HISTORY OF GAMES AND PLAYS PART 1

Games and plays – their importance to the society:

Games constitute an integral part of all civilizations and are one of the oldest forms of social interaction between people.  They grasp the ideas and worldviews of cultures and pass them on to future generations. What is more, games have served as important cultural and social events, learning tools and indicators of social status. In his book titled “Homo Ludens”, historian Johan Huizinga perceived games as the starting point for more complex human activity, such as language, law, war, philosophy and arts.

First documented games and plays date back to the ancient times.

One of the oldest legends that is supported by scientific evidence to confirm it is 2,500 years old.

In his work, the Greek historian Herodotus described a story indicating that games (namely: dice) could have been invented in the Kingdom of Lydia.

At that time, Lydia suffered from famine and the king of Lydia decided that he must come up with an insane solution to prevent further fighting over food and help improve the low spirits of the inhabitants. Hence, extraordinary measures had to be taken.
That is why the King created the first game of dice and introduced the following rule for the whole kingdom:
– On one day, everyone could eat
– On the next day, everyone had to play dice and because it was so fascinating and engaging, Lydians would forget about food and thanks to this two-day system they managed to survive without civil wars for 18 years
BUT
The story does not end here!
According to Herodotus, 18 years passed but the kingdom still suffered from famine. The King of Lydia decided to play the final game of dice:
He divided the whole kingdom in half and the winners of the epic game would go for an epic journey in the search of new home and to start a new civilization.

On one hand, it is just a story of one Greek historian but on the other hand – some DNA studies revealed that the Etruscans who became a part of the Roman Empire had the same DNA as Ancient Lydians, which brought strong evidence that Herodotus might have described the truth (a part of a civilization traveling to a different location)!
What is more, geologists found proofs of 20 years of cold weather in the area of the Lydian civilization in that period, which could indicate the cause of the said famine.

The above-mentioned story shows that games and plays not only can have a great impact on the individual development of children (and adults), but also on our culture and living as a society.

Our game database offers dozens of games from old times. Just choose the relevant filters in our browser  of games and activities

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