DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0519
M.M. Ill: THE TEMPLE REPOSITORIES
477
be a pure game of skill, like chess, but something analogous to backgammon,
where recourse was had to dice-throwing or some other simple form of
sortilege. Sections of split reeds, having thus a convex and a concave
face, are in fact thrown against a wall by the Fellaheen to determine the
moves in a modern game of draughts1—as in our 'heads and tails'. An
illustration of such, side by side with the draughtsmen themselves, already
occurs in a Third Dynasty Tomb.2 Dice were also used in Ancient Egypt
and it seems possible that certain forms of prism beads showing circles and
globules on their faces served as such.3 A M.M. II specimen of agate is
given in Fig. 341 from Papouda near Lyttos. Such dice might be con-
veniently strung round the wrist.
Supposing then that in the present case each
player had four pieces—distinguished perhaps like
the Egyptian by their red and white hues—-these
would have been set on the board and their moves
regulated in some such manner.
On the form of the pieces used in this game
a remarkable light has been thrown by the discovery
in a neighbouring deposit bordering on the Loom-
Weight Basement and the later area of the ' Spiral
Fresco', of four ivory objects which were at once
recognized as some form of ' draughts-men'. Two
of these presenting engraved bases4 are given in
Fig. 342, a, b. They were found in filling earth,
which, as shown above,5 must have been thrown in
previous to the laying down of a plaster floor belonging to the latest stage
of the M.M. Ill Period. It follows that they can hardly be brought down
to this latest M. M. 111 phase, to which ex hypothesi the original fabric of the
Gaming Board itself may be referred, though the discrepancy in date may
have been small. The ivory 'men' were themselves found on the borders
of an area, which, as indicated by the heaps of loom-weights, was originally
the quarters of women. The close vicinity of the two finds points to this
area as having been a traditional scene of such pastimes.
Dice pro-
bably
used for
same.
Dis-
covery of
Ivory
' men '.
Fig. 341. Perforated
Agate Prism (Papouda)
Ivory
Draughts-
men.
1 Mr. P. E. Newberry has called my attention
to these.
2 Quibell, Tomb of Hesy, PI. X (Service des
Antiquites, 1911-12). Ivory examples exist, cf.
Burl. Fine Arts Club Cat., 1921, p. 112, T. 10.
3 Dice formed part of the Egyptian form of
the Game of the Sacred Way (see E. Falkener,
Gaines Ancient and Modern, p. 97).
4 The other piece had a plain base. It was
approximately of the same as the others.
5 See p. 249.
477
be a pure game of skill, like chess, but something analogous to backgammon,
where recourse was had to dice-throwing or some other simple form of
sortilege. Sections of split reeds, having thus a convex and a concave
face, are in fact thrown against a wall by the Fellaheen to determine the
moves in a modern game of draughts1—as in our 'heads and tails'. An
illustration of such, side by side with the draughtsmen themselves, already
occurs in a Third Dynasty Tomb.2 Dice were also used in Ancient Egypt
and it seems possible that certain forms of prism beads showing circles and
globules on their faces served as such.3 A M.M. II specimen of agate is
given in Fig. 341 from Papouda near Lyttos. Such dice might be con-
veniently strung round the wrist.
Supposing then that in the present case each
player had four pieces—distinguished perhaps like
the Egyptian by their red and white hues—-these
would have been set on the board and their moves
regulated in some such manner.
On the form of the pieces used in this game
a remarkable light has been thrown by the discovery
in a neighbouring deposit bordering on the Loom-
Weight Basement and the later area of the ' Spiral
Fresco', of four ivory objects which were at once
recognized as some form of ' draughts-men'. Two
of these presenting engraved bases4 are given in
Fig. 342, a, b. They were found in filling earth,
which, as shown above,5 must have been thrown in
previous to the laying down of a plaster floor belonging to the latest stage
of the M.M. Ill Period. It follows that they can hardly be brought down
to this latest M. M. 111 phase, to which ex hypothesi the original fabric of the
Gaming Board itself may be referred, though the discrepancy in date may
have been small. The ivory 'men' were themselves found on the borders
of an area, which, as indicated by the heaps of loom-weights, was originally
the quarters of women. The close vicinity of the two finds points to this
area as having been a traditional scene of such pastimes.
Dice pro-
bably
used for
same.
Dis-
covery of
Ivory
' men '.
Fig. 341. Perforated
Agate Prism (Papouda)
Ivory
Draughts-
men.
1 Mr. P. E. Newberry has called my attention
to these.
2 Quibell, Tomb of Hesy, PI. X (Service des
Antiquites, 1911-12). Ivory examples exist, cf.
Burl. Fine Arts Club Cat., 1921, p. 112, T. 10.
3 Dice formed part of the Egyptian form of
the Game of the Sacred Way (see E. Falkener,
Gaines Ancient and Modern, p. 97).
4 The other piece had a plain base. It was
approximately of the same as the others.
5 See p. 249.