Royal Game of Ur

This inlaid board game (2600–2400 BC) from the Royal Cemetery at Ur—known as the Royal Game of Ur or the Game of Twenty Squares—features a distinctive layout of patterned squares and shell inlay. Found in a royal tomb, it paired entertainment with ritual meaning: moves were linked to ideas of fate and the soul’s journey. Its survival reflects how leisure, status, and destiny intertwined in early Mesopotamian life.