Next week we will host the next edition of The Connected Past conference, this time in Oxford. The response to the conference has been overwhelming. 65 abstracts were received but only 30 could be accepted if we wanted to avoid parallel sessions. With 117 expected delegates this will be the largest event in the series. We are expecting colleagues from 17 countries and 66 institutions. Interestingly but perhaps not surprisingly, the gender split among delegates is almost 50/50 but only 32% of named authors of papers are female. This proportion is luckily increasing over the years but it’s clearly something for our community to work on.
Have a look at the infographic below. Can you spot how much wine each delegate will receive? I think it will be sufficient 🙂
If you order now the game should arrive on time for Christmas (see unboxing video below for contents). No profits are made on the game. A note on shipping: our online shop is based in the US and international shipping is expensive. However, up to 5 games fit into a single shipping box, so we recommend you combine your orders to split the shipping costs. For international purchases we also recommend you select priority shipping, because it will allow you to track your package in the likely case customs apply in the delivery country.
This is a board game by archaeologists for everyone. It was made by Iza Romanowska, Shawn Graham and myself. We wanted to do a fun public outreach activity that highlights key aspects of our research: how can we simulate the Roman economy? We find that simulation is very much like playing a board game. The only difference being that a simulation is played by a computer hundreds or thousands of times rather than by you and your family fighting over the rules during the Christmas break. The disagreements and discussions that arise over playing a board game we actually find very similar to the process we go through when making a computer simulation. Why is this rule the way it is? Is it really the best representation of the Roman world? Why don’t we change it and see what happens? This is why we thoughts a board game is the ideal format to share this part of our research.
Archaeological Networks 