Inlaid backgammon board. new finds from Jiroft in Iran testify that important characteristics of the backgammon board, such as rows of twelve cells split into groups of six, were already present in the region around 2000 B.C., well before Duodecim Scripta, a Roman game with a similar structure attested in Egypt and Nubia. T1he cafés of Cairo full of men 1playing this game, which they call tawla, or “table” in Arabic.11