What is a
discoidal? A discoidal is a round stone made by Woodland
and mainly Mississippian Period Native American Indians for a
ancient game they called chungke or chunkey. It was a real big
deal in Indian times, as champions from different tribes and groups
played against each other. The stones they made for the game were
usually very well made and beautiful artifacts. They were usually
made from rare stones, such as quartz and were highly polished.
They were prized possessions of Indians and families passed them
down from father to son and from generation to generation. In
1775, James Adair in his 18th Century English wrote a description
of the game:
The warriors have another favorite game called chungke, which,
with propriety of language, may be called ‘running hard
labor’. They have near their state-house a square piece
of ground well cleaned, and fine sand is carefully strewed over
it, when requisite, to promote a swifter motion to what they throw
along the surface. Only one or two on a side play at this ancient
game. They have a stone about two fingers broad at the edge, and
two spans round; each party has a pole of about eight feet long,
smooth and tapering at each end, the points flat. They set off
abreast of each other at six yards from the end of the play-ground;
then one of them hurls the stone on its edge, in as direct a line
as he can, a considerable distance toward the middle of the other
end of the square; when they have run a few yards, each darts
his pole anointed with bear’s oil, with a proper force,
as near as he can guess in proportion to the motion of the stone,
that the end may lie close to the stone; when this is the case,
the person counts two of the game, and, in proportion to the nearness
of the poles to the mark, one is counted, unless by measuring
both are found to at an equal distance from the stone. In this
manner, the players will keep running most part of the day, at
half speed, under the violent heat of the sun, staking their silver
ornaments, their nose, finger, and ear rings; their breast, arm
and wrist-plates; and even all their wearing apparel, except that
which barely covers their middle. All the American Indians are
much addicted to this game, which it seems to be of early origin,
when their forefathers used diversions as simple as their manners.
The hurling-stones they use at present were, time immemorial,
rubbed smooth on the rocks, and with prodigious labour; they are
kept with the strictest religious care, from one generation to
another, and are exempted from being buried with the dead. They
belong to the town where they are used, and are carefully preserved.
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