Belgian researchers use AI to reconstruct 1,800-year-old Roman board game

By Melike Pala

BRUSSELS (AA) - A Belgian research team has used artificial intelligence to reconstruct a nearly 1,800-year-old Roman board game that had previously been kept in a Dutch museum without detailed study, broadcaster VRT reported Tuesday.

The stone, part of the Roman Museum in Heerlen collection, was discovered near Villa Coriovallum and had long been suspected of being a game board because of its distinctive stripes. However, conclusive evidence had been lacking, the report said.

Eric Piette, an AI scientist at Universite Catholique de Louvain, or UCLouvain, and his team re-examined the artifact using AI software, comparing wear patterns on the stone with thousands of historical games stored in the Ludii Project database, a global repository of board and card games spanning centuries.

“In an initial analysis of the surface, we saw signs of wear indicating repeated movement across the stone. That could mean it was indeed a game board,” Piette told VRT.

Through simulations using AI-controlled players, the researchers determined the game was likely a two-player blockade game, in which each player attempts to block the other from achieving a goal.

The team named the game “ludus coriovalli,” meaning “game from Coriovallum.”

Dating of the stone suggests it originated between 200 and 400 A.D., near the end of the Western Roman Empire.

Piette noted that the game’s structure closely resembles board games whose rules were documented centuries later in 18th- and 19th-century Scandinavia, suggesting possible early cultural connections.

Piette and his team plan to continue their research internationally, with the next project focusing on a clay gaming table from ancient Egypt housed at Brussels’ Royal Museum of Art and History.

They aim to use 3D simulations to reconstruct its original use.