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The Royal Game of Ur HISTORIC NNewew DDiscovery:iscovery: TTheh e RRoyalo y a l GGamea m e ooff UUrr Th e ttruthruth aaboutbout TTarota r o t CCardsa r d s Th e SStorytory BBehinde h i n d SSenete n e t LLearne a r n ttoo PPlaylay DDogsogs aandnd JJackalsackals SPECIAL FEATURE: Games Of The Past US $ 6.99 / CANADA $ 7.99 July 2010 Issue 24 THE Visit Mesopotamia 6000–1500 BC BRITISH To See MUSEUM The Royal Game of Ur HISTORICS SEPTEMBER 2010 About Us Issue 9 PUBLISHER A board game is a game in which counters or pieces are placed, Kaitlyn Dunphy removed, or moved on a premarked surface or "board" according to a set EDITOR-IN-CHIEF of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the Paul Barry two and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve. Early board games represented a battle between two armies and most current board EDITORS games are still based on beating opposing players in terms of counters, Executive Editor winning position or accrual of points (oft en expressed as in-game cur- Dimitri DeVito rency). Senior Editor Eric Walters Senior Associate Editor Th ere are many diff erent types and styles of board games. Th eir Wednesday Walters representation of a real life situation can range from having no inherent Associate Editors theme, such as Checkers, to having a specifi c theme and narrative, such as Vinny Perrotta Cluedo. Rules range from the very simple, such as in Tic-tac-toe, to ones Thomas Bello Molly Brown which describe a game universe in great detail, such as in Dungeons & Molly Quinn Dragons, although most of these are Role-playing games and the board PRODUCTION is secondary to the game, serving to visualize the scenario. Th e length of time it takes to learn to play or master a game can vary greatly from game Art Director James Lundgren to game. Learning time does not necessarily correlate with the amount or Production Director complexity of rules; some games, such as chess and Go, have simple rules Adam Krysiak that can still lead to complex scenarios. Production Assistant Michael Pobega Board games have been played in most cultures and societies CONTRIBUTORS throughout history; some even pre-date literacy skill development in the Photgraphy earliest civilizations. A number of important historical sites, artifacts and Paul Barry documents exist which shed light on early board games. Freelance historicgames.com CIRCULATION ADVERTISING SALES gamecabinet.com tradgames.org Customer Service Department New York gammoned.com For Change of address Ehsan P. Shirazi whiteknucklecards.com or subscription inquiry ONLY: Director of Marketing queenofcoins.com Toll Free: 1 (800) HISTORY (447- (718) 456-7589 Illustrators 8679) Fax: (718) 456-7589 Mike Sanders Fax: (718) 456-7589 Paul Friedman Email: customerservice@ Michael Levine GAME ADDICTS ONLINE historic.com Advertising Coordinator Or send correspondence to: (718) 456-7589 Managing Online Editor 23rd And 6th NY Fax: (718) 456-7589 Rob Weber 60 W 23rd St Associate Online Editor New York, NY 10010-5201 Joe Randazzo Blaine Allen Circulation Manager President Advertising Sales Jonathan Nistico (457) 480-1563 Information Systems Manager Fax: (457) 480-1563 Danielle Adone 3000BC 1800BC The Royal Game of Ur (pg. 6) Dogs and Jackals (pg. 16) Th e Royal Game of Ur gets its name We know of it by way of a famous from two boardgames which were boardgame found in an Egyptian found in tombs by Sir Leonard Wooley, tomb. It belongs to a family of who was carrying out excavations in the games named “game of the thirty ancient city of Ur in the 1920s. points” or “game of the fi ft y eight holes”. 3000BC 2000BC The Game of Senet (pg. 11) Wei-qi (pg. 14) Senet is an Egyptian race game and GO origin from ancient China. may be the ancestor of our modern Th ere are a tangle of confl icting backgammon. We know of this game popular and scholarly anecdotes through ancient Egyption boards that attributing its invention to two have survived to this day. Chinese emperors , an imperial vassal and court astrologer. Rules For Rules For Rules For SPONSORED Royal Game of Ur Th e Game of Senet Wei-qi BY: (page 9) (page 12) (page 15) CONTENTS Birth of Jesus Tabula (pg. 18) Our knowledge of the rules of Tabula comes primarily from records kept by Emperor Zeno in 480 CE. 1400’s Tarot Cards (pg. 22) It’s all about games. Mankind has forever been drawn to the playing of games. Games of chance, games of skill and gambling. Tarot cards evolved from ancient playing cards and they diff er from standard playing cards only in the fact that more cards were added to a deck of regular playing cards. THE Rules For Rules For Rules For BRITISH Dogs and Jackals Tabula Tarot Cards MUSEUM (page 16) (page 20) (page 24) AstralCastle.com brings us Th e Royal Game of UR: Its Discovery he Royal Game of UR was well Tknown during Biblical times. Th e discovery by Sir Leonard Wool- ley of four boards dating back more than 4,500 years -- three of them complete, and some with accom- panying “dice” and playing pieces -- makes UR the oldest known com- plete board game found anywhere in the world. During excavation of the “Royal Cemetery” in the city-state of UR in Mesopotamia (about 105 miles west-northwest of what is now Basra in modern Iraq), four boards Design, and How which varied from simple to fi ne The Royal Game of UR is Played workmanship were found in tombs which date primarily to the Early Th e game board consists of three rows of eight squares, with two Dynastic IIIA period (around 2600- squares -- the fi ft h and sixth on the top and bottom -- left out. Th e board is 2500 B.C.E.). marked with rosettes. Th ough the boards had been Th e games found in the city of UR were accompanied by pyramidical made of wood and were in varying dice, each one with a corner shaved fl at -- and each with two of its four corners states of decay, careful archeologi- decorated or inlaid in some way to make them stand out. When rolled, each cal work allowed at least one of the die thus had a fi ft y-fi ft y chance of coming up “marked” or “unmarked” -- an boards to have its playing surface unusual confi guration and method, then or now, when we would use the fl ip preserved in its original confi gura- of a coin. Each game had six dice -- two sets, one for each player -- and the tion prior to being moved. rolling of three dice would then give four possible outcomes: one marked, two One of the fi ner boards, marked, three marked or no marked sides, representing moves of one, two, made from shell and lapis lazuli, did three or (no marks) four spaces. Four marks allowed not only a move, but not survive intact, but allows us to another roll. imagine the craft smanship put into Fourteen playing pieces in two diff erent colors -- seven for each player creating a game played by kings -- as -- are moved around the board according to the throw of the dice (although well as commoners, since similar some versions have fi ve per player) -- with the object being to bear all your boards have been found throughout pieces off the board fi rst. Rules written in cuneiform on tablets dating back to the near east dating back to 2,000 about 200 B.C. have provided most of the rules for the game of that time, ex- B.C.E., some of them scratched into cept that there was no explanation of the direction of travel, so that still leaves paving stones by those who couldn’t room for some discussion as to how the game was played. Th e most common aff ord the “royal” version of the rules have pieces remaining on their own side of the board when not sharing game. the middle. Th e more logical is based on the distance between the rosettes marking the board and the maximum possible distance moved with a throw of 6 HISTORIC the three dice -- four spaces. game has pieces remaining on their with them more complex art and Using the latter rules, the own sides or on the middle track literature. Biblical Abraham lived in two colors fi rst enter the board above -- not crossing in the fi nal portion to Ur (he was born around 2170 BC) the middle rosette on opposite sides the opponent’s side -- but this makes and it is said he was in this city when -- black on the top, white on the for less exciting confl ict and also less called by God. Ur was known in the bottom. Th ey then head along to the sense in terms of the distance from bible as “Ur of the Chaldees” be- rosette on their path on the long side one rosette to the next. cause, around 900 B.C. it was settled of the board, then turn and return by the Chaldeans. across the middle. Th us they start off Historical Context for As is true of the history alone on their path, and only meet The Royal Game of Ur of mankind all over the planet, Ur confl ict with the opponent when the experienced many long periods of pieces trek along the middle track; Th e city of Ur was the largest war, suff ered conquest, endured its if a roll allows the player to land a city in a fertile area, known as Meso- own dark ages, but it also enjoyed piece occupied by the opponent’s, potamia, that lay between the Tigris years ruled by good kings, including then that piece is off the board and and Euphrates rivers, more than Ur-Nammu (circa 2060 B.C.) who must start over -- with the exception 6000 years ago.
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