Mancala - Wikipedia

According to some experts, the oldest discovered mancala boards are in 'Ain Ghazal, Jordan in the floor of a Neolithic dwelling as early as ~5,870 BCE[1] although this claim has been disputed by others.[2] More recent and undisputed claims concern artifacts from the city of Gedera in an excavated Roman bathhouse where pottery boards and rock cuts that were unearthed dating back to between the 2nd and 3rd century AD.[citation needed] Among other early evidence of the game are fragments of a pottery board and several rock cuts found in Aksumite areas in Matara (in Eritrea) and Yeha (in Ethiopia), which are dated by archaeologists to between the 6th and 7th centuries AD.[3]

The oldest mention of the game is in the "Kitab al-Aghani" ("Book of Songs") of the 10th-century, attributed to Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani.[4] The game may have been mentioned by Giyorgis of Segla in his 14th century Geʽez text Mysteries of Heaven and Earth, where he refers to a game called qarqis, a term used in Geʽez to refer to both Gebet'a (mancala) and Sant'araz (modern sent'erazh, Ethiopian chess).[citation needed][5] Evidence of the game has also been uncovered in Kenya.[6]

The games have also existed in Eastern Europe. In Estonia, it was once very popular (see "Bohnenspiel"), and likewise in Bosnia (where it is called Ban-Ban and still played today), Serbia, and Greece ("Mandoli", Cyclades). Two mancala tables from the early 18th century are to be found in Weikersheim Castle in southern Germany.[7] In western Europe, it never caught on but was documented by Oxford University orientalist Thomas Hyde.[8]

In the United States, a traditional mancala game called Warra was still played in Louisiana in the early 20th century, and a commercial version called Kalah became popular in the 1940s. In Cape Verde, mancala is known as "ouril". It is played on the Islands and was brought to the United States by Cape Verdean immigrants. It is played to this day in Cape Verdean communities in New England.[citation needed]

Historians may have found evidence of mancala in slave communities of the Americas. The game was brought to the Americas by enslaved Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The game was played by enslaved Africans to foster community and develop social skills. Archeologists may have found evidence of the game mancala played in Nashville, Tennessee at the Hermitage Plantation.[9]

Recent studies of mancala rules have given insight into the distribution of mancala. This distribution has been linked to migration routes, which may go back several hundred years.[10]