Ancient Board Games Simulating War Strategies And Predicting Afterlife
Board games provide humanity with entertainment, distraction and exercise for the mind whether they are played on the ground, on the floor or on wooden boards. They have formed such a large part of people’s childhood and an entertaining part of adulthood that it is hard to believe that humanity have ever had to make do without them. Luckily, board games have been a part of humanity for a very long time as they were played and developed in most cultures and societies throughout history.
Tomb of Nefertari (Jl FilpoC/ CC BY-SA 4.0)
One of the oldest board games known to have existed, the ancient Egyptian board game Senet, was pictured in a fresco found in Merknera's tomb (3300–2700 BC). The familiar game of chess can be traced back to the Indian game of Chaturanga, described in texts from the seventh century AD as a game simulating a battle between the four arms of the Indian army, which were all deployed in battle as decided by the commanders according to factors such as the weather, terrain and the composition of forces.
