Archaeogaming Spotlight: The Royal Game of Ur

We talk about modern games when we talk about Archaeogaming, but what were ancient societies playing?

4,500 years ago, the Sumerians were playing the Royal Game of Ur, or Twenty Squares. We know the rules of this game because they were written on a cuneiform tablet. The goal of the game is to try to get all your pieces off the board before the other player! There is a special path to take, a rule to each square, and rules about placing your pieces.

Find out more and watch it being played here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZskjLq040I

Photo: By British Museum - https://www.britishmuseum.org/coll.../object/W_1928-1009-378, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=112622691