Discover Ur

Just this morning while I was flipping through an old edition of TIME magazine before rushing off to church service, I was fascinated by the article "The Royal Game of Ur" (William Green, TIME, June 30-July 7, 2008, pp. 74-75).

It was discovered that the Royal Game of Ur dated about 4,600 years ago and was perhaps the oldest board gaming equipment ever found. The author alleged that the Royal Game of Ur would have matched in its popularity and glamour, the likes of PlayStation of modern civilisation. Its origin traces back to ancient Mesopotamia, an ancient city of Sumeria called Ur.

Ur? Doesn't it sound familiar to some of us? Of course! The city of Ur, as mentioned in the bible, was the birthplace of Abraham (Gen 11:31)! The bible says that Abraham came from "Ur of the Chaldeans", whom some biblical scholars refer to as northern Mesopotamia and not the famous Ur (southern Mesopotamia). Nevertheless, it would be interesting to know that just may be, Abraham and his generations would have an occasional Royal Game of Ur.