Board Games - Did you Know?

 

History of Board Games 

 

Do you play board games? It proves to be an interesting game that is played in many countries where it is drawn in the sand and then played with pebbles as counters that does not use dice in this game. When it comes to the history of board games, the first use dates back to prehistoric times of over 7000 years where this board games were found in Iran in 5500 BC. It should be noted that it was in tombs where many old games have been found. It was in the early 3000BC that Egyptians used mud gaming boards. It was in an Egyptian tomb that showed 2 players with pegs headed with either wolfs or dogs in 2800BC. It was found that due to the use of dice, both skill as well as luck was involved in this game.  It has been believed that it was in 1400BC that Palamades of Greece invented the dice. If you thought that dices were always in the form of cube then you are wrong as it was not always made in this shape as in Egypt the stone dice which was used in 250BC were 10 sided. It was also found of a tubular shape that was made from Ivory where it had marks like the numbers one, two, three on one side where it was spaced much apart with ornamental lines.

 

It was suggested by Eastanthius of Greece in 1193 BC to make sure of stopping cheats who made the dice with the number “ones.”  It can be mentioned that flat sticks were used prior to the use of dice where it was marked in numbers. It was also found that at times, the dice was colored or made use of symbols as well. It was in 43AD after the arrival of the Romans that the story of games in Britain began. The game of Tabula was played by the Romans that was quite like the modern games of Backgammon in the same way.

 

It was after the Romans left that few board games existed from this period.  The board game of Hnefatafl was introduced by the Vikings in 400AD.  It can be noted here that chess and dice were played by the lords and courtiers in their castles. It was found that it was sitting under the trees that people played board games between 1133 and 1300AD.  It was “The Mansion of Happiness” which was the first board *game that was manufactured in the USA. It was found that this board games made big business with the best use of improved printing as well as production techniques. In the year 1878 J.W. Spears formed his company where114 different board games were listed in their 1910 catalogue. So this proved to be very important where Chad Valley was formed in the year 1897 by the Parker Brothers.

 

The board games had to fight competition after the Second World War as there were also lots of other forms of leisure interest that was found such as Radio and Television. It was found that manufacturers began to produce board games which were based on popular Radio and TV program where in the year 1950, scrabble was invented.  In order to promote and advertise different products, board games have been used as free gifts. 

Source reference:Prachi91

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