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Requires Photography
Board for the game of pegs and holes
Near Eastern, Levantine
Middle Bronze Age
about 2000–1500 B.C.
Medium/Technique
Limestone; reproduction pegs
Dimensions
4 x 13.4 x 28 cm (1 9/16 x 5 1/4 x 11 in.); Legacy dimension: L: 28 cm W: 13.4 cm H: 4 cm
Credit Line
Morris and Louise Rosenthal Fund
Accession Number1996.62
CollectionsAncient Egypt, Nubia and the Near East
ClassificationsTools and equipment – Recreational
DescriptionThis board was used for an immensely popular game enjoyed from Egypt to Iran. Played with pegs, the game seems to have been a race in which the opposing pieces, by counts of dice, were moved down the inner rows of holes and up the outer rows on their respective sides. The first player to reach the hole at the top probably seized an opposing piece, and the game likely continued until one player won all his opponent's pieces. The displayed pegs, with heads of horses and hounds, have been reproduced from fragmentary ivory originals excavated by the Museum in the Sudan in 1919.
ProvenanceSaid to come from Tyre, Lebanon [see note]. 1996, sold by Georges and Nadine Lotfi, Oceanide Ancient Art, New York and Geneva, to the MFA. (Accession Date: May 22, 1996)
NOTE: According to the dealer at the time of purchase.
NOTE: According to the dealer at the time of purchase.