This two-person game is one of the oldest known board games, which was very popular in ancient times.
Obviously, there are different versions of the game in many Mediterranean and Middle Eastern civilizations.
Archaeology has found more than 65,438+000 examples of this game, although the most famous example comes from the name of this game from the royal cemetery of Ur, the remains of Ur, and Zigong of Ur can be seen in the background. ( M.Lubinski/CC by-sa2。
0), from 1922 to 1934, the British archaeologist Sir Charles Leonard Woolley made an excavation in the royal cemetery of Ur.
A large number of cultural relics of great significance were unearthed in the excavation, including some game chessboards dating back to the first dynasty of Ur around 2600 BC.
Two of the boards were copied into images in Woolley's book Ur: The First Stage.
According to the position of these chessboards, Woolley called it "the game of King Ur", that is, the cylindrical seal of Queen Pubi-some cultural relics were found in the cemetery of King Ur.
(Nic-McPhee/CC BY-SA 2。
0) The game board discovered by Woolley is made of various materials.
The most representative is the simple board.
There are 20 different inlaid square shell plaques on the front of the chessboard, so another name of this game, Twenty-side Game.
This square is divided into three areas, a square with three times four, a square with three times two and a bridge with one times two connecting the two areas.
The back of the chessboard is decorated with three rows of triangular decorative inlays of shells.
The edge of the chessboard consists of small pieces and strips, some of which are engraved with eyes and some may be decorated with roses.
This chessboard is currently on display in the British Museum, and the Royal Ur game was on display in the British Museum around 2600 BC. It is the oldest board game equipment discovered so far.
(Jez Nicholson/CC BY-SA 2。
0), it is not completely clear how the game of King Ur was originally played, and several sets of rules were reconstructed.
Before Woolley excavated in city of ur, 1880 found a wedge-shaped stone tablet in Iraq (although it was recently rediscovered).
This stone tablet was written by Edie Marduk Baratou, a scribe of Babylon in BC 177/6, and it contains some useful information about this game.
The tablet provides the name of the chess piece, one of the dice, and some details about rolling the dice.
Each player has five different pieces (by the way, each player has seven pieces on the chessboard of the British Museum), and their positions need special throwing at the beginning of the game.
The five squares on the chessboard are decorated with roses. Edie Marduk Baratou's plaque says that these squares are considered lucky, and the pieces that fall on these squares have advantages. The wedge-shaped plaque shows ur's rules.
(Fae/CC BY-SA 3。
0), unfortunately, the tablet computer does not provide information about the path that the chess pieces should take.
Game historians try to solve this problem by proposing their own game paths.
Because there are no further clues, it is unclear which of these paths, if any, ancient Mesopotamian players used. The picture on the left shows the most possible direction for players to compete to move their pieces off the board, in which the "safe" area is shown in blue and the "fighting" area is shown in green.
Right-the game path is unlikely, but it is possible for the player to scroll backwards on the four squares in the middle part, thus prolonging the game time.
(Left, public domain.
Yes, CC BY-SA), an observation of scholars on Itti Marduk balatu tablet is that the rules provided make the game quite boring and not challenging enough for players.
Nevertheless, archaeological evidence shows that this game is very popular not only in Mesopotamia, but also in the surrounding areas.
For example, in Egypt, the chessboard of a game called Aseb, similar to the chessboard of Royal G, has been found, and the name of Ur has been unearthed in the ruins of Jiroft and Shahsokhtar in ancient Persia.
Like Mesopotamian games, the board of Aseb games has 20 squares, although these squares are much less decorated.
So some people think that the rules of these two games are probably different.
Finally, it can be pointed out that although people think that board games are mainly a form of entertainment today, it may be different for players of Ur Kingdom games.
Some people think that players also use board games to predict their future. The events in the game are thought to contain information from gods or other supernatural beings, that is, the graffiti on a colossus played by the Royal Ur in the 8th century BC.
(jack 1956/CC BY-SA 3.
0), above: Ur's royal game.