Developing a New Major

ancient board games

been around more than 4000 years altho sketchy info on the earliest games because materials decay over time, we find game remnants in burial sites and drawings/wall paintings - but they don’t give us much info about how to play the games, many of these early boards alerady had the idea of a pattern of cells which is fundamental to board games

many early games were religious, not secular

examples of old games - senat (race game), tau (robbers - war game), hounds & jackals (race game) all from egypt

royal game of Ur - race game, Ur = Iraq, like board games found in egypt, similar to senat and like backgammon, men move along a path and lose according to throws of lots

roman troops carried games with them on their campaigns (they played checkers, backgammon and ?Nine Men’s Morris?

board games appeared later in India - created ashtapada and desapada (race games) in the 5th century BC, chess originated in India about 1200 years ago and spread to china by traders

Senat - we learned about it from a tomb wall paingting from about 2600 bc, it’s the forerunner of backgammon, then we found boards and casting sticks and playing pieces but no directions found

hounds and jackals - 10 carved pins - 5 hounds nad 5 jackals, race game, played between 9th and 12th dynasties and found in several countries, 2 players, throw casting sticks and move pins on a rectangular board, there are lines onthe baords that might have served as ladders no rules survived

royal game of Ur - board found in excavated royal tomb in iraq/syria, more htan 4500 years old, royal boards are richly decorated, games in tombs so dead would have something fun to do in afterlife, predecessor to backgammon, no rules survived

another game like backgammon - tabula - a betting game - got banned in a lot of countries

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