games

A modest slab of limestone carved with an unfamiliar pattern and found in the Dutch city of Heerlen has just reshaped what scholars think they know about European “blocking games.” By combining microscopic wear analysis, detailed 3D scans, and thousands of AI-run matchups, researchers argue the stone was used for a now-lost Roman-era strategy game, potentially pushing this whole game type back centuries earlier than previously documented Board Games Never Die: Part One, the Games of Ancient Times The Surprising History of Gaming in the Roman Army (Video) Excavation of two Roman pottery kilns in the city center of Heerlen, 1940. (Het Romains Museum/ Antiquity Publications Ltd ) A Stone “Board” from Roman Coriovallum The object itself is small, about