History
The Game of Ur is one of the oldest games in the world, that was first played in ancient Mesopotamia during
the early third millennium BC. It derived its name from the place where it was first discovered.
The English archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley during his excavations of the Royal Cemetery at Ur between 1926
and 1930 discovered five game boards of this game. Later other archaeologists have also found copies of the
game in Iran, Syria, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Cyprus and other places throughout the Middle East. In Tutankhamun's
tomb four game boards with a similar resemblance to the Royal Game of Ur were also discovered.
The game was popular among all social classes. It is uncertain what contributed to the gradual demise of the
Game of Ur during the late antiquity. One hypothesis suggests that it developed into backgammon.
The game was designed for two players, as two sets of playing pieces (black and white) were found with it.
For a gameplay a tetrahedral (four-sided) dice was used.
The original rules of the game remain unknown, although a number of different scholars have interpreted them
on the basis of a cuneiform tablet discovered in Iraq in 1880, which is now housed in the British Museum (Rm-III.6.b – 33333B).
It includes the number and the names of the pawns and some information regarding the throws.
British Museum curator Irving Finkel in the early 1980s reconstructed the basic rules of how the game might
have been played in the second century BC based on this tablet. The tablet contained almost complete set of
rules. Unfortunately the original route the players should follow is still unknown.
There have been a few proposals by different researchers as to which path the players follow across the
board. I will introduce four specific adaptations to the rules: R.C. Bell/I. Finkel,
H.J.R. Murray's, J. Masters, D. Skiryuk.
R.C. Bell / I. Finkel
This path is the shortest of these four versions. This is perhaps the most widely used direction and fits
the description of the game found on a clay tablet.
H.J.R. Murray
H.J.R. Murray assumed that the rosette squares gave an extra move. The distance between the rosettes
was equivalent to the maximum points of the dice.
J. Masters
Game board maker, J. Masters, offered a compromise between the rules of Murray and Bell.
D. Skiryuk
D. Skiryuk gives another alternative with the exit of the board from the middle left square (it has
a unique ornament on the board). He also believes that some squares had specific functions. The "4 eyed"
square allowed to keep up to four pieces at once, some squares turned pieces upside down, etc.
All boards found differed in material but the arrangement of rosettes on the board was still the same. It has
caused some scholars to believe that only squares with a rosette have some function. They might be the squares
to be avoided. Maybe they return the counter back to the start or require a player to pay a fine into a pool
of betting money.
Bibliographical references
Bell 1960, 1969:R.C. Bell,Board and Table Games of Many Civilisations, 2 vols.London [reprinted with
corrections and revisions by DoverBooks, 1979].
Finkel, Irving L. “On the rules for the Royal Game of Ur.” In Ancient Board Games in Perspective: Papers
from the 1990 British Museum Colloquium, with Additional Contributions. London: British Museum, pp. 16-32.
2007.
Murray, H.J.R. A History of Board-games Other Than Chess, pp. 19-21. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952.