Lore Master: The History of Tabletop Gaming – Part 1
Though tabletop games may seem like a modern pastime with popular choices like Scrabble and Settlers of Catan, their origins stretch back before written history. The first known examples of gaming and game pieces were crude dice found in archaeological sites around the Middle East. From dice to family board games to building empires, Blackwing Volume 20 celebrates tabletop gaming history and the evolution in the ways that we play.
Ancient bone dice 
Other ancient game pieces
As civilizations advanced, gaming continued to grow in popularity and complexity. What started as simple dice expanded into multiple game pieces like Senet, Mehen, and Chatarunga. Gaming was not only enjoyed by the masses but was tremendously popular among royal and religious houses, even going so far as to determine the player’s favor with the gods. These games were so well-loved that evidence of their popularity has been found in ancient pictographs and burial sites in the Middle East and Eastern Asia.
Senet game set 
Early pictograph depicting Senet
The Tabletop Games
The oldest “tabletop” games date back to around 5000 BC with the discovery of game pieces in the famed Başur Höyük burial mound found in southeastern Turkey. It is believed that the earliest games were those of chance played with dice-like pieces.
These types of games expanded throughout the Fertile Cresent. Around 3000 BC, ancient Egyptian rulers began playing a game called “Senet” which is considered the oldest board game to date. Even though the exact rules of the game remain unknown, archaeological evidence shows that the game consisted of 10 game pieces and a 30-square game board.
The Royal Game of Ur
Originating around 2600 BC, the Royal Game of Ur is regarded as the longest-running board game in history with people still playing this ancient game today. The rules of the game were first found carved into an ancient stone tablet discovered inside a royal tomb in the city of Ur in ancient Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq. This game is played with black and white tokens featuring seven markers and four-sided dice.
The Royal Game of Ur and other games played during this time were predecessors to the game we all know today as Backgammon. We will visit the origins of backgammon, chess, and other popular classics that transformed tabletop gaming into a worldwide pastime.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of Lore Master: The History of Tabletop Gaming coming soon…
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