.
Consequently the chessboard may have been red and white, as opposed
to the modern convention of black and
white.
Of the ninety-three
pieces known to us today, eleven are in the National Museum of
Scotland, Edinburgh and eighty-two are in the British
Museum.