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For 4,600 years, a mysterious game slept in the dust of southern Iraq, largely forgotten. The passion of a museum curator and the hunger of young Iraqis for their cultural history may bring it back.
Hoshmand Mofaq, an Iraqi artist, pondered his next move on one of the Royal Game of Ur boards he designed. Mr. Mofaq is part of a group who hope to popularize and return the game to the Iraqi people as part of their cultural heritage.Credit...Shwan Mohammed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
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It is the end of a long, hot day of selling your wares in a market in ancient Mesopotamia, around 2,400 B.C., and you are looking for a way to unwind.
Netflix will not be invented for another four and a half millenniums, but as luck would have it, a pub lies ahead in the distance. A beer and a round of the Middle East’s favorite game is just the thing to pick you up. The thrill of the game is irresistible: It is impossible to predict who will win in this race to get your pieces to the end of the board, even in the last few moves.
You sit down across from your opponent, who offers you the first turn. You pick up the four-sided dice and shake them in your fist. Maybe this time the rumored fortunetelling aspect of the game will bless you with a spate of good luck and prosperity.
Unearthing the Oldest Board Game on Record
The original name of this ancient game has been lost to time, but it was dubbed the Royal Game of Ur after a British archaeologist named Sir Leonard Woolley uncovered five worn playing boards in 1928 at the Royal Cemetery of the Sumerian city of Ur. Analysts estimated that the highly decorated boards, made of wood, inlaid shell and lapis lazuli, were made between 2,600-2,400 B.C., making the Royal Game of Ur the oldest complete tabletop game ever discovered.
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Archaeological evidence suggests that the game (which is also called the Game of 20 Squares) was immensely popular with people of all classes. The boards were carried all over the Middle East — and sometimes scratched into clay or rock, if no board was available — by soldiers, missionaries, explorers and traders, who introduced it to Iran, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Cyprus and Crete. Variations of the game have been found in King Tutankhamen’s tomb, and etched into pillars in the palace of the Assyrian king Sargon II.
How to Play the Royal Game of Ur
How to Play the Royal Game of Ur
Play the oldest board game in existence with me!
This game from ancient Mesopotamia is an exciting, unpredictable race to get your pieces to the end of the board before your opponent does. It’s not as easy to win as it looks.
Here’s how to play →
How to Play the Royal Game of Ur
Each player must move seven pieces around and off the board in the direction shown. To advance, players roll a set of four, pyramid-shaped dice that can roll the numbers 0-4.
Sounds simple, right? It is -- in theory -- but things can change very quickly in this game. It’s impossible to know who will win until the end!
How to Play the Royal Game of Ur
Player 1 has rolled a 4 and has landed on one of five flower squares on the board. Landing on a flower square earns the player another turn.
On her second turn, she rolls a 2 and now has a choice: she can move two squares into the center row to try to proceed down the middle, or she can move another piece onto the board.
How to Play the Royal Game of Ur
Player 1 decides to move into the center row, and now her piece is in peril.
If Player 2 rolls a two, Player 1’s piece can be knocked off its square and must start again from the beginning.
How to Play the Royal Game of Ur
A player must roll the exact number needed to move the piece off. Here, Player 1 must roll a 1 in order to remove this final piece.
The player who gets all the pieces off the board first is the winner. Even if Player 1 was ahead of her opponent, she can still lose the game without the correct roll of the dice!
Illustrations and animations by Jenna Kim.
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