How to play
The boards survived more often than the rulebooks. This is a place to sit down with them: what the objects are, what a text actually says, and which parts of a modern rules sheet are a reconstruction.
The Royal Game of Ur is the guide you can play from today. It was found in the Royal Cemetery at Ur. The British Museum calls a much later Babylonian tablet the oldest known rules for a board game. Those two facts are not the same rulebook. The page keeps them apart.
Zatrikion, Patolli, Tablut, Dogs and Jackals, Fanorona, Senet, Liubo, and a short Egyptian overview are marked coming soon. They are not empty pages.
Ready to playA race for two players on a board of twenty squares. The famous inlays come from the Royal Cemetery at Ur. This guide separates those finds from a rules tablet written in 177 BC, then teaches a modern reconstruction you can play.
How to playA gaming board from the palace at Knossos. The rules page is still being written.
An Aztec race game. Spanish colonial writers describe it, played with marked beans as dice. A rules page is on the way.
A Sámi hunting game in the tafl family, related to hnefatafl. Carl Linnaeus wrote down a set of rules in 1732. A full guide is in progress.
An Egyptian peg game, also called the game of fifty-eight holes, with pegs in the shape of dogs and jackals. A rules page is on the way.
A traditional Malagasy game of capture, related to alquerque. A rules page is on the way.
An Egyptian race on thirty squares, three rows of ten. New Kingdom sets survive, including Tutankhamun’s. The rules used today are reconstructions. A full guide is in progress.
A Han-dynasty Chinese board game. Sets are known from tombs. The original rules are largely lost. A page is in progress.
Senet, the coiled-snake game Mehen, and the game of fifty-eight holes sit among the board games of ancient Egypt. An overview is in progress.