English: Bone chess piece representing an early form of King or Queen piece. The bone has been cut flat at the top and the bottom leaving a length of 32mm and a diameter of 25mm. In cross-section the piece is nearly square with rounded edges. There is an incised band around either terminal, and two curious linear grooves on the top left and bottom right hand corner on the back, 4mm in from either terminal band. It is possible that the grooves represent further bands now worn away, but the surface does not appear sufficiently worn to cause this. At one end the front of the piece has two deeply cut diagonal facets representing the throne canopy. At the opposite end of the piece the central cavity is plugged with a flush-fitting bone insert. This insert has an integrally carved globular knob. The knob does fit in the other end, but does not sit flush.

The chess piece measures 23x25mm at the capped end, and 23mm x 20mm at the faceted end. The opening at the capped end measures 12mm x 13mm, and 12mm x 12mm at the faceted end. The cap measures 12mm x 12mm at the top and 12mm x 11mm at the bottom. The knob measures 9mm in diameter.

Although many other chess pieces are made of ivory and antler, it seems very likely that this object is made out of bone. The dark striations visible on the surface of the piece are arranged longitudinally, which is very suggestive of bone, and the interior looks to have been hollowed out, which would be unnecessary with antler and ivory. Furthermore, the material is in a very good state of preservation and does not show any signs of flaking, which may be expected with archaeological ivory. It is probably is a hollowed-out tibia or metapodial.

This example can be compared to a number of published examples, such as one from Old Sarum (Saunders 2001: 15, no.1; also see references given in the discussion). Others come from South Witham, Lincolnshire (ibid), and recently from Coventry. The Coventry example was discovered in a shallow pit containing 14th century pottery. Other examples have been dated earlier, to the 12th century. Chapman (2005) discusses chess pieces in general and notes that the King and Queen generally are of cylindrical or square form with a knob on top above a V-shaped throne. Chapman notes that the few dates for excavated examples run from the 11th to the 14th centuries (2005, 6).