a person with a yellow-gloved hand touches a waterlogged rectangle of wood that has three concentric squares carved into it

11th-Century Bread Peel Discovered With Ancient Board Game Carved on Back

October 20, 2026 Dr. Michael Lee – Health Editor Health

Staraya Russa Archaeological Excavations Unearth Medieval Game Board

Archaeologists working in the medieval Russian town of Staraya Russa have discovered an 11th-century wooden baking paddle featuring a hand-carved board game on its reverse side. Measuring approximately 12 by 16 inches and crafted from oak, the preserved artifact functioned as a bread shovel.

    Key Takeaways:

  • Excavators at the Pyatnitsky archaeological site found the oak baking tool, dating back to the medieval era between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
  • The reverse side of the 12-by-16-inch paddle features three nested squares carved for the ancient logic game merels.
  • Researchers note that while similar games date back to ancient Rome, discovering a preserved wooden board of this age from the kingdom of the Rus’ remains practically unique.

Excavation Details from the Pyatnitsky Site

The discovery emerged in the center of Staraya Russa, a medieval town situated between Moscow and St. Petersburg, where researchers also recently reported uncovering a snake amulet. Sergey Toropov, director of Novgorod State University’s Center for Archaeological Research, described the find in a translated statement. We discovered a fragment of a fairly large shovel, Toropov stated. 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.

The artifact is commonly known as a bread peel, pizza paddle, or pizza peel. While one flat side was likely for baking, the reverse side displayed a playing board for merels—also referred to as nine-men’s morris, mills, merrelles, or cowboy checkers. Historical records indicate that a similar two-person logic game was played by ancient Romans two millennia ago, and the pastime may be even older.

Cathedral of the resurrection of christ in the ancient russian city of staraya russa

Rules and History of the Game Merels

During the Middle Ages, merels gained widespread popularity across Europe and Asia, largely because the game required little equipment and could be set up quickly. A standard merels board consists of three nested squares connected by vertical and horizontal lines. Each participant receives nine pieces of a matching color, with the objective of arranging the pieces into columns of three along the lines.

Completing a line grants a player the ability to remove any one of an opponent’s pieces from the board. The mechanics blend elements of tic-tac-toe and checkers. A match concludes in victory when an opposing player is reduced to only two pieces or becomes completely blocked.

Medieval baker bread peel wood oven oval drawing

Researchers Debate the Use of the Wooden Implement

Researchers remain uncertain whether the wooden implement served two functions or if it was repurposed as a game board after it broke and was no longer useful. At any moment, one could mark out a board on a flat surface, find suitable pieces — for example, small stones lying underfoot, and while away some time, Toropov noted. Toropov added that while special boards for merels existed in antiquity, playing boards were more often scratched or carved directly into the flat surfaces of household objects.

Merel boards and playing pieces previously appeared at ninth-century archaeological sites associated with the kingdom of the Rus’, whose ancestors were Vikings arriving in what is now Russia during the eighth century. Despite these prior finds, researchers emphasize that a wooden artifact as well-preserved as the specimen from Staraya Russa is practically unique.

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