Roll the Dice

Everyone has played board games at one time or another, whether it was Catan, Monopoly, Scrabble, or Snakes and Ladders.

Board games have been around for thousands of years. The ancient Royal Game dates back 4,600 years to the Sumerian city-state of Ur in Mesopotamia where the ancient cuneiform writing system was developed. Perhaps because the players wanted to keep track of their wins and losses …

Archaeologists have found boards of the Royal Game of Ur in Crete as well as in Sri Lanka, about 6.400 km (4.000 mi) apart. Traces and mentions of the game habe between found in Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Cyprus.

Call for Mail Art

If this sounds interesting to you, then you might want to consider participating in a Mail Art Exhibition that is organized by Fernando and Maria João from Portugal.

Here are the rules:

• theme: board games
• participation: open to everyone
• format: standard postcard 148 x 105 cm (in card or envelope)
• technique: any (illustration, photography, collage, etc.)
• address:
  Dice Portugal
  Bairro António Sérgio, Bloco C1 – 2Esq
  3020- 078 Coimbra
  Portugal
• sender: include name / address / city / country / email
• no deadline: “It’s an ongoing project.”

Alternatively, you can send a print’n’play board game with rules in english and the game board as .pdf files )

Exhibitions

• online exhibition
• offline exhibition (The date is yet to be determined.)

The Photo

The photo on top of the page shows the Patolli game, depicted in the Codex Magliabechiano, and the Royal game of Ur in the British Museum (photo: BabelStone – CC0)