Counter for taffy game

A board game counter from the early 11th century discovered during excavations in Szczecin's Podzamcze within quarter V. The board game cone was turned on a lathe from a walrus tusk. It is characterised by a very carefully worked and polished surface. A trace in the form of a cone-shaped hole in the base remained after being mounted on the lathe. Objects of this type, made of various raw materials, are described in the literature as game stones or counters used in various board games. The Szczecin pawn is most probably related to the Scandinavian game hnefatafl – King's Table. The board for that game consisted of equal squares, e.g. 7 × 7, as in the archaeological find from Ballinderry in Ireland, or 18 × 18, like the board discovered during excavations in Wimose, Denmark. The number of counters depended on the size of the board. Some of them were placed at the board edges; twice as many were in its centre. In the middle was the central piece called the king. King's Table was played by two people. The goal of one of them, playing with counters placed in the middle of the board, was to defend the king against the counters of the other player, the attacker, who started the game. The winner could be the attacker if he "captured" the king or the defender if he had led him to one of the corner pieces. King's Table is often considered to be the most strategic game of the Viking period. It is mentioned in the Scandinavian sagas, immortalised on runic stones, and knowledge of King's Table rules is listed among the nine basic skills of a wise man and ruler, along with writing runes, forge work, skiing, archery, rowing, harp playing and saga making. The presence of a plumb line made from walrus tusk, a material exotic to Pomerania, is evidence of close contact between the inhabitants of Szczecin and the culture of Scandinavia in the Viking period.

Sławomir Słowiński