The New Murrey and Blue blog

Today’s (disused) prison at Gloucester was built on the site of a Norman castle. Well, two Norman castles, the first being the usual early wooden motte and bailey, which was replaced on almost the same site by a more substantial stone fortress that guarded the important crossing of the River Severn. Gloucester was the first inland crossing point of the river from the sea, and so a vital site in those days. (see https://murreyandblue.org/2024/08/08/now-the-severns-up-now-its-down/)

It was when reading the site indicated in the caption of the top image that I learned of the intact 11^th/12^th-century tabula gaming set, with pieces made from the antlers of red deer, that was discovered during the excavations on the site of the castle. The game is believed to derive from an early Roman version of backgammon.

In 1983 this incredible item was unearthed in the castle rubbish tip! One wonders what happened for it to be discarded. Did someone overreach himself, lose a fortune and hurl the offending game away in a fury? We’ll never know. My imagination suggests that if this was the case, the man must have been fairly important or violent. Too important or violent (or both) for anyone to dare to retrieve what was, after all, an expensive item. So there it stayed, gradually disappearing beneath more and more rubbish, to be found all these centuries later for us to enjoy.

You can read more about the set here https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/67133 and here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloucester_tabula_set, where you can see close-up photographs of the pieces, called tablemen. Other tablemen have been found, as you can also see here https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/67133, but this is the only complete game.

There is more, too, if you scroll down this link https://www.museumofgloucester.co.uk/mygloucesterdiscovery, which has a number of close-up photographs of the set. Before you get to the section about the game, this link shows other discoveries made in Gloucester. It is at this museum that the tabula set can be seen.