History of Backgammon
The First Backgammon like GamesThe beginnings of backgammon can be traced back to ancient Egypt, where the game of Senet was popular over 5,000 years ago. Senat was a race between 2 competitors played with sticks or bones instead of dice. Archeological digs in Mesopotamia discovered a similar game from around the same period, known as the Royal Game of Ur. There´s an original board at the British Museum, dated to around 2,600 BC.
The Roman Empire
What have the Romans ever done for us, Hear you ask? Well the Romans might not have had the Internet, but they did play a game called Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum , (literally the 'game of 12 lines' in Latin. By the 1st century AD this became Alea, a game with 2 rows of 12 points .
Persia and game of Nard
A backgammon like game also pops up in Persia called Nard. This was probably invented by a man called Bozorghmehr around 1000AD. This bioard game became popular all over the civilised world, and was played in Japan and across the Islamic empire all the way to modern day Spain .
Backgammon and Europe
Backgammon was brought back to England by knights returning from the Crusades. They played a variant of backgammon called as Tables . Simultaneously a game called ´jeux de tables´ began to take off in France. This also became popular over The Channel in England despite the game being banned in both countries. The game spread across Europe.