Watch Brits Play the Oldest Board Game On Earth

The Royal Game of Ur is the oldest known board game—it's at least 4000 years old! The British Museum has a copy, complete with wooden board, seven black markers, seven white markers, and four tetrahedral dice.

Although the game was discovered in the 1920s, its rules were deciphered later by British Museum curator Irving Finkel. He translated a cuneiform tablet found separately in order to puzzle out how it worked. (There's a terrific video describing this process.) In the video below, Finkel teaches YouTuber Tom Scott to play. Have a look:

If you're curious, the game is on BoardGameGeek and you can read about the British Museum's copy.