While video games have only been around in a major way since the 1970s,board gamescan trace their history back millennia.Analog games are where the likes of Nintendo startedbeforeMarioand his friends were ever conceived.Tabletop gameshave been experiencing somewhat of a renaissance over the last decade or so, with tonnes of innovative ideas bringing the hobby closer to the mainstream than ever before.
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However, humans have been whiling away the hours with games like this throughout all of history, and historians are still uncovering new ones to this day. There are people who dedicate themselves to uncovering theoldest board gamesand working out the rules, allowing people to play them in the modern-day. Even more amazingly, sometabletop gameshave simply stood the test of time, and the rules were never lost in the first place.
(All images fromWikimedia Commons)
10Chess
While many expectChessto be a super-ancient game, in the grand scheme of things, it’s actually relatively young. There issome disagreement amongst historians about exactly whereChessoriginated, but most agree it was in India around 600 AD.
The rules weren’t quite as refined as they are today, but the basic shape of the game is still there. The pieces represented different classes of military units. These were: Infantry (Pawn), Cavalry (Knight), Elephant (Bishop), and Chariots (Rook). The modern form ofChesscame into being in Europe around the 15th Century and has stayed a mainstream game ever since.
9Liubo
While some ancient games were good enough to stand the test of time, it’s clear why some ended up dying out.Liubois a game that originated from Ancient China. There is no hard evidence around its origins, but the game was popular in China around 470 BC.
At its simplest,Liubowas a racing game. Players rolled dice to move their six pieces toward the center of the board and score points. The first one to get enough points wins. This meant it was entirely luck-based and essentially the ancient equivalent ofSnakes & Ladders. This means historians don’t care for it, with one declaring it “not worth playing”.
8Nine Men’s Morris
Nine Men’s Morrisis another game where historians aren’t entirely sure of the origins. The oldest found “board” dates back to 1400 BC, carved into a roofing tile on an Egyptian temple. However, even this isn’t certain, as historians are unsure of the temple’s age.
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What is known is that the Ancient Romans adopted it and played it quite frequently. If the game originated in Egypt, as is currently suspected, it’s likely the Romans picked it up during their conquests there. It spread throughout Europe andremains somewhat popular to this day. Unlike most ancient games, it has undergone very few rule changes throughout history.
7Hounds & Jackals
Egypt has become a common location to find board games from ancient history. This may be because the Egyptians innovated more games; however, it is more likely because many Egyptian tombs were very well preserved due to the structures built around them, like the Pyramids. The people of the time would bury their dead with one or two of their favorite games to play on their journey to the afterlife.
Hounds & Jackalswas one of these games, found in a tomb dating back to roughly 1800 BC. The rules are a bit more complex than many ancient games, but it can be described as somewhat like a predecessor toLudo. Players' objective is to get all six of their pieces onto the board and eventually bring them “home” to win.
6Go
A game that has reached almost the same popularity asChessin the modern-day,Gois even more ancient, tracing its roots back to China and estimated to have been developed around 2000 BC. LikeChess, it went through a few different forms over the millennia, reaching its modern iteration around the 17th Century.
WhileGo’strue origins are unknown, there is a legend that states Chinese Emperor Yao created it. The story goes that he was looking to teach his son discipline and developed the game to show him the importance of strategy and concentration. It stillhelps many in these areas to this day.
5Royal Game Of Ur
Forgoing a proper title, this game is instead named after the place it was discovered. In 1920, this game was discovered in a Royal Tomb in Ur of Ancient Mesopotamia (known today as Iraq). Estimates from when the tomb was built place this game’s origins somewhere between 2400 and 2600 BC.
The game rules, deciphered from an ancient Babylonian tablet, are fascinating. It is ostensively a racing game, but with the ability to knock the opponent’s pieces off the board by landing on them. This makes it a potential predecessor to several modern games, such asLudo, with even some potential links toRisk.
4Mehen
Traveling even further back, Egypt still has more of the world’s oldest board games to offer. The game is believed to date all the way back to Egypt’s Predynastic period, tracing potentially back to the very first Pharoh. This puts it around 2700 to 3000BC.
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Mehenis named after the Egyptian God, believed to take the form of a giant snake. The board takes the same shape, with a coiled snake segmented into square segments. Unfortunately, historians are unsure how to play this game, but they do know that it was traditionally played with lion-shaped pieces carved from marble, and it could accommodate up to six players.
3Checkers/Draughts
While theRoyal Game of Urwas the most exciting find of the Royal tombs of Ur, being something never seen before, a revelation for many historians at the time was a well-recognized game,Checkers. Based on where it was found, this game dates back to roughly 3000 BC.
One of the simplest and most popular one-on-one strategy games out there,Checkersspread worldwide in no time at all. In the modern-day, the game was “solved” by an AI in 2007, meaning that it can always either win or force a draw, never losing. Humans still playCheckers,casually against AI, and professionally to this day, the most recent world championship taking place in 2018.
2Backgammon
Backgammonis one of the premier gambling games of the past century, reaching its peak in the 1960s and 1970s, as it became the game of choice for celebrities and playboys alike. Tournaments at the time would have prize pools of up to $400,000, which is around $3 million in modern money.
Historians believe this game dates back to roughly 3000 BC, with a board strongly resemblingBackgammonfound in Ancient Persia (known today as Iran). The modern ruleset was set shockingly early, with rules virtually identical to the game as it is known today from 480 AD.
1Senet
Recognized by most historians as the world’s oldest board game,Senethas been found in Egyptian tombs going as far back as 3500 BC. While no version of the rules from the time has ever been found, some historians have reconstructed the rules based on ancient texts mentioning the game.
There are two versions of the rules, but they both follow the same concept. It is similar to Backgammon in that both sides must get their pieces off the board, but to do so, they must pass the opposing side’s pieces. If pieces meet, they either swap positions or are knocked off the board depending on which variation is played. This makes ita reasonably strategic game.
