Article Surfing Archive

Backgammon has a long fascinating history of more than 5000 years, making it one of the oldest games in civilization. The earliest backgammon board, from an early version of the game, was found circa 3000 B.C. in the royal cemetery in Ur of the Chaldees in southern Mesopotamia(now called Iraq), the birthplace of Abraham.

The game has been played around the world and throughout recorded history. A form of the game was enjoyed by the Egyptian Pharoahs; boards dating from 1500 B.C. were found in King Tut's tomb. Wall paintingsin many Egyptian tombs portray people playing the game, indicating that it was played by the common people as well as the Pharaohs. A thousand years later, the Greeks were playing a form of the game. Homer, Sophocles, and Plato mention the game in their works. In Rome, the game long remained one of the most popular among the patricians. Emperor Claudius reportedly wrote a book on backgammon.

The excavators of Pompeii found a backgammon table in the courtyard of almost every villa. Various early versions of the game were popular in Britain, dating from the Crusades. It has always been a favourite game of the English. It is believed that the current form of the game evolved in the tenth century. Backgammon has been played in the United States since the seventeenth century.

However, the doubling cube was only introduced to the game in the early 1920s by an anonymous genius. This greatly enhanced the quality of backgammon and increased its popularity in the United States. The game had another surge of interest in the 1970s, but has waned in popularity in recent years due primarily to the advent of video and computer games.

When backgammon is played with the right people and strategy, it can be a very fascinating and addictive game for everybody. Hopefully, interest in this ancient game will increase in the near future. Perhaps, if more people discover the real game of backgammon, it will regain the popularity that it deserves.