The Best Board Games of the Ancient World

smithsonianmag ^ | Meilan Solly

[BenLurkin]

In northwest Europe, meanwhile, the Viking game Hnefatafl popped up in such far-flung locales as Scotland, Norway and Iceland. Farther south, the ancient Egyptian games of Senet and Mehen dominated. To the east in India, Chaturanga emerged as a precursor to modern chess. And 5,000 years ago, in what is now southeast Turkey, a group of Bronze Age humans created an elaborate set of sculpted stones hailed as the world’s oldest gaming pieces upon their discovery in 2013.

Senet is one of the earliest known board games. Archaeological and artistic evidence suggest it was played as early as 3100 B.C., when Egypt’s First Dynasty was just beginning to fade from power.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, upper-class members of Egyptian society played Senet using ornate game boards, examples of which still survive today. Those with fewer resources at their disposal made do with grids scratched on stone surfaces, tables or the floor.

Senet boards were long and lithe, consisting of 30 squares laid out in three parallel rows of ten. Two players received equal numbers of gaming tokens, usually between five to seven, and raced to send all of their pieces to the end of the board. Rather than rolling dice to determine the number of squares moved, participants threw casting sticks or bones. As in most complex strategy games, players had the opportunity to thwart their opponent, blocking the competition from moving forward or even sending them backward on the board.

Earlier game boards boast completely blank playing squares, but in most later versions, the final five squares feature hieroglyphics denoting special playing circumstances. Pieces that landed in square 27’s “waters of chaos,” for example, were sent all the way back to square 15—or removed from the board entirely.

[BenLurkin]

This one, "Mehan", bears a slight similarity to the Phaestos Disc

[Seruzawa]

3100BC? I think there’s a Monopoly game that has beem going on since then?

[a fool in paradise]

Sewer lid snakes and ladders?

[Jonty30]

If there was, they’d still be playing a game.

[Leep]

“bears a slight similarity to the Phaestos Disc”

Or, something a middle schooler would make in art class.

[StoneRainbow68]

What? No mention of Hounds and Jackals?

Didn’t these guys watch “The Ten Commandments”?

That game was a real thing, you know...

[BuffaloJack]

The game of “GO” was invented by Chinese Emperor Yao around 2356–2255 BC.

[M Kehoe]

Hi.

Is Tavla (backgammon) mentioned?

5.56mm

[DCBryan1]

Glad that my 6 and 8 year old are in chess club (where they play chess, backgammon, and checkers). Good games for quarantine ;)

[Jamestown1630]

I’m a fan of Irving Finkel, who figured out how the game of Ur was probably played:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Finkel

[Larry Lucido]

"I still have legions in the Negev."

"The Negev is weak. I will put the hurt on The Negev."

"I am from Negev. You not say Negev weak!"

[Tench_Coxe]

That resembles a fibonacci spiral.

[apillar]

I remember a story back a few years ago about a game from Ancient China that was surprisingly complex. Sort of a cross between Chess and a modern war game, the closest analogy I could think of was “Stratego”. There were various units such as archers and each had a different value and was strong or weak against various other units. Unfortunately as I recall all but a few of the rules have been lost over time and only the gameboard and some of the playing pieces survive, so it is impossible to recreate the game as it was truly played, although some have tried to come up with modern rules for it.

[yarddog]

I saw a painting on an ancient Greek vase showing two heroes of the Trojan war playing “draughts”.

It looked like checkers to me.

[BenLurkin]

Backgammon is mentioned

[Verginius Rufus]

Yes, there is an Athenian vase from about 530 B.C. showing Achilles and Aias (Ajax) playing a game. Achilles is saying “four” and Aias is saying “three.” Conveniently the vase painter wrote their names and what they were saying on the vase.

[rawcatslyentist]

I believe they are overlooking the most ancient game of all, probably due to the fact the playing pieces are common coins and drinking vessels. It’s known today as quarters.

[M Kehoe]

Thanks.

5.56mm

[davius]

Woe to the future archeologist who unearths ‘Hungry,Hungry Hippo’.