![]() At the archaeological museum in Mainz, Germany, you can buy a miniature Nine Men’s Morris game in the gift shop. There are other variations of the game such as Three Men’s Morris, Six Men’s Morris, and Twelve Men’s Morris. The game reached its peak popularity in Medieval England. A clay tile fragment from the Archaeological Museum in Mycenae, Greece has what looks like a game of Nine Men’s Morris scratched into the surface. The game dates back to the Roman era, and possibly dates all the way back to the Mycenaean era. I visited cathedrals all the time when I lived in Germany, but I wasn’t looking for evidence of Nine Men’s Morris so I really don’t know if it’s as common in Germany as it is in England. It’s a safe bet to say if we had a chance to visit any other cathedrals in England we would have seen the game there as well. By the time we got to the entrance of the cloisters they were locking the door and we weren’t able to get any photographs. Unfortunately, no photographs are allowed inside Westminster Abbey. In addition to being scratched onto the side of Charlemagne’s throne in Aachen, Germany, we saw on Nine Men’s Morris at Canterbury Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey in England. Of course our study is anything but scientific, but it’s safe to say that this game was ubiquitous in medieval life, especially in the cathedrals where they didn’t have much else to do. In some places we saw as many as 10 or 15 games scratched into the stone. The grid was usually absent, but the nine points or intersections were visible. Most of the guides in England were very familiar with Nine Men’s Morris.Īs it turns out, almost anywhere that there are well preserved cloisters there is a good chance that there is a game of Nine Men’s Morris scratched into the bench. We also started chatting with the guides at historic sites to find out more. So we started looking to see how many places we could find the game. My friend and I started talking about how we noticed the game in the cloisters (covered walkways) of many of the cathedrals that we visited. I didn’t realize how prolific this game was until I went back to Germany last winter. Each player has nine pieces which are called men, and the goal of the game is to get three of your pieces lined up in a row. The board consists of a grid with 24 points or intersections. ![]() As it turns out, evidence of this game is all over the place, you just have to know where to look. ![]() Apparently, nearly 2000 years ago bored Roman soldiers scratched a game into the floor called Nine Men’s Morris, or Mills. I did a little bit of research, and I found out that the stone in Charlemagne’s throne probably came from the floor of a church in the Middle East. When I first noticed the scratches on the side of Charlemagne’s throne back in 2008, I had no idea what they were. ![]()
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