History of games

Games capture the ideas and worldviews of their cultures and pass them on to the future generation. Games were important as cultural and social bonding events, as teaching tools and as markers of social status. As pastimes of royalty and the elite, some games became common features of court culture and were also given as gifts. Games such as Senet and the Mesoamerican ball game were often imbued with mythic and ritual religious significance. Games like Gyan chauper and The Mansion of Happiness were used to teach spiritual and ethical lessons while Shatranj and Wéiqí (Go) were seen as a way to develop strategic thinking and mental skill by the political and military elite.

In his 1938 book, Homo Ludens, Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga argued that games were a primary condition of the generation of human cultures. Huizinga saw the playing of games as something that "is older than culture, for culture, however inadequately defined, always presupposes human society, and animals have not waited for man to teach them their playing". Huizinga saw games as a starting point for complex human activities such as language, law, war, philosophy and art.

Pre-modern

Some of the most common pre-historic and ancient gaming tools were made of bone, especially from the Talus bone. These have been found worldwide and are the ancestors of knucklebones as well as dice games. Dice were invented at least 5,000 years ago and early dice probably did not have six sides. These bones were also sometimes used for oracular and divinatory functions. Other implements could have included shells, stones and sticks.

Middle East and the Mediterranean

Board games likely originate from the ancient Near East, based on archeological findings. A series of 49 small carved painted figures found at the 5,000-year-old Başur Höyük burial mound in southeast Turkey could represent the earliest gaming pieces ever found. Similar pieces have been found in Tell Brak and Jemdet Nasr, but they were isolated. Researches have called the find Dogs and Pigs. The earliest board games were a pastime for the elite and were sometimes given as diplomatic gifts according to a study published in Antiquity. Another possibility is that boards were reserved for the elite, but lower classes played on boards scratched into stone or on the ground. Some archeologists think that stones carved with long rows, dated between 7000 BC and 9000 BC, were used for a mancala-like game.

The earliest known board games all used dice and were for two players. Among the earliest examples of a board game is senet, a game found in Predynastic and First Dynasty burial sites in Egypt (circa 3500 BC and 3100 BC, respectively) and in hieroglyphs dating to around 3100 BC. The game was played by moving draughtsmen on a board of 30 squares arranged into three parallel rows of ten squares each. The players strategically moved their pieces based on the throw of sticks or bones. The goal was to reach the edge of the board first. Senet slowly evolved to reflect the religious beliefs of the Egyptians. The pieces represented human souls and their movement was based on the journey of the soul in the afterlife. Each square had a distinct religious significance, with the final square being associated with the union of the soul with the sun god Re-Horakhty. Senet may have also been used in a ritual religious context.

The Royal Game of Ur, or Game of Twenty Squares was played with a set of pawns on a richly decorated board and dates from 2600 to 2400 BC. It was a race game which employed a set of knucklebone dice. This game was also known and played in Egypt. A Babylonian treatise on the game written on a clay tablet shows that the game had astronomical significance and that it could also be used to tell one's fortune. The game of Ur was also popular with the lower classes, as attested by a 2,700-year-old graffiti version of the game, scratched onto a gateway to a palace in Khorsabad. Similar games have been found in Iran, Crete, Cyprus, Sri Lanka, and Syria.

Another Game of Twenty was discovered in 1977 by the Italian Archaeological Mission in grave no. 731, a pseudo-catacomb grave at Shahr-i Sokhta, a UNESCO World Heritage archaeological site in Iran. This board game set, comprising 27 pieces and four different dice, dates to 2600–2400 BCE. For the first time, the entire set has been scientifically analyzed and reconstructed by researchers , and it is considered the oldest complete and playable board game ever discovered. Games such as Nard and the Roman game Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum (game of 12 points, also known as simply "dice", lat. "alea") may have developed from this Iranian game. The Byzantine game Tabula is a descendant of the game of twelve points.

The other example of a board game in ancient Egypt is "Hounds and Jackals", also known as 58 holes. Hounds and Jackals appeared in Egypt, around 2000 BC and was mainly popular in the Middle Kingdom. The game was spread to Mesopotamia in the late 3rd millennium BC and was popular until the 1st millennium BC. More than 68 gameboards of Hounds and Jackals have been discovered in the archaeological excavations in various territories, including Syria (Tell Ajlun, Ras el-Ain, Khafaje), Israel (Tel Beth Shean, Gezer), Iraq (Uruk, Nippur, Ur, Nineveh, Ashur, Babylon), Iran (Tappeh Sialk, Susa, Luristan), Turkey (Karalhuyuk, Kultepe, Acemhuyuk), Azerbaijan (Gobustan) and Egypt (Buhen, El-Lahun, Sedment). It was a race game for two players. The gaming board consisted of two sets of 29 holes. Ten small pegs with either jackal or dog heads were used for playing. It's believed that the aim of the game was to begin at one point on the board and to reach with all figures at the other point on the board.

In Ancient Greece and in the Roman Empire, popular games included ball games (Episkyros, Harpastum, Expulsim Ludere – a kind of handball), dice games (Tesserae), knucklebones, Bear games, Tic-tac-toe (Terni Lapilli), Nine men's morris (mola) and various types of board games similar to checkers. Both Plato and Homer mention board games called 'petteia' (games played with 'pessoi', i.e. 'pieces' or 'men'). According to Plato, they are all Egyptian in origin. The name 'petteia' seems to be a generic term for board game and refers to various games. One such game was called 'poleis' (city states) and was a game of battle on a checkered board.

The Romans played a derivation of 'petteia' called 'latrunculin' or Ludus latrunculorum (the soldiers' game or the bandits' game). It is first mentioned by Varro (116–27 BC) and alluded to by Martial and Ovid. This game was extremely popular and was spread throughout Europe by the Romans. Boards have been found as far as Roman Britain. It was a war game for two players and included moving around counters representing soldiers, with 'custodian' captures made by getting one of the adversary's pieces between two of one's own.

After the Muslim conquest of Persia (638–651) Shatranj spread to the Arab world. While pre-Islamic chess sets represented Elephants, Horses, Kings and Soldiers; the Islamic prohibition against image worship led to increasing abstraction in chess set design. Islamic chess pieces were therefore simple cylindrical and rectangular shapes. The game became immensely popular during Abbasid Caliphate of the 9th century. The Abbasid Caliphs Harun al-Rashid and Al-Ma'mun were avid Shatranj players. During this period Muslim chess players published several treatises on chess problems (mansubat) and chess openings (ta'biyat). Elite players such as Al-Adli, al-Suli and Ar-Razi were called aliyat or "grandees" and played at the courts of the Caliphs and wrote about the game. Al-Adli (800–870) is known for writing Kitab ash-shatranj (book of chess), a comprehensive work on the game, including history, openings, endgames and chess problems. Al-Adli also developed a system for ranking players. During the reign of the Turko-Mongol conqueror Timur (1336–1405), a variant of chess known as Tamerlane chess was developed which some sources attribute to Timur himself who was known to be a fan of the game.

Various games in the Tables family were also quite popular and are known as ifranjiah in Arabic (meaning "Frankish") and as Nard in Iran. Many of the early Arabic texts which refer to these games often debate the legality and morality of playing them. This debate was settled by the eighth century when all four Muslim schools of jurisprudence declared them to be Haraam (forbidden), however they are still played today in many Arab countries. Other popular games included Mancala and Tâb.

Polo (Persian: chawgan, Arabic: sawlajan) was first played in Sassanid Persia. It passed from Sassanid Persia to the neighboring Byzantine Empire at an early date, and a Tzykanisterion (stadium for playing polo) was built by emperor Theodosius II (r. 408–450) inside the Great Palace of Constantinople. After the Muslim conquests, it passed to the Ayyubid and Mameluke dynasties, whose elites favored it above all other sports. Notable sultans such as Saladin and Baybars were known to play it and encourage it in their court.

Playing cards were imported from Asia and India and were popular during Mamluk dynasty Egypt, featuring polo sticks, coins, swords, and cups as suits.

India

India saw a number of games in ancient period ranging from the various dice games to other board games. The use of cubical and oblong dice was common in the Indus Valley Harappan civilization (c. 2300 BC). Archaeological excavations have found gambling dice in monasteries and other Buddhist sites. The earliest textual mention of games in India is the Rig-Veda's mention of the use of dice (c. 1000 BC). Texts such as the Mahabharata indicate that dice games were popular with Kings and royalty, and also had ceremonial purposes. Cowry shells were also widely used.

Another early reference is the list of Buddha games (circa 500 BC) which is a list from the Pali Canon that Buddhist monks were forbidden to play. This list mentions games on boards with 8 or 10 rows (Ashtapada and Daśapada), games which use floor diagrams (one game called Parihâra-patham is similar to hop-scotch), dice games and ball games. Ashtapada and Daśapada were race games.

Chaturanga (which means 'quadripartite' and also 'army'), the predecessor of chess, possibly developed in the Indian subcontinent or Central Asia during the Kushan (30–375 AD) or Gupta (320–550 AD) periods from an amalgamation of other game features and was transmitted to Sassanid Persia (where it was known as Shatranj) and China through the Silk Road. It was divided into four parts called angas, which were symbolic of the four branches of an army. Just like the real ancient Indian army, it had pieces called elephants, chariots, horses and soldiers, and was played to devise war strategies.

The word 'checkmate' comes from the Persian term in the game, ‘shah mat’, meaning 'the king is dead'. Another game named chaturaji was similar but played with four sides of differing colors instead of two, however the earliest source for this four sided board game is Al-Biruni's 'India', circa 1030 AD. Historians of chess such as Yuri Averbakh have surmised that the Greek board game petteia may have had an influence on the development of early chaturanga. Petteia games could have combined with other elements in the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek Kingdoms.

The game of carrom is said to have originated in the Indian subcontinent. Though there isn't any particular proof, it is said that Indian Maharajas invented the game centuries ago. There was a finding of an ancient glass carrom board in Patiala, Punjab. Carrom gained popularity after World War I, and is still a widely popular board game in India.

Adding on, the game of 'Snakes and Ladders', previously known as vaikuntapaali, was originally a Hindu game. It has been speculated that this game was already being played in India as early as the 2nd century AD. Others have credited the invention of the game to Dnyaneshwar (known also as Dnyandev), a Marathi saint who lived during the 13th century AD. This game is also known by names like gyan chaupar (meaning 'game of knowledge) or mokshapat and moksha patamu (both meaning 'way to deliverance').

The game now known as 'ludo' – was originally called pachisi (/pəˈtʃiːzi/). The board was made out of cloth or jute. A depiction of pachisi is found in the caves of Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra, showing that the game was quite popular in the Medieval Era. Cross and circle games such as chaupar and pachisi may be very old games, but so far their history has not been established prior to the 16th century. Chaupar was a popular gambling game at the court of Mughal emperor Akbar the Great (1556–1605). The emperor himself was a fan of the game and was known to play on a courtyard of his palace using slaves as playing pieces. Karuna Sharma of Georgia State University noted the political side of these board games played at the court.

The game of seven stones is mentioned in the Bhāgvata Purāna, a text written in 1000 AD at the latest. Several variations of tag, such as kho kho, kabaddi, atya patya, and langdi (sport), are believed to be hundreds or thousands of years old (or even older as non-human animals are known to play tag), with kho-kho having been played since at least the fourth century BC, certain aspects of kabaddi possibly being mentioned in the Mahabharata (in or before 300 AD), and atya-patya being mentioned in the Naṟṟiṇai (in or before 300 AD).

East Asia

The extinct Chinese board game liubo was invented no later than the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, and was popular during the Warring States period (476 BC – 221 BC) and the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). Although the game's rules have been lost, it was apparently a race game not unlike Senet in that playing pieces were moved about a board using sticks thrown to determine movement.

Go, also known as Weiqi, Igo, or Baduk (in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, respectively), is first mentioned in the historical annal Zuo Zhuan (c. 4th century BC). It is also mentioned in Book XVII of the Analects of Confucius and in two of the books of Mencius (c. 3rd century BC). In ancient China, Go was one of the four cultivated arts of the Chinese scholar gentleman, along with calligraphy, painting and playing the musical instrument guqin, and examinations of skill in those arts was used to qualify candidates for service in the bureaucracy. Go was brought to Korea in the second century BC when the Han dynasty expanded into the Korean peninsula and it arrived in Japan in the 5th or 6th century AD and it quickly became a favorite aristocratic pastime.

Chinese Chess or Xiangqi seems to have been played during the Tang dynasty, any earlier attestation is problematic. Several Xiangqi pieces are known from the Northern Song dynasty (960–1126). It is unknown exactly how Xiangqi developed. Other traditional East Asian Chess variants include Shogi (Japan) and Janggi (Korea).

Playing cards or tiles were invented in China as early as the 9th century during the Tang dynasty (618–907). The earliest unambiguous attestation of paper playing cards date back to 1294.

The modern game of Dominoes developed from early Chinese tile based games. What appears to have been the earliest references to gaming tiles are mentions of kwat pai, or "bone tiles", used in gambling, in Chinese writings no later than 900 AD. The earliest definite references to Chinese dominoes are found in the literature of the Song dynasty (960–1279), while Western-style dominoes are a more recent variation, with the earliest examples being of early-18th century Italian design. The modern tile game Mahjong is based on older Chinese card games like Khanhoo, peng hu, and shi hu.

The pre-modern Chinese also played ball games such as Cuju which was a ball and net game similar to football, and Chuiwan, which is similar to modern golf.

Africa

The most widespread of the native African games is Mancala. Mancala is a family of board games played around the world, sometimes called "sowing" games, or "count-and-capture" games, which describes the gameplay. The word mancala:منقلة comes from the Arabic word naqala:نقلة meaning literally "to move". The earliest evidence of Mancala consists of fragments of pottery boards and several rock cuts found in Aksumite in Ethiopia, Matara (now in Eritrea), and Yeha (also in Ethiopia), which have been dated by archaeologists to between the 6th and 7th century CE. More than 800 names of traditional mancala games are known, and almost 200 invented games have been described. However, some names denote the same game, while some names are used for more than one game. Today, the game is played worldwide, with many distinct variants representing different regions of the world. Some historians believe that mancala is the oldest game in the world based on the archaeological evidence found in Jordan that dates around 6000 BC. The game might have been played by ancient Nabataeans and could have been an ancient version of the modern mancala game.

Americas

Archaeologist Barbara Voorhies has theorized that a series of holes on clay floors arranged in c shapes at the Tlacuachero archaeological site in Mexico's Chiapas state may be 5000-year-old dice-game scoreboards. If so this would be the oldest archaeological evidence for a game in the Americas.

Dice games were popular throughout the Americas. Patolli was one of the most popular board games played by Mesoamerican peoples such as the Mayans, Toltecs and Aztecs, it was a race game played with beans or dice on square and oval-shaped boards and gambling was a key aspect of it. The Andean peoples also played a dice game which is called by the Quechua word pichca or pisca.

One of the oldest known ball games in history is the Mesoamerican ballgame (Ōllamaliztli in Nahuatl). Ōllamaliztli was played as far back as 1,400 BC and had important religious significance for the mesoamerican peoples such as the Maya and Aztec. The game evolved over time, but the main goal was to keep a solid rubber ball in play by striking it with various parts of the body or with tools such as rackets. The game may have served as a proxy for warfare and also had a major religious function. Formal ballgames were held as ritual events, often featuring human sacrifice, though it was also played for leisure by children and even women.

The indigenous North American peoples played various kinds of stickball games, which are the ancestors of modern lacrosse. Traditional stickball games were sometimes major events that could last several days. As many as 100 to 1,000 men from opposing villages or tribes would participate. The games were played in open plains located between villages, and the goals could range from 500 yards (460 m) to 6 miles (9.7 km) apart.

Europe

The Tafl games were a family of ancient Germanic and Celtic board games played across much of Northern Europe from earlier than 400 CE until the 12th century. Although the rules of the games were never explicitly recorded, it seems to have been a game with uneven forces (2:1 ratio) and the goal of one side was to escape to the side of the board with a King while the other side's goal was to capture him. Tafl was spread by the Vikings throughout northern Europe, including Iceland, Britain, Ireland, and Sápmi.

Chess was introduced to the Iberian emirate of Cordoba in 822 during the reign of Abd ar-Rahman II. By the middle of the 10th century, it was being played in Christian Spain, Italy and Southern Germany. By 1200, it had reached Britain and Scandinavia. Initially there were many differing local Chess games with varying rules or assizes such as Short assize chess, Courier chess and Dice Chess.

An important source of medieval games is the Libro de los juegos, ("Book of games"), or Libro de acedrex, dados e tablas, ("Book of chess, dice and tables", in Old Spanish) which was commissioned by Alfonso X of Castile, Galicia and León in 1283. The manuscript contains descriptions and color illustrations of dice games, chess and tabula, a predecessor of backgammon. The book portrays these games within an astrological context, and some game variants are astronomically designed, such as a game titled "astronomical chess", played on a board of seven concentric circles, divided radially into twelve areas, each associated with a constellation of the Zodiac. The symbolism of the text indicates that some of these games were given metaphysical significance. Chess was also used to teach social and moral lessons by the Dominican friar Jacobus de Cessolis in his Liber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium super ludo scacchorum ('Book of the customs of men and the duties of nobles or the Book of Chess'). Published circa 1300, the book was immensely popular.

Other pre-modern European board games include Rithmomachy or "the philosophers game", alquerque, fox & geese, nine men's morris, draughts, nim, catch the hare and the game of the goose. Dice games were widely played throughout Europe and included hazard, chuck-a-luck, Glückshaus, shut the box and knucklebones.

Card games first arrived in Italy from Mamluk Egypt in the 14th century, with suits very similar to the Swords, Clubs, Cups and Coins and those still used in traditional Italian and Spanish decks. The four suits most commonly encountered today (spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs) appear to have originated in France circa 1480. 1440s Italy saw the rise of tarot cards and this led to the development of tarot card games such as tarocchini, Königrufen and French tarot.

Outdoor games were very popular during holidays and fairs and were played by all classes. Many of these games are the predecessors of modern sports and lawn games. Boules, lawn billiards (later brought indoors as billiards), skittles (an ancestor of modern ten pin bowling), medieval football, kolven, stoolball (an ancestor of cricket), jeu de paume (early racket-less tennis), horseshoes and quoits all predate the early modern era.