From November 1 to 10, 2025, academics and research enthusiasts will once again gather in Berlin to discuss current developments and challenges in science, business and society—with each other and with the public. The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science is excited to announce its presence once again at the Berlin Science Week "Campus" event at the Museum für Naturkunde on November 1–2, 2025. Join us!
This interactive exhibition gives you the possibility to play traditional board games associated with cosmological representations from different cultures and societies across the world. The games will rotate throughout the exhibition, allowing you to return to the stand and experience new games throughout the course of the weekend.
This workshop, run by board game historian Jacob Schmidt-Madsen and team, will begin with an introduction to the field of historical game studies and the challenges scholars face when trying to understand how ancient games were actually played. Participants will then get to reconstruct some ancient games in the workshop, in an experience akin to puzzling out a solution to a murder mystery, and explore how the act of reconstructing games is in itself a form of play.
The events are organized by the Max Planck Research Group "Astral Sciences in Trans-Regional Asia (ASTRA)."
