Is this the world’s oldest existing mechanical puzzle?
In August 1984, in a BBC TV program entitled “City of the
Dead” about the Indus Valley Civilization, the camera briefly showed a series of objects. One appeared to be a variety of familiar dexterity
puzzle of rolling a ball up a conical hill.
Alas it was before I had a video recorder and the moment flashed by. However, I have since had a private viewing
of the video at the BBC and eventually tracked the object down to The National Museum of Pakistan. It is 11.5 cm Diameter, 1.8 cm. High and
comes from Mohenjodaro in the Indus Valley 2550 BC - 2250 BC.
By happy coincidence when Professor Hoffman wrote his book “Puzzles Old and New”
in 1894, the first puzzle he describes is “The Pick-Me-Up”. This appears
to be almost identical and when lit brightly from both left and right it looks
exactly the same. The Indus valley
puzzle is not so tall and maybe the difficulty lies in preventing the ball
rolling into a neighbouring groove rather than falling off the hill.
I have not
been to the museum in Karachi to see the object and this is the only
illustration I have. If anyone is
planning to visit, I can give them the Acquisition Number and they can bring me
back some better photos.
