Nine Men's Morris Game

My family and I are gamers, and I love classic games like Chess, Go, Backgammon and Nine Men's Morris, so at the very beginning of my trip when I was visiting Jedburgh Abbey in Scotland and I saw an archaeological exhibition of a Nine Men's Morris game found at the site, I took a picture of it just for my own self  .  .  .

And then, I saw another Nine Men's Morris board at the home of Sir Isaac Newton in Woolsthorpe - not original, of course, but there it was in the living room!

The day after my arrival in London I went to a math lecture on Turing and von Neumann at the Museum of London, and I saw another Nine Men's Morris Board that had been excavated from early times in London.  I am shocked as I go through my pictures tonight to see I didn't take a photograph of it, but in it's place I'll post this picture from that museum of dice from centuries ago in London - just to illustrate how games have always played an important role in human culture.

Then yesterday I was at Hampton Court Palace, and in the Great Waiting Chamber from the Tudor Era, what did I see but another Nine Men's Morris game in the midst of this glorious splendour!

And then today I was in the Tower of London, and there was Nine Men's Morris again in the room set up as a replica of that of Kind Edward I.

There is no real relationship here to the math history I'm studying for my sabbatical and this game, BUT when parents of young children ask me (as happens so often!) what they can best do to help their kids be ready to be solid in mathematics, I always encourage them to play strategy games with their kids.  Such games are all about problem-solving and creative thinking, which is so necessary in mathematics - and by "mathematics" I don't mean merely arithmetic and number crunching - I mean solution and proof and Mathematics.

It's also the case that I choose a different strategy game every semester for my math tutor training sessions - a game that I ask the tutors to focus on all semester to see if they can find any mathematical principles relating to it that could ensure a win for them every time or at least an advantage. It's a way of getting them to stretch their "mathematical muscles" outside the classroom and more flexibly, in broader context.  Nine Men's Morris may need to be my next game pick for tutor training.

Anyway, Nine Men's Morris keeps popping up everywhere I look, so it gets a post.  Now I'm eager to pull out my Nine Men's Morris board when I get home so that I can play it again.  It's been a long time, but it's clearly a classic that I need to revisit!!

LATER ADDITION:

And yet another one!  This time it isn't in a museum but in a game store in Heidelberg, Germany.

And yet again another one!  This one was in my stop after Heidelberg - Gottingen, Germany!

AND EIGHT YEARS LATER (May 2024) 

I continue tracking down historic mathematicians and keeping an eye out for classic games as I do. While staying at a B&B in Venice I came across a book: 111 Places in Venice that You Must Not Miss. In it was a page on two Nine Men's Morris carvings to be found in the city, and so off I went to hunt for them.

Despite the information in the book, they were not easy to find, but the hunt was fun and worthwhile. The first one is carved into a bench just to the left of the entrance of Scuola Grande di San Rocco. The trouble with it being on a bench is that people sit on benches. Thankfully, the carving was peeking out to the side of someone's behind - yes, I was a little less observant than I usually am of personal space, and I just pointed to it and asked graciously if they would move so I could get a picture. (I will do almost anything in search of "games in the wild.")

It's just to the left of the lady with the pink purse. The guy sitting on the left with the phone had been sitting partly on the gameboard and kindly moved for me. It was clear from our conversation that someone else had asked him to move earlier, so, obviously, I am not the only "game hunter" out there.

This one at least had pretty specific directions in the book but for the second one, all I knew was that it was on the first floor (European "first floor" = American "second floor") of a shopping center: Fondaco dei Tedeschi. That's a pretty big area, so this one was quite a search, but I persevered and found it behind a display of clothing. I'm sure the store owner was amused (not). Either way, it made me very happy!

Pushing my way through this little display of clothes, I found:

It looks like this is two games in one. I'll update this when I recall the other game I have in mind. I want to say "Fox and Geese," but I don't think that's it:

Watch for further updates - with further travels may come further discoveries!