The jackal and the hounds game

Reign: reign of Amenemhat IV. Date: ca. Medium: Ebony, ivory. Dimensions: Board: H. Bottom Credit Line: Purchase, Edward S. Harkness Gift, Accession Number: Visiting The Met? Browse the Collection. Game of Hounds and Jackals ca. Middle Kingdom. Public Domain. Open Access. Hound game piece. Jackal game piece.

Carnarvon Collection purchased by the Museum from Lady Carnarvon, Bottom of gameboard remained in the Carnarvon family until given to the Museum by the 8th Earl of Carnarvon, Carnarvon, 5th Earl of and Howard Carter Five Years' Explorations at Thebes: a record of work done — London: Oxford University Press, pp.

At the head of each piece, the head of a hound or a jackal was sculpted into the wood. The holes marked with the nefer hieroglyphs connoting good were believed to lead to promising outcomes.

More often than not, the board and its accompanying pieces are found in tombs, which has led Egyptologists to argue that the game was about more than simple pleasure. Rather, there was a spiritual value to Hounds and Jackals. Ancient Egyptians were keen, avid believers of the afterlife.

In order to have a comfortable afterlife, one had to appease the gods through a variety of rituals, some of which are observed in such games. With a heart for radio and an appetite for culture, Mona is a writer and illustrator based in Cairo. The earliest board yet found was unearthed at Thebes dated to roughly BC and is one of the best preserved, featuring a palm tree and standing on four short legs. Importantly, it is also complete with 10 pieces in the form of five hound pieces and five jackal pieces heads.

The original ivory board with its game pieces was discovered as a complete set. The rectangular playing surface, with rounded top, measured six inches long and three inches wide.

The animal headed pegs were contained in a drawer underneath; locked by an ivory bolt. Dating back to around BC, the game was a splendid find, and now rests in the Metropolitan Museum of New. More than 40 boards or fragments of them have been found, many of them outside Egypt — primarily in Mesopotamia from around BC through to the Asyrian period BC , and in Palestine dated to the late Bronze Age BC. Although these boards were often shaped differently, the overall layout is the same throughout so it is likely that game-play did not vary much over all this time.