Overview
- Leiden University archaeologist Walter Crist and colleagues report in Antiquity that the Ludii system tested thousands of rule sets to see which best matched the stone’s wear patterns.
- The reconstructed play suggests a blocking game in which one player places four pieces against an opponent’s two, with victory going to the player who avoids being trapped the longest.
- The limestone piece, about 20 centimeters across, was found in Heerlen atop the Roman town of Coriovallum and is displayed at a local museum.
- The team has made the reconstructed game, dubbed Ludus Coriovalli, available to play online against a computer.
- Specialists praise the methodological advance but note that the board’s context is unknown and there are no associated pieces or textual references, so the interpretation remains provisional.