9 ms·

Board Games of the Ancient World

209 points by CrankyBear 7y ago

bashmelek 7y ago
Makes me wonder about how these games evolved over time and why we have the modern versions we do now. Are the games we have today really more "fun" or is there something in these that we've been missing and have to experience?
navbaker 7y ago
There was an ancient game I found an article on a few years back that I have been unable to find again. It (I believe) was an Asian game and had over 400 distinct pieces, each with their own rules for movement. Does that sound familiar to anyone? I’m striking out with google...
- al_chemist 7y ago
  > over 400 distinct pieces, each with their own rules for movement I doubt it'd exist. It's hard to place 400 pieces on board, hard to remember 400 different movement patterns, it takes forever to setup the game. Shogi is asian game with 15 types of pieces.
  - mrob 7y ago
    There's this probably never widely played shogi variant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taikyoku_shogi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taikyoku_shogi "Each player has a set of 402 wedge-shaped pieces of 209 types. The players must remember 253 sets of moves."
    - navbaker 7y ago
      That’s it! Thank you!
jvm_ 7y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZskjLq040I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZskjLq040I 25 minutes of "Tom Scott vs Irving Finkel: The Royal Game of Ur". Great to watch.
- davee5 7y ago
  Irving Finkel's lectures are marvelous. Watching his lecture on the decipherment of cuneiform is a delight, both in subject matter and in the delivery of a well worn and thoroughly polished presentation. (If only all professors were so articulate and passionate.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfYYraMgiBA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfYYraMgiBA
acomjean 7y ago
The royal game of Ur sounded familiar. They released a boxed version is the 70s I vaguely remember.. Board game geek has a summary: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1602/royal-game-ur https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1602/royal-game-ur Interesting.. backgammon and chess seem to have thrived..
- dkersten 7y ago
  Here's a video of Tom Scott playing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZskjLq040I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZskjLq040I
jimtwo 7y ago
A lot of this article is inaccurate: https://twitter.com/CuseKicks/status/1225417738656604160 https://twitter.com/CuseKicks/status/1225417738656604160
- lubujackson 7y ago
  I am excited for the book he mentions working on about games from an archaeological perspective.
leto_ii 7y ago
On a couple of occasions I have actually seen such ancient game boards in different places in Italy. Here's one from the Baths of Caracalla in Rome: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gaming_Board_in_the_Baths_of_Caracalla.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gaming_Board_in_the_... I especially like the thought that countless people have played on the same board for whole generations. It was a public pass-time that brought people together.
- mrob 7y ago
  Is there evidence that it was actually used for playing games? The irregular placement of the divots makes it look like a kind of vandalism that was popular when I was in school, where people would surreptitiously use coins to grind divots in walls while waiting for class.
  - leto_ii 7y ago
    I don't have any definitive proof at hand, but it was mentioned in the brochure for the Baths of Caracalla. Here's a photo with a longer description: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/287951/48703648 http://www.ipernity.com/doc/287951/48703648 I think this kind of stuff was relatively common throughout the Roman world.
    - mrob 7y ago
      It's more obviously a game board in this photo. The irregular placement increases the difficulty of the game.
mysterydip 7y ago
One thing I learned only recently was the Romans had a version of tic-tac-toe (noughts and crosses, Xs and Os, etc) that is (IMHO) superior to the modern version. While any capable player will always draw in the modern version, the ancient one gives each player only three pieces. To place a new one, an old must be removed. On the surface at least, this seems to result in a much more strategic game. I wonder why the modern variant is the one that is most well known?
- marcofiset 7y ago
  One thing that I've learned over the years playing modern board games is that the vast majority of the population is too intellectually lazy to bother learning new games. They'd rather keep playing their (outdated) classics that they know than learn new and better-designed games.
  - b0rsuk 7y ago
    Monopoly! Woo!!
    - smoyer 7y ago
      Monotony? ... for some reason I never had a problem playing Risk in college even though it would last all night (or more). Playing a six-hour game of Monopoly was only fun for the first couple of hours.
      - Psyladine 7y ago
        Monopoly should rarely, if ever, last more than 45 minutes. Assuming Of Course you are playing by the rules. All properties landed on must sell - even if by auction, no free parking payout, chance cards are not optional, no banker loans, and there are a finite number of houses which caps development for the late-comers. It's as ruthless and unpleasant as a game of Sorry but that's the point, capitalism is only great when you're winning.
        7y ago
b0rsuk 7y ago
I'm sure ancient peoples had much more opportunity to play outside. They didn't have our resources, but they had lots of playing field. Lots of room for throwing stones, darts, climbing. If you were old or unathletic you could still collect mushrooms or berries - that's a game of perception and patience. Singing or instrument playing contests, fishing contests. Or "let-see-who-can-grow-the-biggest-pumpkin" contest.We increasingly live in cities and going outside often means going into noise or crowd. My point: I'm sure many games they played were not on boards. They didn't have to be.
smoyer 7y ago
Cool to see the Tafl games in this article! Being part Welsh, I've researched and (tried to) played "tawlbwrdd" with a printed paper board and a few coins. I'm thinking about turning a maple tree (and a bit of black walnut) that we had cut down into heirloom games for my kids (they used to climb in those trees). http://tafl.cyningstan.com/page/172/tawlbwrdd http://tafl.cyningstan.com/page/172/tawlbwrdd
lordleft 7y ago
Sometimes I look at my closet filled to the brim with expensive boardgames, sometimes packed with well-honed mechanics and expensive miniatures, and consider the irony of the fact that in our age of ceaseless digital distraction, we have more offline entertainment than ever before. Surely someone in the 18th century (AD or BCE) would more greatly appreciate the embarrassment of board-gaming riches we have today.
- contingencies 7y ago
  Same for Steam accounts / cellphones vs. 80s consoles / portable handheld gaming systems.
danidiaz 7y ago
The cathedrals of Ourense and León in Spain have a few game boards etched in stone at discreet places. Some of them look like Nine Men Morris (Alquerque?) boards: http://jesus-manuel.com/2015/08/08/658/ http://jesus-manuel.com/2015/08/08/658/ (in Spanish) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alquerque https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alquerque
Aperocky 7y ago
Game of go have been played since Spring and Autumn period (~500 BC), at the time, it's just called 'The Board Game'. Quite a few variation happened, at the time it was played on 17*17 board and with 4 existing stones at the beginning. But the general rule (which was so simple) persisted.
The_mboga_real 7y ago
Fuck whichever folk you like up the shitter?
mstade 7y ago
I love playing Backgammon, I find it to be an almost perfect blend of skill and luck, while also being much more accessible than something like chess. It's easy enough to learn on the fly, and after only a few games you start recognizing patterns and strategies and it really motivates you to get better. I find it's a pretty good way to get a more intuitive grasp on probability as well. It's also easy to teach other how to play and get hooked. I have lunch at the same spot almost every day, and I bring a backgammon rollup travel set with me so I can play with whomever might be interested in a game. Most often it'll be the owner or her staff (I've taught six of them how to play, so far!) but sometimes random people will come up and say "what's that game" and we're off to the races. Great conversation starter!
- misja111 7y ago
  Backgammon has gained some new popularity since computer programs appeared that were able to beat humans and more importantly, analyze the games afterwards. The game is now played more as a game of skill than of luck: there are some backgammon sites that rate your play according to computer analysis, e.g. https://backgammongalaxy.com/ https://backgammongalaxy.com/. If you're interested you should give it a try.
  - mstade 7y ago
    I have tried it actually, but thanks for the tip anyway! :o) I'm curious about this surge in popularity though. Where I am (Sweden) most people seem to know about backgammon, but not many know how to play so can't say I recognize that surge. Regardless, people mostly seem keen to learn which is great fun for me since I love to teach, and it's a great feeling when they win without any help on strategy or moves. :o)
    - misja111 7y ago
      If you'd like to see some good players in action: there are a few backgammon tournaments in Sweden with some world class participants. For instance https://dubbel5.se/tournaments/SO2109.html https://dubbel5.se/tournaments/SO2109.html
pgtan 7y ago
Not mentioned in the article: Snakes and Ladders. Was real fun to play with my son, especially coming up with new rules after while. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_and_Ladders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_and_Ladders
- kragen 7y ago
  It is mentioned, just under the name of goose.
- tauchunfall 7y ago
  It's also fun to experiment with Markov chains with Snakes and Ladders.
failrate 7y ago
I was disappointed that the chosen games were ones that we don't have rules to play them. The Royal Game of Ur is an ancient game where we actually have the rules. It's easy to make a board for it, and it plays great. My recommendation is to to play it with 4 coins or other 2 sided randomizers instead of a 4 sided die, because I find a normal curve more satisfying than flat probability.
swagasaurus-rex 7y ago
The game of the goose sounds a lot like Candy Land. > A race governed purely by chance, the competition involves “not the slightest element of skill or true player interaction towards the winning of stakes This seems to describe the gameplay of candy land: literally no way to make your self lose any more than you already are. You are simply at the whim of where the next card you draw tells you to go.
- hanniabu 7y ago
  I used to live candy land as a kid and now that I'm older I hate it because it's all luck and there's no strategy in it. My favorite right now is Splendor.
sherr 7y ago
The History Blog [1] (a great read daily) has a post today (coincidentally) on a recently unearthed Viking era "hnefatafl" piece, probably a king. Dug up on Lindisfarne, a holy island site off the coast of Northumbria in England. It's a lovely piece of decorated azure glass. The post is worth a (short) read. [1] http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/57805 http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/57805

209 points by CrankyBear 7y ago

Makes me wonder about how these games evolved over time and why we have the modern versions we do now. Are the games we have today really more "fun" or is there something in these that we've been missing and have to experience?

navbaker 7y ago

There was an ancient game I found an article on a few years back that I have been unable to find again. It (I believe) was an Asian game and had over 400 distinct pieces, each with their own rules for movement. Does that sound familiar to anyone? I’m striking out with google...

al_chemist 7y ago
> over 400 distinct pieces, each with their own rules for movement I doubt it'd exist. It's hard to place 400 pieces on board, hard to remember 400 different movement patterns, it takes forever to setup the game. Shogi is asian game with 15 types of pieces.
- mrob 7y ago
  There's this probably never widely played shogi variant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taikyoku_shogi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taikyoku_shogi "Each player has a set of 402 wedge-shaped pieces of 209 types. The players must remember 253 sets of moves."
  - navbaker 7y ago
    That’s it! Thank you!

jvm_ 7y ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZskjLq040I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZskjLq040I 25 minutes of "Tom Scott vs Irving Finkel: The Royal Game of Ur". Great to watch.

davee5 7y ago
Irving Finkel's lectures are marvelous. Watching his lecture on the decipherment of cuneiform is a delight, both in subject matter and in the delivery of a well worn and thoroughly polished presentation. (If only all professors were so articulate and passionate.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfYYraMgiBA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfYYraMgiBA

acomjean 7y ago

The royal game of Ur sounded familiar. They released a boxed version is the 70s I vaguely remember.. Board game geek has a summary: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1602/royal-game-ur https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1602/royal-game-ur Interesting.. backgammon and chess seem to have thrived..

dkersten 7y ago
Here's a video of Tom Scott playing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZskjLq040I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZskjLq040I

jimtwo 7y ago

A lot of this article is inaccurate: https://twitter.com/CuseKicks/status/1225417738656604160 https://twitter.com/CuseKicks/status/1225417738656604160

lubujackson 7y ago
I am excited for the book he mentions working on about games from an archaeological perspective.

leto_ii 7y ago

On a couple of occasions I have actually seen such ancient game boards in different places in Italy. Here's one from the Baths of Caracalla in Rome: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gaming_Board_in_the_Baths_of_Caracalla.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gaming_Board_in_the_... I especially like the thought that countless people have played on the same board for whole generations. It was a public pass-time that brought people together.

mrob 7y ago
Is there evidence that it was actually used for playing games? The irregular placement of the divots makes it look like a kind of vandalism that was popular when I was in school, where people would surreptitiously use coins to grind divots in walls while waiting for class.
- leto_ii 7y ago
  I don't have any definitive proof at hand, but it was mentioned in the brochure for the Baths of Caracalla. Here's a photo with a longer description: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/287951/48703648 http://www.ipernity.com/doc/287951/48703648 I think this kind of stuff was relatively common throughout the Roman world.
  - mrob 7y ago
    It's more obviously a game board in this photo. The irregular placement increases the difficulty of the game.

mysterydip 7y ago

One thing I learned only recently was the Romans had a version of tic-tac-toe (noughts and crosses, Xs and Os, etc) that is (IMHO) superior to the modern version. While any capable player will always draw in the modern version, the ancient one gives each player only three pieces. To place a new one, an old must be removed. On the surface at least, this seems to result in a much more strategic game. I wonder why the modern variant is the one that is most well known?

marcofiset 7y ago
One thing that I've learned over the years playing modern board games is that the vast majority of the population is too intellectually lazy to bother learning new games. They'd rather keep playing their (outdated) classics that they know than learn new and better-designed games.
- b0rsuk 7y ago
  Monopoly! Woo!!
  - smoyer 7y ago
    Monotony? ... for some reason I never had a problem playing Risk in college even though it would last all night (or more). Playing a six-hour game of Monopoly was only fun for the first couple of hours.
    - Psyladine 7y ago
      Monopoly should rarely, if ever, last more than 45 minutes. Assuming Of Course you are playing by the rules. All properties landed on must sell - even if by auction, no free parking payout, chance cards are not optional, no banker loans, and there are a finite number of houses which caps development for the late-comers. It's as ruthless and unpleasant as a game of Sorry but that's the point, capitalism is only great when you're winning.
      - 7y ago

b0rsuk 7y ago

I'm sure ancient peoples had much more opportunity to play outside. They didn't have our resources, but they had lots of playing field. Lots of room for throwing stones, darts, climbing. If you were old or unathletic you could still collect mushrooms or berries - that's a game of perception and patience. Singing or instrument playing contests, fishing contests. Or "let-see-who-can-grow-the-biggest-pumpkin" contest.We increasingly live in cities and going outside often means going into noise or crowd. My point: I'm sure many games they played were not on boards. They didn't have to be.

smoyer 7y ago

Cool to see the Tafl games in this article! Being part Welsh, I've researched and (tried to) played "tawlbwrdd" with a printed paper board and a few coins. I'm thinking about turning a maple tree (and a bit of black walnut) that we had cut down into heirloom games for my kids (they used to climb in those trees). http://tafl.cyningstan.com/page/172/tawlbwrdd http://tafl.cyningstan.com/page/172/tawlbwrdd

lordleft 7y ago

Sometimes I look at my closet filled to the brim with expensive boardgames, sometimes packed with well-honed mechanics and expensive miniatures, and consider the irony of the fact that in our age of ceaseless digital distraction, we have more offline entertainment than ever before. Surely someone in the 18th century (AD or BCE) would more greatly appreciate the embarrassment of board-gaming riches we have today.

contingencies 7y ago
Same for Steam accounts / cellphones vs. 80s consoles / portable handheld gaming systems.

danidiaz 7y ago

The cathedrals of Ourense and León in Spain have a few game boards etched in stone at discreet places. Some of them look like Nine Men Morris (Alquerque?) boards: http://jesus-manuel.com/2015/08/08/658/ http://jesus-manuel.com/2015/08/08/658/ (in Spanish) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alquerque https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alquerque

Aperocky 7y ago

Game of go have been played since Spring and Autumn period (~500 BC), at the time, it's just called 'The Board Game'. Quite a few variation happened, at the time it was played on 17*17 board and with 4 existing stones at the beginning. But the general rule (which was so simple) persisted.

The_mboga_real 7y ago

Fuck whichever folk you like up the shitter?

mstade 7y ago

I love playing Backgammon, I find it to be an almost perfect blend of skill and luck, while also being much more accessible than something like chess. It's easy enough to learn on the fly, and after only a few games you start recognizing patterns and strategies and it really motivates you to get better. I find it's a pretty good way to get a more intuitive grasp on probability as well. It's also easy to teach other how to play and get hooked. I have lunch at the same spot almost every day, and I bring a backgammon rollup travel set with me so I can play with whomever might be interested in a game. Most often it'll be the owner or her staff (I've taught six of them how to play, so far!) but sometimes random people will come up and say "what's that game" and we're off to the races. Great conversation starter!

misja111 7y ago
Backgammon has gained some new popularity since computer programs appeared that were able to beat humans and more importantly, analyze the games afterwards. The game is now played more as a game of skill than of luck: there are some backgammon sites that rate your play according to computer analysis, e.g. https://backgammongalaxy.com/ https://backgammongalaxy.com/. If you're interested you should give it a try.
- mstade 7y ago
  I have tried it actually, but thanks for the tip anyway! :o) I'm curious about this surge in popularity though. Where I am (Sweden) most people seem to know about backgammon, but not many know how to play so can't say I recognize that surge. Regardless, people mostly seem keen to learn which is great fun for me since I love to teach, and it's a great feeling when they win without any help on strategy or moves. :o)
  - misja111 7y ago
    If you'd like to see some good players in action: there are a few backgammon tournaments in Sweden with some world class participants. For instance https://dubbel5.se/tournaments/SO2109.html https://dubbel5.se/tournaments/SO2109.html

pgtan 7y ago

Not mentioned in the article: Snakes and Ladders. Was real fun to play with my son, especially coming up with new rules after while. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_and_Ladders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_and_Ladders

kragen 7y ago
It is mentioned, just under the name of goose.
tauchunfall 7y ago
It's also fun to experiment with Markov chains with Snakes and Ladders.

failrate 7y ago

I was disappointed that the chosen games were ones that we don't have rules to play them. The Royal Game of Ur is an ancient game where we actually have the rules. It's easy to make a board for it, and it plays great. My recommendation is to to play it with 4 coins or other 2 sided randomizers instead of a 4 sided die, because I find a normal curve more satisfying than flat probability.

swagasaurus-rex 7y ago

The game of the goose sounds a lot like Candy Land. > A race governed purely by chance, the competition involves “not the slightest element of skill or true player interaction towards the winning of stakes This seems to describe the gameplay of candy land: literally no way to make your self lose any more than you already are. You are simply at the whim of where the next card you draw tells you to go.

hanniabu 7y ago
I used to live candy land as a kid and now that I'm older I hate it because it's all luck and there's no strategy in it. My favorite right now is Splendor.

sherr 7y ago

The History Blog [1] (a great read daily) has a post today (coincidentally) on a recently unearthed Viking era "hnefatafl" piece, probably a king. Dug up on Lindisfarne, a holy island site off the coast of Northumbria in England. It's a lovely piece of decorated azure glass. The post is worth a (short) read. [1] http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/57805 http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/57805