{"id":71239,"date":"2026-07-09T12:32:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T10:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/?p=71239"},"modified":"2026-07-09T12:32:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T10:32:58","slug":"3d-printed-roman-board-game-09072026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/3d-printed-roman-board-game-09072026\/","title":{"rendered":"A 1,700-Year-Old Board Game Is Being Played Again Thanks to 3D Scanning and Printing"},"content":{"rendered":"

A stone board used nearly two millennia ago by the inhabitants of Roman Britain has been given a new lease on life thanks to 3D technology<\/a>. The project was developed by researchers at Newcastle University in collaboration with the Vindolanda Charitable Trust.<\/p>\n

The original board was discovered in 2019 during excavations at Vindolanda, one of the most important archaeological sites in northern England. Experts identified the artifact as a Ludus Latrunculorum board, a strategic two-player game considered the most popular in Roman Britain.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Original excavated board.<\/p><\/div>\n

Although the exact rules of the game have been lost over time, historians believe that its mechanics bore similarities to modern strategy games, in which players had to surround and capture their opponent\u2019s pieces. Various literary references by Roman authors and archaeological findings have made it possible to partially reconstruct how the game worked.<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n

Before the board traveled to Canada to be part of an international exhibition, the Vindolanda team wanted to preserve a copy that was as faithful as possible to the original. To do so, they turned to specialists at Newcastle University, who used a scanner<\/a> to digitize each of the five stone pieces that make up the original board.<\/p>\n

Using these digital models, engineers produced a replica printed in PLA<\/a>. In addition to the physical copy, the project generated an interactive digital model that allows users to examine the board from any angle.<\/p>\n

Much More Than Just a Game of Soldiers<\/h2>\n

The discovery has also helped expand our understanding of daily life on the northern border of the Roman Empire. Although it was long believed that this type of entertainment was primarily associated with the military, the location where the board was found suggests a different reality.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Roman game board was scanned and then 3D-printed using PLA<\/p><\/div>\n

Archaeologists found it outside the fort\u2019s defensive structures, in an area frequented by civilians. This reinforces the idea that women, children, merchants, and other residents of Vindolanda also participated in this popular pastime. People who visit the Roman Army Museum will to be able to handle the 3D printed replica, and experience what it was like to play the game nearly two thousand years ago.<\/p>\n

What do you think of the Roman game board? Share your thoughts in the comments section of the article. Let us know in a comment below or on our\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0pages! Don\u2019t forget to sign up for our free weekly\u00a0Newsletter here<\/a>, the latest 3D printing news straight to your inbox! You can also find all our videos on our\u00a0YouTube<\/a>\u00a0channel.<\/p>\n

*All Photo Credits: Newcastle University<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A stone board used nearly two millennia ago by the inhabitants of Roman Britain has been given a new lease on life thanks to 3D technology. The project was developed by researchers at Newcastle University in collaboration with the Vindolanda…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6114,"featured_media":71240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71241,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71239\/revisions\/71241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}