Play pit

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The game hollows (often also called hollows for short ) are in Mancala games the hollows that belong to the actual course of the game, while the winning hollows , if any, are only used to store the struck pieces. The game pits are an intrinsic element of Mancala games which therefore " dump Games " or in English " Pit and Pebble Games " (dt .: " pit and pebble games ") are called.

The play hollows are usually carved in wooden boards or, this is especially true for nomadic peoples, dug into the ground. Children in Madagascar often only paint them on paper, and in Yunnan , southern China , with chalk on concrete. The number of pits varies, depending on the Mancala variant, from 2 to 160, which can be arranged in one to six rows, sometimes in a circle.

The size of the pits depends on the number and size of the game pieces, which is typical for the game. Mancala boards, which are industrially manufactured in Europe, often save on the size of the game hollows and game pieces in order to be able to sell the game more cheaply, but this also means that the game is awkward to use. Traditional boards have play hollows that are at least six centimeters in diameter.

The shape of the play pit is mostly circular, sometimes also square. In Bao La Kiswahili , the national game of the Swahili -speaking people of East Africa, most of the hollows are round with the exception of two hollows, which are square and have a special function.

The symbolic meaning of the game hollows is diverse. Since many Mancala variants use twelve game hollows, it was claimed that the hollows represent the months of the year, a kind of cosmological symbol.

In Space Walk , a modern variant of Mancala, the hollows mean planets .

The names of the game hollows provide further information in individual variants:

game Origin (people) Term for "play hole" translation
Andada Eritrea ( Kunama ) ita House
Anywoli Ethiopia , Sudan ( Anuak ) oto (pl .: udi ) House
Bao La Kimasai Tanzania ( Maasai ) enkang (Pl .: inkang'ite ) Fencing for livestock
Bao La Kiswahili East Africa ( Bajun , Swahili ) nyumba (round st .);
miji (square M.) 		House (round st.);
City (square m.)
Bulto Ethiopia ( Borana ) mona pen
Imbelece Congo (Genya) moseka girl
Songo ewondo Cameroon , Gabon (Ekang) nda House
Toguz Korgool Central Asia ( Kazakhs , Kyrgyz , Turkmen ) uj cow
To ed-Dyar Mali (Hassaniya) dar (pl .: dyar ) inhabited place
Vai lung thlan India ( Mizo ) thlan dig

The pits must be delimited by the cup marks , petroglyphs that have been engraved in rock walls and buildings, e.g. B. in the Sahara , Egypt , the Middle East , Cyprus and Sri Lanka . The meaning of cup marks and their relationship to mancala games is unclear.

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