Ancient Board Games Day

Step into the ancient world through play! This day-long event at eclectic games brings together four ways to explore ancient games!

Drop in to Playing with Ancient Games (Room 2) to try reconstructions of the Egyptian game Senet, the Greek game Five Lines, and Roman classics Ludus Latrunculorum and Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum, where fragmentary evidence means you get to help fill the gaps with your own rules. This drop-in session runs all day but requires a FREE ticket, see below.

Drop in to Playing Antiquity (Board Games Room), sample modern board games set in the ancient world, such as Akropolis, Concordia, Imhotep and Tzolkin, with historians on hand to explore what they get right, wrong, or reinvent. This drop-in session runs all day but requires a FREE ticket, see below.

Workshops

From 1pm, join game designer James Wallis in Redesigning Ancient Games (Room 1), a hands-on workshop inventing new rules and components to fill the evidence gaps. This workshop is open to over 18s only, and requires a free ticket, see below.

Aged between 8 and 15 and want to make your own game? Join Jessica Metheringham at 11am or 2.30pm to Design Your Own Game (Room 3). You’ll get to come up with a game idea and start making your first prototype.

Both workshops require a free ticket, see below. Kids must be accompanied by an adult at all times.

This event is part of Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities, taking place 5-14 November 2026. Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. For further information please see beinghumanfestival.org