History & Origins
Nine Men's Morris is one of the most widely travelled games in history, carried by soldiers, traders, and settlers across Europe, Asia, and beyond over more than three thousand years. Board cuttings — the distinctive pattern of three nested squares connected by lines — have been found scratched into the roofing slabs of the temple at Kurna in Egypt, dating to around 1400 BC. They appear on the steps of the Acropolis in Athens, in Roman military barracks from Britain to Syria, and on Viking longships.
The Romans called a version of the game ludus latrunculorum (game of soldiers) and it was enormously popular throughout the empire. As Roman legions built roads and forts across Europe, they carried the game with them — which is why Nine Men's Morris boards have been found at nearly every significant Roman archaeological site on the continent.
In medieval Europe the game flourished under the name Merels or Mill, and it was one of the most commonly played games in England, France, and Germany. Shakespeare mentions it in A Midsummer Night's Dream, where Titania complains that the "nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud" — referring to the outdoor boards cut into village greens that had been ruined by unusually wet weather. This casual reference tells us how thoroughly the game had become part of ordinary English life by the late 16th century.
Cultural Significance
What makes Nine Men's Morris historically remarkable is the sheer universality of its evidence. Unlike games that flourished in one civilisation and faded, the Morris board appears wherever people gathered — in temples, barracks, ships, churches, and taverns. Boards have been found carved into the cloisters of English cathedrals, including Canterbury and Salisbury, suggesting that even monks played the game during their leisure hours (or, possibly, during services).
The game also has a significant footprint in African and Asian cultures. Variants are played across sub-Saharan Africa, and a version called Shax is considered a national game of Somalia. In Sri Lanka, a variant called Navakeliya has been played for centuries. The Morris family of games may be the most geographically widespread board game tradition in history.
In Germany the game is called Mühle (Mill) and remains actively played as a competitive game today, with national and international tournaments. It is one of the very few ancient games to have maintained a living competitive tradition into the 21st century.
The Board and the Game
The board consists of three concentric squares, with lines connecting the midpoints of each square's sides, creating 24 intersection points where pieces can be placed. The geometry is immediately recognisable and has been described as one of the most elegant board designs ever created — simple enough to scratch in the dirt, visually striking enough to carve in marble.
The game proceeds in two phases. In the first phase, players take turns placing their nine pieces on empty points. In the second, they slide pieces along the lines to adjacent points. The key objective throughout is to form a mill — three of your own pieces in a row along any of the board's lines. Every time you form a mill, you remove one of your opponent's pieces from the board. The player reduced to fewer than three pieces, or who cannot move, loses.
The interplay between placing, forming mills, and breaking up the opponent's formations gives the game a distinctive tactical rhythm unlike any other ancient game.
Why It Endures
Nine Men's Morris occupies a satisfying middle ground between noughts-and-crosses (too simple) and chess (too complex for a casual game). It can be learned in five minutes but rewards genuine strategic thinking — particularly the ability to set up double threats that force the opponent to choose which mill to block. The fact that it can be played on any flat surface with pebbles or coins means it has never required wealth or literacy to enjoy. In this sense it is perhaps the most democratic game in history.