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Activity 1.11

Activity 1.11
Ancient Games Notes
Take notes on the students Ancient Games presentation if the teacher wishes.
This is supplemental.

Name of
Game
Tabula

Nine Men
Morris

Caculi

Duodecim
Scripta

Interesting fact

Means Table
or board

Basic rules

Three dice are

thrown, and the
three numbers
determine the
moves of between
1 and 3 pieces.
Player landed a
piece on a point
with one enemy
piece, the enemy
piece was
removed from the
board and had to
re-enter the game
on the next throw.
Emerged from
leave the opposing
the Roman
player with less
Empire
than three pieces
or no legal moves
Means stones or Black plays first.
pebbles or
First person to line
counters in Latin
up five stones in a
row orthogonally
or diagonally wins.
It is illegal to make
a "double openended three"
unless one is
forced to do so.
If the board
becomes filled, the
game is a draw.
Means 12 lines
Get all one's
or 12 line of the pieces across the
Philosophers
board to the final
square.

Why Important

Tabula was
most likely
descended
from Ludus
duodecium
scriptorum

Its an
abstract
strategy
N/A

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Tesserae

Activity 1.11

Romans called
these tesserae,
but they also
had a type with
only four marked
faces called tali.

N/A

N/A

N/A

Found
throughout the
Empire,
scratched on
walls, floors,
and roofs, no
X's and O's
accompany the
markings.
One of the
oldest games
of the
Americas.

N/A

Identical to
modern TicTac-Toe.

Get all of the six

jade markers from
the starting queue
position to the
ending square
position on the
game board before
the other player.
Get the ball
through a stone
hoop.

Race/war
game with a
focus on
gambling on
blankets,
stones, or
food.

ivory and
come from
Oxyrhynchus
in Egypt and
date from
between the
1st century
BC and the
4th century
AD, during
the Roman
era. These
dice are in
the
Metropolitan
Museum of
Art in New
York.
N/A

Knucklebones
Terni Lapilli

Patolli

Aztec Ball

A revision of an
ancient
Mesoamerican
game that was
played by
many peoples
including the
Mayans.

First, build a
shrine to the
god
Huitzilopochtl
i, and then
build a ball
court next to
it. In

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Activity 1.11

Tenochtitlan it
was
surrounded
by the palace
and temple.
The Aztec ball
game, known
as
Ullamaliztli,
was a priority.

Royal Game
of Ur
Senet

Mancala

Shatranj

Tafl

Played in
Mesopotamia
before 2600 BC

Does no know the

rules

Popular in
Ancient Egypt

Get one's pieces

on the board, then
around the board
in an S-shaped
pattern
The word
Capture more
mancala comes stones than the
from the Arabic opponent;
word naqala
sometimes, one
meaning
seeks to leave the
literally "to
opponent with no
move".
legal move or to
have your side
empty first in
order to win.
Old form of
N/A
Chess popular
in Persia for
almost a 1000
years.

Family of
ancient
Germanic and
Celtic board
games played
on a checkered
or latticed
board with two

To escape while
the opponents job
was to capture
him.

One the
earliest board
games
Required
strategy as
well as
chance
Play a role in
many African
and some
Asian
societies
comparable
to that of
chess in the
West.
The game
came to
Persia from
India, in the
early
centuries of
the Christian
Era.
Size of the
board and the
number of
pieces varied,
but all games
involved a
distinctive 2:1
ratio of

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Activity 1.11

teams of
uneven
strength.

Liubo

Chaturanga

Go

Seega

The name
Rules were
comes from the forgotten
Chinese word
for sticks.
Ancient Indian
N/A
game which is
presumed to
be the common
ancestor of
chess.

Originated in
China at least
2,000 years
ago.

Control a larger
part of the board
than the
opponent.

Seega has
been played for
centuries
throughout
Egypt and
other parts of
the Middle
East.

you are try to

capture your
opponent's pieces.
The game ends
when a player (the
looser) has only
one piece left
To start, the first
player lays down
two of his or her
pieces in the
squares marked
"X." The other
player lays down
two pieces in the

pieces, with
the lesser
side having a
king-piece
which started
in the center.
N/A

Played since
the 6th
century or
earlier, hence
Chaturanga is
most
commonly
believed to
be the oldest
version of
chess.
is played by
two players
alternately
placing black
and white
stones on the
vacant
intersections
of a 19 19
grid board
involves
plenty of
strategy and
thinking once
you are
playing

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Activity 1.11

squares marked
"O."