Board games serve to satisfy social, cognitive and other needs. Their origins are very ancient: they date back to at least the 4th millennium BC. C., that is, over 5000 years ago, and there are theories according to which they could be even older.
A recent discovery has shed new light on the games of Greek and Roman civilization: in the city of Ptolemais, in Libya, archaeologists have found numerous gaming tables carved into the rock, offering unprecedented evidence of the importance that recreational activities had for the citizens of the ancient Greek settlement in the public life and social habits of the time.
All human civilizations have had their games: the Egyptian civilization knew the senet, the Sumerian one the royal game of Ur, the Roman one the game of latrunculi. The history of games, moreover, did not end with the end of ancient civilizations. In the Middle Ages, games that are still popular today were established, such as chess, checkers and backgammon. In recent decades, board games have experienced a real boom, despite having to suffer competition from video games, which have caused them to lose some of their popularity.
Board games, with a very generic definition, are games played on a specific surface (a board, a chessboard with squares, etc.), on which pieces and markers move. They have been widespread since the origin of civilization because they respond to numerous needs: social needs, because they create relationships with other people; stress reduction, because they offer a form of entertainment; cognitive needs, stimulating thinking and the development of strategies; other types of needs.
Games in ancient Mediterranean civilizations: astragali, dice, senet, royal game of Ur
The oldest board games date back to the first Mediterranean civilizations, the Egyptian and Sumerian ones. First of all, ancient peoples knew about astragali, that is, small bones of hoofed animals which, thanks to their tetrahedral shape, served as natural dice, with four faces. From the astragalus came the actual dice, equipped with six faces, also very ancient and dating back to at least 3000 BC. The astragalus and dice could be used both as a game in themselves and as a tool for board games.
The origin of board games is also very ancient. In Egypt, a game, senet, was widespread, which consisted of moving pieces on a sort of chessboard, making them advance by throwing dice or astragali. The first attestations of senet date back to the period around 3300 BC, but the game became more popular in the following centuries. It probably had not only recreational but also religious functions, representing the passage from the earthly world to the afterlife.
A similar game, slightly later, was widespread in Mesopotamia: the Royal Game of Ur, dating back to the mid-3rd millennium BC and considered an ancestor of current backgammon.
The precise rules of the Egyptian and Sumerian games are not known. Modern versions, including those available online, are based on interpretations that are not historically grounded.
Greece and Rome: petteia And latrunculi
Board games were also very popular in Greek and Roman civilizations. In Greece there were various games with pieces, gathered under the term petteia. Among them, the pentagram game and the city game. In Rome, however, the ludus latrunculorum (bandits’ game) was widespread, sometimes simply called latrunculi, which consisted of moving the pieces, precisely the latrunculi, represented by small stones, on a chessboard.
The exact rules are not known. Probably, a brigand was considered captured, and therefore lost, when surrounded by two opposing brigands, but this is, however, an unproven interpretation. The number of pieces and the dimensions of the board also remain unknown: perhaps eight squares per side or, according to other interpretations, 12 x 8.
Dice were also very widespread in Roman civilization and were widely used despite numerous attempts to ban them.
Middle Ages and modern age: chess, checkers, backgammon and playing cards
In the Middle Ages, games were invented that were destined to become very popular. The most important is chess, whose origins are to be found in an Indian game, known as caturanga, attested from the 6th century AD. C. Around the year 1000 incomplete versions of chess, traveling along the Silk Road, arrived in the Middle East and from there to Europe. As the years passed they underwent various changes and around the 16th century they took on their definitive form, which is still widespread today.
In the same period in Italy another game destined to become very popular began to take definitive form: checkers. Backgammon was also widespread in many countries, played in various versions until the eighteenth century, when the rules were codified for the first time.
In the Middle Ages, a “competitor” of board games also became widespread: playing cards, originating in China and arriving in Europe via Egypt.
Contemporary age: the boom in board games and the competition from video games
Over the last few centuries, a real boom in board games has taken place. In the twentieth century, growth became much faster thanks to socio-cultural changes and the greater availability of cheap materials, such as plastic and paper. Therefore, very popular games were born. Among the most important is Monopoly, the famous “entrepreneurial” game introduced in 1935 in the United States and derived from another pastime, The Landlord’s Gamewhich has existed since 1904.
Cluedo dates back to 1948, in which players must discover the perpetrator of a crime. Risk was born in France in 1957 (the Italian version of which is Risiko!), the aim of which is to conquer territories by moving specific pieces. Question and answer games are also very popular, the best known of which is Trivial Pursuit, launched on the market in 1983. The number of new board games published year after year has grown enormously.
For several decades, board games have had to face competition from videogames, which have taken away part of their popularity, without however completely supplanting them, considering the fact that board games can guarantee aggregation and collective entertainment for those who play them, to a greater extent and in a different form than videogames.
Furthermore, the two types of games are sometimes intertwined: many board games have become video games, thanks to the creation of numerous electronic versions; in some cases, board games have been derived from the most popular video games, such as Civilizations.
