A medieval bathhouse in Morocco has kept its secret for a thousand years
When archaeologists were investigating a medieval hammam in the Moroccan town of Walila, they discovered something unexpected right under their feet. A thousand years ago, someone had carved a game board into the step leading down to the cold-water pool. People would descend into the water — and could play a game on the way down.
This is a rare find: there are almost no medieval game boards in Morocco that can be accurately dated. This one can. The hammam was built in the late 8th or early 9th century and fell into disuse by the 10th–11th centuries. This means the board was in use at precisely that time.
The study has been published in the journal Libyan Studies.
Details
Walila is the Moroccan name for ancient Volubilis, a Roman city that later became one of the centres of the early medieval Islamic Idrisid state. A hammam is a public bathhouse, an integral part of urban life in the Islamic world. People came here not only to wash, but also to socialise, relax and pass the time.
The game board is carved into the top step of the entrance to the cold-water pool — in the most prominent spot, impossible to miss. It is small: 34 by 9.5 centimetres. Three rows of at least 13 small holes, carved directly into the stone.
A team led by Tim Penn from the University of Reading (UK) attempted to determine exactly what game was played here. The popular African game mancala was immediately ruled out: that requires deep holes to hold stones or seeds, whereas these are shallow. In terms of size, shape and layout, the board most closely resembles a playing surface for tab/sig — an ancient game that remains popular in the Middle East and North Africa. It is something of a cross between backgammon and draughts: pieces are moved across the board, knocking out the opponent’s pieces.
If this interpretation is correct, it is the oldest known evidence of tab/sig in North Africa — several centuries earlier than previously recorded. The authors themselves emphasise that this is a reasonable hypothesis, not a definitive conclusion.
Why this is important
Game boards were not uncommon in the medieval Islamic world. They were described by poets, mentioned in stories, and found at archaeological sites throughout Arabia and the Middle East. But in North Africa, and particularly in Morocco, there were almost no such finds with reliable dating. Most of the boards discovered were automatically attributed to the Roman era simply because it was impossible to determine their age more precisely.
This discovery changes the picture. It shows that board games were part of everyday life in a medieval Moroccan city — not a pastime for the elite, but a common occurrence for any visitor to the bathhouse. The board is carved into a step, in plain sight for all to see. Anyone could play.
It is a small but vivid detail from the lives of people about whom we know very little. Not conquests, not politics — simply a moment of relaxation by a cold pool a thousand years ago.
Background
Volubilis is one of the most famous Roman cities in North Africa and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. After the fall of Rome, the city did not fall into ruin: it became an important centre of the Idrisid state — Morocco’s first Islamic dynasty, which ruled in the 8th–10th centuries. It is to this period that the hammam with the discovered plaque belongs.
Islamic hammams were a social institution: a place not only for hygiene but also for social life. Board games fitted naturally into this way of life. Tab/sig, which the discovered board presumably depicts, is still played in various forms throughout the Arab world — one of the few games to have survived almost unchanged to the present day.
Source
Tim Penn et al., ‘Gaming in the Maghreb al-Aqsa: new evidence from Idrisid Walīla (Volubilis)’, Libyan Studies (2026).