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Dr. Walter Crist

@waltros.bsky.social

Archaeologist. Ancient Games. Syracuse Basketball. Cheese. Sneakers. Gay stuff. he/him

159 Posts483 Follower492 Folgt
Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 3w ago

A die made from animal bones, found in Burgstein Castle, dating 11th century. Just like today, opposite sides of a die always add up to 7. Dice were quite popular among all social classes during the Middle Ages. In the early 10th century, for instance, the scholar Ekkhardt IV of ...🧵1/2 📷️me

A close-up of a die made of bone. It is completely preserved.Its surface is porous, yet the detail is clear. Four pips are visible on the top face, one on the front, and five on the side.
Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · last mo.

These beautifully crafted balls, dating to around 1500 BC (18th Dynasty), were made from linen and decorated with vibrant red, blue, and green reed strips. They were likely used not only for play but also in rituals and acrobatic performances. On display at Museum August Kestner 📷 me

A close-up of four decorative balls featuring chipped and faded geometric designs in blue, orange, and beige, displayed in a museum exhibit.
Dr Naomi Scott@drnaomiscott.bsky.social · last mo.

A lot of media coverage of the ‘AI’ reading of the Herculaneum scrolls really fails to understand what’s happened here. There’s no language processing happening, the AI/ML is not trained on a corpus of texts or language. It can detect ink to see shapes. HUMAN EXPERTS are then transcribing the text.

A screenshot from here: https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-02-07-inside-herculaneum-scroll-seen-first-time-almost-2000-years It explains that the machine learning involves only the detection of ink
Dr. Walter Crist@waltros.bsky.social · last mo.

Excited to be a part of the new book Sports and Games in the Ancient Near East, out now! My chapter explores the concept of common ludic ground, whereby certain games become a shared cultural practice at particular times.

book cover with seal impression of two people sitting across from each other with a game board in the centerfirst page of Common Ludic Ground in Bronze Age West Asia and Northeast Africa
Bart van Zwieten@bvzw.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Maya ballplayer, 600-900 CE. The piece comes from Jaina Island, an important burial site located off the coast of Campeche. The player wears thick hip and arm protectors, essential elements for the Mesoamerican ballgame, where a heavy rubber ball was struck primarily with the body.

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Dr. Walter Crist@waltros.bsky.social · 4mo ago

New piece out in @theconversation.com with @apolitopoulos.bsky.social and @docrandom.bsky.social on those early Native American dice everyone’s talking about: theconversation.com/archaeologis...

Archaeologists have discovered 12,000-year-old dice – here’s what they reveal about the history of play

You can compare throwing one of these ancient dice to a coin toss – although this discovery also underscores that dice are much older than coins.

theconversation.com

Past Horizons Archaeology Equipment@pasthorizons.bsky.social · 4mo ago

phys.org/news/2026-03... The earliest known dice in human history were made and used by Native American hunter-gatherers on the western Great Plains more than 12,000 years ago.

Native Americans were making dice, gambling, exploring probability millennia before their Old World counterparts

A new study in American Antiquity presents evidence that the earliest known dice in human history were made and used by Native American hunter-gatherers on the western Great Plains more than 12,000 ye...

phys.org

The Athletic@theathletic.com · 5mo ago

NEWS: Syracuse is expected to hire Siena head coach and former Orange star Gerry McNamara as its next men’s basketball head coach, according to multiple reports.

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Alison Fisk@alisonfisk.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Roman anti-cheating gaming accessory! This Roman ‘turricula’ (dice tower) was used to ensure a fair roll of the dice! 🎲🎲🎲 Dice dropped into the top, tumbled over sloping internal levels, and appeared randomly below. From Froitzheim, Germany, AD 300-400 📷 LVR-Landesmuseum Bonn #Archaeology

The image shows a rectangular Roman dice tower (turricula) made of four copper alloy (bronze) plates with punched cut-out Latin letters and cut-out decorative patterns. At the bottom front is a stepped exit chute with small bronze bells attached to the opening. The tower is a Roman anti-cheating device. It has an open top and is hollow inside except for three staggered, downward-sloping plates, designed to randomize dice as they fall, ensuring unpredictable dice rolls. When the dice rolled out of the exit chute they rang the bells! There is a decorative dolphin either side of the stepped exit chute. The top of the front plate has two decorative pine cone finials. Height 25 cm. There is a single die shown next to the stepped base to illustrate how it was used. The front inscription reads: PICTOS VICTOS HOSTIS DELETA LVDITE SECVRI Translated as: ‘The Picts defeated, the enemy has been destroyed, play in safety’. Around the top of the three remaining sides, a second inscription made with cut out letters reads: ‘UTERI/FELIX/VIVAS’ translated as ‘Use happily; may you live well’. Found at a Roman villa at Froitzheim in Germany in 1985.
Yannis Hamilakis 🍉@yannisham.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The second union of archaeologists in Greece taking a stance on the EAA saga. They represent the contract archaeologists, the largest sector; they call for a boycott: the majority of the local archaeological community in Greece does not support the Athens EAA meeting, under the current leadership.

Zena Kamash@zenakamash.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Greek archaeologists' trade union also calling for a boycott of EAA Athens www.seka.net.gr/boycotteaa/