[MR] BBC: Game Board Found at Monastery Dig

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends, Especially Fellow Scots:

Ongoing excavations at the suspected Deer Abbey site in Aberdeenshire have
unearthed a stone game board, possibly used for playing chess-like strategy
games such as tafl. What a board game in a monastery says about the
diligence of monks is an interesting question, but perhaps the abbot played
games to entertain important guests.

The BBC story, with photos of the board and the excavation site is at
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-45335491 .

Deer was the site of an important dark-ages monastery. It was where the
10th c. manuscript The Book of Deer was created:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_Abbey .

Information about the Book of Deer at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Deer .

For more about tafl and related games, see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tafl_games . Let me also note that some of
these games are played in the SCA.

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆