2026年2月11日 / 美国东部时间下午2:49 / CBS/法新社
一块光滑的白色罗马时期石头在荷兰出土，长期以来令研究人员困惑不已。如今，借助人工智能的帮助，科学家们认为他们解开了这个谜团：这块石头是一种古老的棋盘游戏，他们甚至推测出了游戏规则。
这块圆形石灰石上刻有对角线和直线。
修复工作室Restaura创建的3D成像技术帮助科学家发现，有些线条比其他线条更深，这表明棋子曾沿着这些线条移动，且移动次数不同。
“我们可以看到石头上线条处的磨损痕迹，正好是你滑动棋子的位置，”荷兰莱顿大学专攻古代游戏的考古学家沃尔特·克里斯特（Walter Crist）在一份声明中表示。“这块石头的外观结合这种磨损强烈表明它是一个游戏（道具）。”
马斯特里赫特大学的其他研究人员随后使用了一个能够推断古代游戏规则的人工智能程序。
他们用来自与罗马石头同一地区的约100种古代游戏规则对名为Ludii的AI进行了训练。
计算机“生成了数十种可能的规则集。然后它与自己进行游戏对战，并识别出一些对人类来说更有趣的变体，”马斯特里赫特大学的丹尼斯·索默斯（Dennis Soemers）在一份声明中说。
他们随后将可能的规则与石头上的磨损痕迹进行交叉验证，以揭示游戏中最可能的移动方式。
然而，索默斯也发出了警告。
“如果你向Ludii展示像石头上那样的线条图案，它总能找到游戏规则。因此，我们不能确定罗马人确实以那种精确的方式玩这个游戏，”他说。
科学家们表示，这个“看似简单却惊心动魄的策略游戏”的目标是在尽可能少的移动中捕猎并困住对手的棋子。研究人员认为，游戏棋子可能由玻璃、骨头或陶器制成。
这项研究及可能的规则已发表在《 Antiquity 》（《古物》）期刊上，该期刊在社交媒体上发布了一段解释这个游戏的视频。
新的AI模拟帮助计算了一种此前未知的罗马棋盘游戏的规则，将欧洲阻挡类游戏的证据往前推进了数个世纪！
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🆓 https://t.co/T4ZsS7zELF@PietteRic@DennisSoemerspic.twitter.com/tqjaUFJS2J
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— 《 Antiquity 》期刊（@AntiquityJ）2026年2月11日
“我们发现的规则解释了石头上的磨损痕迹，并且与可比文化时期的游戏一致，”海尔伦罗马博物馆馆长凯伦·詹森（Karen Jeneson）在一份声明中表示。“当然，我们也考虑了石头的其他可能用途，比如建筑装饰特征，但我们没有找到其他解释。因此，这块石头确实是一个棋盘游戏（道具）。”
2015年，科学家们称在德国莱茵河畔一个古罗马定居点发现了棋盘游戏棋子，包括骰子。
Rules of mysterious ancient board game decoded by AI, scientists say
February 11, 2026 / 2:49 PM EST / CBS/AFP
A smooth, white stone dating from the Roman era and unearthed in the Netherlands has long baffled researchers. 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.
The circular piece of limestone has diagonal and straight lines cut into it.
Using 3D imaging created by the restoration studio Restaura, scientists discovered some lines were deeper than others, suggesting pieces were moved along them, some more than others.
“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 in the Netherlands who specializes in ancient games, in a statement. “The appearance of the stone combined with this wear strongly suggests it’s a game.”
Other researchers at Maastricht University then used an artificial intelligence program that can deduce the rules of ancient games.
They trained this AI, baptized Ludii, with the rules of about 100 ancient games from the same area as the Roman stone.
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,” Dennis Soemers, from Maastricht University, said in a statement.
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They then cross-checked the possible rules with the wear on the stone to uncover the most likely set of movements in the game.
However, Soemers also sounded a note of caution.
“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.
The aim of the “deceptively simple but thrilling strategy game” was to hunt and trap the opponent’s pieces in as few moves as possible, scientists said. Researchers said they believe glass, bone or earthenware were used as game pieces.
The research and the possible rules were published in the journal Antiquity, which posted a video on social media explaining the game.
NEW AI simulation helps calculate the rules of a previously unknown Roman board game, pushing evidence for the playing of blocking games in Europe back centuries!
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🆓 https://t.co/T4ZsS7zELF@PietteRic@DennisSoemerspic.twitter.com/tqjaUFJS2J
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— 🅰ntiquity Journal (@AntiquityJ) February 11, 2026
“We know the rules we found explain the wear marks on the stone and that they are consistent with games from comparable cultural periods,” Karen Jeneson, curator of The Roman Museum in Heerlen, said in a statement. “Of course we considered other possible uses for the stone, such as an architectural decorative feature, but we found no alternative explanation. So, the stone really is a board game.”
In 2015, scientists said they uncovered board game pieces, including dice, in an ancient Roman settlement in a German town located on the Rhine River.
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