10 OLDEST Board Games In History

8. Hounds and Jackals (1900 BCE)

Ah hounds and jackals, the original odd couple. Also known as 58 holes, this old as balls game is played on a board with 58 holes, and I’m not a historian, but I think that might be why it’s also known as 58 holes. Rules are shaky, but most believe that one player controls five sticks with hounds heads on the them, their opponent controls the sticks with jackals heads, and like most ancient games it appears to be a racing game, with players trying to move their pieces around the boards holes to get from one end to the other. If that doesn’t sound very exciting, then you’ve just insulted half of the ancient world because from all accounts this game was CRAZY popular, the monopoly of its day with over 65 different ancient Hounds and Jackals game boards excavated from archeological dig sites of ancient civilisations from Persia, to Babylon, to Anatolia, to ancient Egypt. The oldest surviving copy of the game is currently housed in the Met, and dates back to the 12th Dynasty in Egypt which began roughly 1900 BCE. Believed to be a favourite pastime of Emperors and Kings, it’s even featured in the Ten Commandments movie.