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The original set dates from about 2500 BC and is now housed in the British Museum. It was excavated during the 1920s by Sir Leonard Woolley, who uncovered it in a tomb in the royal cemetery at Ur in southern Iraq. The game is a race between two players on a board of twenty squares. For some three thousand years this was the most popular board ...
- The Royal Game of Ur - Historical Board Games - The British ...
Exclusive to the British Museum, a set of The Royal Game of...
- Game Of Ur, Small - Mesopotamian Board Games - The British Museum
Dimensions: Board: H30.5 x L13 cm. Material: Card, plastic....
- The Royal Game of Ur - Historical Board Games - The British ...
Series:The Royal Game of Ur. Description. Game-board; wooden, originally hollow; top covered with 20 inlaid square shell plaques; edges made of small plaques and strips, some sculptured with an eye and some with rosettes; on the back are three lines of triangular shell ornamental inlays set as part of the modern reconstruction. Cultures/periods.
- The Royal Game of Ur
- The Lewis Chessmen
- Wari
- Senet
- Mahjong
- The Game of The Goose
- Ajax and Achilles' Game of Dice
- Sugoroku
- Pachisi
- Mehen
The Royal Game of Ur is the oldest playable boardgame in the world, originating around 4,600 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia. The game's rules were written on a cuneiform tablet by a Babylonian astronomer in 177 BC. From this, curator Irving Finkel was able to decipher the rules – two players compete to race their pieces from one end of the board ...
These charismatic chess pieces are the Lewis Chessmen – some of the most iconic objects in the Museum. Made in Scandinavia in the late 12th century, the skilfully carved chess pieces were found on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland around 1831. It's thought they belonged to a merchant travelling from Norway to Ireland, and various stories have emerged t...
Wari is a game of calculation and strategy played widely within West Africa and also popular elsewhere in the world – you might know it as mancala. The aim of the game is to capture the seeds of your opponent, moving them from their six playing holes to your bank. This game board was made in Sierra Leone and is notable for its elaborate sculptural ...
Beloved by Tutankhamun and Queen Nefertari alike, senet is one of the earliest known board games, dating to around 3100 BC. The game board comprises 30 squares, laid out in three rows of 10. Two players compete to race all their pieces to the end of the board, using casting sticks or bones, rather than dice, to determine the number of squares moved...
First played during the Qing dynasty in China (1644–1912), mahjong is a strategy-based game played using tiles. They are traditionally decorated with Chinese characters, bamboo branches and dots, and special tiles are indicated with winds, dragons, flowers and seasons. This incomplete set has 140 of the original 144 tiles, which are made from bambo...
The earliest commercially produced board game, the Game of the Goose is a game of chance and luck, involving no strategy at all. Duke Francesco de Medici first gifted the game, then called Gioco dell'Ocato Philip II of Spain between 1574 and 1587, and the pastime quickly spread in popularity throughout Europe. These examples dating from 1774 to the...
Made in Athens around 530 BC, this amphora shows Ajax and Achilles – two of the heroes of the Trojan war – playing a board game, possibly with pessi, or dice. Seven counters or dice are visible on the game board, and Ajax reaches out to pick up one of his pieces for the next throw, as they pass the hours between the fighting. We can't be sure what ...
First brought to Japan from China in the 8th century, sugorokuwas originally a complex game played by two people with a pair of dice and fifteen counters each, popular among the Japanese elite. Affordable woodblock-printed sugoroku sheets were developed in the Edo period (1615–1868), meaning this form of the game – e-sugoroku– meaning 'picture sugo...
Pachisi is an Indian game played since at least the 16th century on a board shaped like a symmetrical cross. The aim of the game is to move all four of your pieces around the board before your opponents do, with the central square acting as the start and finish point. The number of spaces moved on each turn is determined by a throw, traditionally o...
Named after the Egyptian snake god, Mehen was played from around 3000 BC until 2300 BC. The game board is in the shape of a coiled snake, whose body is divided up into rectangular segments, and teams of up to six players race from the tail to the head and back again, with additional lion-shaped gaming pieces. The rules and scoring system of mehen a...
Dimensions: Board: H30.5 x L13 cm. Material: Card, plastic. Postage Weight: 0.22 Kg. About. Exclusive to the British Museum, The Royal Game of Ur board game. Historically played by kings and queens of the ancient Mesopotamian city-state of Ur, this modern reproduction includes a board, four tetrahedral dice and two sets of playing pieces.
My replica with original materials (took 10 months / 600 hours / £3518) Hey everyone, Here’s my take at the Royal Game of Ur (the one that’s at the British Museum). I started in early April 2020 and committed several hours every single day after work, and almost all my weekends from dawn till dusk. It took me until yesterday night (10 ...
This version of the the oldest board game ever found is based on the original board displayed at the British Museum. This famous version of the game was found inside the Royal tombs at the ancient Mesopotamiam city of Ur, now Iraq. This version of the game features a wonderfully finished board with real aesthetic beauty.
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Exclusive to the British Museum, a set of The Royal Game of Ur, the famous race game played by the kings and queens of ancient Ur. Shop all historical board games at the British Museum Shop Online.
