Archaeologists working in the Omani desert have discovered an ancient slate game in a Bronze Age settlement that may have been played about 4,000 years ago. Although the rules of the game have been obliterated by time, archaeologists speculate that its closest modern game is backgammon.
Archaeological site of Ain Barney Sada in the Gumyra Valley.
Excavations, completed last December, were reportedly led by the University of Warsaw in Poland and Oman's Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, near Ayn Bani Sa'dah in the Gumira Valley.
The game board was found buried in the remains of a room with at least 13 marked blocks, each with an indentation in the center.
Excavate unearthed game slabs.
Professor Piotr Bieliński, an archaeologist at the University of Warsaw who led the excavations, said such discoveries were rare in Oman, but similar game boards had been unearthed from India, Mesopotamia and even to the eastern Mediterranean.
The famous "backgammon" of your.
He said the most famous example of a game board based on a similar principle is a game board unearthed from a tomb in the ancient city of Your in southern Iraq. Although the rules of the Omani game Slate have been obliterated by time, if the game is played like your royal game, then its closest modern game is backgammon.
It is reported that the rule of backgammon is that two players take turns rolling dice, competing with each other, moving all their pieces around before the opponent, and then leaving the board.
And, as with the rules of backgammon, players will have the opportunity to thwart their opponents' progress by grabbing the pieces and sending them back to the starting point.
Text/Nandu reporter Chen Lin