Cricket from the stone age?
A visit to National Museum of the History of Sport in Orkney offers evidence of how closely sport and life are related writes Alan Tyers, in the Telegraph
29-Oct-2013
A visit to the National Museum of the History of Sport in Orkney gives all the ammunition necessary to fight the phrase 'it's just a game'. The exhibits describe how intricately sport is tied with other spheres like entertainment, art and science, writes Alan Tyers, in the Telegraph. In addition, the display, called Tutenkhamen's Tracksuit: the History of Sport in 100-ish Objects, provides evidence of cricket dating back a surprisingly long time.
Among the museum's treasures are this skeleton of the so-called Head Down Man, believed to be the first Stone Age cricketer. Preserved in a mixture of peat and his own bile on a Yorkshire moor, he was interred with some sticks of rhubarb, probably a totem for use in the afterlife.