{"id":1320505,"date":"2026-02-13T10:40:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T10:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/1320505\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T10:40:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T10:40:37","slug":"ai-cracks-roman-era-board-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/1320505\/","title":{"rendered":"AI cracks Roman-era board game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AFP048492_00.pre.jpg\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t      A smooth, white stone dating from the Roman era and unearthed in the Netherlands has long baffled researchers.<br \/>  Now with the help of artificial intelligence, scientists believe they have cracked the mystery: the stone is an ancient board game and they have even guessed the rules.<br \/>  The circular piece of limestone has diagonal and straight lines cut into it.<br \/>  Using 3D imaging, scientists discovered some lines were deeper than others, suggesting pieces were moved along them, some more than others.<br \/>  We can see wear along the lines on the stone, exactly where you would slide a piece, said Walter Crist, an archaeologist at Leiden University who specialises in ancient games.<br \/>  Other researchers at Maastricht University then used an artificial intelligence programme that can deduce the rules to ancient games.<br \/>  They trained this AI, baptised Ludii, with the rules of about 100 ancient games from the same area as the Roman stone.<br \/>  The computer produced dozens of possible rule sets. It then played the game against itself and identified a few variants that are enjoyable for humans to play, said Dennis Soemers, from Maastricht University.<br \/>  They then cross-checked the possible rules with the wear on the stone to uncover the most likely set of movements in the game.<br \/>  However, Soemers also sounded a note of caution.<br \/>  If you present Ludii with a line pattern like the one on the stone, it will always find game rules. Therefore, we cannot be sure that the Romans played it in precisely that way, he said.<br \/>  The aim of the deceptively simple but thrilling strategy game was to hunt and trap the opponent&#8217;s pieces in as few moves as possible.<br \/>  The research and the possible rules were published in the journal Antiquity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A smooth, white stone dating from the Roman era and unearthed in the Netherlands has long baffled researchers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1320506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[380362],"tags":[36,56,34836,416,34834,392753,392758,382225,12880,12943,21,5291,224017,12073,35576,381254,58895,16014,109565,37301,311586,134858,3032,8584,4037,150218,392755,39560,392759,130803,392754,256991,23886,392757,9793,12990,31794,384998,326261,392752,380520,392756,39714,150221,43900,9899],"class_list":{"0":"post-1320505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-game-news","8":"tag-gaming","9":"tag-game","10":"tag-game-news","11":"tag-games","12":"tag-gaming-news","13":"tag-jiji","14":"tag-topics","15":"tag-topix","16":"tag-12880","17":"tag-12943","18":"tag-21","19":"tag-5291","20":"tag-224017","21":"tag-12073","22":"tag-35576","23":"tag-381254","24":"tag-58895","25":"tag-16014","26":"tag-109565","27":"tag-37301","28":"tag-311586","29":"tag-134858","30":"tag-3032","31":"tag-8584","32":"tag-4037","33":"tag-150218","34":"tag-392755","35":"tag-39560","36":"tag-392759","37":"tag-130803","38":"tag-392754","39":"tag-256991","40":"tag-23886","41":"tag-392757","42":"tag-9793","43":"tag-12990","44":"tag-31794","45":"tag-384998","46":"tag-326261","47":"tag-392752","48":"tag-380520","49":"tag-392756","50":"tag-39714","51":"tag-150221","52":"tag-43900","53":"tag-9899"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/wakoka.com\/@games\/116062901162379806","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1320505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1320506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1320505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1320505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1320505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}