20 October 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Archaeologists discover medieval a tableman gaming piece in Bedfordshire, England

Archaeologists in Bedfordshire, England, have made an intriguing discovery: a tableman gaming piece was discovered at a medieval site.

Cotswold Archaeology excavated in preparation for a Taylor Wimpey housing development at Bidwell West, near Houghton Regis and Dunstable.

In addition to the tableman, the archaeological team discovered a medieval timber-framed building and a series of medieval enclosure ditches.

The gaming piece, which has a diameter of nearly 6cm, is made from a cattle mandible – a large, sturdy bone, which serves as the lower jawbone of a cow, according to a press release. Its face has been decorated with concentric circles and a ring-and-dot design, which is attractive although not unusual.

Tablemen were used to play a variety of board games in which two players rolled dice and moved their pieces across rows of markings. The term ‘tables’ is derived from the Latin tabula, which originally meant “board” or “plank” and was introduced to Britain during the Roman period.



📣 Our WhatsApp channel is now LIVE! Stay up-to-date with the latest news and updates, just click here to follow us on WhatsApp and never miss a thing!!



Photo: Cotswold Archaeology
Photo: Cotswold Archaeology

One of the more popular table games among the Romans was Ludus duodecim scriptorium. It was a dice game with three cubic dice, and each player had 15 pieces to move. The game of tabula was most likely refined from Ludus duodecim scriptorium, and it grew in popularity during the medieval period. Tabula, like Backgammon, has two rows of twenty-four points.

The tableman found at Bidwell West has a diameter of nearly 6cm (2.36 in) and similar examples in both size and decoration style have been recovered at other sites, including an example from Winchester, Hampshire which was made in the medieval period (11th-13th centuries).

As Cotswolds Archeology also wrote in its description:: “It is not always possible to identify which game the gaming pieces recovered from archaeological excavations would have belonged to, because there is often no surviving board.

However, due to the association with the medieval site, the style of decoration, and the size, it is likely that the gaming piece was used to play tabula during the medieval period.

Cotswold Archaeology

Cover Photo: Cotswold Archaeology

Related Articles

Turkish researchers use Artificial Intelligence to read cuneatic Hittite tablets

9 January 2023

9 January 2023

Thanks to a project implemented in Türkiye, 1,954 ancient Hittite tablets are being read for the first time using artificial...

3 Bronze Shields and Helmet of 2700 Years Old Belonging to Urartians Found in Ayanis Castle

8 September 2024

8 September 2024

Three bronze shields and a bronze helmet dedicated to Haldi, the chief god of the Urartians, were discovered during excavations...

New research reveals that Baltic amber was transported to the most westerly region of the continent more than 5,000 years ago

21 October 2023

21 October 2023

A team of scientists has identified the oldest pieces of Baltic amber ever found on the Iberian Peninsula, revealing that...

Archaeologists have discovered a treasure trove of sixth-century coins in ancient Phanagoria in Russia

27 July 2021

27 July 2021

Archaeologists have discovered 80 coins known as Copper staters dating back to the sixth century at Phanagoria on the Black...

Oldest known arrowheads uncovered in the Americas

24 December 2022

24 December 2022

Archaeologists from Oregon State University have discovered projectile points in Idaho that are thousands of years older than any that...

2,400-year-old unearthed flush toilet in China

18 February 2023

18 February 2023

According to a China Daily report, the lower parts of a flush toilet estimated to be 2,400 years old have...

Archaeologists Uncover a 2,500-Year-Old Monumental Solstice Sanctuary in Spain

24 September 2025

24 September 2025

In the hills near the Andalusian town of Jódar, Spain, archaeologists have uncovered a monumental solstice sanctuary where the sun...

Royal-Memorial Inscription Attributed to King Sargon II Discovered in Western Iran

25 April 2021

25 April 2021

In western Iran, Iranian archaeologists discovered a part of a royal memorial inscription attributed to the Neo-Assyrian king Sargon II....

The Oldest Semicircular Classroom in the Greek World Unearthed in Sicily

21 April 2025

21 April 2025

In a remarkable archaeological breakthrough in southern Sicily, an international team of researchers has uncovered an extraordinary ancient classroom that...

Two more Giants discovered at Mont’e Prama in Sardinia, Italy

7 May 2022

7 May 2022

Two more Giants have emerged from the Mont’e Prama excavations in Sardinia: both of the new statues have been described...

“Nikasitimos Was Here Mounting Timiona,” 2,500-year-old erotic graffiti on Astypalaia, Greece

7 April 2024

7 April 2024

In 2014, an archaeologist working on Astypalaia, a remote Greek island of the Dodecanese discovered one of the world’s oldest...

2100-year-old women skeleton found lying in bronze ‘Mermaid Bed’

4 June 2022

4 June 2022

Archaeologists have discovered the 2100-year-old skeleton of a woman lying in a bronze ‘Mermaid Bed’ near the city of Kozani...

An 1800-year-old geometric patterned mosaic was discovered in Turkey’s ancient city of Bergama

17 June 2022

17 June 2022

During excavations surrounding the Red Basilica at Pergamon, an ancient city in western Turkey that is a UNESCO World Heritage...

Ancient Footprints Offer Evidence Humans Wore Shoes 148,000 Years Ago

12 September 2023

12 September 2023

A new analysis of ancient footprints in South Africa suggests that the humans who made these tracks might have been...

Rare textiles and dwellings discovered in the submerged Neolithic settlement near Rome

6 June 2023

6 June 2023

Underwater archaeologists have discovered rare, well-preserved textiles, basketry, and cordage from the early Neolithic period in an area near Rome,...