Question

Note to players: general answer acceptable. Bernardino de Sahagun described a type of this activity among the Aztecs which was interrupted by invocations to Macuilxochitl (ma-kweel-SHO-cheet) and named for the Nahuatl word for kidney beans. Records for an ancient type of this activity were thought to be lost before Irving Finkel tracked (15[1])down practitioners among Jews from Kochi. Edward Burnett Tylor posited that an Aztec type of this activity called patolli derived from an Indian example due to the supposed presence of (*) elephants on its equipment. A painting from the tomb of Nefertari shows her doing this action alone using an object with 30 (10[1])squares. A popular type of this activity derives from the Indian (10[1])chaturanga (chuh-tu-RUNG-uh) and uses a term derived from the Persian for “the king is dead.” For 10 points, describe this activity, examples of which include senet and chess. ■END■

ANSWER: playing board games [accept chess or senet or the royal game of Ur; accept patolli before mention; prompt on games; prompt on dice games; prompt on gambling with “on what?”] (The elephants turned out to be tapirs.)
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