SAEDNEWS: In 1977, a team of Italian and Iranian archaeologists excavating a cemetery at Shahr-e Sukhteh, located in southeastern Iran, came across an unusual object in grave number 731.
According to the History and Culture service of Saed News, an ancient board game has been unearthed in an underground burial chamber, dating back approximately 2600–2400 BCE based on carbon dating.
Reported by Euronews, the game was discovered without any accompanying rulebook. For years, archaeologists possessed an almost complete game board but had no idea how it was played.
A team of researchers now says they have reconstructed the likely rules of the game using clues found on the site. Drawing on knowledge from other ancient games, including the royal game of Ur, and other historical evidence, the team proposed a set of playable rules.
Similar board games have been found in the region, such as the two-player royal game of Ur, which was played in Mesopotamia during the same period.
The game’s rules were inscribed on a cuneiform tablet, and the decoding work of Irving Finkel, curator at the British Museum, provided critical insight, making it possible to play the game again after thousands of years.
While the precise interpretation of the ancient rules remains uncertain, researchers believe the game was a competitive, strategic contest involving dice.
Scholars suggest that the board game from Shahr-e Sukhteh shares similarities with the royal game of Ur but is slightly more complex due to a greater variety of pieces. Played by two players on a board with 20 square spaces, each player has 12 pieces arranged according to a geometric pattern.
Triangles serve as main pieces, while cones and squares act as blockers. Each round lasts roughly 45 minutes, though the exact duration can vary depending on dice rolls and strategic moves.
According to researchers, no one knows who will win until the game concludes.
The team explains in their paper: “The main objective of this game is to move all 10 of your pieces off the board before your opponent does.” Players can capture opposing pieces to remove them from play.
One rule states: “When an opponent captures a piece, that piece must re-enter the game from the starting point.”
