The Royal Game of Ur is a
two-player
A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system ( couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...
strategy
Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art ...
race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
board game
Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well.
Many board games feature a comp ...
of the
tables
Table may refer to:
* Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs
* Table (landform), a flat area of land
* Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and columns
* Table (database), how the table data ...
family that was first played in ancient
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
during the early third millennium BC. The game was popular across the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
among people of all social strata and boards for playing it have been found at locations as far away from Mesopotamia as
Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...
and
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
. It closely resembles another ancient game called the Game of Twenty Squares or Game of Twenty (see
below).
At the height of its popularity, the game acquired spiritual significance, and events in the game were believed to reflect a player's future and convey messages from deities or other supernatural beings. The Game of Ur remained popular until
late antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...
, when it stopped being played, possibly evolving into, or being displaced by, a later form of
tables game
Tables games are a class of board game that includes backgammon and which are played on a tables board, typically with two rows of 12 vertical markings called points. Players roll dice to determine the movement of pieces. Tables games are among ...
. It was eventually forgotten everywhere except among the
Jewish population
As of 2020, the world's "core" Jewish population (those identifying as Jews above all else) was estimated at 15 million, 0.2% of the 8 billion worldwide population. This number rises to 18 million with the addition of the "connected" Jewish pop ...
of the Indian city of
Kochi
Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...
, who continued playing a version of it called 'Asha' until the 1950s when they began
emigrating
Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...
to
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
.
The Game of Ur received its name because it was first rediscovered by the English archaeologist
Sir Leonard Woolley
Sir Charles Leonard Woolley (17 April 1880 – 20 February 1960) was a British archaeologist best known for his excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia. He is recognized as one of the first "modern" archaeologists who excavated in a methodical way, ...
during his excavations of the
Royal Cemetery at Ur
The Royal Cemetery at Ur is an archaeological site in modern-day Dhi Qar Governorate in southern Iraq. The initial excavations at Ur took place between 1922 and 1934 under the direction of Leonard Woolley in association with the British Museum and ...
between 1922 and 1934. Copies of the game have since been found by other archaeologists across the Middle East. The rules of the Game of Ur as it was played in the second century BC have been preserved on a
Babylonia
Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. ...
n
clay tablet
In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age.
Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylu ...
written by the scribe Itti-Marduk-balāṭu.
Based on this tablet and the shape of the ,
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
curator
Irving Finkel
Irving Leonard Finkel (born 1951) is a British philologist and Assyriologist. He is the Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures in the Department of the Middle East in the British Museum, where he specialises in c ...
reconstructed the basic rules of how the game might have been played. The object of the game is to run the course of the board and bear all one's pieces off before one's opponent. Like modern
backgammon
Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...
, the game combines elements of both strategy and
luck
Luck is the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable events, especially improbably positive or negative ones. The naturalistic interpretation is that positive and negative events may happen at any time, both due to rand ...
.
History
![Game Box for Playing Senet and Twenty Squares MET DP116121](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Game_Box_for_Playing_Senet_and_Twenty_Squares_MET_DP116121.jpg)
The Game of Ur was popular across the Middle East
and boards for it have been found in
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
,
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
,
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
,
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
,
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
, and Crete.
Four gameboards bearing a very close resemblance to the Royal Game of Ur were found in the
tomb of Tutankhamun
The tomb of Tutankhamun, also known by its tomb number, KV62, is the burial place of Tutankhamun (reigned c. 1334–1325 BC), a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, in the Valley of the Kings. The tomb ...
.
These boards came with small boxes to store dice and game pieces
and many had
senet
Senet or senat ( egy, znt, translation=passing; cf. Coptic ⲥⲓⲛⲉ /sinə/ "passing, afternoon") is a board game from ancient Egypt. The earliest representation of senet is dated to E from the Mastaba of Hesy-Re, while similar boards and ...
boards on the reverse sides so that the same board could be used to play either game and merely had to be flipped over.
The game was popular among all social classes.
A
graffito version of the game carved with a sharp object, possibly a dagger, was discovered on one of the
human-headed winged bull gate sentinels from the palace of
Sargon II
Sargon II (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "the faithful king" or "the legitimate king") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 722 BC to his death in battle in 705. Probably the son of Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727), Sargon is general ...
(721–705 BC) in the city of
Khorsabad
Dur-Sharrukin ("Fortress of Sargon"; ar, دور شروكين, Syriac: ܕܘܪ ܫܪܘ ܘܟܢ), present day Khorsabad, was the Assyrian capital in the time of Sargon II of Assyria. Khorsabad is a village in northern Iraq, 15 km northeast of Mo ...
.
The Game of Ur eventually acquired superstitious significance
and the tablet of Itti-Marduk-balāṭu provides vague predictions for the players' futures if they land on certain spaces,
such as "You will find a friend", "You will become powerful like a lion", or "You will draw fine beer".
People saw relationships between a player's success in the game and their success in real life.
Seemingly random events, such as landing on a certain square, were interpreted as messages from deities, ghosts of deceased ancestors, or from a person's own soul.
A 2013 study of nearly 100 well-dated game boards across the Near East shows significant changes over 1200 years of time in the layout of squares on the board.
This indicates that game rules and game play were not static, but changed over time. The study further shows the game was transmitted from Mesopotamia to the Levant around 1800 BC, from the Levant to Egypt around 1600 BC where it picked up small innovations in board design (additional squares), and from Egypt or the Levant to Cyprus and Nubia. Several apparently failed innovations in board design also appear (i.e., only one example of a specific board design is known from the archaeological record).
It is unclear what led to the Game of Ur's eventual decline during late antiquity.
One theory holds that it evolved into backgammon;
whereas another holds that early forms of backgammon eclipsed the Game of Ur in popularity, causing players to eventually forget about the older game.
At some point before the game fell out of popularity in the Middle East, it was apparently introduced to the Indian city of Kochi by a group of Jewish merchants.
Members of the Jewish population of Kochi were still playing a recognizable form of the Game of Ur, which they called Aasha,
by the time they started emigrating to Israel in the 1950s after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
The Kochi version of the game had twenty squares, just like the original Mesopotamian version, but each player had twelve pieces rather than seven, and the placement of the twenty squares was slightly different.
Modern rediscovery
The British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley discovered five gameboards of the Game of Ur during his excavation of the Royal Cemetery at Ur between 1922 and 1934.
Because the game was first discovered in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, it became known as the "Royal Game of Ur", but later archaeologists uncovered other copies of the game from other locations across the Middle East.
Each of the boards discovered by Woolley date to around 3,000 BC.
All five boards were of an identical type, but they were made of different materials and had different decorations.
Woolley reproduced images of two of these boards in his 1949 book, ''The First Phases''.
One of these is a relatively simple set with a background composed of discs of shell with blue or red centers set in wood-covered
bitumen
Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...
.
The other is a more elaborate one completely covered with shell plaques, inlaid with red
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
and
lapis lazuli
Lapis lazuli (; ), or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color.
As early as the 7th millennium BC, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines, ...
.
Other gameboards are often engraved with images of animals.
Play
Reconstruction
![Clay cuneiform tablet rules for Royal Game of Ur](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Clay_cuneiform_tablet_rules_for_Royal_Game_of_Ur.jpg)
When the Game of Ur was first discovered, no one knew how it was played.
Then, in the early 1980s,
Irving Finkel
Irving Leonard Finkel (born 1951) is a British philologist and Assyriologist. He is the Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures in the Department of the Middle East in the British Museum, where he specialises in c ...
, a curator at the British Museum, translated a clay tablet written 177 BC by the Babylonian scribe Itti-Marduk-balāṭu describing how the game was played during that time period, based on an earlier description of the rules by another scribe named Iddin-Bēl.
This tablet was written during the waning days of Babylonian civilization,
long after the time when the Game of Ur was first played.
It had been discovered in 1880 in the ruins of Babylon and sold to the British Museum.
Finkel also used photographs of another tablet describing the rules, which had been in the personal collection of Count Aymar de Liedekerke-Beaufort, but was destroyed during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
This second tablet was undated, but is believed by archaeologists to have been written several centuries earlier than the tablet by Itti-Marduk-balāṭu and to have originated from the city of
Uruk
Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...
.
The backs of both tablets show diagrams of the gameboard, clearly indicating which game they are describing.
Based on these rules and the shape of the gameboard, Finkel was able to reconstruct how the game might have been played.
Basic rules
The Game of Ur is a race game
and it is probably an ancestor of the
tables
Table may refer to:
* Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs
* Table (landform), a flat area of land
* Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and columns
* Table (database), how the table data ...
family of games that are still played today and include
Backgammon
Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...
.
The Game of Ur is played using two sets of seven game pieces, similar to those used in
draughts
Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...
or
checkers
Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...
.
One set of pieces is white with five black dots and the other set is black with five white dots.
The gameboard is composed of two rectangular sets of boxes, one containing three rows of four boxes each and the other containing three rows of two boxes each, joined by a "narrow bridge" of two boxes.
The gameplay involves elements of both luck and strategy.
Movements are determined by rolling a set of
four-sided, tetrahedron-shaped dice.
Two of the four corners of each die are marked and the other two are not, giving each die an equal chance of landing with a marked or unmarked corner facing up.
The number of marked ends facing upwards after a roll of the dice indicates how many spaces a player may move during that turn.
A single game can last up to half an hour and can be very intense.
Games are very often unpredictable and close at the end.
The object of the game is for a player to move all seven of their pieces along the course (''two proposed versions of which are shown at right'') and off the board before their opponent.
On all surviving gameboards, the two sides of the board are always identical with each other, indicating that the two sides of the board belong to each player.
When a piece is on one of the player's own squares, it is safe from capture.
When it is on one of the eight squares in the middle of the board, the opponent's pieces may capture it by landing on the same space, sending the piece back off the board so that it must restart the course from the beginning.
This means there are six "safe" squares and eight "combat" squares.
There can never be more than one piece on a single square at any given time, so having too many pieces on the board at once can impede a player's mobility.
When a player rolls a number using the dice, they may choose to move any of their pieces on the board or add a new piece to the board if they still have pieces that have not entered the game.
A player is not required to capture a piece every time they have the opportunity.
Nonetheless, players are required to move a piece whenever possible, even if it results in an unfavorable outcome.
All surviving gameboards have a colored rosette in the middle of the center row.
According to Finkel's reconstruction, if a piece is located on the space with the rosette, it is safe from capture. Finkel also states that when a piece lands on any of the three rosettes, the player gets an extra roll.
In order to remove a piece from the board, a player must roll exactly the number of spaces remaining until the end of the course plus one.
If the player rolls a number any higher or lower than this number, they may not remove the piece from the board.
Gambling
One archaeological dig uncovered twenty-one white balls alongside a set of the Game of Ur.
It is believed that these balls were probably used
for placing wagers.
According to the tablet of Itti-Marduk-balāṭu, whenever a player skips one of the boxes marked with a rosette, they must place a token in the pot.
If a player lands on a rosette, they may take a token from the pot.
Game of Twenty
The Game of Twenty or Game of Twenty Squares is another ancient tables game similar to the Royal Game of Ur. Egyptian gaming boxes often have a board for this game on the opposite side to that for the better known game of
Senet
Senet or senat ( egy, znt, translation=passing; cf. Coptic ⲥⲓⲛⲉ /sinə/ "passing, afternoon") is a board game from ancient Egypt. The earliest representation of senet is dated to E from the Mastaba of Hesy-Re, while similar boards and ...
. It dates roughly to the period from 1500 BC to 300 BC and is known to have been played in the region that includes Babylon, Mesopotamia and Persia as well as Egypt. The board comprises two distinct sections; a quadrant of 3 x 4 squares, like that in the Ur game, and a row or 'arm' of 8 squares projecting from the central row of the quadrant. It has five rosettes. The rules are not precisely known but it appears likely that players entered at their 5 pieces onto the arm and aimed to bear them off from the sides of the quadrant, perhaps having contested the arm by hitting opposing pieces off.
[Parlett (2018), pp. 65–66.]
Footnotes
References
Further reading
* Botermans, Jack (1988). ''Le Monde des jeux.'' Paris: Le Chêne. .
*
Finkel, Irving (2007), “On the Royal Game of Ur,” in ''Ancient Board Games in Perspective'', ed. Irving Finkel. London: British Museum Press, pp. 16–32.
*
Finkel, Irving (1991)
''La tablette des régles du jeu royal d'Ur'' Jouer dans l'Antiquité, Catalogue de l'Exposition. Marseille: Musée d'Archéologie Méditerranéenne.
*
Finkel, Irving (2005)
995
Year 995 ( CMXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Japan
* 17 May - Fujiwara no Michitaka (imperial regent) dies.
* 3 June: Fujiwara no Michikane gain ...
''Games: Discover and Play Five Famous Ancient Games'' (3rd ed.)''.'' London: British Museum Press.
* Lhôte, Jean-Marie (1993). ''Histoire des jeux de société.'' Paris: Flammarion. .
*
Parlett, David
David Parlett (born 18 May 1939 in London) is a games scholar, historian, and translator from South London, who has studied both card games and board games. He is the president of the British Skat Association.
His published works include many pop ...
(2018)
999 999 or triple nine most often refers to:
* 999 (emergency telephone number), a telephone number for the emergency services in several countries
* 999 (number), an integer
* AD 999, a year
* 999 BC, a year
Books
* ''999'' (anthology) or ''999: T ...
''History of Board Games''. Brattleboro, VT: Echo.
External links
Deciphering the world's oldest rule book – Irving Finkel – The British MuseumTom Scott vs Irving Finkel: The Royal Game of Ur – The British MuseumPlay the Royal Game of Ur on GouziGouza
{{Tables games
Traditional board games
History of board games
Middle Eastern objects in the British Museum
Ur
Sumer
Asian games
Historical tables games