Ancient Games & The Game of Ur

Games have existed since the dawn of time and can be shown through the example of board games and ancient board games. The earliest known ancient board game dates back from 2600 BC, this is the Royal Game of Ur. Some of these ancient games are still played, for example Chess and Draughts. Other ancients games are: The Viking Game and The Stanway Game.

Classifying Board Games

Ancient games in general have been classed in to different categories by H.J.R. Murray.

• Games of alignment and configuration - noughts and crosses
• War games - chess
• Hunt games - fox and geese
• Race games - backgammon, pachisi, etc
• Mancala games - mancala

 R.C. Bell also organised games in to different categories:

• War games - chess
• Games of position - nought
• Mancala games - mancala
• Dice games - hazard
• Domino games - ma-jong
• Race games - pachisi

David Parlett had a much simpler categorised list:

• Race Games
• Space Games
• Chase Games
• Displace Games

There are some obvious similarities to these list (e.g   Racing Games) however I don't think any of these are right or wrong as games can breach many categories. In my opinion, games don't need to be categorised, when an ancient game in the past was made I doubt they thought, "oh hey, let's make a racing game", they created the game to entertain people when they were bored and obviously people copied the game mechanics and built on them or adapted them.

The Royal Game of Ur

Dating back from 2, 600BC, five significant findings of game boards were excavated from the Royal Cemetery of Ur by Sir Leonard Woolley, between 1926 and1930, which was TRGoU discovered. The board designs consisted of a large rectangle (4x3 squares) and small rectangle (2x3 squares) connected by two squares. Patterns of five rosette squares are spread every four squares. Modern versions of the boards had removed the smaller rectangle for a straight line of eight squares protruding from the large rectangle.

Many writers speculated the rules of the game. Murray suggested that pieces enter and leave the board on the same square, looping in a 27 square circuit (Murray, pp. 20-21, 1952). Bell proposed pieces started on the inner side of the large rectangle and ended on the corresponding side rosettes squares of the smaller rectangle (Bell, Fig. 18, p. 24, 1979). Becker suggested that the boards were used for divination, proposing the elaborate symbols linked to astrology (Becker, pp. 12-13, 2008). In an 1880 excavation, a tablet was unidentifiable until Finkel released his research on the material which was incited by a 1956 journal article featuring the tablet.

 Irving Finkel, who worked as an assistant keeper at the British Museum, deciphered the “cuneiform script” on the tablet. Finkel states that the associated symbols on the tablet linked to astrology (Finkel, p. 18, 2008), however he clearly states the board is used for gaming and not divination. For this essay, we will be using Finkel’s game rules, which he names “The Game of 20 Squares". Finkel’s game rules are based on the late variations of the board, with the smaller rectangle removed, the pieces enter similarly to Bell’s rules and race to the end of the bridge on a rosette. Landing on a rosette gives the advantage of allowing another dice throw. The later versions of the game were played with five pieces rather than seven.

The game mechanics and game rules are specified very clear and concisely by Finkel, especially the complexity involved with the five pieces (white and black counterparts) having different names, starting positions, and values. For example, the Swallow landing on a rosette meant that the player would have “women and well being," this gives the appeal of fortune telling, which would have been quite popular back then because the players were much more superstitious compared to players of this era.