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20 Squares (É Er-bé-et-ta, Iseb, Aseb, Game of Twenty, Twenty Squares, Room Four)DLP Game   

Period Ancient

Region Northern Africa, Southern Asia, Western Asia

Category Board, Race, Escape

Description

20 Squares appears for the first time at the beginning of the second millennium BCE. It seems to be derived originally from the the Royal Game of Ur, becoming particularly popular in Iran, the Levant, Egypt, and Cyprus in addition to Mesopotamia during the Late Bronze Age (1700–1050 BCE), and continued being played in Mesopotamia into the Seleucid period, at least until the second century BCE. It may have been called É Er-bé-et-ta, "Room Four," which is mentioned in cuneiform tablets.

Rules

3x4 grid with an extension of eight spaces along the central row. Played with two knucklebones, one small and one large. Five or seven pieces per player.

These rules were taken from the Historical Information ruleset.

All Rulesets

Scholarly rulesets
Seleucid Proposed by Irving Finkel based on rules from Mesopotamia.

Incomplete rulesets
Historical Information Rules for 20 Squares from the DLP evidence.
Simple 20 Squares Played on a board with no markings.
Marked 20 Squares Played on a board with certain marked squares.
20 Squares Liver Model Played on a board shaped to resemble a liver.
Double 20 Squares Played on a doubled 20 Squares board.

Origin

Mesopotamia

See Also

Royal Game of Ur

Ludeme Description

20 Squares.lud

Concepts

Browse all concepts for 20 Squares here.

Evidence Map

109 pieces of evidence in total. Browse all evidence for 20 Squares here.

Click on any marker or highlighted region to view the evidence relating to it.
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Sources

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Banks, E.J. 1912. Bismaya, or the Lost City of Adab. New York and London.

Becker, A. 1993. Uruk. Kleinfunde I, Stein. Mainz am Rhein: Philip von Zabern.

Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem. 1992. Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem, Guide to Collection. Jerusalem: R. Sirkis Publishers Ltd.

Bottéro, J. 'Deux curiosités assyriologiques (avec une note de Pierre Hamelin).' Syria 33: 17–35.

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de Kainlis, A. 1942. 'Un jeu assyrien du musée du Louvre.' Revue d’assyriologie et d’archéologie oriental 39: 19–34.

de Mecquenem, R. 1943. Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse, Vol. XIX. Paris.

Dikaios, P. 1969. Enkomi. Excavations 1948–1958. Vol. 1. Mainz am Rhein: Philip von Zabern.

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Finkel, I. 2007. On the Rules of the Royal Game of Ur. In I. Finkel (ed), Ancient Board Games in Perspective. London: The British Museum Press,16–32.

Finkel, I. 2008. 'Board-games.' In J. Aruz, K. Benzel, and J. Evans (eds.) Beyond Babylon. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Identifiers

DLP.Games.7

BGG.23211


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