In quest for the lost gamers - An investigation of board gaming in Scania, during the Iron and Middle Ages (original) (raw)
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Hnefatafl, hazard, chess. Archaeological testimony of gaming in Sigtuna, Sweden (AD c.980-1300)
Manuscript, 2022
This paper examines all known finds of dice and gaming pieces from the settlement layers (occupation deposits) of Sigtuna, Sweden (AD c. 980–c.1300). The oldest dice, two items, are of rectangular Iron Age type, while all later dice are cubic. The majority are made from bone, antler, and walrus ivory. Nearly half exhibit a die pip arrangement of 6+5 / 4+3 / 2+1. The ‘modern’ arrangement where opposite faces always add up to 7, is less frequent. Both arrangement patterns co-existed from the 12th century. Onion-shaped gaming pieces from 11th century layers testify to board games, as does the single find of a hnefatafl board. Finds of chess pieces indicate that chess was first introduced in the 12th century. Over half of the gaming pieces are of antler. Other materials used are walrus ivory, bone including whalebone, and glass. Simple gaming pieces made from wood and the points of elk-antler tines are evidence of gaming by ordinary people.
Board games of the Vikings – From hnefatafl to chess
Maal og Minne, 2018
The relationship between the Viking game hnefatafl and the new board game of chess is an intricate one, made all the more so by the fact that both are described by the same term: tafl. In this paper, I focus both on the archaeological and the literary evidence for the two board games and the diagnostic features that set them apart. At the outset, the famous reference to tafl by Kali Kolsson, the future Earl Rǫgnvaldr of Orkney, is highlighted, and it is argued that Kali actually meant skaktafl, i.e. chess, when he used this term. The Ballinderry board from Ireland and the Ockelbo rune-stone from Sweden are subsequently presented as typical examples of the Viking game hnefatafl. Part of the discussion dwells on the eddic poem Vǫlospa and the symbolic value of the golden gaming pieces, which, I argue, reflect the Nordic memory culture of the Viking Age. In what follows, the most important evidence for chess in the North is addressed: the Lewis chessmen. A consideration of all these va...
In the Romanian archaeological literature, games and toys from the medieval period have hardly been subjects of study and analysis, perhaps due to the rarity of such artefacts that can be connected to leisure time. The artefacts analysed on this occasion come from archaeological excavations carried out on sites from the northwestern part of Romania, more precisely from the Sylvanian Basin, a geographical area that lies within the administrative territory of the county of Sălaj. Artefacts that may have multiple functionalities often appear within archaeological inventories discovered in settlements. The limitations of the research mean that in many cases it is impossible to establish the functionality of some objects with certainty, cases in which we can only make assumptions/proposals. In the case of the geographical area under analysis (the Sylvanian Basin) we also note the existence of early medieval artefacts whose possible function as toys or as components of games can only be hypothesized.
2021
299 10. A playful coroplast? A new look at the terracotta group of the early Roman board-game players NAM 4200 and related finds Maria Chidiroglou 323 11. Catacomb games: reused game boards or funerary inscriptions? Ulrich Schädler 349 12. Une tabula lusoria ou « triple enceinte » et l'inscription funéraire de Agate filia comites Gattilanis à Milan Francesco Muscolino III. Between literary fiction and divination 367 13. Plato plays Polis
Talus: Etymology of a Ludonym and how the Names of an Ancient Gaming Practice could be Indicative of Processes of Cultural Transmission and Stratification, 2021
This paper presents the complex history of the names given to knucklebones by different ancient civilizations. During the whole of antiquity these particular gaming tools had precise cultural and symbolical connotations, which influenced their gaming use and crossed many social, chronological, geographical and cultural boundaries. The peculiar role played by knucklebones within human gaming practices stretches across several millennia. In western Europe during the early Middle Ages, their use went into decline in favour of cubic dice. Over the centuries scholarship has overlapped and confounded the terminology relating to these two different gaming traditions, causing many misunderstandings and translation issues. However, thanks to advances in the field of game studies and through the examination of literary, iconographic and archaeological data, it is possible to establish the original names given to games using astragals and also the complex signifiers and implications that they had for classical culture.
Games in the Ancient World: Places, Spaces, Accessories
Games in the Ancient World: Places, Spaces, Accessories, 2024
Le volume réunit une série d’études présentées lors de colloques organisés par le projet ERC Locus Ludi (#741520) ainsi que d’autres contributions. Un large éventail de cas met en lumière la diversité culturelle des comportements dans l’espace et le temps. Ces études révèlent l’étendue géographique et chronologique des pratiques ludiques, de l’Égypte pharaonique à la Grande-Bretagne romaine et à la périphérie celtique du haut Moyen Âge. Malgré l’abondance de témoignages, le matériel conservé est souvent fragmentaire et dispersé, occulté par la perception occidentale moderne des jeux comme des passe-temps futiles. En déconstruisant la complexité des pratiques ludiques antiques, cet ouvrage met en lumière l’intersection des jeux avec la vie sociale, culturelle et religieuse dans l’Antiquité, et livre une perspective nouvelle sur un aspect jusqu’ici négligé de l’histoire humaine.
Game Studies. Methodological Approaches from the History of Medieval Art
Espacio Tiempo y Forma. Serie VII, Historia del Arte. Núm. 9 (2021): El objeto desbordante. Espacios inmersivos y estrategias multisensoriales en el arte, 2021
This article presents an updated state of the art about the relation of videogames with the cultural sphere and the historical disciplines. Specifically, we will try to address the role that the History of Medieval Art can play in the analysis and assessment of these cultural objects from a double way defined, on one side, by the historical Middle Ages and, on the other side, by the recreated medioevo. The Assassins Creed saga and titles as Bloodborne or A Plague Tale: Innocence, offer very particular visions of medieval and neomedieval architecture, all of them likely to be part of the cannon of medievalizing works of contemporary culture and, therefore, be object of study for the History of Medieval Art.