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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2011

Mark A. Hall  and
Katherine Forsyth
Mark A. Hall
Affiliation:
1Perth Museum & Art Gallery, 78 George Street, Perth PH1 5LB, UK (Email: mahall@pkc.gov.uk)
Katherine Forsyth
Affiliation:
2Celtic and Gaelic, University of Glasgow, 3 University Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
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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 EuropeBritainIrelandfirst millennium ADRomanCelticboard gamesludus latrunculorumtaflXII scripta/alea
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 85 , Issue 330 , December 2011 , pp. 1325 - 1338
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2011

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