Updated Proposal!

Not sure how to just edit, so I'll just put in a new one!
  This is our final proposal (with all the annotations on the bibliography)

Team Games Proposal: "Kubb"

Kyla B

Melanie S

Ben W

Pamela L

Statement:

  We intend to experiment on the game "Kubb" and plan to explain who, what, why, and how the game was played during the Viking age.  We will attempt to play the game by historically accurate rules, or as close to as we know.  As well, we will compare this game to other games played in Sweden during the same time period of Kubb.

Description of Technology:

  Kubb is a game that would most similarly resemble a combination of Chess and lawn bowling and could be paralleled with other games of the time like Tafl. The game uses a series of wooden game/Kubb pieces that are carved to be able freely stand on the ground.  The goal of the game is for one team "to knock over the King [Kubb piece] after having knocked over all the Kubbs on the opposing side of the pitch" (Kubb Rules 2013).

Experiment Questions:

- Was this game common in the Viking Age? How can we tell?

- What makes this game prominent in the Viking Age and why was this seen as a game?

- What evidence supports that this game was played in Sweden during the Viking age?

- Why was this played when there were a variety of other games to play?

- What strategies were employed to win the game.

- What benefits would an individual have for winning a game of Kubb.

- Was Kubb used for dispute resolution?

Materials:

- Wood (various sizes)

- Playing area, preferably grassy and open (we will demonstrate outside for the class)

- Table saw

- Sander/sanding paper

- Wood pencil

- Electric Wood Carver

- Measuring tape

- Rope

- Wood glue

Game Pieces:

- 1 King (12” tall [4x4])

- 10 Kubbs (2.75” x 2.75”/ 5.9” tall)

- 6 Throwing sticks (1.5-2”)

- 4 Corner markers (0.75” dowels)

Anticipated Challenges

- Construction of the pieces themselves.

- Playing the game, and determining whether it is the most historically accurate the way to do it.

- Finding archaeological evidence for Kubb and comparing it to other games of the time.

- Lack of archaeological evidence.

- Lack of Scholarly sources to support proposal of this game being played.

Timeline:

Complete the following by:

Proposal- October 11, 2013

Collect Materials- October 12, 2013

Create Game Pieces- October 16, 2013

Research- October 29, 2013

Write up- November 4, 2013

Project Presentation- November 8, 2013

Final Touches on paper- November 9, 2013

Hand in Paper- November 15, 2013

Bibliography:

Cummiskey, Matthew. (2013). Yard Games in Secondary Physical Education: Kubb 26(4): 25-30.

   The Cummiskey (2013) article discusses how/why contemporary people play yard games; they are affordable, easily built and a playing surface is always within reach. This article will draw a good parallel from Kubb to other games of similar styles that are still played today, like; lawn-bowling, bocce and croquet.

Gardela, L. (2012). What the Vikings did for fun? Sports and pastimes in medieval northern Europe 44(2). pp. 234.

    This particular journal article is about Viking pastimes, focusing on children, adults, and the different popular games that were active at this time.

    With this article, a better understanding of Viking games will be presented; what types of games were played along with how they came to be. Because of this, our group will be able compare and contrast different valued games and the value behind them.

Kubb: the Viking game (2012) New Zealand Physical Educator, December. 45(3):39-30.

    This source outlines the rules and gameplay commonly used in the North American playing of Kubb, as it is used in schools for physical education.  It will be useful for our group to use in playing and teaching the game to the class during our presentation.

Kubb Rules: 2013 http://www.kubb.co.uk/Kubb_rules%20.pdf

    Here, we found the rules followed in the UK playing of Kubb, only slightly different than the North American rules.  This set of rules also contains different optional variations on gameplay, that would be interesting for us to try out to see possible variations that could have been used during the Viking period.

Old time games: 2013 http://www.oldtimegames.com/aboutkubb.html.

    This website is a good example of how Kubb is used in modern day, with a trade-marked product even being sold.  It is interesting to compare this website with possible historical uses of Kubb, as this is a very Americanized version, going so far as to call it “the original American Made Kubb Game!”

Ronström, O. (2008). Kubb: Local identity and global connectedness in a Gotland parish. 4th International Small Island Cultures Conference,17-27. Accessed at: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hgo:diva-1062

    This paper discusses possible cultural uses of the Game Kubb, specifically in an area of Sweden.  Although this article does not contain any archaeological evidence of the use of Kubb, it could help us to discuss other aspects of Kubb that cannot be found in  the archaeological record.