AI unlocks a 2,000-year-old Roman board game mystery
Maastricht University’s AI system Ludii analyzed a carved Roman-era tablet and, by simulating about a hundred potential rule sets and matching them to wear patterns on the grooves, identified plausible rules for a two-player blocking game—the Coriovallum Game—offering a new method to decipher ancient games and highlighting AI’s potential to illuminate archaeology. Researchers caution that the exact ancient rules may vary, but the approach opens doors for reinterpreting similar artifacts.