What is an ancient popular board game?



It is known that mankind has pursued 'play' in its long history, and various archeological sites have found literature describing the tools and rules of board games. The Smithsonian Institution blogs about board games from ancient times.

The Best Board Games of the Ancient World | Science | Smithsonian Magazine

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/best-board-games-ancient-world-180974094/

◆ Seneto
Seneto is a board game played in ancient Egypt around 3100 BC, and is said to have been played by Nefertari, the wife of Tutankhamun and Ramses II. Senate is Sugoroku ( Sugoroku ) It is said to be the ancestor of backgammon , a type game, and the rule is to advance pieces on a rectangular board made up of 30 squares. It is believed that the rule was to move bars by throwing sticks and bones instead of dice.

Seneto may not only have been an intellectual play of the upper class in ancient Egypt, but also had the aspect of a ceremony to gain a glimpse into the afterlife. The following Seneto, dating from 1390 to 1353 BC, has an engraved hieroglyph at the end of the square indicating a special situation. Archeologist Tristan Donovan claims that when the coma reached the last square in Senate, it had a religious meaning that 'a worthwhile soul would become one with the sun god Ra.'



◆ Royal Game of Ur
The following boards, decorated with flowers and geometric designs, are thought to have been used around 2500 BC and were excavated from the Royal Tombs of Ur , a Sumerian city state, between 1922 and 1934.



Although it was unknown for a long time what kind of rules to play, it was said that detailed rules were revealed by the cracking of the wedge-shaped character clay plate in the 1980s. The Royal Game of Ur is the same sugar type game as Senate, but the board shape is different from Senate. Similar boards have been found in Iraq, Iran, Israel, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Cyprus, Crete, etc., but the shape of the boards seems to be slightly different.

◆ Meachen
Meehen is a board game that is believed to have been played in the

ancient kingdom of Egypt around 3000-2300 BC. The name Meehen comes from Meehen, which was revered as a snake god in ancient Egypt. A spiral groove that looks like a snake is dug in a circular slab, and it is thought that you can play by moving the piece on it, but since the Egyptian old kingdom has declined and it can no longer be played, We do not yet know what rules were used to play.


by Anagoria

◆ Nine Men's Morris
In the fall of 2018, at a castle in Vyborg , Russia, it was revealed that a game board called Nine Men's Morris was engraved on the surface of clay bricks. It is said that this game was born in the Roman Empire era, and it was a game that resembled a modern checker , moving a piece that looked like nine soldiers and taking the opponent's piece. Similar games have been found in Greece, Norway, Ireland, France, Germany, Great Britain and more. The following image is an illustration of a Spanish man playing Nine Men's Morris, drawn around the 13th century.



A Nine Men's Morris board that was actually excavated in medieval Europe, excavated in Germany. Nine Men's Morris also appears in Shakespeare's play Midsummer Night's Dream .


by

Wolfgang Sauber

◆ Taffle
Taflu is a game derived from the board game 'Hnefatafl', which was said to have been played by the Vikings that invaded the western European coast from the 9th to the 11th century. The following article summarizes what kind of game Nefataful is.

What is the legendary board game 'Nephataful' that Viking loved 1000 years ago? -GIGAZINE


by Jedudedek

◆ Rudas Ratrunkarrum
Rudas Ratrunkarrum is a two-player strategy game invented in the Roman Empire. It is thought that the player's tactics could be measured in a game such as shogi or chess where multiple types of pieces were moved on a board of 17 squares x 18 squares. Rudasu Ratrunkarrum is mentioned in ancient literature, and actual boards and pieces have been excavated, but the exact rules of Rudas Ratrunkarrum are not yet known.

◆ Patri
Patri is a game played as a gambling game in Aztec , a Latin American nation. The player moves pebbles on a board with cross-shaped squares drawn, which is a Sueno type game like Seneto.



It is said that Patri and noblemen and ordinary people were crazy about playing, and a calendar made in the ancient Aztec era has illustrations of people who play. However, Patri was banned when the Spanish conquered the Aztecs in the 16th century. The exact rules of Patri have not passed down to the present day, as the Spaniards destroyed everything once they found Patri's board.

◆ Chatlanga
Modern chess is said to have its origins in the ancient Indian board game called Chatranga . It is said that his origins are old, and he was witnessed by Alexander the Great on an expedition to India around 300 BC.



It seems that Chatranga had a rule that four players could play at first, but eventually the rule of two players became established. It is thought to have passed on to Europe in the 10th century through Persia and transformed into chess.

◆ Go
Go is a board game born in China about 3,000 years ago, not a tactical game like Chatranga, but a game using stones, there is a record that it was originally used as a fortune-telling tool, 6th century BC Around this time, Confucius argued that 'Go is a Chinese culture'.

Go was eventually introduced to Japan and played between upper classes and monks. In the Edo era, it was said that the level of Go in Japan had risen sharply due to the vigorous study of Go, but the Go was once gone shortly after the Meiji Restoration. Nevertheless, in the Taisho era, the popularity of go was restored again, and it is to this day.



◆ Mancala
Mancala, born between 3,000 and 1000 BC and still playing today in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, arranges pebbles and beans to `` seed '' holes in boards and floors It is a game to play. Mancala, like chess, shogi, and go, is a

two-player zero sum finite determinate complete information game that has no luck elements. It looks very simple but has considerable strategy.

The image below is a hole for mancala found in archeological sites in Ethiopia. It seems that Mancala hates long thinking, so it requires very fast game play


by Wikimedia Commons

◆ Goose games
The goose game is not a board game transmitted from ancient times, but it is the first commercially produced board game in human history. A diversionary game of throwing dice and advancing the mass, among 63 masses, there is a special mass such as `` jump to another piece '', and the goose game is a `` board '' like backgammon The content is similar to that of the 'Ezo Sugaroku' that is often played at home, not the 'Sugoroku'.

in Game, Posted by log1i_yk