Cinnabar
A game of archaeometry · For 2–5 research teams
The marble was never white. Recover what time has washed away.
In Cinnabar, teams of three take charge of one ancient Greek sculpture whose paint has worn away. Using six real analytical instruments — pXRF, UV-Vis, VIL, XRD, cross-section and GC-MS — alongside excavation records, ownership history and a strict permit system, they work out what colour each part of the object originally was, and must prove it three ways before they are allowed to colour it in.
12+
Ages
3–4
Teams of
50
Minutes
4
Teams per set
Why this game exists
For five centuries, people believed Greek sculpture was pure white marble. It never was.
The statues were painted in saturated colour — reds, blues, greens, ochres, gilding — and the paint wore off over two thousand years. Recovering those colours is real, current science: it takes a chemist to read the instruments, a physicist to understand what the beam can and cannot see, an archaeologist to say what could have been there, and a curator to decide what may be sampled at all. No single expert can do it alone.
CINNABAR was built because that is exactly the kind of science students almost never meet. School teaches chemistry, physics and history in separate rooms. Archaeometry happens where those rooms meet — and it comes with real ethical weight, because the tests that give the best answers also destroy a piece of an irreplaceable object. We wanted a game where the interdisciplinary collaboration isn't a slogan on the box but a rule you cannot play without.
The name
Cinnabar is mercury sulfide — the brilliant red pigment prized across the ancient Mediterranean, and it darkens toward black on exposure to light. The game is named for it because it is the perfect emblem of what this science recovers: a colour that destroyed itself.
Who it's for
Students, 12 and up
Middle and high school science, history and humanities classes, science clubs, museum education programmes and summer courses. No prior knowledge of chemistry or archaeology is needed — the instrument sleeves explain what each test can see, and the Field Guide explains the rest.
Teachers and facilitators
One facilitator can run up to six teams in a single 50-minute period. The Quick Rules teach the game in five minutes; the Official Rulebook has a minute-by-minute run sheet. Nothing needs electricity, internet, or an answer key the teacher has to hide — another team deals your answer, so even the facilitator doesn't know it.
Anyone who likes a good argument
Each team is a scientist, an archaeologist and an ethics steward with different powers. The Analyst wants to run the decisive test; the Steward can refuse to sign for it. Teams that argue internally are playing correctly.
What students take away
How real instruments work — and where they are blind
pXRF finds metals but sees no organic dye. UV-Vis gives a hue but can't tell two reds apart. VIL fires only on Egyptian blue. Every test answers one question and is silent on the rest — which is the first thing any working scientist learns.
Deduction from incomplete data
Fourteen pigments, six tests, twelve actions. There is never enough budget to test everything, so teams learn to eliminate, cross-check, and decide when a result is good enough to commit to.
What interdisciplinary actually means
A claim needs a lab result, an archaeological context and a signed authorization — three legs from three roles. Remove any one and the claim does not exist. Students practise collaboration because the rules make it impossible to avoid.
The ethics of irreversible decisions
Destructive tests consume part of the object for good. Each needs a signature, the team has at most three, and the name on the line is read aloud if the claim was wrong. Choosing not to test — Left As Found — is a scored, legitimate result.
Provenance, provenience and who gets to decide
Where an object was found is not the same as who owns it. Objects excavated under colonial administrations, bought at auction with no findspot, or under active restitution claims carry different permissions — and the optional Hearing module puts repatriation itself on the table.
A mirror for modern research
The debrief Parallel Cards map each decision in the game onto a decision made today in data and AI work: sampling without consent, publishing on material with no provenance, signing off on something that cannot be undone.
No claim without all three
A lab result
from the Analyst
A context card
from the Contextualist
A signed authorization
from the Steward
Three disciplines, three players, three pieces of proof.
The fourteen pigments
Cinnabar
HgS
Egyptian blue
CaCuSi₄O₁₀
Madder lake
Alizarin on Al
Yellow ochre
FeO(OH)
Malachite
Cu₂CO₃(OH)₂
Indigo
C₁₆H₁₀N₂O₂
Azurite
Cu₃(CO₃)₂(OH)₂
Green earth
celadonite
Red ochre
Fe₂O₃
Orpiment
As₂S₃
Lead white
2PbCO₃·Pb(OH)₂
Bone black
Ca₃(PO₄)₂ + C
Gold leaf
Au
Lead-tin foil
Pb/Sn
Each pigment card carries its real pXRF, UV-Vis, VIL, XRD, cross-section and GC-MS profile. The data is accurate enough that the deductions hold up — and the sleeves are cut so that no one ever sees more than one line at a time.
Part of Modulo
CINNABAR is one of four games by Modulo Inc., a nonprofit educational game studio founded by a student, on the belief that difficult science is best learned by playing it. Collider Quest teaches particle physics, Twisters: Superposed Edition puts quantum superposition on a floor mat, PRESSED teaches cosmetic chemistry — and CINNABAR brings archaeometry, the most interdisciplinary of the four, to the table. Modulo's games have reached roughly twenty schools and twenty thousand students, with free sets shipped to under-resourced schools and community centres. Every game is print-at-home, runs without electricity or internet, and is free for educational use.
Collider Quest
particle physics
Twisters: Superposed Edition
quantum mechanics
Pressed
cosmetic chemistry
Cinnabar
chemistry & polychromy