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The Oldest Board Game – the Royal Game Assyriologist at the British Museum, translated But let’s now make a very brief excursion to the The Royal

a cuneiform script on a crumbling clay tablet. city of Ur, the holy city, the source of law and Game of Ur:
of Ur – was it the first game of strategy? The document sounded remarkably like the the site of wonder. a two-player
rules of an ancient game. Scholars tried to
strategy race
decipher the cuneiform over the years, but it What is it Ur and where is it? board game
Our magazine is for diplomats, and there is an into clay or rock, and explorers and traders was Dr. Finkel who was able to identify the Ur is a biblical city, and is listed in the Bible
opinion that the masterclasses in some games introduced it to Iran, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, text on the tablet as instructions on how to (Gen. 11:28-31) as the birthplace of Abraham,
can contribute to the success of the profession. Sri Lanka, Cyprus and Crete. Variations of the play the Royal Game of Ur after comparing the ancestor of many religions, the father of
Such as chess, which develops strategy, or poker game have been found in King Tutankhamun’s it to the other game boards the museum had monotheism. In the Bible, the city is named
which develops tactics, or even billiards. While tomb, and etched into pillars in the palace of stored in its archives. Ur of the Chaldees. The generally accepted
the diplomats themselves argue what game the Assyrian king Sargon II. For at least 1,000 location of ancient Ur is considered to be
corresponds better to master their strategic years, the Royal Game of Ur was the national The Babylonian tablet revealed that the game the present-day area in southern Iraq, where
thinking, it might happen that none of those, as game of ancient Mesopotamia, but it waned is a race between two players to get their the ruins of this biblical city were found on
B

there exists a well forgotten another game – the in popularity as other games were developed, markers around and off the board. Besidesesides a rounded hill called Tell el-Muqayyar, which
Royal Game of Ur, which might well be the best including those that most likely evolved from all practical aspects, it was believed that the means Clay Hill in Arabic. In the ancient
game to master the strongest strategist skills. it, such as backgammon. Mentions of the game and its result is supposed to tell a player’s times the city was situated in the bed of the
Read our story below: game disappeared in the Middle Ages, but fortune. According to the cuneiform tablet, River Euphrates.
a variation, called Aasha, was played by the some of the marked squares on the board were
The oldest strategic game Jewish people of Kochi, in India. The Jews of assigned signs of the zodiac and, with them, As to the meaning of the name Ur, science
The original name of this ancient game has Kochi had migrated from ancient Babylonia the predictions came. does not have a clear answer. Some scientists
been lost to time, but it was dubbed the Royal and brought a version of the game with them. believe that it comes from the Sumerian word
Game of Ur after a British archaeologist The 1928 discovery of the Royal Game of Ur The tablet explained that the pyramid- “Uru” - city, cuneiform experts decipher it as
named Sir Leonard Woolley uncovered five gave scholars an important cultural glimpse shaped dice were used to indicate the “the place where the light lives”.
worn playing boards in 1928 at the Royal into ancient Mesopotamians life. Although, number of squares a player could move, but
Cemetery of the Sumerian city of Ur. Analysts there was no clear manual and even today it to win strategy and tactics were needed. If a The City of Ur- the city State
estimated that the highly decorated boards, remains a mystery how the game worked. player lands on a square occupied by their Ur was one of the cities in the settlement system
made of wood, inlaid shell and lapis lazuli, opponent, they can knock that marker off, founded by the Ubaid culture in southern
were made between 2,600-2,400 B.C., making Rules of the Game: from mysticism and the opponent must start over again with Mesopotamia. Beginning from a village based
the Royal Game of Ur the oldest complete to strategy and tactics that piece. That can set a player back, and on the exploitation of marsh resources and
tabletop game ever discovered. Archaeological Written in 177-176 B.C. by a scribe named it is almost impossible to predict who will fishing, by 4000 BCE, Ur’s inhabitants were
evidence suggests that the game (which is also Itti-Marduk-balatu, the tablet was discovered win, even near the end of the game. Indeed, raising cattle, goats and sheep, and cultivating
called the Game of 20 Squares) was immensely around 1880 in the ruins of Babylon. Later it required a refined strategy, tactics and wheat, barley and dates. The city’s inhabitants
popular, the boards were carried all over the on, it was brought to the British Museum, and calculation to correctly foresee all steps to maintained an extensive system of canals, on
Middle East — and sometimes scratched in the 1980s, Dr. Irving Finkel, a curator and win. Is it the same in the real-life diplomacy? the average two miles long, and used boats for

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