Quick Summary
• Newcastle University 3D prints replica of Roman Britain’s most popular board game June 22
Additional Context
Newcastle University and the Vindolanda Charitable Trust have used 3D scanning and printing to create a playable replica of a 1,700-year-old Roman game board, allowing museum visitors to physically play the ancient strategy game for the first time.
The original board, excavated at Vindolanda in 2019, was made for Ludus Latrunculorum, a two-player strategy game sometimes called “the game of little brigands or soldiers.” Archaeologists found it between a bath-house drain and a workshop wall beside a late third-century road. It’s the most popular board game found in Roman Britain, and Vindolanda holds 16 boards in total, roughly 15% of every example discovered across the country.
Paul Watson, Electrical and Electronic Team Leader at Newcastle, and Dr. Jenny Olsen, Lecturer in Mechanical Eng