Afrasiab Chess Pieces

Seven small ivory figures dug up in 1977 at Afrasiab, the ruined old city of Samarkand, and among the oldest chess pieces known. The cast is still recognizably an army: a ruler on a chariot, horsemen, an elephant carrying a soldier and foot soldiers. Dates offered for them run from the 6th to the 8th century, and a coin of 712 found in the same layer helped narrow them down. They belong to the state museum in Samarkand, and they are the place to start if you want to see chess before it lost its little people.