Can you believe that the game of monopoly is 89 years old? That is nothing compared to some of the other games played by our ancestors. As it turns out, people have always needed to find a way to pass time and argue about rules amongst one another. This could probably be titled “When was the first board game flipped?” but unfortunately I am not sure we could say for sure. Anyways, lets take a step back and see what some of the oldest board games were.
Chess is definitely a common answer and arguably is one of the best documented games, both in terms of rules and development. Indeed its roots could be far older than what is currently known. There is just no concrete evidence to support this. Chess can trace it’s roots back to game from 6th century AD India to a game called Chaturanga. The rules of this game are unclear, but it did play similar to modern chess and shared the same pieces. The board operated the same, however, it was not checkered adding a degree of difficulty. Generally accepted though is that the current queen piece was considerably less powerful, moving one square diagonally. This would remain the case until around 1500. Pawn promotion also operated differently. Some accounts saying that it would be promoted to a then queen, while others suggesting it was promoted to the piece that started on the square. It is actually quite interesting reading the development of chess and do suggest it as it is fascinating not only to chess fans, but seeing how modern day things transition overtime. Chess was able to gain traction in the west thanks to its introduction to Persia, where it worked its way into the Arab world, Byzantine Empire and Russia. Modern chess itself has been around since the 16th century largely unchanged.
Despite chess being around for 1500 years, there are older board games that are more or less still playable. The Royal Game of Ur is the older game around that is still playable as we do have an actual set of rules to go with the game. The oldest set was found in the Royal Cemetery of Ur in modern Iraq, hence the given name, and dates back to 2600-2400 BC. Boards dating to around this time have been found throughout Mesopotamia and later boards around 800-1000 years later in Egypt. This game may have been the basis for the more common Egyptian game Senet. The difference is there is a tablet describing the rules for The Royal Game of Ur. One dates to 177 BC, so much later from when the game started, from a Babylonian scribe that was found in the 1880s.
There is of course a honorable mention, however the rules of the game have been long lost. In the Old Kingdom of Egypt, there was a game that we have given the Mehen. Accounts of the board game date back to 3000 BC. It has been depicted in ancient tombs and sites like Abydos. The board itself was circular and coiled, resembling that of snake coiled up. It was likely a race game much like the previous mentioned Royal Game of Ur and likely involved a type of dice as well. It seems this game died out before the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, as depictions and physical boards are not found dating in this period and beyond. Perhaps one day we will get lucky and discover the rules of this game.
Daily Dose of History 