History of Alquerque-12. Texts of the game. Volume III
ISBN: 978-0-244-07274-2 515 pages
--- I dedicate this work to Mr. Joaquín Salmerón, Director of the Museum Siyasa of Cieza (Murcia) in Spain.
Thanks to his enthusiasm and generous help I could initiate the investigation of the Alquerque-12 game in Spain.
History of Alquerque-12. Texts of the game. (see video in youtube.com)
The reason to write three volumes about
alquerque-12 was due to the fact that there are researchers who affirm that
alquerque-12 was a very popular game in France. On the other hand they confirm
that alquerque-12 is a draughts game played in the Roman times. In Volume I we
have shown that the alquerque-12 board was not popular in France, but in Spain
while in Volume II it becomes clear that the game was also very popular in
Portugal and Italy.
In the case of Spain we
observe that the game was played more in the northern provinces than in the
southern ones, which invalidates the general opinion that the game had been
brought to Spain by the Arabs.
Researchers are always
referring to the fact that alquerque or Quirkat was being played throughout
Egypt. In this sense we have to take into account that with regards to the
alquerque games we have three man morris, six man morris, nine man morris, and
twelve man morris. Each game was played in a certain period.
Most historians and
archaeologists were following Murray, and stated that alquerque-12 was native
to Egypt in the 14th and 13th century B.C., because boards had been found
carved into the blocks of stone that form the Luxor temple’s roof in Kurna,
Egypt. However, alquerque-12 has nothing to do with this period. At first
Friedrich Berger states that the drawings cannot be dated due to Coptic
(Christian) crosses. Secondly the German archaeologist and Egyptologist Rainer
Stadelmann came to a similar conclusion with good documentary evidence.
Research of the Dutchman Wim Van Mourik and Dr. Stadelmann clearly proves that
the drawing by Parker was not the correct one and was completely different from
the drawing shown in Stadelmann's photo. For that reason we can state today
that the Kurna temple had nothing to do with alquerque-12 and draughts.
Alquerque-12 in various
countries always had to do with Christians and the church. It was probably
played by the church authorities, European crusaders, Knight Templars, Knights
of the Order of Santiago, and other soldiers. For that reason we hypothesise
that the game was an invention of or related to the activities of the Catholic
Church not earlier than the sixth century.
We have to be careful in
considering all alquerque-12 drawings as board games. There are many vertical
drawings of alquerque-12 that have nothing to do with the board game, since
they could have been used for apotropaic and esoteric practices. In this
respect one can take into account the Knights Templar and their carvings at the
Donjon du Coudray, Chinon (France).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank Mr. Rob Jansen
(Amsterdam) for his deep research of alquerque-12 documents and images for
years. Without his collaboration this book could never have been written. I
also send words of thanks to Dr. Ulrich Schädler (Switzerland) who generously
gave me a lot of critical notes. The fact that I did not use them in this book
has to do with adverse personal circumstances. I thank Marisa
Uberti (Italy) for her comments and images. Dr. Franco Pratesi (Italy) also
gave me a lot of information about Italy. The draughts icon researcher
Wim van Mourik (Holland) kept me posted about his alquerque-12 researches. Dr.
Jorge Nuno Silva (Portugal) was kind to facilitate me several images of
alquerque-12 boards. The anthropologist and archaeologist Luis Lobato de Faria
(Portugal) has found many alquerque-12 boards and drawings and kept me posted
about them. I thank him very much for his efforts to bring so many boards to
light!
More people have
collaborated on the preparation of this book and it is not possible to mention
all of them. Thanks to all of you!
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