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Show Wednesday, January 31, 2007 B1 Expressions Basin Life Community Calendar mm By Janine Shannon Express Writer Monopoly, Candy Land, and Life are popular games developed devel-oped in the United States within the last 70 years or so. Other games like bingo, cribbage, and poker made their appearance in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, centu-ries, respectively. All these are relatively new compared to the very first games ever played, which people all over the world continue to play even today. Mancala Some say Mancala is the oldest game in the world. It is thought to have originated from Africa, where people dug small pits in the sand and played with pebbles, shells, or seeds. One of the reasons the game may have lasted through the ages is the fact that no special equipment is required. One source claims the oldest remnants of the game, stone boards carved into the roofs of temples in ancient Egypt, date back to before 1400 BC. It seems logical that Egyptians Egyp-tians would have invented the game because they used boards and counters for accounting and to keep records. The point of the game is to collect the most pieces by transferring trans-ferring them from one pit to the next. To do this requires strategy. strat-egy. Today there are hundreds of variations of Mancala, for example ex-ample Ban-Ban in Bosnia, Ayo in Nigeria, Oware in Ghana, Bao in East Africa, and Wari in West Africa and in the Caribbean. Carib-bean. Depending on the version, Mancala boards differ as far as the number of pits and rows. In the U.S. version, the game board is usually made of wood with 12 pits, six in each row much like an egg carton, and a larger pit on both ends. Chess The origins of chess are not clear. Historians since the 17th century have written about the beginnings of the game, but their findings are contradictory. Some believe it came out of China, Chi-na, but most argue that chess originated in India around 600 AD with the game Shaturanga or Chaturanga. The game, which included dice, was a battle between be-tween four armies, each consisting consist-ing of infantry, similar to pawns; an elephant, similar to a bishop; a horse, similar to a knight; a Rajah, similar to the king; and a ship, similar to a rook. According Ac-cording to literary evidence, an Indian Raja sent the game to a Persian king as a gift. The game evolved into Shatranj and spread into the Arab kingdoms with the conquer of the Persian f . 1 Chess as it is known today probably evolved from Shatranj, an Indian game acquired by the Persians, then the Arabs, and finally Europeans. MS Home Furnishings for Your Uftsijh Empire. The new version pared down to two players and slightly changed the pieces, including the addition of a prime minister minis-ter that would later become the queen piece. Many believe Shatranj arrived in Europe during the Crusades. About the same time, Shatranj spread further in Asia where Burmese, Siamese, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese versions of the game developed. The European form remained relatively rela-tively unchanged until 1475 AD, when the modern pieces and rules of movement known today emerged. Backgammon Backgammon is a table game that consists of a board with two rows of 12 lines, two sets of pieces, and dice. Several ancient games have been discovered that are similar to backgammon and have been suggested as its source. Although the exact rules of these ancient games are unknown, un-known, they are clearly "race" games, meaning the winner is the first to remove his or her pieces from the board based on the roll of dice. The Egyptian game Senet, for example, consists of a 30-square board with three rows of ten, two sets of pawns, and throwsticks. Archaeologists have uncovered Senet boards in ancient ruins that date back about 3000 BC, and these are the oldest board game sets ever recovered. The second oldest sets, of the Royal Game of Ur, have been found in royal tombs in Mesopotamia and date back to 2600 BC. This game of 20 squares may have evolved out of a version of Senet. The Romans also played a similar game that may have originated from Senet called Ludus Duodecim Scripto-rum, Scripto-rum, consisting of three rows of 12 lines and later two rows of 12 lines. Table games like these spread throughout Europe over the centuries, where they were banned by King Louis IX in the 13th century and by Queen Elizabeth in the 16th century because be-cause of their gambling nature. Englishman Edmund Hoyle published pub-lished a book containing the official offi-cial backgammon rules in 1743. Cards As the story goes, cards were invented along with the invention inven-tion of paper in China around 100 AD. Some believe the first cards were like paper dominoes where each card represented a throw of the dice. Accounts differ as to how cards came to Europe, whether from the Islamic Is-lamic Empire or from Egypt. Most agree, however, that playing play-ing cards emerged in Italy and Spain at least by 1377 AD as indicated indi-cated by literature from the time Ittl il iHi.ilHi.il I f f l3ii ! 0 People all around the world, including this group of friends from Vernal, continue to enjoy games played thousands thou-sands of years ago. FRENCH V&02 GERMAN SWISS SPANISH ITALIAN period. At first, cards were hand painted and so, very expensive, but with the invention of woodcuts, wood-cuts, card decks were soon mass-produced. mass-produced. Several different suit systems developed in Europe which survive sur-vive today. The German deck, for example, includes hearts, leaves, bells, and acorns. Europeans also added the courtly figures on cards, but some decks still do not contain queen cards. It is believed that the king of hearts might have once represented Charlemagne; the king of diamonds, dia-monds, Julius Caesar; the king of clubs, Alexander the Great; and the king of spades, the Biblical Bib-lical King David. The 52-card decks familiar to Americans today to-day comes from the French deck that includes the simple symbols sym-bols of clubs, hearts, spades and diamonds. These four games and others have stood the test of time. Although Al-though their origins may not be clear in some cases and different versions are played in other cultures, cul-tures, such games are among the oldest continuing human traditions. tra-ditions. With the cold weather keeping most folks in the Basin indoors, these games are a great way to escape while learning some history and experiencing culture at the same time. janine.shannondhotmail.com i (ll'Stmit, - ' Cat. 4 i The familiar 52-card deck uses the French symbols. Other European countries coun-tries still use different suit systems. 7 ,..CC, lV, mm? This old backgammon game was recovered from a ship sunk near Sweden in 1628. Photo credit: Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. This Senet game, recovered from the tomb of Amenhotep III, is on display at the Brooklyn Museum. Senet is thought to be a predecessor to backgammon. back-gammon. Photo credit: Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons by Deror AVi. c AJ j - w January through August The Utah Field House of Natural History is hosting the Range Creek Archaeological Exhibit from now through August. Au-gust. Please call the museum for more information at 435-789-3799 or stop by 496 East Main, Vernal. January 31 Preschool Story Time at 10:30, 11:30 and 12:30 at Uintah County Library. All preschool age children are welcome. Spanish story time and class from 5 to 6 p.m. The Family History Center will be teaching a class on 'Creating a Family History in Passage Express' - sign-up is Mandatory. Bring 3 family photos on a CD for the cover page. The Ute Indian Tribe Head Start is sponsoring a support sup-port group for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren. It will be held at 6 p.m. at the Four Winds Center (south of Bottle Hollow). A light supper will be served and child care is available. avail-able. Call Kathy or Marge at 722-4506 for more information. Everyone is invited. February 2 Community dance at the Golden Age Center, 155 South 100 West, from 8 to 10 p.m. every Friday night. Kay's Band provides the music. February 5 A Community Bible Study will be held every Monday at 7 p.m. at 3630 S. 1500 E. February 5 and 6 The Big Fix Mobile SpayNeuter Clinic will be in Vernal at Milt's Ace Hardware, 690 W. Main. For spayneuter surgery, animals must be between 8 weeks and 6 years of age. Pre-registra-tion available by calling 435-789-2367. Microchipping and vaccinations available to anyone any-one while veterinarian is on the premises. For more information infor-mation on the Big Fix call toll-free 1-866-PETS FIX or go to www.utahpets.org. February 6 A 7-week Love and Logic Parent Class will be taught at the Uintah County Library at 7 p.m. The class will be taught by Connie Cook and Kristen Huber. There is no cost for the class, except for the workbook. work-book. The other weeks will be Feb. 13, 27, March 6, 13, 27, and April 3. For more information call the County Library or Connie Cook at 790-7678. 'Gathering Family Information from the Internet Ancestry, Rootsweb, Google.com' will be taught by Karen Coombs at the Vernal Family History Center. February 6 and 7 19th Annual Uintah Basin Water Conference will be held at the Western Park Convention Center. Workshops include Storm Water & Other Legal Issues Facing Canal Companies, Oaks Park Canal Piping. Fox Lake Repair and others. oth-ers. Guest speakers include Dennis Strong, UDWR, Gayle McKeachnie, Mike McKee and Randy Julander. Call 789-1352 789-1352 to register by January 30. No walk-in registrations. Special discounts for ranchers, ranch-ers, farmers, irrigation and canal users. February 7 Glade Anderson will teach a class at the Vernal Family History Center at 4 p.m. on 'Creating and Saving a PAF File and Setting Preferences' Sign-up is recommended. 'Creating A Family History in Passage Express-Part 2' will be taught at 7 p.m. by Lila Caldwell at the Family History Center. Sign-up is mandatory. To place items of public interest inter-est in the Community Calendar, call 789-3511 or email them to editorvernal.com. SOURCE |