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Dundy O
United States
Milwaukee
Wisconsin
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Tamar pushed the sheepskin doorway aside and stepped into the desert night. He breathed deeply. His love for the slightly sour scent of the wind sweeping in from the Great Gulf always made him a smile. He filled his lungs again before he began walking to his favorite nightspot.
Tamar's wife, weary from a taxing summer pregnancy had just reclined for the evening when he decided to view the great planets Jupiter and Saturn move within close proximity of each other. As long as he could remember, his thoughts and dreams were always fixed on the heavens. He learned from his father and uncles at a very young age that stars and planets marked the times and seasons of the world by their movement.
He knew a great time on earth was close.
As he slipped between the tents and earthen houses of his neighbors, he was careful to avoid the roaming animals of the desert prowling for food. Rats were a mere annoyance, but the grey wolves from the nearby marshes of the Euphrates River could be deadly.
He cleared the cluster of homes, animal pens and date-trees ringing the outer village area of Ur when Tamar finally turned toward the large bricked walls of the inner city.
Massive. Elegant. A testament to man's dominance over the desert region. Tamar often wished he would be free to live inside these walls but knew they were reserved only for ministers, royal priests and priestesses.
As Tamar walked by the open gate of the city, he saw two men seated near a small fire just inside. Gatekeepers. They were bent over a small wooden object that was the focus of their attention. Tamar stopped to watch.
It was the game. Twenty Squares. He knew about the game and also knew that it was more than a game. His body involuntarily shuddered. It was said that this game gave the royals their powers.
As he observed the progress of the game, Tamar became frightened when he noticed a tall, slim figure approach the men. Queen Puabi. He shrunk back but couldn't take his eyes off her stunning presence. She was agitated and appeared to be arguing with the two men. As the confrontation heightened, a sudden wind swept across the desert and exploded through the city gates. Every torch on the walls went out and the fire where the three royals stood immediately went black.
Shocked, Tamar turned to go when he remembered why he began this walk in the first place. He looked upward and lost his breath. The night sky was blazing white in the area of Jupiter and Saturn. He couldn't comprehend why, but the conjunction of those two planets created an unnatural amount of light. As he studied the sky, he was certain that there was a large star behind the two planets, creating a large halo of light that linked with theirs.
Never in his many years of sky-watching had he ever witnessed anything so amazing. Deep inside of himself, he understood that the Great God was unveiling something grand. But what?
"Why were you watching me?"
Tamar spun around to see the tall figure of Queen Puabi glaring down on him...
The Royal game of Ur never came with a set of instructions. Wherever archeologists unearthed the game or it's associated game pieces, no set of rules were ever found nearby. It wasn't until the tablet of Itti-Marduk-balatu was found that any light was shed on gameplay.
Unearthed in Babylon, the tablet was dated as written in 177 BC--more than a millennium after the kingdom of Ur existed--and contained instructions for a game that involved the use of dice and a board made up of squares containing rosettes. These rules seemed to hint at a race driven game.
Used loosely, these instructions express a connection with the Royal Game of Ur.
The pictures above are two possible board movements used by each of the players in a race to the end of the twenty square "track."
The rosettes carved inside five of the game-board squares and the exact use of the pyramidical dice have also remained unsolved speculations.
The most accepted assertions are that the markings on the dice specified movement allowance and that the rosettes were either a "safe" spot or allowed the player whom landed on it to gain a free "go."
Most interestingly, many archeologists, historians and social scientists doubt that The Royal Game of Ur was a game at all. In studying the cultures, lifestyles and games of the ancient Mesopotamian region, many have come to the conclusion that The Royal Game of Ur was used for divination.
Senet and Tau, two other games that have been found in the Mesopotamian region, have been proven to be used for reading the meaning of star movement and/or invoking the spirit world.
It is well known that the ancient world was fixated upon star movements and planet alignment. Many ancient texts speak of this, including the Jewish and Christian Bibles. Multitudes of Middle Eastern gods were given star names. The Moon god dominated the Arabian peninsula. Pictures of space travel have been inscribed in tombs, caves, pyramids, and on stones.
Specifically speaking of the Royal Game of Ur, scientists often wondered why the game was only found in the Royal Cemetery of Ur. Ur had a large cemetery of which many bodies lay in common graves with few personal items ever found in them, but the Royal Cemetery was in a specific area of the larger city cemetery.
This was the area where tombs were found, and inside of them the Royal Game of Ur.
One of the more famous tombs inside the Royal Cemetery was called the Tomb of Queen Puabi. The interpretation of the word, "nin," which was inscribed in her tomb is translated "queen," and alternatively, "priestess." Many religious symbols were found with her, along with the Royal Game of Ur.
Which brings us to this question:
Was the the Royal Game of Ur a game or a method of predicting the future?
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