Games Britannia Part 1
The Games Britannia series is a 2 part documentary into the past of the games that have lived and evolved within Britannia over the last two thousand years.
We look at all types of games from educational, gambling, 2d,3d, tactical warfare and just for good old fashioned fun.
In 1996 near Colchester archeologists excavated several early iron age & roman sites in which they found a grave that was dated back to the roman invasion in A.D 43. They found serveral objects from surgical tools, jewelery and game pieces.
The game set that was found is the earliest found board game in Britain ever found. No rules were with the game and no record of how to play it.
Irving Finkel from the British museum makes a good point of the fact that "play" is found through most animals usually as a method of learning, but you do not find game boards, piece or dice etc which makes the a board game uniquely tied to homosapien.
The game through study is believe to be a pre roman British game that bares similar board and pieces to a roman game that was widely played at the time.
As the game was clearly a tactical war game in which one player takes and removes the other players pieces in order to win and given the time of which it is dated is was possible that I maybe used for divination or ritual means. It was also buried under a body and not on top like all the other items found which signaled that the board was of great important to the person.
There is reference to games even in the bible that tells us that games were used for not only fun but for religious and warfare reasons. Alea evangelii was a very complex game with a 18x18 board and 64 pieces (32 per player). The aim of the game is to get the king (or stop the king) to the edge of the board without being attacked from more opponents than he has defenders surrounding him. Its a highly complex and tactical game which tested and taught its players tactic reasoning and stabilized good vs evil.
by the 13th century chess, drafts and backgammon had come to Britain from the east. In the book of games can a number of games, from chance, skill and a balance of both. These type of core game styles was taken from the real word, is life random or chance based, is it all down to the persons wit or skill, or is it a mix of both. The games described in the book were designed to test these questions.
Games we're also played to entertain in boredom or in pass time. "Nine Mans Morris" was found throughout the world, usually scratched into floors and rocks. Many were found in cathedrals and churches
In religion dice were associated with the devil due to its luck/chance and it large connection with gambling which was clearly against the church. The game "hazard" was played in medieval times along side "Nine's Man Morris" but played but adults for gambling. As this game didn't have any real skill or divination connection and was easy to cheat at with using weighted dice it was condemn by the church.
In 1845 the gaming act was put in place to regulate gambling due to murders involving gambling debt.
The game of goose used a spinning top as a form of dice, which in terms of difference there is none but as dice were considered evil or of the devils making, thy had to use something different to determine a random/chance outcome that would be fitting for all ages.
The interesting thing I find with the game of goose is how the squares symbolized the good and bad things in life and what might or might not happen, much like anyone's life journey. This was a good method in which to show the players what is good or bad in life e.g land on prison, pay fines and miss 2 turns. Notably their are more bad squares on the board than good. This was a race game as the winner was the first on to reach the end which gave birth to many other race games.
"The Hindi Game of knowledge" is the original snakes and ladders which came from India that showed the players journey through life, its based on the religion.
My Notes
A very interesting watch regarding the evolution of games, made for religion, divination, figuring out if life was ruled by random/chance acts or personal sacrifice or skill into the games we know today that don't have any real physical connection to them other than the fact its where they originated from. Weither it be by chance "The Hindi Game of Knowledge" had a race mechanic in it but never understood it as that until the Europeans had discovered the game and used to for our own, I don't think we will ever know but it seems the running theme of the accident games is that they are the source of almost all of the genres and main core mechanic's that we see today.
Looking back at the MDA paper by Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc & Robert Zubek I see alot of connection regarding all of the above mentions games and the main 8 aesthetic "fun" types their are.
