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Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

Deep-dive essays on the pre-modern origins of traditional board and dexterity games, including senet, bao, mancala, nine men's morris, pachisi, oware, carrom and sungka, where the evidence is archaeological or textual rather than a documented founding date. Belongs here: any article reconstructing how an ancient or folk game began, spread or was played before it had a governing federation. Does not belong here: an article about a chess-family strategy game's own divergence story, grouped under Chess-Family Strategy Game Divergence, or about a federation founding a modern title for one of these games, grouped under Mind Sport Federation Founding and Title Lineage.

Facts

Comparison

Era of Origin

3100 BCE 1

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All Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

A Game Kept Alive Only by Masters

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

A Grid Scratched Everywhere: The Unsolved Geography of Nine Men's Morris

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

Akbar's Court of Stone: When an Emperor Became a Living Game Piece

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

Carried Across an Ocean

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

From an Undocumented Palace to Every Front Room

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

Kunggit at Home, Chongka Abroad: Sungka in the Filipino Diaspora

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

Older Than It Looks: The Antiquity Mancala Cannot Yet Prove

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

One Board, Eight Hundred Games: What Mancala Actually Names

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

One Root, Two Branches: Draughts, Fanorona and the Limits of Alquerque's Family Tree

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

Senet's Second Life as a Religious Symbol

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

The Board the British Museum Keeps

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

The Game Named for a Marriage

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

The Long Road from Pachisi to Ludo and Parcheesi

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

The Rules No One Wrote Down: Reconstructing How Senet Was Played

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

Waterlogged Boards: Nine Men's Morris in Shakespeare's Own Words

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

Which Way Does It Turn: Sungka Beside Congkak

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Senet

WikipediaSenet, History section

Quote, Senet, History section

Fragmentary boards that could be senet have been found in First Dynasty burials in Egypt, c. 3100 BCE.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of article belongs under Ancient and Traditional Game Origins?

Essays reconstructing how an ancient or folk game began or spread, using archaeological or textual evidence rather than a documented founding date.

Ancient and Traditional Game Origins covers deep-dive essays on the pre-modern origins of traditional board and dexterity games, including senet, bao, mancala, nine men's morris, pachisi, oware, carrom and sungka, where the evidence is archaeological or textual rather than a documented founding date. An article reconstructing how an ancient or folk game began, spread or was played before it had a governing federation belongs here, while an article about a federation founding a modern title for one of these games is grouped instead under Mind Sport Federation Founding and Title Lineage.