AI Cracks the Code of Ancient Roman Game Board

For nearly a century, a small, intricately grooved limestone slab discovered in the Netherlands has puzzled archaeologists. Resembling a game board, its purpose remained a mystery – until now. Researchers have successfully used artificial intelligence to reverse-engineer the rules of this ancient game, revealing it was likely played by the Romans and functioned as a “blocking” game.

The innovative approach, detailed in the February issue of Antiquity, involved pitting virtual players against each other in thousands of potential game scenarios. Walter Crist, an archaeologist at Leiden University, and his colleagues used the AI-driven Ludii game system to analyze which rule sets best replicated the wear patterns observed on the stone. “We tried many different kinds of combinations: three versus two pieces, or four versus two, or two against two … we wanted to test out which ones replicated the wear on the board,” Crist explained.

The board, measuring just 20 centimeters across, was unearthed in Heerlen, a city built atop the Roman settlement of Coriovallum. Its archaeological context remains unclear, and no textual references to such a game have been found from Roman times, which persisted in the region until the fifth century.

The AI’s analysis suggests the game, now dubbed Ludus Coriovalli – or the “Coriovallum Game” – was likely played by two individuals. Players took turns placing pieces within the grooves on the board, with the objective of avoiding being blocked by their opponent. The winning strategy involved prolonging the game as long as possible without becoming immobilized.

This discovery is significant because blocking games were not previously believed to have been popular in Europe until the Middle Ages. While modern blocking games like Go and Dominoes exist, Ludus Coriovalli appears to be a distinct predecessor. “Games can go on for centuries, and sometimes they appear and then disappear,” noted Véronique Dasen of the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, who was not involved in the study.

The research team utilized Ludii’s specialized “game description language” to create virtual games, testing various configurations of pieces and moves. This allowed them to determine which rules most plausibly accounted for the observed wear and tear on the ancient board. The game is now playable online against a computer opponent, offering a glimpse into the leisure activities of people living nearly two millennia ago.

Experts in the field are hailing the study as a potential turning point in the understanding of ancient games. Jacqueline Meier, an anthropologist at the University of North Florida who was not involved in the research, suggests that further investigation into the board’s context and any associated game pieces could yield even more insights into its role in past social life. “If more were known about the board’s context and potential game pieces, more interpretations could be made of how it functioned in past social life,” she stated.

Dasen, who led the Locus Ludi project focused on ancient Roman and Greek games, believes the findings may prompt a re-evaluation of similar markings found on archaeological sites. “The research results invite [archaeologists] to reconsider the identification of Roman period graffiti that could be actual boards for a similar game not present in texts,” she said. She also noted that blocking games were once widespread in Europe, with their names often linked to hunting metaphors.

The success of this project demonstrates the potential of artificial intelligence to unlock the secrets of the past, offering new avenues for understanding ancient cultures and their pastimes. While the exact rules and social significance of Ludus Coriovalli may never be fully known, this innovative application of AI has brought us one step closer to understanding a game lost to time.