Royal Game of Ur
The Royal Game of Ur Another daddy daughter project with woodworking and polymer clay to make the oldest board game in the world. And it’s really fun, like backgammon. Alternate NamesThe ancient name of this game is unknown. It is also called the Game of Twenty Squares. No. of Players Probably two. Equipment The Royal Game of Ur board was accompanied by equipment comprising fourteen counters made of shell that are marked differently on either side, seven each of black and white, as well as six tetrahedral (pyramidal) dice, each of which has two of its four points dotted with inlay.Printable Royal Game of Ur BoardHistory The archaeological site of Ur lies in the south of present-day Iraq at the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and was once capital of the Sumerian Empire and reputedly the home of the biblical Abraham. Amongst the many archaeological treasures yielded from the site of Ur come some of the oldest game board artifacts known. During excavation of the royal tombs in 1926-7, led by Sir Leonard Woolley in conjunction with the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania, four boards were discovered. The ancient Sumerian name of this game is not known, but it is today typically referred to as the Royal Game of Ur. The oldest of these boards has been dated at around 2600 BCE. Some of the rules for this game have been found on a cuneiform tablet dated around 200 BCE. The boards differ greatly in terms of their designs, but all feature the rosettes in the same pattern and some do not contain any design other than the rosettes. This factor leads many game historians to believe that the rosettes are the only detail of the board