By Bernie Bell

Oh my lord – I’m turning into Sheldon Cooper!

I was thinking, again, about children playing with shells in past times https://theorkneynews.scot/2022/04/28/fun-with-limpets/

and it occurred to me that grown-ups might have used shells as gaming pieces – way back – right through time, for as long as there have been humans……who like to relax….. and play……and compete.

You could take a big stone, scratch a grid on it, use limpets for one team, maybe winkles for the other team, and play a game of draughts (checkers to our American friends – not the kind that you get in draughty houses!).

Even hunter-gatherers could have done this with what was available wherever they happened to be camping.

People living in places inland might have valued the shell gaming pieces, and they could have been used as goods for barter.

It could explain some of the caches of shells which are found at dig sites…

Stepping forward in time, chess is said to have been brought to England by the Danes when they invaded – reminds me of the Monty Python sketch – what did the Romans do for us?  What did the Danes do for us?

Maybe for folk who weren’t rich enough to have fancy chess sets……

We humans are endlessly inventive and imaginative – sometimes in good ways – sometimes not so good……..