Periodic Reporting for period 3 - Locus Ludi (Locus Ludi: The Cultural Fabric of Play and Games in Classical Antiquity)
Période du rapport: 2020-10-01 au 2022-03-31
The Project’s objective is to provide the first comprehensive diachronic reconstruction of ancient ludic culture, from the birth of the Greek city-state, c. 800 BC, to the end of the Western Roman Empire, c. 500 CE. Based on an extensive pluridisciplinary collection of evidence (written, archaeological, iconographic), we first aim to identify, categorize and reconstruct ancient games and their rules, providing reference typologies and models for training and research. Second, we analyse 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, they are key agents of social understanding and cultural identity. We examine how they contribute 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, our team revisits past social life, norms, values, emotions, and collective imaginary, from early childhood and throughout adult life, for men and women, the elite and common folk, free individuals and slaves. We also study the modes of transmission of ludic patrimony from Antiquity to the present. A third, societal, objective is to increase awareness of the integrative potential of play and games in past and present societies, and to widen the debate on “good or bad” games in a changing and challenging world. Our team elaborates updated material (reconstructed games, handbook of rules and related information) for schools and higher education institutions.
The Project has completed several milestones. The search for ludic patrimony has produced a large collection of ancient sources, the reconstruction of interactive ancient games with rules, video animations, and many scientific and wide audience publications transforming the understanding of past ludic culture. Issues about the value of play and games in ancient education are addressed, along with testing in schools and museums. The study of board games and game tools is producing reference typologies; work on iconography is generating novel outcome on the agency of Greek children as well as on Greek and Roman fabric of gender. In the second half of the project, we focus on the social dynamic of games in public and private spaces, their symbolic value in liminal contexts, funerary and religious. Building on these results, we are producing a new theoretical and anthropological model of play in Antiquity in a global and transcultural perspective. Knowledge transfer is ensured by new methodologies, such as interactive games and collaborative tools, supported by dissemination activities, university teaching, international workshops and conferences, as well wide audience events (museum exhibitions, public events, schools). The inclusion of ancient play and games in education will involve training younger generations in Greek and Roman heritage as well as interpersonal skills, such as teamwork, negotiation, and community building competences.
The Project has completed several milestones. The search for ludic patrimony has produced a large collection of ancient sources, the reconstruction of interactive ancient games with rules, video animations, and many scientific and wide audience publications transforming the understanding of past ludic culture. Issues about the value of play and games in ancient education are addressed, along with testing in schools and museums. The study of board games and game tools is producing reference typologies; work on iconography is generating novel outcome on the agency of Greek children as well as on Greek and Roman fabric of gender. In the second half of the project, we focus on the social dynamic of games in public and private spaces, their symbolic value in liminal contexts, funerary and religious. Building on these results, we are producing a new theoretical and anthropological model of play in Antiquity in a global and transcultural perspective. Knowledge transfer is ensured by new methodologies, such as interactive games and collaborative tools, supported by dissemination activities, university teaching, international workshops and conferences, as well wide audience events (museum exhibitions, public events, schools). The inclusion of ancient play and games in education will involve training younger generations in Greek and Roman heritage as well as interpersonal skills, such as teamwork, negotiation, and community building competences.
Since October 2017, the Project focused on collecting, editing, translating and analysing ancient written sources in order to reconstruct a lost heritage and its transmission from antiquity to the present, revisiting ancient educational concepts and gender constructions. We also started surveying the spatial distribution of archeological material with a typological approach in selected parts of the ancient world. Our scientific activities federated a wide international network of scholars. We organized and took part to over 170 dissemination actions at HI and abroad. The first major international conference took place in September 2018 in the Swiss Museum of Games on the emic definition of play and games in Antiquity. The Project has already generated a large scholarly production with over 120 papers by the team and invited scholars throwing new light on the history of ludic culture (peer-reviewed book chapters and articles in journals and special issues, catalogue entries, wide audience papers).
Three milestones were achieved in 2020. First, the publication of the Onomasticon of Pollux of Naucratis (2nd cent. CE) with 52 commented games in modern translation, and the completion of an extensive Greek and Latin lexicon of games and play with an associated anthology. A second benchmark is the successful reconstruction of interactive ancient games in four modern languages (Eng, Fr, Germ, It) as well as animations of ancient Greek and Roman scenes of play. A third benchmark is the catalogue of the exhibition “Ludique. Jouer dans l’Antiquité”, with a lavishly illustrated overview of the Project for scholars, students and non-specialists.
The Project’s website (locusludi.ch) has been set up with four social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube), the interactive games and a searchable bibliography on the open source site Zotero (over 1250 entries). The database Ludus collects boardgames, the database Callisto gathers Greek and Roman scenes of play. We also strongly engage in the dissemination of our results in museums, schools and higher education institutions, with wide audience lectures, demonstrations, and publications.
Three milestones were achieved in 2020. First, the publication of the Onomasticon of Pollux of Naucratis (2nd cent. CE) with 52 commented games in modern translation, and the completion of an extensive Greek and Latin lexicon of games and play with an associated anthology. A second benchmark is the successful reconstruction of interactive ancient games in four modern languages (Eng, Fr, Germ, It) as well as animations of ancient Greek and Roman scenes of play. A third benchmark is the catalogue of the exhibition “Ludique. Jouer dans l’Antiquité”, with a lavishly illustrated overview of the Project for scholars, students and non-specialists.
The Project’s website (locusludi.ch) has been set up with four social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube), the interactive games and a searchable bibliography on the open source site Zotero (over 1250 entries). The database Ludus collects boardgames, the database Callisto gathers Greek and Roman scenes of play. We also strongly engage in the dissemination of our results in museums, schools and higher education institutions, with wide audience lectures, demonstrations, and publications.
Several benchmarks were achieved. First, interactive ancient games and video animations provide worldwide access to a past patrimony. Second, the exhibition and associated catalogue “Ludique. Jouer dans l’Antiquité” in Lyon, Lugdunum (20.6.-1.12.2019) made aware a large audience (35’518 visitors) of the wealth of a cultural heritage of c. 300 Greek and Roman rare objects, ethnographic material and modern games, from c. 40 European Museums. Third, the PI launched an open access collection dedicated to play and games at Liège University Press (Jeu/Play/Spiel). The PI also successfully applied for the label European Year of Cultural Heritage for the conference “Ancient Play and Games: Definition, Transmission, Reception” (17-19.9.2018) and the workshop “Bons ou mauvais jeux” (5-6.11.2018) each with transdisciplinary and transperiod lectures as well as contributions of artists in wide audience events.
Our website has become a tool for knowledge transfer with over 118’000 visitors since January 2019. We also engage in training students and scholars to update information on ludic culture on Wikimedia (23.10.2019). In the next stage we aim to contribute to the integration of ancient games as cultural material in school and university programs (history, mathematics, politics, art history...) in collaboration with a national and international high education network (Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Poland). Collaborations with ERC projects developed (ERC COG “Ludeme. Modelling the Evolution of Traditional Games” (Maastricht 2018-2023); ERC AdG grant “MAP. Mapping Ancient Polytheisms” (Toulouse 2017-2022); ERC COG “Token Communities in the Ancient Mediterranean” (Warwick 2016-2021). The PI is strengthening collaborations with PI Katarzyna Marciniak, ERC COG “Our Mythical Childhood” (Warsaw 2016-2021) on Classical culture and Citizen Science. We joined the Cluster “The Past for the Present” (Warsaw, Bologna, Munich, Cambridge). Since autumn 2020, a weekly webinar ensures a regular flow of ideas with worldwide researchers. We plan developing an online encyclopedia of play and games in Classical antiquity as well as a virtual exhibition with museum partners on locusludi.ch.
Our website has become a tool for knowledge transfer with over 118’000 visitors since January 2019. We also engage in training students and scholars to update information on ludic culture on Wikimedia (23.10.2019). In the next stage we aim to contribute to the integration of ancient games as cultural material in school and university programs (history, mathematics, politics, art history...) in collaboration with a national and international high education network (Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Poland). Collaborations with ERC projects developed (ERC COG “Ludeme. Modelling the Evolution of Traditional Games” (Maastricht 2018-2023); ERC AdG grant “MAP. Mapping Ancient Polytheisms” (Toulouse 2017-2022); ERC COG “Token Communities in the Ancient Mediterranean” (Warwick 2016-2021). The PI is strengthening collaborations with PI Katarzyna Marciniak, ERC COG “Our Mythical Childhood” (Warsaw 2016-2021) on Classical culture and Citizen Science. We joined the Cluster “The Past for the Present” (Warsaw, Bologna, Munich, Cambridge). Since autumn 2020, a weekly webinar ensures a regular flow of ideas with worldwide researchers. We plan developing an online encyclopedia of play and games in Classical antiquity as well as a virtual exhibition with museum partners on locusludi.ch.