The 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.
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!
