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I Forge Iron

Reconstructed Roman smithy


JHCC

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  • 3 weeks later...

Haven't played the game, looked at it, wasn't sure which version to play, and can't usually get my family to play chess even, although go has had mixed results. When my wife does badly, she tends to decide that I'm cheating, then get mad and throw the board.  Life with a redhead. ;)  It's why we stick to board games in our house instead of curling.

Oh, Thomas and Frosty, how you do babble-on... 

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4 hours ago, Nobody Special said:

can't usually get my family to play chess even, although go has had mixed results.

Have you tried mancala? It's the game with the little stones or glass beads and two lines of holes you move around a la backgammon. I used to play it a lot. You can play anywhere just dig the little holes in the dirt and use acorns, bottle caps, whatever. Iirc it's been found at Roman archeological sites. I'm not sure where it originated, Africa,or the middle East maybe. Fun game and simple too.

Pnut 

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Probably derived from the "royal game of Ur," backgammon it is so similar nobody questions the connection. Still, both games are so simple and basic they easily could've been developed anywhere. We have a Mancala board  in the RV but I think Deb and I ended up playing a silly card game called "exploding kittens." 

Frosty The Lucky.

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9 hours ago, pnut said:

Iirc it's been found at Roman archeological sites

To be clear: Roman-era sites in the Middle East, not in Rome itself. Those finds date to about the second or third century AD. There is some possible evidence of an ancestral version of the game having been played in what is now Jordan as early as 6,000 BC.

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There are "game of Ur" boards scratched into tavern/pub counters in Minoan settlements and many in painted in Pompeii and Herculaneum, Egypt is littered with Ur boards. The fellow who brought the game of Ur to life is the fellow who deciphered cuneiform so he named it. The identifier for the game are the extra roll spaces on the board and the 4 sided clay dice. Sheep knuckle bones were more commonly used as you don't need to paint pips on them to ID a side or number. 

You can give the game a try on this site. https://www.yourturnmyturn.com/ur/play.php

I haven't heard about Ur boards being found in Gobekli Tepe but excavation and research is seriously hampered by it's country of location. There are beer vats though!:) I don't know if you can buy those yeast cultures but you can from many other ancient civilizations. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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