Traces of Appropriation: Roman Board Games in Egypt and Sudan Alex de Voogt To cite this version: Alex de Voogt. Traces of Appropriation: Roman Board Games in Egypt and Sudan. Archimède : archéologie et histoire ancienne, UMR7044 - Archimède, 2019, pp.89-99. halshs-02895539 HAL Id: halshs-02895539 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02895539 Submitted on 9 Jul 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. N°6 ARCHÉOLOGIE ET HISTOIRE ANCIENNE 2019 1 DOSSIER THÉMATIQUE : HISTOIRES DE FIGURES CONSTRUITES : LES FONDATEURS DE RELIGION DOSSIER THÉMATIQUE : JOUER DANS L’ANTIQUITÉ : IDENTITÉ ET MULTICULTURALITÉ GAMES AND PLAY IN ANTIQUITY: IDENTITY AND MULTICULTURALITY 71 Véronique DASEN et Ulrich SCHÄDLER Introduction EGYPTE 75 Anne DUNN-VATURI Aux sources du « jeu du chien et du chacal » 89 Alex DE VOOGT Traces of Appropriation: Roman Board Games in Egypt and Sudan 100 Thierry DEPAULIS Dés coptes ? Dés indiens ? MONDE GREC 113 Richard. H.J. ASHTON Astragaloi on Greek Coins of Asia Minor 127 Véronique DASEN Saltimbanques et circulation de jeux 144 Despina IGNATIADOU Luxury Board Games for the Northern Greek Elite 160 Ulrich SCHÄDLER Greeks, Etruscans, and Celts at play MONDE ROMAIN 175 Rudolf HAENSCH Spiele und Spielen im römischen Ägypten: Die Zeugnisse der verschiedenen Quellenarten 186 Yves MANNIEZ Jouer dans l’au-delà ? Le mobilier ludique des sépultures de Gaule méridionale et de Corse (Ve siècle av. J.-C. – Ve siècle apr. J.-C.) 199 Mark Anthony HALL Whose Game is it Anyway? Board and Dice Games as an Example of Cultural Transfer and Hybridity 213 VARIA REVUE , RCHIMEDE ARCHÉOLOGIE ET HISTOIRE ANCIENNE TRACES OF APPROPRIATION: ROMAN BOARD GAMES IN EGYPT AND SUDAN Alex DE VOOGT Associate Professor Drew University [email protected] ABSTRACT Les jeux de plateau dans l’Antiquité se caractérisent Board games in antiquity are characterized by par leur continuité au niveau de la morphologie their continuity in both shape and playing practice et des pratiques ludiques à travers les frontières when crossing socio-political borders and centuries socio-politiques et les siècles. Cependant, bien que of time. But as much as these games appear ces jeux démontrent une homogénéité au sein du similar throughout the archaeological record, matériel archéologique, des éléments d’intégra- traces of integration and appropriation are found tion et d’appropriation se manifestent par certains in aspects not necessarily aff ecting rules of play or aspects qui n’infl uencent pas nécessairement les confi gurations of boards. règles ou les confi gurations des plateaux. ecently uncovered examples of the game of Des exemples du jeu de Duodecim scripta décou- Duodecim scripta in Egypt and Sudan point to verts récemment en Égypte et au Soudan, indiquent changes in board design or, at least, in design des changements dans la conception du plateau, ou preference when compared to those found elsewhere du moins, dans le choix du modèle par comparaison in the Roman Empire. The presence of game boards avec d’autres exemples mis au jour dans le reste de in grave contexts further illustrates the extent of the l’empire romain. De plus, la présence de plateaux appropriation that may have de jeu en contexte funéraire illustre l’importance du taken place. processus d’appropriation qui s’est déroulé. Egypt and Sudan in Greco- L’Égypte et le Soudan à l’époque gréco-romaine Roman times are on and se situent à la fois à cheval across the border of the et au-delà des frontières du KEYWORDS Roman world and provide monde romain ce qui fournit MOTS-CLШS Cultural appropriation, ideal contexts for the des contextes exemplaires pour Appropriation culturelle, cultural transmission, understanding of the cultural la compréhension des processus transmission culturelle, Duodecim scripta, Duodecim scripta, Egypt, appropriation process of d’appropriation culturelle des Égypte, Sudan. board games in antiquity. jeux de plateau dans l’Antiquité. Soudan. Article accepté après évaluation par deux experts selon le principe du double anonymat 89 ARCHIMÈDE ARCHÉOLOGIE ET HISTOIRE ANCIENNE N°6 2019 - p. 89 à 99 Dossier « Jouer dans l’Antiquité : identité et multiculturalité » MATERIAL AND PRACTICE Board games have both a material and a prac- distinction explicit helps to understand how a board tice associated with their existence. Their material game is most likely appropriated by another culture complexity makes them stand out in the archae- and at the same time how unlikely. ological record as game boards, pieces and dice As a result, it is not surprising and quite accept- exhibit physical characteristics that serve a specifi c able to archaeologists to fi nd that rules for a game purpose when playing the game and which are often in antiquity obtained from just one literary ancient diagnostic for the archaeologists when identifying the source are generalized. They are seen as appropri- type of game. Confi gurations of playing fi elds, sets of ate for all game boards with a similar confi guration gaming pieces and the number or absence of dice are and with similar gaming implements even if these constituent parts of a gaming practice that crosses examples are many centuries and many miles apart. borders largely unchanged. The practice of playing For instance, a cuneiform tablet with the rules for board games mainly includes the rules of play for which the game of twenty squares is generally assumed evidence exists primarily in the literary sources. The to be a reliable document for most twenty square combination of physical and literary sources reveal a games found in over fi fteen hundred years across cultural trait [1] as well as acting as a “social lubri- the Near East and Egypt [3]. Even if the rules of cant” [2] that facilitates interaction on the border play are presumed identical, it needs to be stressed between cultures. The games provide evidence of that the design, such as the shape of playing boards millennia-long traditions that outlived many a state and playing spaces, is not necessarily uniform across and political organization. It is as if board games, or time and space. Ulrich Schädler has shown that the at least important aspects of what makes a board game of fi ve lines is not only found as fi ve lines but game, remain largely impervious to outside cultural also as two rows of fi ve squares and even two rows and socio-political infl uences and pressures. of fi ve holes or cup-shaped depressions in Roman Board games are also made of specifi c materials, Asia Minor, while he still assumes that the playing such as wood, bone or stone, which may be particular rules are largely the same [4]. to a region. The physical objects may be decorated Games scratched in stone or marble surfaces have in individual or regional styles and placed in contexts potentially fewer variable features than portable that are relevant for understanding the cultural and game boards that add a third dimension, often the socio-political signifi cance of the people associated with addition of adornment to the base or box on which the game or of the objects themselves. The playing they are found. For example, in ancient Egypt prior practice may be depicted on murals or in mosaics to the Roman occupation multiple decorated Senet providing a context for clothing, gender, furniture and game boards from tombs point to the “international language. These contexts are specifi c to a period, style”, a set of artistic conventions common through an individual or a group of people, and change with the Near East and Aegean worlds. [5]. Since a sig- the times as well as with place. These aspects that nifi cant number of Roman games have been found are particular to a time or place can also be seen as scratched in a surface rather than as three-dimen- part and parcel of a board game even if they rarely sional objects, variation is limited. A late-antique aff ect the rules of play (other than perhaps the rules gaming table for Duodecim scripta at the baths of of conduct). While intuitively board game historians Hadrian at Aphrodisias [6] is a rare exception with know which aspect of a board game is or is not sen- a Greek inscription fl anking the far end of the board sitive to this socio-cultural environment, making this that is, nevertheless, carved as an unmovable object. [ 3] FINKEL 2007: 16-32. [1] CRIST & DUNN-VATURI & DE VOOGT & EERKENS, 2013: 1715-1730. [ 4] SCHDLER 1998: 10-25. [ 2] CRIST & DE VOOGT & DUNN-VATURI, 2016: [ 5] CRIST & DUNN-VATURI & DE VOOGT, 2016: 89-91. 179-196. [ 6] SCHDLER 2000, cover photograph. 90 Traces of Appropriation: Roman Board Games in Egypt and Sudan Figure 1a. First example of a Latrunculus board at the Antonine Baths at Carthage, Tunisia. Photo by Alex DE VOOGT 2011. Figure 1b. Context of the fi rst example of a Latrunculus board. Photo by Alex DE VOOGT 2011. Figure 1c. Second example of a Latrunculus board at the Antonine Baths at Carthage, Tunisia. Photo by Alex DE VOOGT 2011. The generic shape of a playing board may off er is particularly valuable as text often tells us more little information as to the appropriation of game than board design. The most common appearance board design.