Antiquity Vol 85:330, 2011 pp 1325-1338 - Mark A. Hall and Katherine Forsyth - Roman rules? The introduction of board games to Britain and Ireland

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Volume: 85 Number: 330 Page: 1325–1338

Roman rules? The introduction of board games to Britain and Ireland

Mark A. Hall¹ and Katherine Forsyth²

¹Perth Museum & Art Gallery, 78 George Street, Perth PH1 5LB, UK (Email: mahall@pkc.gov.uk), and ²Celtic and Gaelic, University of Glasgow, 3 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK

Competitive board games, played on the ground, on the floor or on wooden boards, provide entertainment, distraction and exercise for the mind — it is hard to believe that north-west Europe was ever without them. But the authors here make a strong case that the introduction of such games was among the fruits of Roman contact, along with literacy and wine. In Britain and Ireland games were soon renamed, but belonged like children's jokes to a broad underworld of fast-moving cultural transmission, largely unseen till now.

Keywords: north-west Europe, Britain, Ireland, first millennium AD, Roman, Celtic, board games, ludus latrunculorum, tafl, XII scripta/alea