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.

Gateway Games

A group of first year games-design students visited The British Museum as part of their study of ancient games. Irving Finkel met the group and pointed out some interesting artefacts. Here, the group is looking at a graffito game board, scratched into the base of the giant winged bull statue about 3,000  years ago. The statue is one of a pair of guardians at the entrance of the palace of King Sargon II (721-750 BC) in the Assyrian capital Dur-Sharrukin (present-day Khorsabad, near Mosul, in Iraq).

Veni, Vidi, Ludique

There is a very interesting set of exhibitions and events organised around the theme of play and games in antiquity at three museums in Switzerland: The Swiss Museum of Games; The Roman Museum in Nyon and The Roman Museum of Vallon.

Swiss Museum of Games, La Tour-de-Peilz

Currently, The Swiss Museum of Games has a special exhibition on the subject of antiquity in games, and a number of board games and computer games are on display, along with a selection of games for visitors to play with. The exhibition is open until 19th April, 2015, which will coincide with the end of the 18th Board Games Studies colloquium (the BGS colloquium dates are 15-18 April 2015)

Throw a six to start

The Games Museum also hosted a three-day international colloquium, entitled Jeux et Multiculturalite dans l'Antiquite Greco-Romain. I gave a presentation on Iron Age board game pieces on Tuesday morning [jeux et multiculturalite conference programme].

Jeux et Multiculturalite delegates at The Roman Museum, Nyon

The Roman Museum of Nyon has an extensive exhibition, entitled The Game of Life, which conference delegates visited on Wednesday. We were lucky enough to be given a guided tour of the exhibition (in English), by Veronique Dasen and Ulrich Schaedler, who are also the conference organisers and exhibition curators.
The Roman Museum of Vallon had a special ehibition, "Game Over", earlier in the year. "The Game of Life" exhibition will be moved to Vallon, with some alterations, in 2015.