Research into the strategic games of Roman legionaries
Scientists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Nitra (Branislav Kovár and Ján Rajtár), together with researchers from the University of Reading in the UK (S. Penn, T. Penn), are studying board games played by Roman legionnaires in Slovakia.
They are mainly studying finds of game boards from the Roman sites of Rusovce (research by the Archaeological Agency led by B. Šebesta) and Iže (research Institute of Archaeology led by K. Kuzmová and J. Rajtár), on which the game Ludus latrunculi was engraved. The Slovak name of the game would be "game of little soldiers" or "game of bandits." The game is similar to today's checkers. In addition to the aforementioned sites, a game board was also found in the tomb of a Germanic prince from Poprad. The game board was made of wood, carved on a flat object such as a roof tile (tegula), or drawn on the ground. Stones could also be used as pieces, with river pebbles probably being the best choice. Through games like this, legionnaires not only had fun but also learned to think tactically and strategically.
The collaboration between researchers arose within the framework of the COST Action CA22145: GameTable project.
Contact person: Branislav Kovár, brano.kovar@gmail.com
Source and photo: Institute of Archaeology SAS