Status: In preparation
Expected publication: Winter 2026/2027
Author: Barbara Carè
Abstract
Board Game Studies is an emerging interdisciplinary field situated at the intersection of archaeology, history, philology, anthropology, material culture studies, and game studies. This entry explores the development of the discipline from early antiquarian interests and the reconstruction of ancient games to recent approaches that understand games as cultural practices embedded in specific social and historical contexts. Particular attention will be given to the methodological challenges raised by the fragmentary nature of the evidence, including the identification of game material, the reconstruction of rules, the interpretation of iconographic and textual sources, and the historical construction of modern categories of games. The entry also discusses recent developments in digital humanities, computational modelling, and artificial intelligence, which offer new possibilities for analyzing historical games while also raising important questions concerning transparency, uncertainty, and interpretation.
Keywords: Board Game Studies; Archaeology of Play and Games; Game Reconstruction; Ancient Ludic Culture; Digital Humanities
Dr Barbara Carè
is an archaeologist and Senior Researcher at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland). She specialises in ancient material culture, with a particular focus on ancient ludic practices and the reception and historiography of ancient games. Her research combines material, literary, and visual evidence with computational approaches to investigate the reconstruction and interpretation of ancient ludic phenomena and the historical construction of modern categories of play. Her work also examines astragali, small tarsal bones whose complex history of interpretation provides a case study for understanding how modern scholarly and cultural frameworks have shaped our understanding of these objects and their place within ancient societies. She is actively involved in international collaborations dedicated to the research, dissemination, and education of historical games.