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COURTESY TEL GEZER EXCAVATION PROJECT
GAMING AT GEZER. Among the very few artifacts found in Gezer’s administrative building was this ivory-carved game board. Reconstructed from pieces found in the rubble and presented here with several game pieces recovered from the same destruction, it belongs to the game Twenty Squares—a popular Near Eastern pastime since as early as the third millennium BCE. It is about 8 inches long and features three long fields segmented into squares, some of which are decorated with rosettes to indicate certain privileges. Since the administrative building was found largely empty, it seems that its inhabitants were forewarned against an impending disaster and were able to flee with their valuables, most likely to the kingdom’s capital in Jerusalem.