A rare find: archaeologists unearth 4,000-year-old board game in Oman
Companies, agencies, institutions, etc
the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism
the Polish Center of Mediterranean Archaeology
the University of Warsaw
Roman
the British Museum
the Bronze Age
the Oman Daily Observer
CNMN Collection
WIRED Media Group
Condé Nast
People
Jennifer Ouellette
al Bakri
Piotr Bielinski
backgammon).An
Leonard Woolley
Irving Finkel
Aasha
Agnieszka Pienkowska
Nar
Ars
Groups
Arab
Omani
Middle Eastern
Babylonian
Indian
Physical locations
the Qumayrah Valley
Near East
Places
the Royal Game
the Royal Cemetery
Locations
Oman
Qumayrah Valley
Ayn Bani Saidah
Mehen
Egypt
Kochi
Events
the Game of Twenty Squares
Summary
The board just discovered at the Omani site might be a precursor to an ancient Middle Eastern game known as the Royal Game or Ur (or the Game of Twenty Squares), a two-player game that may have been one of the precursors to backgammon (or was simply replaced in popularity by backgammon).An English archaeologist named Sir Leonard Woolley is credited with the rediscovery of the Royal Game of Ur after his team excavated five game boards at the Royal Cemetery at Ur between 1922 and 1934, all dating back to 3000 BCE. A version known as Aasha was still being played in the Indian city of Kochi as recently as the 1950s.Along with the board game, the Qumayrah Valley team also unearthed the remains of several large circular stone towers dating back to the Bronze Age, as well as one angular tower.
As said here by Jennifer Ouellette