Chunkey

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Chunkey is a game of Native American origin, played by rolling a certain type of stones across the ground. It originated around 600 CE in the Cahokia region of what is now the United States (near modern St. Louis, Missouri), and was played after the fall of the Mississippian culture around 1500. Variations were played throughout North America. The rolling of the stones is said to have represented either the sun moving across the sky, or the flight of a legendary arrow.

Chunkey was played in huge arenas as large as 19 hectares that housed great audiences designed to bring people of region together (i.e. Cahokians, farmers, immigrants, and even visitors).

[edit] References

• Pauketat, Timothy R.; Loren, Diana DiPaolo (Ed.) (December 1, 2004) North American Archaeology. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-23184-6.