Rock Around the Clock! How Archaeologists Solved a 2,000-Year-Old Board Game Mystery

What do you do when a mysterious ancient rock is discovered covered with criss-crossing scratches, and nobody knows what those scratches mean? Your move, archaeologists! In this episode about archaeology, ancient history, and artificial intelligence, Mindy and Guy take you on a wild adventure to solve a 2,000-year-old mystery! Listen and discover how researchers combined archaeology, 3-D scanning, artificial intelligence, and game design to figure out whether or not a strange piece of limestone was actually an ancient Roman board game! This adventure is packed with hilarious hijinks, big discoveries, and a scientific mystery that took more than forty years to solve. By connecting laughter to learning, this archaeology episode shows how modern technology can help us uncover the secrets of how people lived—and played—thousands of years ago.

While cleaning out Thomas Fingerling's attic, the WOW crew discovers an old board game that reminds Mindy of a fascinating archaeological discovery! They put their attic-cleaning on hold, and travel back in time to the ancient Roman town of Coriovallum, in present-day Netherlands, where archaeologists uncovered something of their own. And for more than forty years, researchers examined the strange stone they found and debated what those scratches could mean!

In this episode, kids and families will discover how archaeologists use clues to reconstruct the past, how 3-D scanning can reveal details invisible to the naked eye, and how artificial intelligence can help researchers test possibilities that would be impossible to explore by hand. They’ll also learn about the incredible variety of games people played thousands of years ago—and how a mystery with no surviving rule book can still be investigated using science, technology, and a whole lot of detective work.

Get ready for a whirlwind adventure through dusty attics, ancient Roman ruins, mysterious scratches, clever computers, and games from thousands of years ago. Mindy and Guy show how scientists can combine different kinds of knowledge to solve puzzles that have baffled people for decades. This is the Who, What, When, Where, Why, How, and WOW in the World of ancient board games, archaeology, and artificial intelligence, brought to life with humor, curiosity, and a whole lot of WOW!

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This episode of Wow in the World is a perfect blend of storytelling, archaeology, history, and technology, inviting kids and families to uncover a 2,000-year-old mystery while laughing, learning, and wowing together.

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