This week’s mystery object is a Nine Men’s Morris game board, a cool cross between checkers and tic-tac-toe. The board consists of a grid with twenty-four intersections. Each player has nine pieces or “men”. A player tries to line up three of his own men horizontally or vertically; when this is successfully done the player can remove one of his opponent’s men from the board. A player wins by reducing his opponent to two pieces or by leaving him unable to move.
Nine Men’s Morris has been played for over 2,000 years. This particular board dates from the 1700s.
