BOARD GAMES
Board games have actually been recovered through archaeological excavation. The boards were usually stone or clay (in Egypt and ancient Israel they were wood or ivory). Some were from Esarhaddon´s palace and displayed the royal legend. Board games were played with various kinds of pieces and even dice. Two of these games were similar to those of ancient Egypt. The first, the game of twenty-squares, involved a race using pieces that moved according to rolls of the dice. The game of 20 squares was played not only by the rich, since large clay bricks have been found with the board crudely drawn. Palace guards even passed their time playing the game of twenty-squares; in fact, a game board was scratched into the pedestal of one of the pair of bull-colossi guarding King Sargon´s palace gates at Khorsabad. The second type of board game, the board of 58 holes, is an early model for cribbage.