Royal Game of Ur
Encyclopedia
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 probably the oldest set of board gaming equipment ever found. The game is still played in Iraq. One of the two boards is exhibited in the collections of the British Museum
in London
.
. 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 Babylonia
n 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
.
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, now in the British Museum in London (see illustration). Similar games have since been discovered on other sculptures in other museums.
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.
Ur
Ur was an important city-state in ancient Sumer located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate...
in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
by Sir Leonard Woolley
Leonard Woolley
Sir Charles Leonard Woolley was a British archaeologist best known for his excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia...
in the 1920s. The two boards date from the First Dynasty of Ur, before 2600 BC, thus making the Royal Game of Ur probably the oldest set of board gaming equipment ever found. The game is still played in Iraq. One of the two boards is exhibited in the collections of the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Playing the game
The Royal Game of Ur was played with two sets, one black and one white, of seven markers and three tetrahedral diceDice
A die is a small throwable object with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers...
. The rules of the game as it was played in Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
are not known but there is a reliable reconstruction of gameplay based on a cuneiform
Cuneiform script
Cuneiform script )) is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium , cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs...
tablet of Babylonia
Babylonia
Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as a major power when Hammurabi Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as...
n origin dating from 177–176 BC by the scribe Itti-Marduk-Balāṭu. It is universally agreed that the Royal Game of Ur, like Senet
Senet
Senet is a board game from predynastic and ancient Egypt. The oldest hieroglyph representing a Senet game dates to around 3100 BC. The full name of the game in Egyptian was zn.t n.t ḥˁb meaning the "game of passing."- History :...
, is a race game
Race game
Race game is a large category of board games, in which the object is to be the first to move all one's pieces to the end of a track. This is both the earliest type of board game known, with implements and representations dating back to at least the 3rd millennium BC in Egypt, Iraq, and Iran; and...
.
Both games may be predecessors to the present-day backgammon
Backgammon
Backgammon is one of the oldest board games for two players. The playing pieces are moved according to the roll of dice, and players win by removing all of their pieces from the board. There are many variants of backgammon, most of which share common traits...
.
Graffito boards
Graffito (archaeology)
A Graffito , in an archaeological context, is a deliberate mark made by scratching or engraving on a large surface such as a wall. The marks may form an image or writing...
version of the game was discovered on one of the human-headed winged bull gate sentinels from the palace of Sargon II
Sargon II
Sargon II was an Assyrian king. Sargon II became co-regent with Shalmaneser V in 722 BC, and became the sole ruler of the kingdom of Assyria in 722 BC after the death of Shalmaneser V. It is not clear whether he was the son of Tiglath-Pileser III or a usurper unrelated to the royal family...
(721 - 705 BC) in the city of Khorsabad, now in the British Museum in London (see illustration). Similar games have since been discovered on other sculptures in other museums.
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