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Various Cultures Backgammon

'Senat' was the first version of backgammon and it was known in ancient Egypt. The remains discovered were boards and pawns. At first, archeologists discovered boards of 3/10 squares. Similar boards were discovered at the same time in Egypt but with 3/6 and 3/12 squares. We don’t know the rules of any of those games but historians believe that all of the boards were used for the same game, backgammon , and that the differences between the boards probably indicate different versions of the game.

'Tabula' was a general name for games with a table/board in the Roman Empire. 'Ludus doudecim scriptorum'' was a Tabula game at the time. This game was based on the 'Senat'. The game contained a board with 3/12 squares and dice too. That is the reason for the name 'The game with the twelve lines'. The rules of this game are not entirely known, although there are many remains of it. During the 1thcentury AD, some of the rules changed and the board began containing 2 squares.

As mentioned above, you can see a common denominator for all these versions of backgammon, and it’s a board with 3 lines. Although the number of vertical lines varies between 10, 6 and 12, the board was always based on 3 horizontal lines. In the 'Ludus doudecim scriptorum'', on the other hand, there were 2 horizontal and 12 vertical lines. During the 6th century, this difference provided the game a new name called 'Alea'. This game was also a part of the table (Tabula) games.

During the Middle Ages (starting at the 11th century), the English backgammon was based on the 'Tabula' or 'Senat'. Backgammon was very popular for hundreds of years in England, but since people began gambling on backgammon, the game was outlawed for a while. In the 16th century, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the First of England, backgammon returned again as a legal game, but it was too late, since Chess had won over the popularity of backgammon.

'Nard' was a general name used in the times of the Persian for woods products, and it was also the name given to backgammon by the Persians in the 8th century AD. The game contained checkers, dice and a board, the board having signs representing the hours, days and months of the year. A similar game, called 'Tshu Pu' arrived before to China in the 3th century AD (probably via Spain or Italy) While in Japan the game was called 'Sugoroku'. Although the game already existed in East Asia during the 3th century BC, backgammon became popular in the Far East only in 5th century AD.

Today Greek backgammon maybe reflects best the changes the game went throug history. The game is called 'Tavli' , and it consist of three different games that uses the same board, checkers and dice. The games are alwais played as a serious off all three. The word 'Tavli' is derived from the ancient name 'Tabula' and the three different individual game reflect the changes backgammon had during history.