01-05-2011, 05:55 PM
Quote:Speaking of Roman games, where can I get them or can I make them? Are there books with how games were played? My 10 year old daughter is getting more interested in ancient history especially since I started in this hobby.
Make them! Better still, get you children making them - some of the most successful workshops I've done with the school archaeology club I run have been making and playing board games.
Boards can inked or painted onto wood, leather or textile, or scratched onto slate, or ceramic (you could use air-drying earthenware clay, although I think proper fired clay may be stronger). The ones with words instead of squares are fun http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/showcase/boardgames4.html . You could even scratch them into the earth and use stones as counters!
Pieces could also be ceramic, pebbles (get them searching for sets of similarly-sized flat pebbles in two colours - that will keep them busy for a while!) or you could give them files and bits of broken earthenware and get them to file them to shape, very authentic. There are also glass counters, and although nice authentic ones by the Roman Glassmakers are obviously preferable http://www.romanglassmakers.co.uk/games.htm (and they have some information on playing the games on this site), at a pinch you could use the ones sold to put in flower vases.
I also cut up some 1 cm square wooden rod on a bandsaw for them to make dice, and they also made clay marbles to play 'nuts', which if nothing else, proved to them that max effort = max success - if they spent some time making perfect round marbles, they won more often than the people who didn't take so much trouble! (They tried actual nuts as well, but they were rubbish.)
They really enjoyed playing the games as well (they were aged 8-11). I wasn't surprised that they did well at latrunculi and the versions of nine-men's morris, but some of them got really good at tabula and duodecim scriptorum as well, which are more complicated and strategic.
These are useful websites:
http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/showcase/boardgames.html (this one has a very good reading list)
http://www.aerobiologicalengineering.co ... oardGames/
Back to the original post, re-enactment is wonderful for children, it teaches them history, practical skills, to be sociable and work together, it gives them enormous confidence and gets them out into the fresh air, having experiences that their frends stuck in front of TVs and computers can only dream of. The Vicus kids (all ages) are a brilliant bunch, and a valued and hugely entertaining part of the group.
Louise Mumford
