Hounds and jackals

Last updated

Hounds and jackals board, ivory, found at Thebes, 12th Dynasty Game of Hounds and Jackals MET DP264105.jpg
Hounds and jackals board, ivory, found at Thebes, 12th Dynasty

Hounds and jackals or dogs and jackals is the modern name given to an ancient Egyptian tables game that is known from several examples of gaming boards and gaming pieces found in excavations. The modern name was invented by Howard Carter, who found one complete gaming set in a Theban tomb from the reign of ancient Egyptian pharaoh Amenemhat IV that dates to the 12th Dynasty. [1] [2] The latter game set is one of the best preserved examples and is today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. [3] He called it "Hounds contra Jackals". Another, less often used modern name is "fifty-eight holes". [4]

Contents

The gaming board has two sets of 29 holes. Gaming pieces are ten small sticks with either jackal or dog heads. The game appeared in Egypt, around 2000 BC and was mainly popular in the Middle Kingdom. [4] In the 1956 movie The Ten Commandments, Pharaoh Seti (Cedric Hardwicke) and Nefretiri (Anne Baxter) are shown playing the game. [5] [6]

History

Hounds and jackals game set. Hounds and jackals game set-N 3043-IMG 0303-gradient.jpg
Hounds and jackals game set.

Hounds and jackals, also known as 58 holes, is a well-known Bronze Age board game which was invented in Ancient Egypt 4,000 years ago. [7] [8] [9] [10] It is possible, given the present evidence from Anatolia and the Caucasus, that this game may not have originated in Egypt after all. This has been suggested in the past, but now there is more evidence for the early popularity of this game far from Egypt. [11] [12]

William Mathew Flinders Petrie initially discovered the game and published about it in 1890. More than 60 examples of the game have been revealed in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, Syria, Iran, Azerbaijan, around the Levant and Mediterranean since that time. [13] [14]

A 2013 study of 68 boards from across the Near East suggests that the game was transmitted via trade relations from Egypt to Central Anatolia around 1950 BC, and was later transmitted via trade from there to Mesopotamia. By contrast, the game was transmitted via conquest to Nubia around 1980 BC, and by trade and/or conquest to the Levant at an as-yet-unknown date. [10]

Sticks were made of expensive materials such as ivory, silver and gold based on the findings at some of the archaeological sites. Wood was also used in the preparation of ordinary pegs, but such examples would not have survived. [13] [15]

The complete set of this Egyptian game discovered in 1910 by the British archaeologist Howard Carter is now displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. [2] [1]

Name

The original name of this game is unknown. Different archaeologists use different names.

The game was named “Hounds and jackals” by Carter because of the decorative shapes of the pegs – one player's pins were carved in the form of hounds, while the opposite player's pins were carved as jackals.

The game was called 58 Holes by William Mathew Flinders Petrie because the game board features 58 holes (29 for each side). [14]

"Shen" is the less common name for this game; it was inscribed in Egyptian hieroglyphs around the big hole on some of the boards found. [14]

The game is also called the “Palm tree game” as some of the holes were replaced by tree figures. [1]

Rules

The game is played with two players. The gaming board has two sets of 29 holes. Gaming pieces are ten small sticks with either jackal or dog heads. [2] One player takes five jackal heads, and the other player takes five dog heads. [16] The aim of the game was perhaps to start at one point on the board and to reach with all figures another point on the board. The hole on the top of the board is slightly bigger than others and accepted as the endpoint for the players. [15]

Diffusion

This game is also known from Mesopotamia and the Caucasus. [17]

The game was spread to Mesopotamia in the late 3rd millennium BC and was popular until the 1st millennium BC. The game spread into Assyria, Israel, Anatolia, Babylon and Persia.

During the archaeological excavations, boards were found from remains of Assyrian merchant colonies in Central Anatolia dated 19th-18th centuries B.C. There are options that these boards were brought to Anatolia from Mesopotamia by Assyrian traders, or through the connection between Cappadocia and Egypt. [18]

However, the game was popular in the Mediterranean and surrounding areas, where it preserved its general shape and rules wherever it was played. [7]

More than 68 gameboards of hounds and jackals have been discovered in the archaeological excavations in various territories, including Syria (Tell Ajlun, Ras el-Ain, Khafaje), Israel (Tel Beth Shean, Gezer), Iraq (Uruk, Nippur, Ur, Nineveh, Ashur, Babylon), Iran (Tappeh Sialk, Susa, Luristan), Turkey (Karalhuyuk, Kultepe, Acemhuyuk), Azerbaijan (Gobustan) and Egypt (Buhen, El-Lahun, Sedment). [18] [7]

Other animals (horses, cats, or sparrowhawks) have been found on the top of the pegs, in addition to dogs and jackals, but no such pieces have been found in the Near East where this game was played from the beginning of the second millennium till the middle of the first millennium. [19] Tokens made of ivory with a notch at the top found at Megiddo have been linked to board games. In this site, pins made of ivory with a top as a dog or jackal head were also revealed. Undecorated sticks were found at Ur. [19]

One of the examples of hounds and jackals was discovered in Necropolis B at Tepe Sialk in Iran. [20]

In April 2018, archaeologist Walter Crist from the American Museum of Natural History discovered the examples of 58 holes in Gobustan, Azerbaijan. After examining the rock shelters having complicated dot patterns carved on them, he includes this one of the samples of Hounds and Jackals. In his speech at the annual meeting of American Schools of Oriental Research in November, Crist linked this close relation as: “Bronze Age herders in that region must have had contacts with the Near Eastern world. Ancient games often passed across cultures and acted as a social lubricant.” [21] [17] [22] [23] [24]

Similarity with other board games

Hounds and jackals has similar characteristics with other ancient board games. Hounds and Jackals, Twenty Squares or Royal Game of Ur and Senet are similar; all are race games for two players. Compared to Senet, both have been found in Egyptian tombs and dated to the third millennium BC, also sticks were used in them. [25]

Twenty squares was widely spread to other territories such as Israel, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria and Cyprus as hounds and jackals games. As well as gaming rules are alike: the one who reaches the endpoint wins the game as it is in Hounds and Jackals. Dice, stones or other pieces are also used in this game to determine who should start first. [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Board game</span> Genre of seated tabletop social play

Board games are tabletop games that typically use pieces. These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked game board and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bronze Age</span> Historical period (c. 3300–1200 BC)

The Bronze Age was a historical period lasting from approximately 3300 to 1200 BC. It was characterized by the use of bronze, the use of writing in some areas, and other features of early urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of the three-age system, between the Stone and Iron Ages. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neolithic</span> Archaeological period, last part of the Stone Age

The Neolithic or New Stone Age is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Europe, Asia, Mesopotamia and Africa. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts of the world. This "Neolithic package" included the introduction of farming, domestication of animals, and change from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of settlement. The term 'Neolithic' was coined by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hurrians</span> Historical ethnic group of Southwest Asia

The Hurrians were a people who inhabited the Ancient Near East during the Bronze Age. They spoke the Hurrian language, and lived throughout northern Syria, upper Mesopotamia and southeastern Anatolia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tables game</span> Class of board game

Tables games are a class of board game that includes backgammon and which are played on a tables board, typically with two rows of 12 vertical markings called points. Players roll dice to determine the movement of pieces. Tables games are among the oldest known board games, and many different varieties are played throughout the world. They are called 'tables' games because the boards consist of four quadrants or 'tables'. The vast majority are race games, the tables board representing a linear race track with start and finish points, the aim being to be first to the finish line, but the characteristic features that distinguish tables games from other race games are that they are two-player games using a large number of pieces, usually fifteen per player.

<i>Senet</i> Ancient Egyptian board game

Senet or senat is a board game from ancient Egypt that consists of ten or more pawns on a 30-square playing board. The earliest representation of senet is dated to c. 2620 BCE from the Mastaba of Hesy-Re, while similar boards and hieroglyphic signs are found even earlier, including in the Levant in the Early Bronze Age II period. Even though the game has a 2,000-year history in Egypt, there appears to be very little variation in terms of key components. This can be determined by studying the various senet boards that have been found by archaeologists, as well as depictions of senet being played throughout Egyptian history on places like tomb walls and papyrus scrolls. However, the game fell out of use following the Roman period, and its original rules are the subject of conjecture.

<i>Mehen</i> (game) Ancient Egyptian board game

Mehen is a board game which was played in ancient Egypt. The game was named in reference to Mehen, a snake deity in ancient Egyptian religion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Game of Ur</span> Ancient Mesopotamian board game

The Royal Game of Ur is a two-player strategy race board game of the tables family that was first played in ancient Mesopotamia during the early third millennium BC. The game was popular across the Middle East among people of all social strata, and boards for playing it have been found at locations as far away from Mesopotamia as Crete and Sri Lanka. One board, held by the British Museum, is dated to c. 2600 – c. 2400 BC, making it one of the oldest game boards in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maykop culture</span> Bronze Age civilization in the Caucasus (c. 3700–3000 BC)

The Maykop culture, c. 3700 BC–3000 BC, is a major Bronze Age archaeological culture in the western Caucasus region.

The ancient Egyptian Game piece (hieroglyph), also a Token, or the general term for any gaming-gambling piece, Draughtsman is an ancient hieroglyph. Gaming pieces were certainly required in predynastic times, as the cultural creation of games and entertainment has a long history in most cultures. An ivory-piece lion is known from the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt; the set contains three lions, and three dog tokens of ivory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of games</span>

The history of games dates to the ancient human past. Games are an integral part of all cultures and are one of the oldest forms of human social interaction. Games are formalized expressions of play which allow people to go beyond immediate imagination and direct physical activity. Common features of games include uncertainty of outcome, agreed upon rules, competition, separate place and time, elements of fiction, elements of chance, prescribed goals and personal enjoyment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient Near East</span> Home of many cradles of civilization

The ancient Near East was home to many cradles of civilization, spanning Mesopotamia, Egypt, Iran, Anatolia and the Armenian Highlands, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula. As such, the fields of ancient Near East studies and Near Eastern archaeology are one of the most prominent with regard to research in the realm of ancient history. Historically, the Near East denoted an area roughly encompassing the centre of West Asia, having been focused on the lands between Greece and Egypt in the west and Iran in the east. It therefore largely corresponds with the modern-day geopolitical concept of the Middle East.

Archeological sites in Azerbaijan first gained public interest in the mid-19th century and were reported by European travellers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chronology of the ancient Near East</span>

The chronology of the ancient Near East is a framework of dates for various events, rulers and dynasties. Historical inscriptions and texts customarily record events in terms of a succession of officials or rulers: "in the year X of king Y". Comparing many records pieces together a relative chronology relating dates in cities over a wide area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leyla-Tepe culture</span>

The Leyla-Tepe culture of the South Caucasus belongs to the Chalcolithic era. It got its name from the site in the Agdam District of modern-day Azerbaijan. Its settlements were distributed on the southern slopes of Central Caucasus, from 3800 until 3200 B.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples</span> Residents of the ancient Near East until the end of antiquity

Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples or Proto-Semitic people were speakers of Semitic languages who lived throughout the ancient Near East and North Africa, including the Levant, Mesopotamia, the Arabian Peninsula and Carthage from the 3rd millennium BC until the end of antiquity, with some, such as Arabs, Arameans, Assyrians, Jews, Mandaeans, and Samaritans having a continuum into the present day.

This page lists major archaeological events of 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Konya-Karaman Plain</span> Turkish plain

The Konya-Karaman Plain is a plain in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey, associated with the Konya and Karaman Provinces. It is a flat plain that covers the majority of Konya Basin and constitutes the main part of the Central Anatolian Plateau.

The archaeology of Greece includes artificial remains, geographical landscapes, architectural remains, and biofacts. The history of Greece as a country and region is believed to have begun roughly 1–2 million years ago when Homo erectus first colonized Europe. From the first colonization, Greek history follows a sequential pattern of development alike to the rest of Europe. Neolithic, Bronze, Iron and Classical Greece are highlights of the Greek archaeological record, with an array of archaeological finds relevant to these periods.

Bronze Age in Azerbaijan began in the second half of the 4th millennium BC and ended in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 7-6th centuries BC. The Bronze Age in the territory of today's Azerbaijan is divided into the early Bronze Age, the middle Bronze Age and the late Bronze Age. Bronze Age was studied in Nakhchivan, Ganja, Dashkasan, Mingachevir, Gobustan, Qazakh and Karabakh.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "4,000-Year-Old Board Game Called 58 Holes Discovered in Azerbaijan". Mysterious Universe. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 Metcalfe, Tom (10 December 2018). "16 of the Most Interesting Ancient Board and Dice Games". Live Science. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  3. Hayes, William C. (1953). The Scepter of Egypt, I. From the Earliest Times to the End of the Middle Kingdom. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 250, fig. 160. ISBN   0-87099-190-6.
  4. 1 2 Dunn-Vaturi, Anne Elizabeth (2015). "Game of Hounds and Jackals". In Oppenheim, Adela; Arnold, Dorothea; Arnold, Dieter; Yamamoto, Kei (eds.). Ancient Egypt Transformed, The Middle Kingdom. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 249, no. 188. ISBN   978-1-58839-564-1.
  5. "Hounds and Jackals". Ancient Egyptian Games. 4 July 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  6. "Strange markings etched into floor of Bronze Age shelter was a 4,000-year-old board game". ABC News. 14 December 2018. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  7. 1 2 3 Hirst, K. Kris. "What? Snakes and Ladders is 4,000 Years Old?". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  8. "Hounds and Jackals - Ancient Egyptian Game of the Pharaohs". www.mastersofgames.com. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  9. "A 4,000-Year-Old Bronze Age Game Called 58 Holes Has Been Discovered In Azerbaijan Rock Shelter". WSBuzz.com. 18 November 2018. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  10. 1 2 Alex de Voogt; Anne-Elizabeth Dunn-Vaturi; Jelmer W. Eerkens (April 2014). "Cultural Transmission in the Ancient Near East: Twenty Squares and Fifty-Eight holes". Journal of Archaeological Science. 40 (4): 1715–1730. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2012.11.008.
  11. Crist, Walter; Abdullayev, Rahman (31 May 2024). "Herding with the Hounds: The Game of Fifty-eight Holes in the Abşeron Peninsula". European Journal of Archaeology: 1–20. doi: 10.1017/eaa.2024.24 . ISSN   1461-9571.
  12. Dunn-Vaturi 2015, p. 86.
  13. 1 2 Mihai Andrei (28 November 2018). "Archaeologists discover 4,000 year-old-game in rock shelter. It's called "58 Holes"". ZME Science. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  14. 1 2 3 Tatas (24 July 2024). "Hounds and Jackals". Ancient Games - Playing the Board Games of the Ancient World. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  15. 1 2 Metcalfe, Tom (10 December 2018). "4,000-Year-Old Game Board Carved into the Earth Shows How Nomads Had Fun". Live Science. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  16. ">Ancient Games: Dogs and Jackals". www.gamecabinet.com. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  17. 1 2 Bower, Bruce (17 December 2018). "A Bronze Age game called 58 holes was found chiseled into stone in Azerbaijan". Science News. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  18. 1 2 3 De Voogt, Alex; Dunn-Vaturi, Anne-Elizabeth; Eerkens, Jelmer W. (2012). "Cultural Transmission in the Ancient Near East: twenty squares and fifty-eight holes". Journal of Archaeological Science. 40 (4): 1715–1730. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2012.11.008.
  19. 1 2 ""The Monkey Race" – Remarks on Board Games Accessories" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  20. Board game, the so-called "game of 58 holes" , retrieved 22 December 2018
  21. "A 4,000-Year-Old Bronze Age Game Called 58 Holes Has Been Discovered In Azerbaijan Rock Shelter". The Inquisitr. 17 November 2018. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  22. Mihai Andrei (28 November 2018). "Archaeologists discover 4,000 year-old-game in rock shelter. It's called "58 Holes"". ZME Science. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  23. "4,000-Year-Old Board Game Called 58 Holes Discovered in Azerbaijan". Mysterious Universe. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  24. "A 4,000-Year-Old Bronze Age Game Called 58 Holes Has Been Discovered In Azerbaijan Rock Shelter". WSBuzz.com. 18 November 2018. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  25. "Ancient Egyptian Game of Senet". Discovering Ancient Egypt. Retrieved 22 December 2018.