Ancient Roman board game discovered to have eerie similarity to modern favourite
Source: Daily Star – World News
When Roman soldiers were not out training and fighting, they were playing board games, which archaeologists have found to be very similar to one that is played by many today
Archeologists have found remnants of an ancient Roman board game that may resemble elements of a widely played, modern strategy board game today.
When Roman soldiers weren’t out training or fighting, they were spending some of their spare time learning military strategy through games.
An excavation in modern-day Turkey near what was once a Roman fortress revealed a pair of carved bone disk-shaped pieces likely used for a strategic board game, widely played today.
A team of archaeologists recently confirmed this by uncovering a pair of game pieces carved from bone in the ancient city of Hadrianopolis (in modern-day Turkey).
“The discovery of strategy games in Hadrianopolis further solidifies the presence of a military unit here,” Ersin Celikbas, an archaeologist at Turkey’s Karabuk University, said according to the state-run media Anadoula Agency.
The game in question could be either Ludus Latrunculi or Doudecim Scripta, both of which were known board games played with bone pieces by Roman soldiers in the fifth century.
Celikbas said both are based on military strategy, and may be similar to modern strategy games like checkers or Battleship.
“When we compare the games played with these stones in ancient times and the games played today, we can say that there are actually similarities,” Celikbas said.
He noted that military strategy of surrounding and conquering opponents is present throughout centuries of gameplay.
Ludus Latrunculorum translates to Game of Mercenaries, according to Smithsonian Magazine, and is a two-player strategy game that was born from the Greek game Petteia and popular throughout Roman culture.
It is deduced that the Doudecim Scripta game board was similar to backgammon.
Like backgammon, each of the pieces are shaped the same, but with a different symbol carved onto the token.
Locating the game pieces has experts believing that the Roman forces thought to have been headquartered in the city starting in the second century A.D. may have remained into the fifth century.
With work at the site ongoing this year, archaeologists may one day be able to construct a fully formed game of Ludus Latrunculi or Doudecim Scripta.
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