Home :. News :. In Search of a 60-Piece Backgammon Variant
A backgammon board found in 2007 at the archeological site "Shahr-i Sokhta" (The Burnt City), located in southeast Iran, has changed the common perception on backgammon history. The findings included an ebony backgammon board, a vessel containing 60 agate and turquoise game pieces and a dice. All were estimated as 4500 years old, together recognized as the most ancient backgammon equipment to be ever found.
Since then, the experts are still trying to conclude about the living in that era. For example, how ebony has arrived to today's Sistan province (allegedly from India) why did the population there have leisure to play the game, etc. Experts are also trying to figure out that backgammon game rules, especially with the unfamiliar board design, suggesting twenty slots and the large number of game pieces.
The backgammon game played in Iran is called Takhteh or Takhte Nard and it similar to the Turkish backgammon game called Tavla. Takhteh is played on a standard backgammon board with 15 checkers to each player, organized the same as the initial backgammon board setup. The backgammon variant is played without the doubling cube, also the highest possible score per game is two points for a gammon.
In Search of a 60-Piece Backgammon Variant
Two years after the finding of an ancient backgammon board in Iran's Burnt City, archeologists and historians are still searching for the rules of the backgammon variant, apparently played with 60 game pieces on a 20-slots board.A backgammon board found in 2007 at the archeological site "Shahr-i Sokhta" (The Burnt City), located in southeast Iran, has changed the common perception on backgammon history. The findings included an ebony backgammon board, a vessel containing 60 agate and turquoise game pieces and a dice. All were estimated as 4500 years old, together recognized as the most ancient backgammon equipment to be ever found.
Since then, the experts are still trying to conclude about the living in that era. For example, how ebony has arrived to today's Sistan province (allegedly from India) why did the population there have leisure to play the game, etc. Experts are also trying to figure out that backgammon game rules, especially with the unfamiliar board design, suggesting twenty slots and the large number of game pieces.
The backgammon game played in Iran is called Takhteh or Takhte Nard and it similar to the Turkish backgammon game called Tavla. Takhteh is played on a standard backgammon board with 15 checkers to each player, organized the same as the initial backgammon board setup. The backgammon variant is played without the doubling cube, also the highest possible score per game is two points for a gammon.
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