People have been playing (1) marbles for thousands of years. The first marbles were probably (2) river stones that happened to be naturally round enough to roll or, more likely, rounded globs of clay that were baked hardness.(3) very old clay marbles have been found in both Greek and Roman ruins, and quartz spheres have been dated at around 6000 B.C. Harder and (4)durable marbles tend to inspire different kinds of games than soft clay marbles, which crack very easily. So (5) the advent of hand rounded and polished marbles made of agate or some other rugged, igneous rock, the 'golden age' of marbles and (6) play flowered. Stone marbles began to appear in the early 1800s in what is now the southern part of Germany. Shortly after, handmade glass marbles (7) in the same part of Europe. For the next 120 years, marbles and marble playing-there were literally hundred of games - flourished in both Europe and America. Marble players developed their (8) vocabulary for different sizes and materials of marbles, as well as for the many kinds of games to be played and the way marbles were (9) in the games. For example, if you were going to play a game of Ring-Taw, one of the (10) popular and enduring marbles games, you would lag for the first shot, and then knuckle down from the baulk, trying your best to get a mib or two with your opponent's immie.