The Game of Knucklebones

  • aka scatter jackssnobsastragalustalidibsfivestonesjacks,
  •  game of dexterity played
  • small objects
  • thrown up, caught
  • derived from the Ancient Greek
  • uses the astragalus (a bone in the ankle, or hock) of a sheep.[
  • and the talus bone in the human

Knucklebones are believed to be an early precursor of dice

EB1911 Greek Art – Greek Drawing of Women Playing at Knucklebones
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Astragali used for gaming in Mongolia
Pastern bones of an animal, for games like Knucklebones / Jacks
Courtesy Sarah Joy from United Kingdom Wiki
Replica Roman astragali
Courtesy Roland zh
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Left talus, lateral surface
An orthostat depicting people playing knucklebones from Carchemish (c. 8th century BC)
Courtesy Dosseman
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Pieter Bruegel the Elder ? Children’s Games (detail) ? Knucklebones
M?ori children playing k?ruru (Gottfried Lindauer, 1907)
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o T?maki
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Children in Nepal playing astragaloi
Courtesy ? Eli Shany ??? ??? –
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Throwing of the Bones Sangoma Zulu Doctor Diviner
  • Sangomas believe
    • they are able to access advice and guidance
    • from ancestors
    • by throwing bones,
Sangoma performing a divination by reading the bones after being thrown
Mycelium101
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Scapulimancy
  • practice of divination by use of scapulae
  • two forms
    • “apyromantic”,
      • the scapula of an animal was simply examined after its slaughter.
      • practiced in
        •  Europe, Northern Africa and the Near East.
    •  “pyromantic
      • forms of divination
      • involving the heating or burning of the bone
      •  interpretation of the results,
      • as practiced in
        • East Asia and North America.
  • Oxen scapulae with inscriptions
Oxen scapulae with inscriptions
Oracle bones from Yinxu, Anyang, Henan, China. The piece on the left (Heji 37986) is from the Huáng ? diviner group from period V, which corresponds to the reigns of the last two kings of the Shang dynasty. It is inscribed with a complete table of the sexagenary cycle used to describe the dates of divinations.
Courtesy Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. Complete indexed photo collection at WorldHistoryPics.com.
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Piece of ox scapula with drilled divots
Shang-Zhou Gallery, Liaoning Museum, Shenyang. Complete indexed photo collection at www.WorldHistoryPics.com.
Courtesy Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D
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