The board was found in one of the Viking Age houses at Coppergate. It might have been used there or left there, in pieces, to serve as firewood. The game of hnefatafl requires two sets of playing pieces; an almost full set was recovered from the floor of one of the earlier buildings. These playing pieces were made from a variety of materials including chalk, jet, walrus ivory, antler and bone.

Hnefatafl was popular in Scandinavia but it is just one of many types of tafl which were popular across Europe in the first millennium. There are references in Icelandic sagas to a fine walrus ivory board being given to King Harold Fairhair, part of a board was found in the Gokstad Viking ship burial and there have been other finds in Scotland, Ireland and Scandinavia. It was clearly a game enjoyed by all levels of society. For this reason the fragment from Coppergate is one of the central features of the domestic scene depicted in the gallery at JORVIK.

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Find number 6609, 1976.7, catalogue number 9032. Length 481mm, width 109mm, thickness 23mm.
For more information on the gaming board see: The Archaeology of York 17/13, Wood and Woodworking in Anglo-Scandinavian and Medieval York (2000) by C.A. Morris.
For more information on the playing pieces see The Archaeology of York 17/14, Finds from Anglo-Scandinavian York (2000) by A.J. Mainman and N.S.H. Rogers and 17/12, Bone, Antler, Ivory and Horn from Anglo-Scandinavian and Medieval York (1999) by A. MacGregor, A.J. Mainman and N.S.H. Rogers.
The playing board and pieces are on display at JORVIK.