Royal Game of Ur
Make and Play Royal Game of Ur.
An Adult and Child Home Maker Project
This DIY kit contains one 200mm x 75mm x 23mm wooden playing board as pictured. Fourteen 20mm player pieces Sapele one side Poplar the other. and Five 15mm oak cubes to be made into binary dice. The game needs four dice the fifth is a spare.
The board is cut from a recycled oak off cut and is supplied straight off the machine - unsanded and unfinished. The player pieces and the dice are supplied varnish sealed but unfinished and need sanding to remove the arrises (sharp edges) ready for your chosen finish. The intention is for an adult and child to complete the making of the game pieces by sandpapering (not supplied) and applying your chosen finish (stain, varnish or wax - not supplied) to the board. Then to create 'binary' dice by colouring or marking three sides of each dice.
Assembly and Game Instructions
Pop out and print the assembly and playing instructions if required.
RoyalGameUr_Instructions.pdf
The background of the Game of Ur
The Royal Game of Ur is a two-player strategy race board game that was first played in ancient Mesopotamia during the early third millennium BC over 5000 years ago. The game board we are using is based roughly on the one held by the British Museum, is dated to c. 2600 – c. 2400 BC, making it one of the oldest game boards in the world.
The Game of Ur received its name because it was first rediscovered by the English archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley during his excavations of the Royal Cemetery at Ur in the 1920’s. At that time no one knew how to play the game so made up their own rules. In the 1980s, Irving Finkel (pictured), a curator at the British Museum, whilst reading one of the Museums 150,000 Babylonian clay scribed tablets, observed that it contained the rules for the game. From this he developed these rules. The object being to run the course of the board and bear all one's pieces off before one's opponent.
DIY Project
Firstly you need to complete the finishing of the playing board, player pieces and dice. You could sandpaper the board ready to receive your chosen finish - stain, varnish, or wax. It is not important to mark the lines if you prefer not to, as they are clear to see. Now you need to turn your attention to the player pieces. You need 7 in one colour and 7 in another. You are supplied with two colour wooden player pieces one side Sapele and the other Poplar these need to be sanded and polished. You can use your own player pieces if you prefer, you will notice in the image from the British Museum above that they look like ‘buttons’. If you wish to make your own then they are usually one set dark and the other light, but it is not important. Colouring these pieces is an ideal job for the junior partner in this project. Next you need to consider the ‘dice’. Originally there were binary tetrahedron dice with highlighted points but you are supplied with five 15mm oak ‘blank’ wooden dice cubes you need four for the game the fifth is a spare. These need to have the arises (sharp edges) removed with sand paper ready to be ‘painted or marked’ to form the binary dice. This involves painting or marking three on the faces one colour and three another. The use of coloured tape or ‘stickers’ on three sides of the dice is an alternative to painting. Again usually black and white but it is not important.
Players begin on opposite sides (marked red and blue here)
Moves are determined by a throw of the die 0,1,2,3, and 4 count
A number may not be split to move multiple pieces
New pieces may enter on any throw
A player must always move if possible
Only one piece at a time can occupy any square
An opponent can land on and capture a piece in the central long section (except on the rosette square) this knocks the captured piece off the board to start over
Moving a piece by ‘jumping’ over other pieces has no effect on those pieces. Only if you land on a square occupied by an opponents piece do you remove the opponents piece
Pieces are also safe from capture in the outside squares on each player’s side of the board
Landing on a rosette square gives the player another throw, you can move any piece with this 'extra' throw
Exiting requires an exact throw (so to exit from the final square requires throwing a 1)
Tags
Geometric Shapes Puzzle, Wooden puzzle, Plywood puzzle, MDF puzzle, Martin Reid, BespokeWoodSolutions, Bespoke Wood Solutions, DIY Home Project Range, Wooden Toys, Kids Puzzle, Childrens Puzzle