Board games occupy a unique position amongst archaeological finds. This is because they provide direct evidence of human interaction in the past. Some board games have not survived because they were often made from materials that have deteriorated over time. Others, however, can still be studied today because they have been carved into durable surfaces made of stone or brick. By documenting these game boards, we can cast new light on the role of games in the social lives of medieval Dalmatia and demonstrate the centrality of gaming as an activity which brought people together in the past.
In the Mediterranean region, we observe a frequent occurrence of board games in the vicinity of medieval sacred buildings. Engraved or painted board games have been found in and around medieval churches in what is now Spain, Italy and Croatia.
An international research team – comprising the Institute of Archaeology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (Branislav Kovár, Anton Arpáš), the Trogir City Museum (Lujana Paraman, Aleksandra Matura) and the University of Reading (Summer Courts, Tim Penn) – focused on researching board games in the Croatian coastal town of Trogir. The research was carried out with the support of the aforementioned institutions and the COST Action CA22145 – GameTable project.
We identified the games in Trogir at two churches – at the Church of St John the Baptist and inside (and outside) St Lawrence’s Cathedral. Both were newly built during the city’s renewal in the 13th century, upon the foundations of older, Early-Christan basilicas – the one built in the early 5th century and dedicated to St Lawrence becoming a seat of the Diocese of Trogir already by the late 10th century. Both monuments are situated in the central part of the historic centre of Trogir, framing the northeastern and southeastern corners of the city square. The presence of gameboards in these public spaces confirms the stipulations of the Statute of Trogir of 1322 (book 2, chapter 29), which permitted gaming in public squares, but also tells us that games were so widely played that they spilled out of permitted public squares and into the churches themselves. Games were clearly very important in medieval Trogir.
