Pattanam, where the ongoing archaeological excavation has thrown up surprising evidence of the widespread use of Roman board games by the populace of the urban centre that’s believed to have been buried on the shores of the Periyar, now boasts a Muziris Children’s Museum.
Apart from the growing pile of pottery shards, thousands of beads, intaglios, cameo blanks and marine artefacts exhumed here, the museum will display traditional board games that had been in use in the region in ancient times.
“We have set up the museum to introduce young children to our culturally rich past. The museum has a board game corner where Roman game counters dug up here are on display. Glass gaming counters associated with the Roman board game, Ludus Latrunculorum , were found at Pattanam, probably the only archaeological site outside of the erstwhile Roman Empire to have them,” says P.J. Cherian, chairman of the Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR) that has been carrying out the excavation.
“Round, monochrome glass objects identified as gaming counters are pieces to be moved in a board game. The counters we stumbled upon at Pattanam are flat on one side and have a convex shape on the other. Pliny called them ‘Oculi’ meaning eyeballs, because of this shape. The counters would have been brought here by the Mediterranean seamen or traders who had gone to the Red Sea. Ludus was one of the popular Roman board games considered to be a simplified mix of chess and draughts.”
For a hands-on experience
In its effort to broaden the activities of the museum, the KCHR has now launched a campaign to document, conserve and showcase available information and physical material on traditional board games, more as a learning tool for students. “We are looking to provide them a hands-on experience of these games,” says Mr. Cherian.
Home to all traditions
At his Pattanam lecture recently, eminent Assyriologist and ancient board game expert Irving Finkel (of the British Museum) said his studies indicated that India was home to all known traditions in board games.
The presence of board games has been recorded in Mohenjo-daro and numerous other archaeological sites and social spaces across the Indian subcontinent.
The KCHR effort would be a pioneering initiative to document and showcase a permanent collection of this rare legacy. “Our forbears were extraordinary people with a learned social view, which is evident from the way how they spent their leisure. In India, board games often blended intelligence and luck,” he points out.
The KCHR’s memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the British Museum, he says, will help the body get robust support from Dr. Finkel in taking the project forward.
Meanwhile, the research organisation has sought the cooperation of academics and informed public to share information from published sources and to collect information, with rules, photographs, sketches and specimens, on board games locally practised in different social, cultural and religious spaces.
Information and queries on this may be sent toindia.kchr@gmail.comor on 9562848577/9995813775.
