Editing Tables game (section)

=== Pre-classical period ===
==== Persia ====
The history of [[tables games]] and their [[race game]] forerunners can be traced back nearly 5,000 years to Persia,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.payvand.com/news/04/dec/1029.html|title=World's Oldest Backgammon Discovered In Burnt City|website=www.payvand.com}}</ref><ref name="wilkinson"/><ref name="murray">{{cite book |last=Murray |first=H.J.R. |author-link=H. J. R. Murray |chapter=6: Race-Games |title=A History of Board-Games Other than Chess |publisher=Hacker Art Books |year=1952 |isbn=978-0-87817-211-5}}</ref><ref name="Bray2011">{{cite book |last=Bray |first=Chris |title=Backgammon For Dummies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0SoloeOOtSkC&pg=PP31 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |date=14 February 2011 |pages=31– |isbn=978-1-119-99674-3}}</ref><ref name="Bray2012">{{cite book |last=Bray |first=Chris |title=Backgammon to Win |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m6PfAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 |publisher=Lulu Com |year=2012 |pages=6– |isbn=978-1-291-01965-0}}</ref> where excavations in 2006 at the [[Shahr-i Sokhta|Burnt City]] unearthed objects that appear to be part of a game set dating to around 3000 BC. These artefacts include an ebony board, two dice and 60 pieces, with the playing fields represented by the coils of a serpent. The rules of this game, like others found in Egypt, have yet to be discovered. It is, however, made from ebony, a material more likely to be found in the [[Indian subcontinent]], which indicates such board games may be more widespread than once thought.<ref name="Iranica board game">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Schädler |first1=Ulrich |last2=Dunn-Vaturi |first2=Anne-Elizabeth |title=Board Games in pre-Islamic Persia |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/board-games-in-pre-islamic-persia |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |access-date=2018-04-11}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Burnt City: World's oldest "Backgammon" Game? – Dr. Kaveh Farrokh |url=https://www.kavehfarrokh.com/news/burnt-city-worlds-oldest-backgammon-game/}}</ref>

==== Mesopotamia ====
Prior to the Persian discovery, the oldest board game sets had been found in [[Ur]] and are thought to be around 100 to 200 years later. They were used for the [[Royal Game of Ur]], played in ancient [[Mesopotamia]]. These finds are significant because of two Babylonian tablets with cuneiform descriptions of the game played on these game sets, the later one dated {{Circa|177 BC}} and the other one dating to several centuries earlier.<ref name=Finkel>Finkel (2007), p. 22.</ref> These represent the oldest rule sets of any [[race game]] and clearly show this Sumerian game to be ancestral to the tables game family.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ancient Board Games in Perspective: Papers from the 1990 British Museum Colloquium, with Additional Contributions|last=Becker|first=Andrea|date=2007|publisher=British Museum Press|isbn=9780714111537|editor-last=Finkel|editor-first=Irving|editor-link=Irving Finkel|location=London, England|pages=16|chapter=The Royal Game of Ur|oclc=150371733}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=It's all a game : the history of board games from Monopoly to Settlers of Catan|last=Donovan|first=Tristan|publisher=Thomas Dunne Books|year=2017|isbn=9781250082725|edition=First|location=New York|pages=13–16|oclc=960239246}}</ref>

==== Egypt ====
Another ancient race game was [[Senet]], played by the [[ancient Egypt]]ians around the same time.<ref>Hayes, William C. "Egyptian Tomb Reliefs of the Old Kingdom", ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'', New Series 4:7. March 1946. pp 170–178.</ref> Board fragments that could be Senet have been found in [[First dynasty of Egypt|First Dynasty]] burials in Egypt,<ref name="Piccione">{{cite web |url=http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/Archives/Piccione/index.html |title=In search of the meaning of Senet |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080918080211/http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/Archives/Piccione/index.html |archive-date=2008-09-18 |first=Peter A. |last=Piccione |website=Games Museum |publisher=University of Waterloo |place=Canada}}</ref> {{circa|3100 BC}}, but the first painting of this ancient game is from the [[Third Dynasty]] ({{Circa|2686}}–2613 BC). People are depicted playing Senet in a painting in the tomb of Rashepes, as well as other tombs dating to {{Circa|2500 BC}}.<ref name="Metha">{{cite journal |author1=Metha Melissa Wijoyono |author2=Alvin Raditya |title=Perancangan Permainan Media Edukasi Sebagai Pembelajaran Cara Melindungi Diri Dalam Menghadapi Bencana Alam Bagi Anak Usia 7–12 Tahun |journal=Jurnal DKV Adiwarna |date=10 July 2014 |volume=1 |issue=4 |pages=12 |url=http://publication.petra.ac.id/index.php/dkv/article/view/2021 |language=Id}}</ref> The oldest complete Senet boards date to the [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]].<ref name=":0">{{cite thesis |title=The Historical Development of the Game of Senet and its Significance for Ancient Egyptian Religion |last=Piccione |first=Peter A. |degree=PhD (unpublished) |publisher=University of Chicago |year=1990 |location=Chicago}}</ref>

Senet was played in neighbouring cultures, probably arriving there through trade links with the Egyptians.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal |last1=Crist |first1=Walter |display-authors=etal |year=2016 |title=Facilitating Interaction: Board Games as Social Lubricants in the Ancient Near East |journal=Oxford Journal of Archaeology |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=179–196 |doi=10.1111/ojoa.12084}}</ref> It has been found in the [[Levant]] at sites such as [[Tel Arad|Arad]]<ref name="Sebbane">{{cite journal |last=Sebbane |first=Michael |year=2001 |title=Board Games from Canaan in the Early and Intermediate Bronze Ages and the Origin of the Egyptian Senet Game |journal=Tel Aviv |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=213–230 |doi=10.1179/tav.2001.2001.2.213|s2cid=162219908 }}</ref> and [[Byblos]], as well as in [[Cyprus]].<ref>{{cite book | title=The Kent State Expedition to Episkopi-Phaneromeni | publisher=Paul Astroms Forlag | last=Swiny | first=Stuart | year=1986 | location=Nicosia | isbn=9186098403}}</ref> Because of the local practice of making games out of stone, more Senet games have survived in Cyprus than in Egypt.<ref>{{cite book |title=Ancient Egyptians at Play: Board Games across Borders |last1=Crist |first1=Walter |display-authors=etal |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-4742-2117-7}}</ref>