Everyone plays board games, and everyone will find something to fascinate them in this book about the games of the past, and their history and development. Based on the lectures given at a conference in the British Museum, this book tells the story in a properly academic way, but it is no less interesting for that … and perhaps even more interesting! The book begins with three chapters on the games of the ancient Near East, most notably The Royal Game of Ur , then there are five chapters on the various games of ancient Egypt, senet, mehen , etc. Five more chapters are devoted to the games of the Greek and Roman world, then one on India, and three on Chinese games including Go. Then there are three on the beginnings of Chess and its introduction into western Europe, then four on backgammon from India to medieval England, three on mancala games, and one on the pursuit of hnefatafl , finally some brief notes on the games of the New World. The authors, thirty-one of them, range from archaeologists, historians and museum curators, not least Irving Finkel, the editor of the volume, to such well-known historians of games as R C Bell and the internationally famous grandmaster and journalist Raymond Keene. It is a large format book with hundreds of photos and drawings.
Dear Eli,
I’m phd student and I extremely need the article “Board Games in Central Asia and Iran” by Grigori L. Semenov from this issue for my investigation. Could you send me the copy of this paper on my e-mail if it is possible?
Kind regards
Hi.
This book and this article are not available anywhere online, even for sale. I don’t have a paper copy either. Looks like it’s out of print and sellers are price gouging for it. The cheapest I have seen it being sold for is $85 on abebooks.com. Your best bet of finding it is your local university library or intralibrary loan through your local public library.
Good luck.
Regards
Eli
Are you still on the topic or my occasion to help is already gone?
Marco.
I would like a copy as well if you have it. You can email it to me and I will post it.
Thanks
Eli