CHESS PIECE,
ST GEORGE'S STREET, CANTERBURY
This chess piece is made of jet and dates to the late twelfth or early thirteenth century AD. The two protrusions identify it as a bishop. In earlier Indian and Islamic chess sets, this piece represented an elephant, the protrusions being tusks. In Europe, such pieces only seem to have been specifically identified as bishops after AD 1100.
Date: Medieval (ca. AD 1175-1250)
OBJECT
Origin and discovery
This chess piece is carved from a piece of jet. Jet is a type of lignite, a form of coal, and is a gemstone formed from wood subjected to extreme pressure. Jet occurs in England at Whitby, North Yorkshire, in deposits that formed about 181 million years ago during the Early Jurassic. This piece is probably made of Whitby Jet, although deposits also occur in Poland, northern Spain and Turkey. The piece has been carefully shaped and polished, and then decorated with small ring-and-dot incisions or punch-marks, some of which are then joined by incised lines. This chess piece was discovered in a cess or refuse pit during an excavation at 23 St George’s Street, Canterbury, in 1998. The St George’s bishop is perhaps the finest of many gaming pieces and dice that have been recovered by Canterbury Archaeological Trust beneath the streets of Canterbury. Perhaps the rest of the pieces of this magnificent chess set are still buried there, awaiting discovery!
Use
This chess piece represents an early form of the bishop. Chess is an ancient game; it is believed that it developed from the Indian strategy game of chaturanga, which is recorded as being played in the Gupta Empire during the sixth century AD. A variant of the game known as chatrang (or shatranj) was played in Sassanid Persia and this spread into the Arabic world where it developed into chess. Chess reached Europe by the ninth century via the Umayyad conquest of Hispania (modern Spain and Portugal). From Spain chess spread across Europe, but the rules continued to evolve. Pieces such as the queen and bishop assumed their current powers in the late fifteenth century, with the modern rules not being standardised until the Victorian era. In the original game of chaturanga, the equivalent of the bishop was the Gaja (elephant). Once the game arrived in medieval Europe, this piece gradually evolved into the bishop. The St George’s Street piece clearly demonstrates this heritage; with its vestigial tusks it is halfway between the elephant and the bishop that modern chess players would recognise.
ARCHIVE
Current Location
Canterbury Archaeological Trust archives.
Catalogue Entry
Site code: 23 SGS
SF2. Jest chess piece. Roughly cuboid, this piece tapers gently towards the top and has a rectangular cross-section with cut corners. The top of the piece curves over to one side and terminates in a pair of protrusions which have a rounded cross-section and flat ends. One of these protrusions is damaged. The piece is decorated on all surfaces except its base with a series of ring-and-dot incisions of regular size, 2mm in diameter. Vertical lines are incised down the centre of each face, except the base; on three sides these lines terminate in a ring-and-dot, but on the side with the protrusions this line is shorter and only its lower point terminates in a ring-and-dot. This piece is a bishop, but the pair of protrusions represent vestigial tusks, indicating its evolution from earlier versions where this piece would have represented an elephant. Height 36mm, width 23mm, thickness 19mm, weight 13.83g. Context (9).
