2) Significant Game:
Finkel, Irving L. “On the rules for the Royal Game of Ur.” Ancient Board Games in Perspective: Papers from the 1990 British Museum Colloquium, with Additional Contributions. London: British Museum. 2007.
Detailed within this book’s chapter, the ancient game of Ur is discussed, wherein it is revealed that said game is one of the oldest surviving board games in the world. Found in the 1920s, in The Royal Tomb of Ur in Iraq, this simplistic game survived centuries buried, only to be resurrected by archaeologists who didn’t know how to play it. It was saved only by a partially intact tablet that described it’s intended gameplay. This chance find separates The Royal Game of Ur from other ancient games, for which many survived without their accompanying rule lists. However, though this archaic board game was paired with rules, it’s formulated gameplay is still debated over, which highlights a prevalent societal construct. Though this recreational activity hasn’t been highly played in over 2000 years, it still brings about the problem of communication within human connectivity. Humans have more problems communicating with one another than any other living creature, be we at the top of the biological and technological food chain. And this simplistic game, set with rules, can still incite defiant rhetoric. If there are rules, even for a board game, there will be someone to counter those limits, and therein a model scale of one of society’s oldest issues is present, brought to light by an ancient tile board.
