Medieval Bread Paddle Found in Russia Doubled as a Game Board
Archaeologists in the Russian town of Staraya Russa found an 11th-century oak bread shovel with a game board carved into its back.
Archaeologists digging in an old Russian town have found a wooden tool that did two jobs at once. One side was flat, for sliding bread into a hot oven. The other side had a board game carved into it.
A shovel with three squares on its back
The find came from the archaeological site of Pyatnitsky, in the centre of Staraya Russa, a medieval town that sits between Moscow and St. Petersburg. What survives is only a fragment of a much larger tool. The preserved portion measures about 12 by 16 inches (30 by 40 centimetres), and it was probably made from oak.
Sergey Toropov, director of Novgorod State University's Center for Archaeological Research, described the object in a translated statement. "We discovered a fragment of a fairly large shovel," he said. "Most likely, it was a bread shovel, which was used to bake bread in an oven. On the reverse side, however, three squares have been carved, one inside the other."
Bread shovels of this kind are still in use. Home bakers call them bread peels, pizza paddles or pizza peels. The flat face slides under a loaf or a flatbread, and the long handle keeps hands away from the heat of the oven.
A game with a long list of names
The carved squares belong to a game known by many names: merels, merrelles, mills, nine-men's morris or cowboy checkers. Nobody knows where it began. Historical records and archaeological finds show that a similar two-person thinking game was played by the ancient Romans two thousand years ago, and it may be older still. During the Middle Ages it became especially popular across Europe and Asia, possibly because it needs almost no equipment and can be set up in seconds.
Nine pieces each, and a rule about lines
A standard board is made of three squares, one inside the next, joined by lines that run across and down. Each player gets nine pieces of one colour. The aim is to line up three pieces in a row along one of those lines. Whenever a player completes a line, they may take one of the opponent's pieces off the board. That makes the game a mixture of tic-tac-toe and checkers. A player wins when the opponent has only two pieces left.
Something to do while the bread bakes
Baking in a medieval oven was not a quick job. Someone had to stay near the oven and wait. The researchers suggest the owner of the paddle may have used the carved side to pass the time while the food cooked. The game faces away from the bread, so it did not get in the way of the work. A tool for feeding a household became, on its other face, a small entertainment for two people.