In the rescue excavation project, conducted in 2001-2002 at the private property plot K. Diakogeorgiou at the city of Rhodes, an incised board for the nine men’s Morris game was discovered. The board game was clearly incised at the lower...
moreIn the rescue excavation project, conducted in 2001-2002 at the private property plot K. Diakogeorgiou at the city of Rhodes, an incised board for the nine men’s Morris game was discovered.
The board game was clearly incised at the lower surface of an ancient roof tile fragment, after its disposal. The historical analysis and the geographical distribution of the game, points out that it was already known in Roman times, even though finds from Roman Greece are scarce. Furthermore, the game was well known and favorable in Medieval Europe and is attested also in many crusader sites in the Holy lands, as well as in sites from Greece associated with the presence of Western Europeans in late Medieval times. In the aforementioned historical framework the board game from Rhodes can easily be associated with the presence of the order of St. John, the Hospitalliers, on the island.
Nevertheless the stratigraphical data, the spatial analysis of the plot, in association with its proximity to the medieval fortifications of the city of Rhodes, and the fact that the game was already known in Islamic world from the 9th century, lead to another assumption, that the board game could have been also used in the intermissions of battles during the second siege of Rhodes by the Ottomans in 1522.
