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An Easytorecall Book Review |
Ancient Board Games in Perspective
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Anyone who has worked in "The Office" must surely have met a Mr Know-it-all. I have ... he was a world authority on every subject you would care to air and a few you wouldn't. Then ... one day he started talking about chess. Now I'm no Grandmaster or anywhere near, but I play quite a bit of this game ... it's a passion. Suddenly it became clear ... the guy knew next to nothing! What he could do with great talent ... was talk bull for England. He shouldn't be wasting his time on me, he should be clocking on down the Houses of Parliament and helping to run the gaff. And so it was, that to help myself get a quick idea of how authoritative Ancient Board Games in Perspective was, I jumped straight to the Chess section. My guard against sharp suited con-artists. The first thing I noticed was that one of the Chapters was written by International Grandmaster Raymond Keene. OK, I know he's well known for his interest and erudition in Chess History. So far so good! Indeed as it turned out the contributors included scholars from all over the world. And the book was inspired by the first international colloquium on board games which took place at the British Museum. The 31 chapters are mostly derived from the lectures given at this conference. As I delved into Keene's 'Grandmasters of Shatrianj and the Dating of Chess' I was drawn into the excitement of the flavour of the whole subject of Ancient Board Games itself. We are led back into history to a time when around 700AD a chess expert by the name of As-Suli created a chess puzzle. Keene uses it to demonstrate just how good the early masters of the game were. No one had succeeded in cracking this puzzle As-Suli created ... for thousands of years! Indeed it was only recently that the Russian Grandmaster Yuri Averbakh succeeded. We should thank Averback for this as the fact that he solved it proved that the puzzle itself wasn't just a bluff! And those who failed to solve it for thousands of years have also helped by showing the amazingly high standard of chess needed to create such a devious puzzle. From this it gives us an insight into the standard of chess of people from 1000s of years ago. There is no confusion involved, we are on a subject we can measure. Indeed the subject of board games overall can provide the same sort of checks and balances that my hobby of chess did in sussing out the office bluffer. We get a clearer view of history in the same way. Another interesting aspect of the book is that there is such a variety of subjects and viewpoints. There is plenty more on chess. But some of the other articles are even more interesting. The detail is amazing, the illustrations fascinating, many and varied. Chapter 2 deals with the Royal Game of Ur and makes a really good argument for it not being used as a game. Rather the boards found were used for divination, or a kind of fortune telling. This was for example used by rulers to determine when to construct a temple. Work wouldn't begin until the signs were right. Chapter 3 takes the same game and makes an even better argument for it being used both for divination and as a game! This is a tour de force in the work of a professional historian. He uses every technique. There are lots of statistics to analyse the dice throws, photos of original boards and a lot of work on deciphering codes. A tablet of unbaked clay which had been lying around the British Museum had cuneiform script on it. He identifies on one side the playing board - or to some it was just a board used for divination and telling fortunes. But on the other side ... are the rules of the game! Not content with that he also uses a cuneiform letter of the seventh century BC that occurs on a tablet from the library of ASsubanipal, king of Assyria. The letter was addressed to the king himself and writer alludes to the game to show his confidence in a future truimph in war. This is a massive chapter which must have taken ages to compile. It is also by the author of the book. He apologies for the book taking 17 years to compile ... the conference was in 1990! But I think this is simply a sign that the book is of the highest quality. After all a lesser editor could have put all the lectures together and put the book out in 17 days. I can imagine that such an academic book could be a bit dry and academic. But not a bit of it ... this book is alive with history and ideas and knock about debate. The sheer mixture and scope of the topics is mind blowing. This is CSI detective style archaeology, full of clues, hypothesis, red herrings, connections, ideas and opinions. Interesting and satisfying academic writing that succeeds in being engaging and entertaining. Contents 1. Homo Ludens: The Earliest Board Games in the Near East - St. John Simpson Graham Brown is co-author of the Batsford book |
