Backgammon History
Whenever someone opens up a Backgammon table it is hard to imagine that people of old had the same hobby so long ago. Backgammon is honoured with the title of being the oldest board game on earth since playing pices where found that date back to entient times.
Backgammon origenated from 'Senat'. A game which was played my the uper classes of antiquity. The oldest Senat boards are dated at between 3000 – 1788 BCE and were excavated in Chaldes (Irak) in the ruins of Ur. More Backgammon boards were excavated in the tumb on King Tutankhamen in the Nile valley.
The game was also popular in Ancient Greek times and this is proven by the fact that backgammon is mentioned in the writings of Homer, Sophocles and Plato. Backgammon was known as LDS (Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum) in Roman times, meaning the game of twelve lines, was played on a leather board and had 15 markers of each color.
In the biggining of the first century, LDS was replaced by another game called Tabula, which was still very similar to modern day backgammon. The Backgammon board used 2 - 12 lines and not 3 - 12 lines and made its way to the British soil during Roman territorial conquests. The popularity of Tabula grew in part because of Claudius the Roman Emperor who used to like the game a lot and to have written documents about its roots and rules. Claudius also started a wave of gambling that took root in Rome during his reign.
During the 6th century, The Alea was born from Tabula, and its board was much closer to today’s backgammon board.
In Asia, in about 800 AD, a game called Nard, which was similar to Backgammon. Two dice, a board and 30 checkers were used used to play this game. Relics of the game and ancient pieces have been discovered in South East Asia, near Persia and as far flung as Chinese and Japanese territories.
Not untill the begining of the 20th sentury was the doubling cube introdoused. It hapened in New Your City. Another big step for the Backgammon game was when the World Backgammon Championships of Monte Carlo started in the 1960s. Many reserches were made and published during the 1970s. Many of them published.
The computerization of our lifes in the pase two decades with the combination of the rise of the internet age, Backgammon is at full swing, allowing millions to learn the game, play againts each other and compeet in tournaments.
The game was also popular in Ancient Greek times and this is proven by the fact that backgammon is mentioned in the writings of Homer, Sophocles and Plato. Backgammon was known as LDS (Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum) in Roman times, meaning the game of twelve lines, was played on a leather board and had 15 markers of each color.
In the biggining of the first century, LDS was replaced by another game called Tabula, which was still very similar to modern day backgammon. The Backgammon board used 2 - 12 lines and not 3 - 12 lines and made its way to the British soil during Roman territorial conquests. The popularity of Tabula grew in part because of Claudius the Roman Emperor who used to like the game a lot and to have written documents about its roots and rules. Claudius also started a wave of gambling that took root in Rome during his reign.
During the 6th century, The Alea was born from Tabula, and its board was much closer to today’s backgammon board.
In Asia, in about 800 AD, a game called Nard, which was similar to Backgammon. Two dice, a board and 30 checkers were used used to play this game. Relics of the game and ancient pieces have been discovered in South East Asia, near Persia and as far flung as Chinese and Japanese territories.
Not untill the begining of the 20th sentury was the doubling cube introdoused. It hapened in New Your City. Another big step for the Backgammon game was when the World Backgammon Championships of Monte Carlo started in the 1960s. Many reserches were made and published during the 1970s. Many of them published.
The computerization of our lifes in the pase two decades with the combination of the rise of the internet age, Backgammon is at full swing, allowing millions to learn the game, play againts each other and compeet in tournaments.