PahTum pretends to be an ancient Assyrian board game. But...

This video recounts a game collector's detective story! My investigation into the alleged ancient board game of Pah Tum lead me to a lot of dead ends. But there is a game at the end of the story, and it's not bad.
References to PahTum can be found all over the Internet, but upon further investigation, I found that it's a very recent invention. The story that artifacts have been found that date back to 1800 B.C. are erroneous.
It is a playable game, and I encourage you to give it a try if you're so inclined.
Thanks to Kanare Kato for help in this investigation:
kanare-abstrac...
As always, thanks for watching, sharing, subscribing, and all that.
Don't forget to visit newventuregame...
and / newventuregames
and be sure to play every day!
See more about Patolli on BGG: boardgamegeek....

[@MistaManlyGuy]

Thank you for still sharing with us! You are a great storyteller. I appreciate all your work 😸

[@DavidMMcCord]

Thanks to you, too!

[@Dr.Logistik]

I can't believe that I have not found your channel sooner. I am an avid collector of all things that require shoving cardboard around around on a board. I look forward to more of your videos. keep up the good work, kudos.

[@DavidMMcCord]

Thanks for the kind words, and welcome to my gameroom!

[@ricardocanopliego7142]

simply incredible. I would dare say that all this could be a presentation for the International Board Game Studies Association. Let's hope and in the near future we can see if there are changes or more work on this game

[@SixBlueMonkeys]

While Pah'Tum might be a fictional game, the pc adventure game series 'AGON....' is very real and a great source to experience other "ancient games" with a computer opponent and a basically accurate ruleset, as far as historians can tell. That said, the "Agon Episodic Adventures series" (which has multiple alternate titles, bundles, and a weird remake if you search online--but this is what wikipedia chooses to call it now,) is loaded with heavy-handed Christian theology and awkward Old Testament quotes. I'm not sure what the original intent was, but it can be off-putting. But, if you want a basic understanding of ancient game design like Tablut, Fanorona, or Senet, this video game series has the basics in a very accessible form. It might not be historically accurate (especially Senet,) but they are all playable. Great channel, btw. You hooked me with your review of TOS Star Trek's 1970s board game. Not everything from the past is sacrosanct, but we can learn new things. Thank you.

[@brunopires7314]

Excellent! Even this is part of the fascination we all have with this ancient games. Even the fakes are interesting!

[@Dr.Logistik]

There is something to say about your backstory theory....There is something fun about "creating" a game as you would think the people of ancient civilizations would have done, given their knowledge and information they had at the time. Then let theater of the mind take over into what they would have thought.......A work of fiction nonetheless, but still fun. I would put a disclaimer in the smallest point fount possible stating that the game is a work of fiction somewhere.

[@ICAdventurersClub]

good stuff!!

[@user-xz6gr8jm9w]

I think the "place the black stones randomly" part is kind of a giveaway that it's a fake ancient game, since there isn't really a great convenient way to do that especially in 1800 BC Assyria. Kanare Kato's variant fixes that so easily it feels like that would have also been the original rules too (or some other variant where players place them intentionally)

[@garyclark3843]

Sadly, it's not even close to the most elaborate hoax I've seen this month. But then, I do enjoy "Decoding the Unknown".

[@humanat]

Reniseneb is listed as a scribe from Egypt. So that should have been a red flag right there. Especially since the Assyrians didn't invade Egypt until after that date.

[@crystallight2]

So in the capture type of the game, is the captured piece returned to its owner for later placement or is kept for extra points?

[@flickingbollocks5542]

Never heard of FART-room so have never played it. Obviously 🐂💩 from the publisher. If it is so old, you must be able to COPY and SELL it.

[@crystallight2]

Well for a hoax it looks fun