Stranger Games

The 2016 Board Game Studies Colloquium is to be hosted at The German Games Archive in Nuremberg.

I'll be giving a paper on the spintriae, curious Roman tokens from the first century AD with an erotic image on one side and a number on the other that are often referred to as "brothel tokens".

They are of interest to games scholars because one idea about their use is that they may have been used as games pieces.

My presentation, "Stranger Games: The Life and Times of the Spintriae" will review the evidence

Strange Games

After I had agreed to organise the 2014 Board Game Studies Colloquium at UCS, it dawned on me that I probably ought to contribute a paper to the event.

A version of the paper was accepted for publication in the Board Game Studies Journal and can be found here: Duggan, E. (2015) "Strange Games: Some Iron Age examples of a four-player board game?". Board Game Studies Journal 9. pp 17 - 40

Stuck for a topic and pondering the possibilities, I recalled an odd and interesting display I had seen on a few visits to the British Museum and thought the game-related objects contained therein may merit some further investigation. That thought led me to the original archaeological report: Stead, I. (1967) "A La Tène III Burial at Welwyn Garden City". Archaeologia 101 pp. 1 – 62.

Following a footnote in Stead, I looked at some other archaeological artefacts and cobbled together a presentation for the colloquium: Strange Games: Some Iron Age examples of a four-player board game?. The presentation seemed to go quite well and I was pleased to be able to give the paper again at the “Jeux et Multiculturalitѐ” International Symposium at the Swiss Museum of Games as part of the Veni Vidi Ludique programme in October 2014.