Around 400 BC, in a city named after one of their most famous and successful emperors, Roman soldiers spent their idle time shuffling counters around a game board, in an attempt to hone their strategic thinking skills – or maybe just to have fun.
During recent excavations carried out in the ancient city of Hadrianopolis in the Eskipazar district of Karabük, Turkey, archaeologists discovered two small objects carved into game pieces, for use in ancient games known as “Ludus Latrunculi” and “Doudecim Scripta.” These pieces have been dated to the fifth century AD, and this intriguing find has shed new light on how Roman Empire soldiers stationed in Anatolia kept themselves busy while waiting for a rebellion to quash.
The disc-shaped artifacts were made from pieces of animal bones, and resemble especially large lentils. They were decorated with symbols, which is how they were identifiable as pieces from ancient board games.
In a press release detailing this discovery, excavation leader Dr Ersin Çelikbaş, an archaeologist from Karabük University, explained that one of the pieces features a “four-armed symbol,” while the other is adorned with an eight-armed sign.
“At the ends of these arms, there are punctuation marks made with engraving techniques. These are actually symbols that help determine the strategy of those pieces, that is, the game pieces, by the person playing,” he said.
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Fun and Games and Serious Business in Hadrianopolis
As inconspicuous as they might seem at first glance, these unique ancient artifacts are the latest significant find to be recovered from one of Turkey’s most important archaeological sites.
Ruins of a theater excavated at the Hadrianopolis archaeological site. (Robmor01/CC BY-SA 4.0).
The city of Hadrianopolis in Roman Anatolia was named in honor of the emperor Hadrian, who is perhaps best known today for his construction of Hadrian’s Wall, which bisected the landscape of Northern England. But Hadrian’s exploits went far beyond this, as his military and political successes enhanced the power of the Roman Empire throughout the Mediterranean region during the second century AD. It was an older Hellenistic settlement in Turkey occupied by the Romans that was named after the famous emperor, and excavations over the years have shown this was a highly developed city and a major Roman settlement in Asia Minor.
Hadrianopolis is extremely well-known for its church-floor mosaics that depict many different types of animals. Excavations have uncovered a range of Roman structures (and some from before Roman times), including two baths, two churches, a defensive structure, rock tombs, a theater, an arched and domed building, city walls, villas, other monumental buildings and some areas apparently reserved for cultic areas.
Among the more notable structures unearthed in the city is a military fortress, which proves the Roman army had a significant presence in the city during the time of Hadrian – and well beyond that, as the new find makes clear, which is one of the more eye-opening aspects of the discovery of the game pieces.
“The objects unearthed belong to the 5th century AD,” Dr Çelikbaş verified in his statement. “The 5th century is important to us. Because we had already determined the existence of a military headquarters in Hadrianopolis in the 2nd century AD in the studies we had done in previous years. These small finds show us that this military presence existed in Hadrianopolis for many years.”
Researcher analyzing one of the two game pieces recovered at Hadrianopolis. (Karabük University).
While the game pieces are nothing spectacular in physical terms, their meaningfulness emerges from their ordinariness. The people who played such games would have made their homes in that location and would have been well settled, taking up hobbies or interesting activities to fill the time.
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“The appearance of objects showing that it [the military fortress] had various military headquarters indicates that this is a military unit and even a cavalry unit,” Dr Çelikbaş said. “This indicates that the union existed for about 200 or 300 years.”
These conclusions emerge from what is known about the ancient games of Ludus Latrunculi and Doudecim Scripta. In the former, the objective is to surround and capture an opponent’s pieces, while the latter was a highly strategic contest that resembles backgammon. These were “games based on military strategy,” Dr Çelikbaş noted, suggesting that “the people who play[ed] them [were] most likely from a military background.”
The Romans Loved Their Games, and So Do We
Ludus Latrunculi and Doudecim Scripta were both popular in Roman times, and were widely played. Yet they were not the only board games played by Roman soldiers, who were often stationed in places where peace reigned and rebellions were rare (meaning they had plenty of free time in which to amuse themselves).
In Judea, the Romans soldiers played a game known as Alquerque, which ultimately evolved into checkers. Another beloved game with this crowd was known as 58 Holes, which bore a strong resemblance to modern-day chutes and ladders.
“Similarities and connections can be established between these games and today,” Çelikbaş said. “Checkers played today – this is also a strategy game… [Battleships] is also a strategy game. When we look at digital games, it is possible to say that today’s minesweeper is again a military strategy game. Although their names have changed from ancient times to today, we can say that all of these games are actually based on [ancient] military strategy.”
Recreation of a Ludus Latrunculi game board, with game pieces included. (Raimundo Pastor/CC BY-SA 4.0).
This analysis, and the discovery of the two game pieces at the archaeological site of Hadrianopolis that provoked it, reveal yet another fascinating way in which the modern world has been shaped or influenced by the Romans.
Top image: The two carved fifth century game pieces recovered during recent excavations at Hadrianopolis, Turkey.
Source: Karabük University.
By Nathan Falde
Source: www.ancient-origins.net