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culture

The oldest Board Game – the royal Game

of ur – was it the first game of strategy?

Our magazine is for diplomats, and there is an into clay or rock, and explorers and traders
opinion that the masterclasses in some games introduced it to Iran, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon,
can contribute to the success of the profession. Sri Lanka, Cyprus and Crete. Variations of the
Such as chess, which develops strategy, or poker game have been found in King Tutankhamun’s
which develops tactics, or even billiards. While tomb, and etched into pillars in the palace of
the diplomats themselves argue what game the Assyrian king Sargon II. For at least 1,000
corresponds better to master their strategic years, the Royal Game of Ur was the national
thinking, it might happen that none of those, as game of ancient Mesopotamia, but it waned
there exists a well forgotten another game – the in popularity as other games were developed,
Royal Game of Ur, which might well be the best including those that most likely evolved from
game to master the strongest strategist skills. it, such as backgammon. Mentions of the
Read our story below: game disappeared in the Middle Ages, but
a variation, called Aasha, was played by the
The oldest strategic game Jewish people of Kochi, in India. The Jews of
The original name of this ancient game has Kochi had migrated from ancient Babylonia
been lost to time, but it was dubbed the Royal and brought a version of the game with them.
Game of Ur after a British archaeologist The 1928 discovery of the Royal Game of Ur
named Sir Leonard Woolley uncovered five gave scholars an important cultural glimpse
worn playing boards in 1928 at the Royal into ancient Mesopotamians life. Although,
Cemetery of the Sumerian city of Ur. Analysts there was no clear manual and even today it
estimated that the highly decorated boards, remains a mystery how the game worked.
made of wood, inlaid shell and lapis lazuli,
were made between 2,600-2,400 B.C., making rules of the Game: from mysticism
the Royal Game of Ur the oldest complete to strategy and tactics
tabletop game ever discovered. Archaeological Written in 177-176 B.C. by a scribe named
evidence suggests that the game (which is also Itti-Marduk-balatu, the tablet was discovered
called the Game of 20 Squares) was immensely around 1880 in the ruins of Babylon. Later
popular, the boards were carried all over the on, it was brought to the British Museum, and
Middle East — and sometimes scratched in the 1980s, Dr. Irving Finkel, a curator and

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