Gaming in the Maghreb al-Aqsa: new evidence from Idrisid Walīla (Volubilis)

Boardgames appear frequently in early medieval Arabic literature, reflecting their embeddedness in everyday life and social discourse. Despite abundant textual and material evidence, the archaeology of games in Islamic contexts remains understudied, partly due to the scarcity of reliably-dated gameboards. This article addresses this gap by presenting a previously unpublished game board from the medieval hammam of Walīla (Roman Volubilis), Morocco. The bathhouse was built in the late eighth/ninth century CE and abandoned by the tenth or eleventh century CE, offering a rare secure context for the board’s date. The board’s design suggests it was used for playing tāb/sig , making it the earliest known evidence of this game in North Africa. This case study sheds light on how games intersected with communal life and public spaces in early medieval North Africa.