The game has a long history. Games that resemble it have been played for thousands of years. Archaeologists doing excavations at a place called "Burnt City" in modern-day Iran have found parts of a game that resembled backgammon. They have found 60 pieces to play with, and two dice. They could show that the game utensils date from around 3000 BC. These pieces around 100–200 years older than another set, found in Ur, in Mesopotamia.