Centuries old tablet chiselled with sporting rules found in Turkey

A 2000-year-old stone tablet marked with “gentlemanly rules” for horse racing has been unearthed in a holy site in central Turkey.

The tablet was found yesterday at the site of an ancient hippodrome in the Beysehir district of the Central Anatolian province of Konya, local news outlet Hurriyet Daily reports.

Selcuk University history professor Hasan Bahar said the tablet has been chiselled with the rules of the sport and a homage to a Roman jockey named Lukuyanus.

“It says that if a horse comes in first place in a race it cannot participate in other races, while another horse of the winning horse’s owner also cannot enter another race,” he said.

“In this way, others were given a chance to win. This was a beautiful rule, showing that unlike races in the modern world, races back then were based on gentlemanly conduct.”

Mr Bahar said he has not seen a similar tablet that contained rules of sports in the same manner in which this one does.

“We can say that this tablet is the oldest one describing the rules of horse racing,” he said.