I recently discovered the book Ancient Games - A History of Sports and Gaming by Iris Volant. As with all books published by Flying Eye this is beautifully printed on thick matt paper stock and jammed full of seriously beautiful and eye-catching illustrations. Honestly - you'll spend the first ten minutes just sniffing the book, feeling the paper and soaking up the illustration if you're a bit of a book geek like me LOL!
But once you actual get to reading the book you'll discover loads of interesting facts about games through the ages. From the Ancient Egyptians and Romans, to Mesoamerican and Vikings, there really is a wonderfully wide breadth to the knowledge to be gained within. When you read about some of the ancient gaming you can see where many of our current popular sport such as Weightlifting, Boxing, and Athletics originated.
I found the page on The God of Board Games particularly interesting. Patolli, a game played by ancient Aztecs and Mayans, was possibly one of the first known board games, where players would move pebbles around the board using dice. Players would play for stakes such as jade beads or rare feathers and as in modern gambling would sometimes lose more than they could afford to!
With curriculum linked subjects this is a perfect book to spark interest in the origins of gaming for any school library as its full of interesting facts - for example: did you know that women were not allowed to take part in the early Olympic Games, and married women weren't even allowed to watch! If caught these women could be thrown off a cliff as punishment (presumably because the contestants competed naked and their own husbands might not measure up physically!).
A must have for the school library, or simply just for the sports or facts fan in your family.
Ancient Games - A History of Sports and Gaming by Iris Volante and Avalon Nuovo, Published by @FlyingEyeBooks
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