[MR] BBC: Game Board Found at Monastery Dig

[Lorelei Elkins]

Lord Mungo,

Thank you, as always, for your interesting and thoroughly researched
history tidbits.  They are very enjoyable!

Mistress Lorelei Greenleafe

On Wed, Aug 29, 2018 at 5:20 AM Garth Groff and Sally Sanford via Atlantia <
atlantia at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org> wrote:

> 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  🦆
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