In this intricately detailed 6-inch-tall clay model dating to the late fourth century B.C.E., two young women crouch down to play knucklebones (Greek, astragaloi), a game of chance in which the oddly shaped knucklebones of sheep or goats were thrown to reveal one’s fate. The elegantly dressed woman on the right sets out her hand to cast the first throw, while the woman on the left, whose striking red hair is still preserved, waits patiently for her turn, her left hand clutching the knucklebones she will play next. In the Greco-Roman world, young, unmarried women played knucklebones to divine their romantic fortunes, with a perfect cast (one where all the bones landed on different sides) being called an “Aphrodite throw.”
But there were myriad variations of knucklebones played by other segments of Greco-Roman society. Among men, knucklebones were used for a gambling game in which each player cast the bones nearly three dozen times, with each “roll” of the bones given a certain value determined by the different faces upon which the bones landed. Children, on the other hand, simply tossed the pieces into the air and tried to catch as many of the bones as possible before they hit the ground, in a game similar to the modern game of jacks.
In this intricately detailed 6-inch-tall clay model dating to the late fourth century B.C.E., two young women crouch down to play knucklebones (Greek, astragaloi), a game of chance in which the oddly shaped knucklebones of sheep or goats were thrown to reveal one’s fate. The elegantly dressed woman on the right sets out her hand to cast the first throw, while the woman on the left, whose striking red hair is still preserved, waits patiently for her turn, her left hand clutching the knucklebones she will play next. In the Greco-Roman world, young, unmarried women played knucklebones to divine […]
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