Unique Roman game board from the 4th century found in Poprad has no parallel in Europe

Twelve years ago, the tomb of a high-ranking Germanic nobleman was discovered by chance and contained valuable artefacts. Among them, an absolutely unique board game from the period around 375 AD, which even after ten years of research has no comparison with any other.

The tomb was discovered in 2005 during the construction of the Poprad - Matejovce industrial zone. For the whole following year its artefacts were carefully conserved and studied for the next years. Among many others, such as a very well-preserved wooden table, various vessels, weapons and other objects. The wooden board game of European importance is a great asset for the future. To this day, however, experts have not reliably figured out its principle, the rules of the game. The information found so far points to an origin in the eastern Mediterranean, probably Syria.

Research has revealed that the buried Germanic nobleman was born in the same locality where he was buried, was about thirty years old, and had been in the Mediterranean region for some of his life. Archaeologists therefore believe that he may have served in the Roman army. He certainly wasn't an infantryman. He was very wealthy and clearly a member of the social elite. He was probably a nobleman, perhaps a prince, who was paid by the Romans to fight for them as a 'foederati' - as the leader of his own troops of mostly barbarian tribesmen. Similar to, for example, the Visigothic king Alaric I or later the Frankish king Childerich I.

According to the head of research Karol Pieta, deputy director of the Institute of Archaeology in Nitra, "...very likely that he served in the Roman army as a prominent officer, which would be consistent with his social status. He was strongly influenced by the developed Roman culture, as shown by his favourite game found in his grave."

Games of this kind are found in Greek and Roman temples on the floors or streets of ancient cities carved into the stone pavement. This 1,600-year-old portable wooden board game from Poprad is quite unique. It consists of a wooden board with a "chess" pattern and green or white glass game pieces - chips of various sizes. "In ancient times, there were many board games with many variations, but reconstructing the game technology is a very complicated process that can only be solved by top experts," Pieta added.

This is also why the archaeologists turned to Europe's top expert on ancient games, Ulrich Schädler, director of the Museum of Games in Switzerland. "The board game from the tomb of a Germanic nobleman in Poprad is a great discovery and a great contribution to the history of games in Europe. It is the best preserved wooden board game north of the Mediterranean. Together with the Roman glass tokens, it was clearly a very prestigious artefact (for the nobles) from contact with the Roman world," said Schädler, who will continue to study the game closely.

The board game is now part of an exhibition of finds from the tomb at the Podtatranské Museum in Poprad, where it will be on display until the end of 2018.

Sources: muzeumpp.sk, thehistoryblog.com, archaeology.org, spectator.sme.sk

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