Catacomb Games: Reused Game Boards or Funerary Inscriptions?

Ulrich Schädler's article in the 2022 Board Game Studies Journal challenges the long-standing assumption that marble slabs with XII scripta/Alea layouts found in Roman Christian catacombs were reused game boards. Instead, the argument holds that these slabs were produced as funerary objects from the outset, and that their inscriptions are better understood as symbolic or literary imitations of game boards than as evidence of actual play. The study's central question is whether these objects served domestic recreation or sepulchral purposes, and its answer favors the latter.

The case rests on several lines of evidence. The marble boards weigh roughly 20 to 50 kilograms and lack the raised rims typical of wooden game boards, making them impractical for everyday play. Their inscriptions frequently follow the hexagram format popular in Late Antique funerary epigraphy, and the game's associations with fortune, life stages, and the circus lent themselves to Christian ideas of martyrdom and triumph. Acclamations such as "vincas," "circus plenus," and "Sabbatis bincas" are read as theological and metaphorical expressions drawn from circus imagery, while terms like "dulcis" and game symbols on inscriptions for children, such as the six-circle board for the child Marciana, suggest memorial or banquet use. The cantharus symbol and references to the refrigerium further tie these slabs to death and commemoration.

The scope of the argument centers on Roman Christian catacomb contexts of the Late Antique period, with comparative material drawn from sites across the eastern Mediterranean, including Aphrodisias, Sagalassos, and Ephesos. The author's reference list reflects a broad engagement with scholarship on Roman board games, funerary art, and early Christian burial practices. Key secondary sources include Schädler's own earlier work on games in reuse versus game-form inscriptions, along with studies by Purcell and Ziegler on board games in pagan-Christian discourse. The overall conclusion is that many of these slabs were cut down to fit loculi and later reused, and that they were most probably sepulchral objects rather than domestic game pieces.