Historiography Tags Used in Events

The "coiled one" refers to the god Mehen, would played an important role in ancient Egyptian funerary beliefs. Mehen was said to help protect the deceased as they journed through the underworld

Mehen, the god, and Mehen, the boardgame have both being extensively written about by Egyptologists and understading both, particularly in relation to each other, provides significant insight into the beliefs and understandings of the ancient Egyptians.

Ancient Sumeria was a collection of city-states, each run by its own king, in the area of South-Central Iraq. Sumeria is also known for developing the earliest form of writing, cuneiform, which Finkel has studied extensively

The British Museum's catalogue entry for the original object can be found here

Cuneiform tables have proved invaluable to developing our understanding of Sumerian culture, and Mesopotamia more broadly. Finkle is a specialist in cunieform, and taught Tom Scott and Matt Grey how to write their names in cunieform

More information about the cuneiform object they are discussing can be found here

Here, Finkel mentions that there is an assumption into how the rules are played, which has lead to different interpretations. His methodology in deciphering these rules was to cross reference modern games and ancient texts to determine the original rules to a fair degree of certainty. Finkel's commentary regarding how he deciphered these rules can be found here.

The notion that playing this game is "like a window on antiquity" echoes many of the reasons why game scholars choose to study this field

The British Museum's catalogue entry points out some issues with how the original object has previously been constructed "An important point to note, often forgotten, is that this was a hollow box and not a solid board: it was therefore a much more delicate item than the present reconstruction suggests." This entry, found here, also notes several similar objects found in other ancient Mesopotamian grave sites.

Finkel makes an interesting point here, suggesting that the storage aspect of the original Royal Game of Ur object links to modern gaming practices. We might think of this in relation to box art and integrated box storage in modern boardgames

Although there is no specific Mesopotamian god of luck, there have been over 3000 gods attested on cuneiform from this region