AI Reconstructs 4-vs-2 Roman Game From 1 Stone Slab

1 articles · Updated · ZME Science · Jul 8

Researchers used Ludii to identify an ancient Heerlen limestone slab as Ludus Coriovalli, a lost Roman blocking game in which four “dogs” try to trap two “hares.”
1,000 AI simulations for each candidate ruleset matched the board’s microscopic wear patterns, especially abrasion along one diagonal, ruling out alignment and race games.
Walter Crist’s team said the slab’s deliberate shaping and localized smoothing from sliding counters showed it had been repeatedly used as a game board rather than as rubble or a mason’s practice piece.
The Antiquity study pushes evidence for European blocking games back by several hundred years, suggesting a Roman-era precursor to later medieval “dogs and hares” traditions.

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