Backgammon History
When two friends sit down and opens up a Backgammon table it is hard to imagine that the encient Egiptians had a similar pastime over 5000 years ago. Backgammon is the oldest board game on earth since artefacts were found that date back to antiquity.
Senat was the original version of Backgammon which was played my the uper classes of antiquity. The oldest Senat boards are presumed to be 5000 years old and were dug out of the ruins of Ur in modern Irak. More Backgammon boards were excavated in the tumb on King Tutankhamen in the Nile valley.
The game was also played in eincient Greece as it was mentioned by 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 is similar to modern Backgammon. The Backgammon board used 2 - 12 lines and not 3 - 12 lines and , during Roman times, made its way to the British populance. The Tabula game became even more popular thanks to Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, the Roman Emporor who used to like the game a lot and have written documents about its history and game mechanics. Claudius is also responsible for a wave of gambling mania that took hold of Rome during his rule.
During the Dark Ages, Tabula was transformed into Alea, meaning the ‘art of gambling with dice’, and the board was prety much the same as the modern varsion.
Asian discovered the joys of backgammon in the 9th century with the rise in popularity of a game called Nard. In Nard, players where required to move 30 checkers all around the board.. 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.
In modern times, Backgammon was brought back to life in New York during the 1920s, with the introduction of the doubling cube. 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 played in eincient Greece as it was mentioned by 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 is similar to modern Backgammon. The Backgammon board used 2 - 12 lines and not 3 - 12 lines and , during Roman times, made its way to the British populance. The Tabula game became even more popular thanks to Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, the Roman Emporor who used to like the game a lot and have written documents about its history and game mechanics. Claudius is also responsible for a wave of gambling mania that took hold of Rome during his rule.
During the Dark Ages, Tabula was transformed into Alea, meaning the ‘art of gambling with dice’, and the board was prety much the same as the modern varsion.
Asian discovered the joys of backgammon in the 9th century with the rise in popularity of a game called Nard. In Nard, players where required to move 30 checkers all around the board.. 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.
In modern times, Backgammon was brought back to life in New York during the 1920s, with the introduction of the doubling cube. 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.