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An ancient Greek drinking game enjoyed more than 2,000 years ago at social drinking parties has been replicated by researchers.

The game, known as kottabos, involved men gathered in a circle flinging dregs of wine at a target in the centre of the room from a special cup known as a kylix.

And now the game has been recreated using a 3D-printer to try and work out the best way to play it - with results suggesting throwing the wine like a baseball rather than a Frisbee is more successful.  

Dr Heather Sharpe from West Chester University of Pennsylvania examined the ancient Greek drinking game of kottabos. The game involved men setting on couches around a room. They would drink wine from a shallow cup known as a kylix (shown). When they reached the dregs they flung the wine to the centre of the room

Dr Heather Sharpe, an assistant professor of art history at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, carried out the study into the game.

It is thought to have been played in ancient Greek parties when men would relax on couches in the andron, a male-only room for social events with food and wine.

There are two variations, both of which involve throwing wine from their shallow cup, known as a kylix, into the centre of the room.

In the first variation, drinkers threw dregs of wine to try and knock down a disc balanced on a tall metal stand in the middle of the room.

The other variation instead uses dishes floating in a larger bowl of water in the centre of the room.

People had to throw their wine and attempt to get the dishes to sink.

The game was understandably very messy, and with slaves thought to be required to clean up the resulting spilled wine.

The game of skill is thought to have been especially popular at Greek and Etruscan symposia (drinking parties) in the 5th and 4th centuries BC.

A kylix, seen here, has looped handles on either side, making it ideal for the throwing technique required for the ancient Greek drinking game of kottabos

Apparently, when flinging wine, the player would also be required to say the name of the object or person he desired.

The game is likely of Sicilian origin but it  spread throughout Greece. Despite the apparent element of luck in the game, it did also require a surprising amount of skill.

Players who were especially good at kottabos were often said to be favoured in other regards too, such as love, and large wagers were often also placed on a game.

In her research, Dr Sharpe created a 3D-printed kylix to replicate the conditions of the game.

She found that throwing the liquid out of the cup overhead, like a baseball, was easier than trying to flick it with the wrist like a Frisbee.

But she said it likely descended into quite a messy affair, no matter how skilled the players were. 

Pictured is a statute of Dionysus, known as Bacchus by the Romans, the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine. Dionysus was important in Greek culture as alcohol, particularly wine, played an important role in many activities and social events

'In a typical symposium setting, in an andron, you would have had couches arranged on almost all four sides of the room, and if you missed the target, you were likely to splatter your fellow symposiast across the way,' Dr Sharpe told LiveScience.

'You'd imagine that, by the end of the symposium, you'd be drenched in wine, and your fellow symposiasts would be drenched in wine, too.'

However, she noted that she only used diluted grape juice in her version of the game, as it was a university attempt.

For the full experiment, she said it would probably be best to have one or two kylixes of wine. 

Kottabos is thought to have been played in ancient Greek parties when men would relax on couches in the andron, a male-only room for social events with food and wine. Pictured is the symposium scene from the Tomb of the Diver at Paestum, Italy