On the island of Lindisfarne in Britain discovered a rare item that was used during the games. A glass artefact that looks like chewing candy was found in the area where the Vikings raided the British Isles in 793. A fragment of the game was extracted from the ground on the territory of an ancient monastery of the XII century. During the investigation, the remains of the monastery building and part of the cemetery were also found. In addition, archaeologists unearthed two copper rings, a bronze buckle, a pin, and Anglo-Saxon coins.
The main find is probably a king figure in the Board game "King's Table" (Hnefatafl), which was popular among the Vikings. Presumably its ancestor was another game invented in the Roman Empire – Ludus Latrunculorum. The player's goal is to protect their king by moving pieces around the field. Some historians believe that this version of the game did not belong to the Vikings who made raids, but to representatives of the elite of Northern Britain. The Romans preferred to give such sets to the rulers of barbarian tribes, so the games were distributed with some changes in the rules.
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Photo © www.thehistoryblog.com
Photo © www.thehistoryblog.com
Photo © www.thehistoryblog.com