The shepherd was terrified by the expressions on the pieces and fled from the spot. The pieces, perhaps made in 1150 by the Norse, were made of walrus tusk and believed to be of Icelandic in origin. A local peasant, Calum nan Sprot, who was looking for his cow found a small chamber 15 feet below the top of a sandbank that had been partly washed away. The Lewis pieces were found in March, 1831 in an underground chamber on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis (Uig Bay) in the Outer Hebrides islands of Scotland. The set contains the oldest known ecclesiastical bishop. The pieces come from four different chess sets. 67 Lewis chesspieces are in the British Musueum, the other 11 in the National Musueum. One of the earliest authentic European chesspieces are the Lewis chesspieces, which are now in the British Museum and the National Museum of Antiquites in Edinburgh. Radiocarbon measurements yielded a date of 885 to 1017 AD. The controversy is how to explain how it was possible that chess pieces of Arabic shape were discovered in a tomb of Roman age. The pieces were discovered in a Roman tomb in 1932. It is displayed in the Museo archeologico di Napoli. It was found at Venafro, Italy and is dated about 980 AD. The oldest European chessmen may be some Italian chess pieces made of bone with ivory topping. The four small pieces were made of ivory and preserved in the Mozarabic monastary in Leon, Spain. The Mozarab chess pieces, also known as the pieces of Saint Genadio, may be as old as the beginning of the 10th century. A coin, dated 761 was found with the chesspieces. What was found were seven pieces consisting of a king, chariot, vizier, horse, elephant, and 2 soldiers. The earliest known chesspieces (chatrang) were found at Afrasaib, near Samarkand in Uzbekistan. The piece has a cross on top of it and was found in an old Byzantine or Roman palace. If this is really a chess piece, then it is the oldest chess piece found anywhere in the world. In July 2002, an ivory piece less than 2 inches in size was discovered in Butrint, an ancient Mediterranean city in souther Albania. Countries of the western world translated the earliest names as closely as possible. In Arabic they were shah, firzan, fil, faras, rukhkh, and baidaq. The earliest Persian names were shah, farzin, pil, asp, rukh, and piyada. The earliest chesspieces from India (the birthplace of chess) were called shah (king), wazir (counsellor), fil (bishop), asp (knight), rukh (rook), and piyade (pawn).
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