Analysing the Shahr-i Sokhta Board Game and Suggested Rules

In the archaeology of western Asia, scholars have focused on Susa and Mesopotamia in the west and theIndus Valley and southeast of Iran to the east for interpreting of the existence of intercultural goods. Suchroad enabled contacts between the people in its trans-regional form, allowing the transference of beliefsand ideologies across this long trade road. Among all these exchanged goods between east and west, thegame boards from Shahr i Sokhta in Sistan in southeast of Iran and Ur in Mesopotamia are unique due tothe absence of older types and the presence of their ideas in the modern world. This paper focuses onstudying the game board set from the Bronze Age site of Shahr-i Sokhta, found at grave no.731 of thegraveyard of the site. It analyses the different pieces and outlines the reasons behind the proposed gamestrategy and rules, based on the game’s theoretical and available archaeological evidence. The studyunveils the meaning of one of the mysteries of the game pieces, and it can change our understanding of theboard games discovered in Near East. This study focuses on a new proposed rule to introduce aplayable set and to identify and analyse all the discovered pieces and dice. This research can also help torefine the rules and open an opportunity for discussion around this set of board games in future studies.The suggested game rules attempt to be familiar to the time and bring meaning to each part of the game board.