Detail from the gaming board, which has been been described as a "very rare find". PIC: Michael Sharpe/Book of Deer Project.
Posted on 07/15/2018 1:14:58 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A medieval gaming board has been found by archaeologists working to find a lost Pictish-era monastery in Aberdeenshire.
Archaeologist Ali Cameron said the board found near Old Deer was a "very rare" find with it used to play the Norse strategy game of Hnefatafl.
A date for the board has yet to be established but a similar piece found in Birsay, Orkney, in 1989 was dated to the Late Iron Age/Pictish period from the 5th to 9th Century AD.
Ms Cameron said: "It is a very rare object and only a few have been found in Scotland, mainly on monastic or at least religious sites.
"These gaming boards are not something everyone would have had access to."
A Solomon's Knot, a symbol used to express the union of man with the divine or eternity and immortality, can also be seen on the board.
It may have been a later addition to the piece, Dr Cameron said with the board also possibly altered to a circular shape and used as a pot lid.
The search for the lost Pictish-era monastery in the Old Deer area has been ongoing for several years.
Earlier finds in Aberdeenshire brought archaeologists closer to pinpointing the whereabouts of the Christian site which was home to the Book of Deer, a book of gospels which contains the first written examples of Scottish Gaelic.
(Excerpt) Read more at scotsman.com ...
Detail from the gaming board, which has been been described as a "very rare find". PIC: Michael Sharpe/Book of Deer Project.
Dig team find proof there were Picts on the Brough of Deerness before the Vikings
Orkneyjar | Thursday, August 11, 2011 | Sigurd Towrie
Posted on 10/12/2011 4:10:14 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2791872/posts
Uh......
Looks like a rockgame and not a boardgame.
Don’t always post but love your pings. Thank you.
We now know the origin of Pict-ionery.
Queen to Queen’s level 3.
Queen to King’s level 1.
Picts, — mon semblable, — mon frère!
Was there any evidence of several species of small furry animals gathered together and grooving in the cave?
:^)
How in the !@#$ that layout could be used to play THIS game,
is a truly impossible stretch.
I spent 22 years researching, writing, rewriting and editing a Viking Trilogy, so I know a thing or two about them.
It’s FREE to anyone who wants to download it.
Download Links are at my Author Blog.
http://wulfanson.blogspot.com/2017/05/viking-hunter-heroic-fantasy-trilogy_17.html
Interesting find. I looked up how to play this game, never heard of it before, cross between chess and checkers. Thanks for the share.
:)
Oh, yeah. That’s a PlayStation, Legacy Edition.
That thing looks ancient, like a thousand years old or something!
Ebay and Amazon have lots of nice new ones.
Clean too.
And with most of the parts.
Groannnnn!
“Go directly to gaol, do not pass Go, do NOT collect 200 shillings.”
Ah, those long, dark and cold Norse winters playing that strategy game of Hnefatafl....................
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