Periodic Reporting for period 4 - Locus Ludi (Locus Ludi: The Cultural Fabric of Play and Games in Classical Antiquity)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-04-01 bis 2023-09-30
The Project’s objective is to provide a diachronic reconstruction of ancient ludic culture, from the birth of the Greek city-state, c. 800 BCE, to the end of the Western Roman Empire, c. 500 CE. Based on an extensive multidisciplinary collection of evidence (written, archaeological, iconographic), we first aimed to identify methodologically ancient games and gaming devices in context, providing reference chrono-typologies and reconstructions for training and research. Second, we examine in a historical and anthropological perspective how play and games reflect the gendered, religious, economic, and political fabric of a society, as well as transmit an intangible heritage. In the past as today, play is a key agent of social understanding and cultural identity. We examined how ludic culture contributed to multicultural communities, as in the Romanization process, and mirror religious shifts that encouraged or were opposed to play. Thanks to close linguistic, historical, archaeological, iconographic, and anthropological studies, we revisited past social dynamic in public and private spaces, norms, values, and collective imaginary, from early childhood and throughout adult life, for men and women, the elite and common people, free individuals and slaves. We also studied the modes of transmission of ludic heritage from Antiquity to the present and their biases. Building on these results, a new theoretical model of play in Antiquity could be established, highlighting the specificities of Greek and Roman societies, as well as the value of play in a global and transcultural perspective. A third, societal, objective was to increase awareness of the integrative potential of play and games in past and present societies, to widen the debate on “good or bad” games in a changing and challenging world, and elaborate updated and innovative tools for museums, schools, and higher institutions. The inclusion of ancient play and games in education involves training younger generations in Greek and Roman heritage as well as in specific skills, in particular interpersonal skills, such as teamwork, negotiation, and community building competences. Knowledge transfer was ensured by new methodologies, such as interactive games and collaborative instruments, supported by dissemination activities, university teaching, international workshops and conferences, as well as citizen science events (museum exhibitions, public events, school projects).
The Project has filled an important research gap by collecting an extensive body of Greek and Roman evidence (written, archaeological, iconographic), including archeological surveys of the spatial distribution of games and gaming devices in selected parts of the ancient world, such as Northern Greece, Ephesos, Pompei, Roman Gaul. Our scientific activities addressed the three key research questions about the reconstruction of ludic patrimony and education issues, urban identities and play in religious and funerary contexts, children’s agency and gender issues, as well as reflections on cultural transfers, especially between Egypt and Greece and play in a global perspective with consultants from different research fields. We organized 9 international conferences, in 2018 with a label of the European Year of Cultural Heritage, and 40 workshops, with a weekly webinar during the pandemic (2020-2022) that increased the worldwide circle of our research community.
The Project produced many open access publications bringing to light unpublished or little-known material and fostering new concepts: 30 collective books and monographs (10 in press) and 172 papers (27 in press) by the team, and in addition 171 papers by researchers involved in collective books (11 in press). The interactive reconstruction of 5 ancient games in two variants on PC and smartphones in four modern languages (Eng, Fr, Germ, It) was achieved as well as 7 animated recreations of ancient Greek and Roman scenes of play for scholars, students, and non-specialists.
We organized about 30 events with schoolchildren and citizen science events with public lectures and took part to over 300 dissemination actions at HI and abroad (incl. keynote lectures, cycles of lectures, Wikipedia training, wide audience papers and interviews). 4 exhibitions (FR 2019, 2020, UK 2023, and HI 2023) promoted the dissemination of the results, associated with the OA catalogue Ludique!
Annual teaching and training opportunities were offered to students at HI and 5 MA theses were achieved during the Project, 1 PhD-thesis was completed (3 in progress).
The Project’s website (locusludi.ch) met a large audience (over 2’000’000 visits since 1.1.2019) with many OA resources (1736 zotero biblio entries, videos, AI games), and social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube). Two databases provide OA material, Ludus on boardgames (c. 500 entries), Callisto on Greek and Roman scenes of play (c. 1300 entries), a catalogue of kottabos scenes on the Swiss Institutional database DASH is soon out with the associated volume on the topic. Further steps are planned to ensure the integration of the results of the Project in museums, schools and higher education institutions.
The Project produced many open access publications bringing to light unpublished or little-known material and fostering new concepts: 30 collective books and monographs (10 in press) and 172 papers (27 in press) by the team, and in addition 171 papers by researchers involved in collective books (11 in press). The interactive reconstruction of 5 ancient games in two variants on PC and smartphones in four modern languages (Eng, Fr, Germ, It) was achieved as well as 7 animated recreations of ancient Greek and Roman scenes of play for scholars, students, and non-specialists.
We organized about 30 events with schoolchildren and citizen science events with public lectures and took part to over 300 dissemination actions at HI and abroad (incl. keynote lectures, cycles of lectures, Wikipedia training, wide audience papers and interviews). 4 exhibitions (FR 2019, 2020, UK 2023, and HI 2023) promoted the dissemination of the results, associated with the OA catalogue Ludique!
Annual teaching and training opportunities were offered to students at HI and 5 MA theses were achieved during the Project, 1 PhD-thesis was completed (3 in progress).
The Project’s website (locusludi.ch) met a large audience (over 2’000’000 visits since 1.1.2019) with many OA resources (1736 zotero biblio entries, videos, AI games), and social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube). Two databases provide OA material, Ludus on boardgames (c. 500 entries), Callisto on Greek and Roman scenes of play (c. 1300 entries), a catalogue of kottabos scenes on the Swiss Institutional database DASH is soon out with the associated volume on the topic. Further steps are planned to ensure the integration of the results of the Project in museums, schools and higher education institutions.
Several benchmarks were achieved beyond the state of the art. Interactive ancient games (https://locusludi.ch/play-ancient-online-games/(öffnet in neuem Fenster)) and animated reconstructions of play based on Greek and Roman vases, wall painting, and reliefs (https://locusludi.ch/animating-antiquity(öffnet in neuem Fenster)) provide worldwide tools to access scientifically reconstructed Greek and Roman heritage. Scientific investigations and outputs promoted ludic culture as a proper historical research field. Two groundbreaking finds can be highlighted, about history of science and cheating with the mercury rigged Roman dice investigated in a multidisciplinary perspective from cutting edge physics to modern magic with a documentary movie (https://bit.ly/466PWdB(öffnet in neuem Fenster)) and the relation between the Greek Five Lines game and abaci to be included in primary school teaching to rethink contemporary approaches to learning mathematics, while at the same time transmitting new historical knowledge (https://bit.ly/3PhPx2Y(öffnet in neuem Fenster)).
Thanks to the establishment of a new framework of play, the research field will continue to expand after the end of the project with a larger hub of specialists, such as the Milano Lallact research group (bit.ly/3Sg6b4Q) the 2023 COST Action Action Gametable #22145 federating 32 countries, and the continuing collaboration with the Cluster: The Past for the Present and the PoC The Modern Argonauts #101122976 (PI K. Marciniak). A collaborative WordPress platform will also continue after the end of the project (https://locusludi.hypotheses.org(öffnet in neuem Fenster)). Further steps are planned to ensure the integration of the results of the Project in museums, schools, and higher education institutions.
Thanks to the establishment of a new framework of play, the research field will continue to expand after the end of the project with a larger hub of specialists, such as the Milano Lallact research group (bit.ly/3Sg6b4Q) the 2023 COST Action Action Gametable #22145 federating 32 countries, and the continuing collaboration with the Cluster: The Past for the Present and the PoC The Modern Argonauts #101122976 (PI K. Marciniak). A collaborative WordPress platform will also continue after the end of the project (https://locusludi.hypotheses.org(öffnet in neuem Fenster)). Further steps are planned to ensure the integration of the results of the Project in museums, schools, and higher education institutions.