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The Backgammon board design of 24 triangular points used on most modern Backgammon games was, no doubt, borne from the earlier Roman game of Tabula. Tabula morphed from the even earlier game of Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum which is latin for Game of Twelve Points. This game itself stems from even older games probable going back thousands of years.
Backgammon as played today is not five thousand years old as some would proclaim. Its precursor, Tabula can be traced back nearly two thousand years and Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum even further back. These precursors were probably played not that dissimilar to the way we play backgammon today, thus we can say that these precursors were really Backgammon because the origins of the name, Backgammon is not known. It wasn’t till the early twentieth century that additional rules were added along with the introduction of the Doubling Cube.
Backgammon Rules, Route and Layout
An ancient stone Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum table.
A modern replica of a Tabula board
An ancient depiction of Tabula being played.
One half of an ancient stone backgammon board.
An old book paining of the game being played in Medieval times.
