"A Boeotian die in context: some preliminary observations". Organised by B. Carè, V. Dasen & U. Schaedler, XXI Board Game Studies Colloquium, 23-26.04.2018, Benaki Museum - Italian School of Archaeology at Athens. (original) (raw)
Related papers
V. Sabetai with a contribution by E. Nikita, "A Boeotian Die in Context: Gaming Pieces, Jewellery, Seals, Spindle Whorls and Bird Bowls in a Female Burial of Status", in Carè, B., Dasen, V., Schädler, U. (eds), Back to the Game: Reframing Play and Games in Context, XXI Board Game Studies Annual Colloquium, International Society for Board Game Studies, April, 24-26, 2018, Benaki Museum – Italian School of Archaeology at Athens, Lisbon, Associação Ludus, 2021, p. 147-177 (= Board Game Studies Journal, 16, 2022, p. 159-195). https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/bgs-2022-0006 ABSTRACT. The present paper presents a die in its archaeological context, which is a rich grave in the region of Boeotia. It attempts to understand with what other items this gaming piece coexisted and why, as well as who was the person who played with it during lifetime. The Boeotian die is a solid cube made of clay that presents a peculiarity in its numbering system, for the face normally bearing six dots features twenty-five instead. The date of the die in the Archaic period and the sex of the deceased can be established from its associated grave-group which comprises 48 Boeotian (mostly bird bowls) and Late Corinthian vases, minor objects, such as spindle whorls, and gaming pieces from raw natural materials (such as pebbles, shells, a terracotta animal in secondary use, etc), as well as jewellery such as rings, bracelets, necklaces, brooches, pins, spiraled tubes, seals and rosettes attached on a -now lost- head cover. The age of the dead is estimated as young from osteological analysis, which situates our die and its gaming assemblage in the cultural context of the “mors immatura” in Archaic Greece. Dice among other gaming pieces are known from antiquity, yet undisturbed (and sexed) contexts of the Archaic period are rare. In the 6th century BC dice occur in sanctuaries; none is known from Boeotia, hence the significance of publishing one here in its assorted grave-group.
2022
Etruria and Rome which took place at the University of Fribourg (remote) in June 22-23, 2021, as well as at the webinar of Locus Ludi in 2021. Warm thanks are due to Robin Bertherin and Samuel Sottas for their help in the editorial work for this volume.
Applied Sciences, 2022
An interesting assemblage of ancient ceramic materials connected or potentially connected with gaming activities has been characterized from the archaeometric point of view. The materials (washer-like pieces, small spheres, and cubic dice, with and without inscriptions) were found in the Villa del Foro excavation (Alessandria, Italy). They are related to the early Ligurian population of the site and their frequent contacts with Etruscan both in Etruria and in the Po Valley, in a period spanning the early VI century BC till the first half of the V century BC. Starting from the materials evidence, hypotheses are proposed concerning their possible use and cultural meaning. The studied cubic dice are discussed in the wider context of the pre-Roman diffusion of these objects.
Board Games and Funerary Symbolism in Greek and Roman Contexts
In Greece in the Archaic period miniature clay models of game-boards found in Attic tombs indicate that board games were symbolically associated in some way with death. 2 The earliest example, dating to the middle of the seventh century (protoattique moyen), comes from the offering trench of a cremation burial at Vari. The game-board has the form of a squareish table. The fields are marked out with painted lines and the sides were decorated with floral and abstract patterns Another example, dating to the early sixth century, was found in Opferplatz Y/Anlage LXXV of the Kerameikos. It was decorated with lions on the sides.
Римске игре на табли у Сингидунуму и околини / Roman Board Games in Singidunum and Its Environs
The first discovery of dice was made accidentally in 1908 during the construction of Belgrade’s telephone switch building, and the last one in 2008. The century-long exploration of ancient Singidunum has uncovered sixteen finds that can be associated with board games. The body of finds is not large but it is illustrative enough because the finds come from different archaeological contexts. A problem in making a catalogue of this type of finds is the unpublished material. Counters, boards and dice have not been attractive enough for researchers and most are referred to only cursorily. The finds have been referred to as items in collections in MA and PhD theses dealing with a particular kind of finds, or as items in exhibition catalogues. Texts specifically discussing this theme are few. The finds cover the period of the 1st to 4th centuries, or the period of Roman rule. The finds of dice, counters and boards from Singidunum and its environs should be looked at in the context of a larger whole, the Roman Empire, rather than in isolation. Such finds do not occur before the Roman conquest of what was to become the province of Moesia. The popularity of board games is evidenced by 223 published finds from more than forty sites across Serbia. Most finds from Singidunum come from civilian contexts. Whether recovered from dump pits or from hearths, what they have in common is that they were discarded while still “in circulation”; which is a probable explanation for the isolated discoveries. A similar example has been registered on Sirmium’s Site 80 (city’s dump yard), which yielded four discarded counters, or Site 44, where a counter was discovered in the dump pit of a bone-carving workshop. The site at 9 Studentski Trg yielded an inscribed bone counter such as found across the Roman Empire, but the only such piece known from Serbia. Its importance resides in the fact that it is the only piece found on the floor of a house, meaning that it had been in use before the house was abandoned. The finds from burials constitute the largest group of such finds from Moesia. Of 223 finds, 157 come from burials, which accounts for 70% of the total number. As they were found on sites all over Moesia, there does not seem to be a pattern relating them to any particular funeral rite, or to the social or ethnic background, age or sex of the deceased. Counters and dice were found in brick-built graves (Singidunum: 28, Majke Jevrosime St; Niš), in leaden sarcophagi (Singidunum: 47, Kosovska St; Viminacium) and in cremation burials (Viminacium). In the cases where the age and sex of the deceased could be determined (Viminacium), it turned out that they were equally distributed between adults and children of both sexes. No pattern in the grave goods seems to be recognizable, i.e. the finds of dice and counters do not occur in association with any particular type of finds. There are several explanations for the presence of counters and dice in funerary contexts. One of them refers to Stoic philosophy with its view of the world as a board game of chance, with humans being mere gaming pieces and the dice, thrown by someone else, deciding the outcome of the game beyond their influence. Others relate the magical properties of dice to the cult of Venus Funeraria. Just as gamers in this world needed Venus’ sympathy, so the dwellers of the Underworld needed the sympathy of Venus Funeraria. It is well known that the best throw of dice, two or three sixes depending on the number of dice, is known as the Venus throw. In his analysis of the contents of some of Viminacium’s graves, A. Jovanović observes that the dice do not occur in association with other types of finds relatable to the cult of Venus such as dolphins, shells, pins with heads in the form of Venus’ bust. In the discussion about the symbolism of the finds, a certain distinction is made between the finds from burials and those from other contexts. The finds from thermae, taverns, houses and fortresses are interpreted as elements of the game set, and the dice and counters from burials are interpreted as elements of the rite related to the funeral and to the deceased, whether seen as the deceased’s self-interpretation or as an expression of the living relatives’ beliefs. The isolated finds of counters and dice in most graves would suggest the expression of beliefs, where a single counter or die is enough to convey a message as a substitute for the whole set. On the other hand, it would be logical to expect a larger number of finds in civilian or military buildings. The situation is quite the opposite. A tomb in Niš yielded almost the whole game set (only the board is missing, although a wooden one should not be ruled out), while an unpublished grave at Viminacium contained as many as 59 counters made of different materials. These instances stand in stark contrast to most cases from civilian and military buildings where no more than three dice or counters are found in association. The finds of board games, which are associated with leisure time, departs from anything known so far in the archaeological literature dealing with Roman society. The subject of this paper may seem flippant or even unnecessary, but any belittlement of such finds takes us a step farther from a comprehensive picture of the society that produced them. Leisure time is a little known aspect of Roman everyday life and our knowledge amounts to written sources created at different times and on different occasions. Therefore the body of such finds is a useful basis for exploring this aspect of Roman everyday life. The intellectual nature of board games, their intricate rules and practising in different strata of society shed light on the importance the Romans attached to their leisure time. According to some historical sources, time spent playing board games was time well spent intellectually, and the skill was considered “cultural”, in some circles even desirable. By contrast, other chroniclers and poets of the Roman period considered it an immoral vice. Many sources referring to games, regardless of the way in which they deal with them, provide nothing more than the impression of the contemporaries. Understanding the concept of board games and associated activities (gambling, competition, creativity…) would contribute to a broader understanding of the ancient Romans leisure time and everyday life.
Archaic Greek Terracotta Gaming Tables Revisited
Pallas, 2022
The subject of this contribution is five terracotta gaming tables from the archaic period, which are grouped for discussion for the first time. The reason being that in addition to the three previously known gaming tables of this type – one in the National Museum in Copenhagen from the Athenian art market, along with an example from the necropolis of Anagyrous (Vari) to be found in the National Museum in Athens and the third from the Kerameikos necropolis in the Kerameikos Museum – it is only recently that attention has been drawn to two more similar gaming tables. One in the Brauron Museum comes from the necropolis of ancient Myrrhinous, modern Markopoulo, Merenda, and was initially briefly described in the publication of the excavations. The fifth table was recently acquired by the Swiss Museum of Games (La Tour-de-Peilz) from the art market.