Roman game boards from Abu Sha'ar (Red Sea Coast, Egypt).

Roman game boards from Abu Sha'ar (Red Sea Coast, Egypt). Introduction Between 1987 and 1993 teams under the aegis of the University ofDelaware [3] The student body at the University of Delaware is largely an undergraduate population. Delaware students have a great deal of access to work and internship opportunities. conducted surveys and excavations at and in the environs of AbuSha'ar on Egypt's Red Sea coast, about 20 km north of thecentre of Hurghada (Figure 1). Five seasons of fieldwork have examinedthe Roman military and Christian ecclesiastical installations at AbuSha'ar itself (27[degrees] 22.13' N/33[degrees] 40.97' E)and an associated extramural extramural/ex��tra��mu��ral/ (-mur��il) situated or occurring outside the wall of an organ or structure. extramuralsituated or occurring outside the wall of an organ or structure. baths and trash dump. Fieldwork was alsoundertaken at an artesian well artesian well,deep drilled well through which water is forced upward under pressure. The water in an artesian well flows from an aquifer, which is a layer of very porous rock or sediment, usually sandstone, capable of holding and transmitting large quantities of c. 1 km west of the fort and at a smallhydreuma approximately 5.5 km west of the fort near Bir Abu Sha'arel-Qibli (Sidebotham, Riley, Hamroush & Barakat 1989; Sidebotham1991, 1992a, 1992b, 1993, 1994a, 1994b, 1999). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Dating evidence indicates the foundation or re-foundation of themain fort in 309-310 AD. Large fragments of at least one Latininscription from the main (west) gate record this event during the jointreigns of the emperors Constantine I Constantine I, king of GreeceConstantine I,1868–1923, king of the Hellenes, eldest son of George I, whom he succeeded in 1913. Married to Sophia, sister of the German emperor William II, he opposed the pro-Allied policy of the Greek premier, , Licinius I, Galerius and MaximinusII when Aurelius Maximinus was dux Aegypti Thebaidos utrarumqueLibyarum. The text documents that the Ala Nova Maximiana, a mounted unit(probably dromedary dromedary:see camel. dromedaryable to cover a hundred miles in one day. [Medieval Animal Symbolism: White, 80–81]See : Endurance rather than cavalry) was stationed here. The size ofthe fort and its barracks suggests that the ala could not have been muchlarger than about 200 men. The inscription further emphasises that thefort was part of the limes (frontier/administrative zone) at that time(Isaac 1992: 408-410) and that it had some relationship with mercatores(merchants) (Bagnall & Sheridan 1994a: 159-163), probably engaged intrade between the Nile and other points in the Red Sea via the AbuSha'ar fort. The fort at Abu Sha'ar was undoubtedly part of amajor reorganisation of the entire eastern Roman frontier conducted inthe Tetrarchic and Constantinian period (284-337 AD) (van Berchem 1952:passim PASSIM - A simulation language based on Pascal.["PASSIM: A Discrete-Event Simulation Package for Pascal", D.H Uyeno et al, Simulation 35(6):183-190 (Dec 1980)]. and 59-71 for Egypt; Jones 1964: 52-60, 97-101; Southern &Dixon 1996: 15-36). A trans-desert route approximately 181 km long anddotted with way-stations linked the fort at Abu Sha'ar and thenearby hydreuma with Kainopolis on the Nile (Sidebotham, Zitterkopf& Riley 1991). The parent unit of the Abu Sha'ar garrison wasstationed at the main camp at Luxor (Bagnall & Sheridan 1994a:159-163; cf. El-Saghir, Golvin, Redde, Hegazy & Wagner 1986: 20-21,122). Archaeological evidence indicates that the Roman army abandoned thefort sometime in the late fourth century. Perhaps this was part ofanother major reorganisation of the Roman frontier during the reigns ofValentinian I Valentinian I(văl'əntĭn`ēən), 321–75, Roman emperor of the West (364–75). He held high military rank under Julian and Jovian. and Valens (364-378 AD), or Theodosius I Theodosius Ior Theodosius the Great,346?–395, Roman emperor of the East (379–95) and emperor of the West (394–95), son of Theodosius, the general of Valentinian I. (379-395 AD)(Jones 1964: 148-149, 159-160; Southern & Dixon 1996: 40-46).Thereafter, Christians moved in and converted the installation into amonastery complete with a church (the former principia prin��cip��i��um?n. pl. prin��cip��i��aA principle, especially a basic one.[Latin prncipium; see principle.] ) and, apparently,a martyrium mar��tyr��i��um?n. pl. mar��tyr��i��aA church or other edifice built at a site, especially a tomb, associated with a Christian martyr or saint. . Many of the barracks and other sections of the fortremained abandoned during this later phase with only a small area of theinterior dedicated to Christian religious purposes. Main access in thisreligious phase was via the north gate; the west gate having fallen outof use. The Christians seem to have occupied the fort until sometime inthe sixth, and possibly into the seventh, century. Thereafter, it wasabandoned except for occasional transient visitors. The game boards Excavations at the site of this fort have produced twentygame-boards cut in stone, which belong to the period of Roman occupationand form the subject of this paper (Figures 3-9). The boards are made ofthe same stone as was used in the construction of the towers and gatesof the fort--a porous local gypsum gypsum(jĭp`səm), mineral composed of calcium sulfate (calcium, sulfur, and oxygen) with two molecules of water, CaSO4·2H2O. It is the most common sulfate mineral, occurring in many places in a variety of forms. prone to rapid decay due to theextremes of desert temperatures. The stone was found in varied states ofdecay from recrystallisation to a sugaring of the surface, and adesalination desalinationor desaltingRemoval of dissolved salts from seawater and from the salty waters of inland seas, highly mineralized groundwaters, and municipal wastewaters. process followed by consolidation has been necessary toprevent complete disintegration. The boards were made from buildingstone cut into regular rectangular blocks, with a field of play carvedon one or more surfaces. In general, the Abu Sha'ar boards are wellcrafted when compared to stone boards found elsewhere (Bedon 1989:58-64; Rieche 1984: 49-59; Steiner 1939: 38). At the same time, as stoneboards, they are quite simple compared to examples made of more preciousmaterials such as ivory and which are typically carved with moreintricate detail (Faton 1991: 174-185). [FIGURES 3-9 OMITTED] The recycling of some of the game boards as building blocksemphasises the relative difficulty of obtaining good quality stone forconstructing the fort. In two instances, when the board was worn outfrom constant use the stone was turned over and a new gaming field cuton another side. On the other hand, finds of two game board fragmentsand playing pieces among the debris of extramural trash dumps AS90-C andAS93-DD indicate that games were occasionally thrown away. The excavations at Abu Sha'ar revealed three main media forthe games: portable game boards or game tables, purpose-made game boardsin a special space i.e., a 'gaming room'; and ad hoc For this purpose. Meaning "to this" in Latin, it refers to dealing with special situations as they occur rather than functions that are repeated on a regular basis. See ad hoc query and ad hoc mode. gameboards like those carved into the threshold at the north gate. This lastkind of informal game board can also be found carved into the steps ofmany Roman buildings such as the steps of the Basilica Julia Coordinates: The Basilica Julia, was a large, ornate, public building used for meetings and other official business during the early Roman Empire. in theRoman Forum and the stadium at Aphrodisias in Turkey (Bedon 1989: 61;Roueche & Bell 1990: 1-13; Schadler 1998: 12-14). What games were being played? There is a variety in the types of game boards recovered from theexcavations, which implies that they relate to different kinds of games.The board games played Games played (most often abbreviated as G or GP) is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated (in any capacity); the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested. in the Roman army are known from a number ofsources, and have been classified by a number of scholars, and mostrecently by Parlett (Murray 1952; Bell 1979; Schadler 1998: 10-25;Parlett 1999). There are Race games (including the ludus duodecimscriptorum Ludus duodecim scriptorum, or XII scripta, was a tables game popular during the time of the Roman Empire. The name translates as "game of twelve markings", probably referring to the three rows of 12 markings each found on most surviving boards. , probably played with dice); Space games, which include gamesof alignment and configuration such as merels (mill, moulin moulin(mlăN`): see pothole. , muhl);Chase games, in which one player seeks to immobilise the otherplayer's pieces; and Displace games, which include games of capturesuch as chess, mancala and most war games such as ludus latrunculorum Ludus latrunculorum, latrunculi, or simply latrones (“the game of brigands”, from latrunculus, diminutive of latro, mercenary or highwayman) is a board game played by the ancient Romans. .There are many well known examples of Roman game-playing depicted onvases and in floor mosaics (Austin 1934: 25-33), and games are mentionedby Roman authors for example by Ovid in his Tristia (ii, 481). Correlation of the boards found at Abu Sha'ar to theirprobable games has been greatly assisted by the research of CharlotteRoueche in association with the British Museum British Museum,the national repository in London for treasures in science and art. Located in the Bloomsbury section of the city, it has departments of antiquities, prints and drawings, coins and medals, and ethnography. , who has devised atypology typology/ty��pol��o��gy/ (ti-pol��ah-je) the study of types; the science of classifying, as bacteria according to type. typologythe study of types; the science of classifying, as bacteria according to type. for the study of game boards (Roueche 1993: 249-252). From ourstudy of the markings on the game boards, four kinds of games (derivingfrom three of the categories cited above) were played at AbuSha'ar. There are ten mancala game boards, which have scoops orcups and correspond to BMT BMTbone marrow transplantation. BMT,n.pr See bone marrow transplant.BMTBone marrow transplant, see there code H (Roueche & Bell 1990:250); asingle example of a merels game which carries a circle and correspondsto BMT Code C (Roueche & Bell 1990: 2-6; Roueche 1993: 249); threeludus duodecim scriptorum boards which have rows and correspond to BMTcode R (Roueche 1993: 252; Roueche & Bell 1990: 11-13); and sixludus latrunculorum boards which have square grids and correspond to BMTcode SG (Roueche & Bell 1990: 8-9). There follows a description ofeach game, and the boards found at Abu Sha'ar. We then explore thecontexts in which the boards were found, which may relate in some casesto where they were played in the fort. Mancala (scoops) The mancala board has a gaming field which has a number ofcup-shaped cavities arranged in rows or ranks (Figure 2). The namederives from Arabic naqala (move/transport) and the game involves addingor removing pieces in the different compartments around the board (Bell1979: 71-75; Lane 1908: 343-345; Grunfeld 1975: 20-22; Parlett 1999:205-223). Mancala possibly has origins in pre-Dynastic Egypt whereboards of this nature have been found at Luxor and Karnak (Grunfeld1975: 20-23) and are still used in south India South India is a commonly used term that is used in India to refer to the South-of-India or Southern India. The Southern part of the Indian peninsula is a linguistic-cultural region of India that comprises the four states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the and parts of West,Central and North Africa (Bell 1979: 113-122; Lane 1908: 343-345;Grunfeld 1975: 20-23). The two rank variation may be seen incontemporary south Indian versions of the game known as pallanguri (Bell1979: 115-116; Balambal 2002: 49). [FIGURE 2 OMITTED] The well-known modern two-row form of mancala is likely to be basedon the antique game with certain modifications to the rules (Schadler1998:11). The modern board usually has a row of six cups or compartmentson each player's side, and a reservoir at either end for eachplayer to hold the captured pieces, usually beans or pebbles. When thegame starts, all of the compartments must hold four pieces and eachplayer in turn then takes pieces out of one cup and drops one in eachcup from right to left. If the last one falls in the reservoir, theplayer has another turn; if in an empty cup, the opponent's piecesin the opposite cup are captured. The aim of each player is to capturepieces in the opponent's compartments, and the game ends when allthe compartments on one player's side of the board are empty and itis his/her turn to play. The player who holds the most pieces at the endof the game is the winner. It is possible that the Roman game may have been played along theselines, although judging by the variations in the number of cups in eachgame-board found in the fort, the game may have had several versions.Although played with the same objectives, the games were probably ofdifferent durations and possibly played for different gambling stakes.There is a game of four rank mancala from East Africa, and a less commonthree rank mancala, known from Ethiopia (Bell 1979: 123-125). There are ten boards from Abu Sha'ar, which could beattributed to mancala games Games in the mancala family include: Popular gamesThe most widely played games are probably: Pallanguzhi is played in Southern India with 2 x 7 stores. Two varieties of this game are popular, Kaashi and Bank. (Figures 3.1-9). Six have cavities or scoopsaligned in two rows as in a two rank mancala game, and two feature athird row of cavities. The dimensions of the Abu Sha'ar mancalacavities vary from 0.5 to 3.0 cm. across. One board (Board no 5) isbroken in half; and only two rows of three cavities remain (Figure 3.5).It has very evenly spaced and well rounded cavities. With shaped edges,it is one of two portable boards. It is a feature of the boards in this group that the number ofcompartments varies in the gaming field. For example, Board 4 has fourcups or scoops in two evenly spaced rows and one compartment at the topindicating, perhaps, a game of short duration. It is portable, easilyfitting between the knees of a player (Figure 3.4). There are two boardswith five compartments. The first was cut into a threshold stone in thenorth gate (Figure 3.2) and the second has two rows of five cavities anda cavity slightly off centre at the top (Figure 3.8). It is not clearwhether it was by design or by mistake that the reservoir for capturedplayers was placed off-centre. Board 1 and 10 is a two-sided game boardwith irregularly spaced cavities on one side and a regular mancala gameincised on the other side (Figure 3.1). On one side, there was a boardwith either two rows of five or two rows of four compartments with areservoir, which is slightly off-centre at the top. If it was theformer, it may explain why the board was turned over and another gamecarved on the other side. If the fifth compartment from one of the rowsbecame damaged, rendering this board useless for play, it would havemade sense to turn the board over. Erosion has made it difficult todetermine exactly how many compartments there were in the last board inthe two-row category, it could be either a five-cavity board with areservoir or have two rows of six cavities and a cavity at the top (cf.Figure 3.3). Board no 6 in this group has a row of five cavities and fiveirregularly spaced cavities forming a C-shape (Figure 3.6). Board 7 hasthe cavities aligned in three rows is for three rank mancala. This boardwas cut in situ In place. When something is "in situ," it is in its original location. into the building blocks of the benches in the gamingroom (trench AS92-Z; see below) (Figure 3.7). Board 9 could belong tothis group depending on interpretation (Figure 3.9). It may be similarto Board 7 if it is interpreted as having three parallel rows ofcavities. Alternatively, it could be viewed in comparison to the othertwo race boards of irregular cavities discussed below, as it hascavities of different sizes, viz. two rows of large oval cavities andone row of small hemispherical cavities, with a line dividing the fieldof play. A line divides the field while the other two boards have novisible dividing line Noun 1. dividing line - a conceptual separation or distinction; "there is a narrow line between sanity and insanity"demarcation, contrast, linedifferentiation, distinction - a discrimination between things as different and distinct; "it is necessary to ; it appears that the rules could be the same forall three. Merels games (circles) Merels is a space game, played by moving pieces in turn (Parlett1999: 116-119). Each player had a number of pieces, usually three, six,or nine pieces each, and the object of the game is to be the first toalign one's pieces along one of the lines, either diagonally ororthogonally, following alternate moves in which pieces could be movedto adjacent spaces on the board. In variations played with more thanthree pieces, the game could involve not only placement and movement,but also capture. The word merels derives from the term for mill inseveral European languages, and reflects the graphic representation of amillwheel, which the game board typically resembles (Figure 4A). In AbuSha'ar, as in examples frequently found elsewhere, the singleexample of a possible merels board may well have been roughly carved bythe players themselves, thereby emphasising the casual nature of thisgame (Bedon 1989: 61). Other confirmed examples of this game have beenfound cut crudely into the steps of public buildings, for example at theBasilica Julia in the Roman Forum, and other examples with square linesinstead of a circle from a Roman cemetery in Lyon, France (Falkener1892: 364-366; Bedon 1989: 61; Rieche 1984 20-21; Hanel 1997: 319). The sole candidate from Abu Sha'ar in this category is aweathered stone block found in a scatter of debris outside of the fortnear the north gate. This example has rough lines cut in it in a circle.Inside the circle are two very eroded diagonal lines. The block issmall. The dimensions are 20 x 28 x 19 cm. If this is not a merels typegame board, it may be a graffito of early Christian origin (Figure 4B).In these race games the objective was to advance competing teams andrace to the finish line. Reconstructions, notably by Schadler, haveshown the game to be an antecedent ANTECEDENT. Something that goes before. In the construction of laws, agreements, and the like, reference is always to be made to the last antecedent; ad proximun antecedens fiat relatio. of backgammon backgammon(băk`găm'ən, băk'găm`ən), game of chance and skill played by two persons upon a specially marked board divided by a space, called the bar, into two tables (inner table and outer table), each of which has 12 , but with the piecesmoved in the same rather than in opposite directions (Schadler 1999:52). The game has also been called alea or a "game of twelvepoints" (Austin 1934: 33; Schadler 1999: 52). The rules of ludusduodecim scriptorum may have been that one placed pieces, identifiableby colour or other marking, on a designated row in the field of play byalternate throws of the dice (Figure 5). Neither player could advance toanother row until all his pieces were entered on the first row. Thewinner was the person who raced all his pieces from the board while hisopponent still had remaining pieces (Austin 1934:34). In all likelihood,there were rules for blocking and capturing opposing pieces, as well asfor missing one's turn to play. A variant of ludus duodecim scriptorum, with only two rows of play,but played with fifteen pieces, became the standard version during thefirst century AD. It was known as alea, referring to lots, and theEmperor Claudius was such an avid player that he published a book on thesubject (Suetonius 5, 33; Parlett 1999: 72-73). A variant of this gamewas known in the fifth century AD as tabula, which in turn became tablcin Byzantium and hence to all the European variations on the word Tables(Parlett 1999: 72-73). Examples from Abu Sha'ar have three rows ofsix in each case, which indicates that Roman soldiers posted thereadopted the earlier form of rules, before the popularity of alea. A further variation of this type of race game has the game field isdivided into two halves. One side comprises regularly spaced cavitiesand the other is an irregular arrangement. This may be compared to theFrench-named ancient game of tropa, although this is played with marbles(Bedon 1989: 64). A comparative example from Timgad, Algeria has a linecarved with the monogram monogram[Gr.,=single letter], symbol of a name or names, consisting typically of a letter or several letters worked together. A famous monogram is that of Christ, consisting of X (chi) and P (rho), the first two letters of Christ in Greek. P, F and E representing victory in variousforms, P(alma), F(eliciter) or E(merita). In this instance victory wasprobably awarded to the one whose counter reached the other side of theline and landed in a cavity (Bedon 1989: 64). There are three boards likely to be for this type of game found atAbu Sha'ar. Two almost complete examples were found in situ in theso-called 'gaming room' (trench AS92-Z; see below). One ofthese (no 12, Figure 6) has three rows of six squares divided in thecentre by two letters X placed side by side. Two outer rows of squarescomplete the rectangle and create a border around the game. (Figure 6).Also in the gaming room (trench AS92-Z), an old game board was used asbuilding material for the foundation courses of the stone seats (no 13,Figure 7). It has a similar layout although somewhat worn away and,possibly for this reason, it was superseded by the less worn game-boardset in the centre of the 'gaming room.' In this example, threerows of six squares are divided down the centre by a row of squares.There is no border around the edges in this example. The configurationsof these boards could be described as a variation of ludus duodecimscriptorum. The third game board is a very fragmented piece from trenchAS90-DWEX. It appears to have the configuration of horizontal linesassociated with ludus duodecim scriptorum carved on to it. It has tworows of tiny holes with the top row overwritten with circles (no 14,Figure 8). This board is fragmented, which makes it difficult toidentify. The majority of the ludus duodecim scriptorum boards havesmall circles between each horizontal set of words or marks. The AbuSha'ar example also has a gaming field comprising two rows of sixsmall circles divided by a larger circle. This configuration, thoughfragmentary, could be interpreted as a part of one of these game boards.Ovid (Ars Amatoria Ars AmatoriaOvid’s treatise on lovemaking. [Rom. Lit.: Magill IV, 45]See : Eroticism , iii. 363) described this game board as divided intoas many markings as there were months in the year. There is a visiblesimilarity between a game board found in a tomb of the Blemmyes tribeQustal, Egypt c. AD 350 (Bell, 1979: 29) and the arrangement of linesand number of spaces on the Abu Sha'ar board. Other comparativeexamples from Germany (Rieche 1984: 74; May 1991: 180-181) confirm thearrangement of this game. Ludus latrunculorum (square grids) (Figure 9, nos. 15-20) Ancient authors such as Varro (De Lingua lingua/lin��gua/ (ling��gwah) pl. lin��guae ? [L.] tongue.lin��guallingua geogra��phica? benign migratory glossitis.lingua ni��gra? black tongue. Latina, vii. 52), Ovid(Ars Amatoria, ii. 208; iii. 358) and Bassus (Laus Pisonis The Laus Pisonis (Praise of Piso) is a Latin verse panegyric of the 1st?centuryAD in praise of a man of the Piso family. The exact identity of the subject is not completely certain, but current scholarly consensus identifies him with Gaius Calpurnius Piso, consul in , 193) in anobscure poem dated to the mid-first century AD, mention the war gamecalled ludus latrunculorum (Austin 1934: 25-30). It was a game ofstrategy played on a board lined with squares and spaces, upon which tworows of pieces, soldiers or "little bandits" (latrunculus)lined up against each other. Words used in the Bassus poem, such ascitadel and phalanx phalanx,ancient Greek formation of infantry. The soldiers were arrayed in rows (8 or 16), with arms at the ready, making a solid block that could sweep bristling through the more dispersed ranks of the enemy. , underline the military nature of the game. Theobject was to advance one's pieces, in the words of Varro "adhunc quadruplicem fontem ordines or��di��nes?n.A plural of ordo. deriguntur bini, uni transversi, alteriderecti, ut in tabula solet in qua latrunculis ludunt": ["itwas the custom in tabula to play the pieces set out in four rows ofintersecting straight lines"] (De Lingua Latina x. 22). The sourcesdo not mention dice in association with this game, and it appears thatthe object of the game was to manoeuvre one's pieces in massedformation as far as possible. Ovid (Ars Amatoria iii. 359) tells us thata player was taken on being surrounded by two enemies in rank or file.This suggests that a piece should be covered at all times by an adjacentpiece. The number of players would vary depending on the size of theboard. The game was played on a squared board (Becq de Fouquieres 1873:422-456; Marquardt & Momessen 1893: 530-533; Faton 1992: 174-178),with a criss-cross grid, creating a field like siga/seega, an Egyptiangame of 5 x 5 squares (Bell 1979: 82-83; Costello 1991: 8-9). The pieceswere usually made of different colours of glass, tile or pottery (Austin1934: 25; Kondoleon 2000: 161). In imperial quarters, the pieces maymore usually have been of ivory or mother of pearl (Troisi Ferrandini1997: 225-229). Six ludus latrunculorum boards were found during the excavations,all in different condition. Only one was in any way complete; the othersare fragments carrying light traces of the squared board. The first (no15, Figure 9.1) has a series of lines, which cross over each othercreating a set of squares, cut into a block of stone. Both sides of theblock were used. In fact, the lines continue from one side of the blockon to the next. Both boards are small and the lines are crudely cut,slightly crookedly. Another fragment (Figure 9.2, no 16) has secondarylines carved into the existing squares creating narrow rectangles. Theseappear to have been added after the first squares were cut. From thesurface of an extramural trash dump a similar fragment was found, itscrossed lines rather crudely made (Figure 9.3, no 17). Three otherfragments were found in the baths complex (Figure 9.4, no 18/19, 9.5, no20). Two of these joined to form a single relatively large size board(Figure 9.4). The Abu Sha'ar excavations also recovered a variety of gamingpieces, including re-shaped pottery sherds and terracotta pieces (Figure10), likely to be associated with this game. Its popularity amongsoldiers is supported by finds of the game at several military locationssuch as at Chesters Fort, Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall,ancient Roman wall, 73.5 mi (118.3 km) long, across the narrow part of the island of Great Britain from Wallsend on the Tyne River to Bowness at the head of Solway Firth. It was mainly built from c.A.D. , Great Britain Great Britain,officially United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, constitutional monarchy (2005 est. pop. 60,441,000), 94,226 sq mi (244,044 sq km), on the British Isles, off W Europe. The country is often referred to simply as Britain. (Bell 1979:82-87) (Figure 9.6). [FIGURE 10 OMITTED] Where the games were played Two portable game boards were found within the fort walls, whichhave roughly triangular bases, are small and fit between crossed legs,and other examples were found outside the confines of the fort. Thissuggests that portable boards could be used anywhere in the generalvicinity. Game boards were more useful if portable, and from comparativeevidence it appears that they were common: a Pompeiian taberna frescodepicts two people holding a game board across their knees (Bedon 1989:60; Bell 1979: 33); a stone relief from Trier (Steiner 1939: 34; Batzler1983: 60; Rieche 1984: 18-19) shows two people playing with the boardagain placed between their knees; and a funerary fu��ner��ar��y?adj.Of or suitable for a funeral or burial.[Latin fner relief from Palmyra Palmyra, ancient city, SyriaPalmyra(pălmī`rə), ancient city of central Syria. A small modern village known as Tudmur is on the site. records men playing a game on a portable game board (Kondoleon 2000:161). However, judging by the find-spots of the boards, there appear tohave been a number of areas where gaming was concentrated, including apurpose built 'gaming room' (trench AS92-Z) (Figure 11; seebelow). At the north gate, six game boards were found, three in situ,two reused as building blocks and a third cut into a threshold block ofthe gate (see Figure 3.2). One of these blocks is a two-sided game boardhaving an additional board cut out on its under side (Figures 3.1). Bothhave hemispherical cavities cut into the stone surface to hold gamepieces. A game board (or a graffito) (no 11), that was found outside thenorth gate as a surface find, must be mentioned as a possible seventhexample from this area. [FIGURE 11 OMITTED] North of the fort there were three game board fragments in a trashdump east of and abutting the cast wall of the extramural bathhouse(trench AS93-DD) (see Figs. 9.5 and Figure 9.4). The presence of thesegame boards within a bathing complex suggests that games were playedwhile bathing, a current practice in the bathhouses in Budapest,Hungary. The intersecting lines drawn onto these boards indicate thatthese were for the war game described above as ludus latronculorum (seebelow) (Becq de Fougieres 1873: 422-456; Faton 1991: 174-178). Excavations in building debris from the fill of the south-westcorner tower of the fort (trench AS92-U) recovered a stone block withtwo ludus latrunculorum game boards cut into it (No 15; Figure 9.1).This block appears to have been used for some time as there is a gamefield cut on two sides with continuous lines as if the lines on one sidewere continued to the other side when the first one wore out. Three game boards were found in the principia church trenchAS90-DWEX. Two were of the ludus latrunculorum type and the third was atype of race game resembling a mixture of a peg scoring game and a gameof ludus duodecim scriptorum (Bell 1979: 20-31) (see Figures 8, 9.2,9.3). The gaming room Six game-boards were excavated from trench AS92-Z inside the fort(Figure 11). Three were found in situ, whereas the others were part ofbuilding collapse and debris. Trench AS92-Z revealed part of a small,enclosed rectangular area with cut-stone blocks placed in a U-shape toform benches. A large stone block with a game field cut into the surfacewas placed in the centre of the benches (Figure 6). This was a boardwith a type of race game resembling ludus duodecim scriptorum (Bell1979: 28-35). The surface of one of the stone benches in trench AS92-Zalso had a mancala type game cut into it (Figure 3.7). Another discardedgame board was also included as building material for the foundationcourses of the stone seats (Figure 7). This board had a game fieldsimilar to the race game board found in the centre of the room. Thisarrangement of stone benches and gaming hoards and, indeed, the presenceof game hoards found in situ and among debris, point to the use of thisroom as a possible gaming room or soldiers' mess with mess withVerbInformal, chiefly US to interfere in, or become involved with, a dangerous person, thing, or situation: he had started messing with drugsgamingtables. Conclusion The discovery of twenty game-boards of different types, togetherwith a seemingly purpose-built gaining room, at the fort at AbuSha'ar suggests that gaining was an important activity in the dailylife of the soldiers posted to the Eastern Desert during the late Romanperiod. These games were common throughout the Roman Empire and, whileit is not possible to prove that the army disseminated all of thesevariants throughout the empire, the military association of certain wargames is notable. On a recent visit to Libya, a local companion was able to quicklydemonstrate the roles of a Roman game of mancala etched into the surfaceof one of the pavements of the Roman city of Sabratha. It would appearthat there is therefore an unbroken practice of playing these games inNorth Africa which has survived to the present day, at least to theextent that the rules of the original Roman game are readilyrecognisable and playable. This is perhaps the most vivid illustrationof the durability of these Roman board games. Acknowledgements Charlotte Roueche provided indispensable assistance to the authorsby making available her unpublished catalogue of the typology ofpavement markings from Aphrodisias for consultation (cited here asRoueche & Bell 1990). Stone analysis was carried out under thesupervision of Conor Murphy Conor Murphy (Irish: Conch��r �� Murch��; born 10 July, 1963, Newry) is the Sinn F��in Member of Parliament for the Newry and Armagh constituency in Northern Ireland, which he represents as its MP and also as one of the Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly. , Assistant State Chemist Irish StateLaboratory. The illustrations of the game boards are by ChristineDijkstra. Our thanks to Martin Carver Martin Oswald Hugh Carver FSA BSc (London), Dip.Archaeol. (Durham), MIFA, is Professor of Archaeology at the University of York, England, and director of the Sutton Hoo Research Project and a leading exponent of new methods in excavation and survey. for his editing. References AUSTIN, R.G. 1934. Roman Board Games I, in Greece and Rome 4:24-34. --1935. Roman Board Games II, in Greece and Rome 4: 76-82 BAGNALL, R.S. & J.A. SHERIDAN. 1994a. Greek and Latin Documentsfrom 'Abu Sha'ar, 1990 1991. 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Institut francais d'Archeologie de Beyrouth.Bibliotheque archeologique et historique, vol. LVI (Paris). Lynda Mulvin (1) & Steven E. Sidebotham (2) (1) History of Art Department, John Henry Newman Building,University College Dublin, Belfield Campus, Dublin 4. Ireland (2) University of Delaware, Department of History, 236 John MunroeHall, 46 W. Delaware Ave. Newark, DE 19716-2547, USA Received: October 2002; Accepted: 21 May 2003; Revised: December2003