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Tables is a general name given to a class of board games similar to backgammon, played on a board with two rows of 12 vertical markings called "points". Players roll dice to determine the movement of pieces. Tables games are among the oldest known board games, and many variants are played throughout the world. ==History== The ancient Egyptians played a game called Senet, which belonged to the same family of "race games" as modern tables games, with moves controlled by the roll of dice as early as 3500 BC.〔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.〕 The Royal Game of Ur, played in ancient Mesopotamia, is another member of the family. Recent excavations at the "Burnt City" in Iran showed that a similar game existed there around 3000 BC. The artifacts include two dice and 60 pieces. The set is believed to be 100 to 200 years older than the sets found in Ur.〔("Iran's Burnt City Throws up World’s Oldest Backgammon." ) ''Persian Journal.'' December 4, 2004. Retrieved on August 5, 2006.〕 Though they are all race games they cannot be direct ancestors of backgammon. Roman Tabula (Byzantine Greek: Tάβλη) was nearly identical to modern backgammon; it was described in an epigram of the Byzantine Emperor Zeno (AD 476–481). The board was the same with 24 points, 12 on each side, players moved their pieces in opposite directions, and the dice were cubes as today. As in backgammon the object of the game was to be the first to bear off all of one's checkers, of which there were, as in backgammon, fifteen per player. Hitting a blot, reentering a piece from the bar, and bearing off, all had the same rules as today. The only differences with modern backgammon were the use of an extra die (three rather than two) and the starting of all pieces off the board (with them entering in the same way that pieces on the bar enter in modern backgammon).〔Robert Charles Bell, ''Board and table games from many civilizations'', Courier Dover Publications, 1979, ISBN 0-486-23855-5, pp. 33-35.〕 The same word (τάβλη) is still used to refer to backgammon in Greece today, where it remains a popular game played in central village squares (plateias) and coffee houses. The τάβλη of Zeno's time is believed to be a direct descendant of the earlier ancient Roman ''Ludus duodecim scriptorum'' ("game of twelve lines" or, better, "game of twelve signs") with that board's middle row of points removed, and only the two outer rows remaining.〔 Ludus duodecim scriptorum used a board with three rows of 12 points each, and the pieces were moved across all three rows according to the roll of three dice.〔Austin, Roland G. "Roman Board Games. I", ''Greece & Rome'' 4:10, October 1934. pp. 24-34.〕 The earliest known mention of the game is in Ovid's ''Ars Amatoria'' (''The Art of Love'') (written between 1 BC and 8 AD). In the 11th century Shahnameh, the Persian poet Ferdowsi credits Burzoe with the invention of ''nard'' in the 6th century. He describes an encounter between Burzoe and a Raja visiting from India. The Raja introduces the game of chess, and Burzoe demonstrates nard, played with dice made from ivory and teak.〔Wilkinson, Charles K. "Chessmen and Chess", ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin''. New Series 1:9, May 1943. pp. 271-279〕 In 1254, Louis IX issued a decree prohibiting his court officials and subjects from playing dice games.〔Lillich, Meredith Parsons. "The Tric-Trac Window of Le Mans", ''The Art Bulletin'' 65:1, March 1983. pp. 23-33.〕 While it is mostly known for its extensive discussion of chess, the Alfonso X manuscript ''Libro de los juegos'', completed in 1283, describes rules for a number of dice and tables games.〔Wollesen, Jens T. "Sub specie ludi...: Text and Images in Alfonso El Sabio's Libro de Acedrex, Dados e Tablas", ''Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte'' 53:3, 1990. pp. 277-308.〕 In English, the word "tables" is derived from Latin ''tabula''. Its first use referring to board games documented by the Oxford English Dictionary was circa AD 700.〔"table, n.", ''(The Oxford English Dictionary ).'' Second Edition, 1989. (Subscription required)〕 Tables should not be confused with ''Tafl'', an unrelated class of board games (albeit linguistically related) played in medieval Scandinavia. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tables (board game)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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