Royal Game of Ur

The Royal Game of Ur

Created	2600BC-2400BC
Period/culture	Early Dynastic III
Registration	1928,1009.378

The Royal Game of Ur, also known as the Game of Twenty Squares, refers to two game boards found in the Royal Tombs of Ur in Iraq by Sir Leonard Woolley in the 1920s. The two boards date from the First Dynasty of Ur, before 2600 BC, thus making the Royal Game of Ur one of the older examples of board gaming equipment found, although Senet boards found in Egyptian graves predate it as much as 900 years. The game is still played. One of the two boards is exhibited in the collections of the British Museum in London.^[1]

Playing the game

Rules tablet dated 177 BC. British Museum ref:33333,b .

The Royal Game of Ur was played with two sets, one black and one white, of seven markers and three tetrahedral dice. The rules of the game as it was played in Mesopotamia are not known but there is a reliable reconstruction of gameplay based on a cuneiform tablet of Babylonian origin dating from 177–176 BC by the scribe Itti-Marduk-Balāṭu. It is universally agreed that the Royal Game of Ur, like Senet, is a race game.

Both games may be predecessors to the present-day backgammon.

Graffito boards

A graffito version of the game in the British Museum in London

A graffito version of the game was discovered on one of the human-headed winged bull gate sentinels from the palace of Sargon II (721 - 705 BC) in the city of Khorsabad,^[1] now in the British Museum in London (see illustration). Similar games have since been discovered on other sculptures in other museums.

References in popular culture

Modern game companies have sold game sets featuring reproductions of the original game board, along with rules derived from the tablet. Among them are Ur: Royal Game of Sumer, from Selchow & Righter in association with the British Museum.

The television series Lost references the discovery of the game when John Locke explains the origins of Backgammon to Walt in the episode "Pilot, Part 2".

In the film Screamers some of the characters play the game for cigarettes.

In the "Queen Esther & Purim" episode of The Naked Archaeologist, it is proposed as the game which Haman uses to choose the date to commit genocide against the Jews in capivity.

In the MMORPG Achaea, Dreams of Divine Lands, Ur is played by the inhabitants of Istarion, under the name Nai-an'tzai-an'har.

In the Action-adventure game Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, one of the hidden treasures is the board game.

References

Further reading

• Becker, A., "The Royal Game of Ur" in Finkel, ed., 2008 pp. 11–15.
• Bell, R. C., Board and Table Games from Many Civilisations Revised edition, two volumes bound as one. New York, Dover Publications, 1979.
• Botermans, Jack, et al., Le monde des Jeux, Paris, Cté Nlle des Editions du Chêne, 1987.
• CHN "Iran's Burnt City Throws up World’s Oldest Backgammon", Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency 4/12/2004 (sic: ambiguous date).
• Finkel I., "La tablette des régles du jeu royal d'Ur", Jouer dans l'Antiquité, Catalogue de l'Exposition, Marseille, Musée d'Archéologie Méditerranéenne, 1991.
• Finkel, I., Games: Discover and Play Five Famous Ancient Games, London, British Museum Press, 1995.
• Finkel, I. L., "On the Rules for The Royal Game of Ur" in Finkel, ed., 2008 pp. 16–32.
• Finkel, I. L. ed., Ancient Board Games in Perspective: Papers from the 1990 British Museum colloquium with additional contributions, London, British Museum Press, 2008.
• "Iran's Burnt City Throws up World’s Oldest Backgammon", Persian Journal, 4 December 2004. (link appears to be unavailable, July 2010).
• Lhôte, J.-M., Histoire des jeux de société, Paris, Editions Flammarion, 1994.

External links

• The Royal Game of Ur, including history and suggested gameplay
• Royal Game of Ur pages, Rules history and links
• Time's article on the game

v t e Tables games Historic Royal Game of Ur · Ludus duodecim scriptorum · Tabula · Senet · Mehen · Liubo · Hounds and Jackals Modern Acey-deucey · Gul bara · Plakoto · Sugoroku · Tapa Backgammon Notation · Opening · Chouette · FIBS · Rollouts Categories Backgammon · Tables · Players