Hounds & Jackals

With a board carved in the shape of an axe-blade, and resting upon legs shaped in the form of bull’s legs, this game of Hounds & Jackals also comes with a pull-out drawer to hold the pieces; 5 jackals and 5 hounds. This set of the game Hounds and Jackals was unearthed in 1910 by British archaeologist Howard Carter, and is currently on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC (26.7.1287a–k).

The absolute rules of the game and even the name of the game in Egyptian times are currently unknown to us today. The name we go by to refer to the game Hounds & Jackals was coined by Egyptologist and Archaeologist, Howard Carter, whereas it was labelled 58 holes by Sir Flinders Petrie. Lesser-known names for the game include Shen and Palm Tree Game.

With similar characteristics to games from across the ancient Near East, such as Twenty Squares, or the Royal Game of Ur, the main consensus of the game is a race between two players. Considering the game becoming a funerary tribute to be placed in tombs, it is supposed that the game represented the voyage through the Afterlife and/or Underworld.

“Presuming the ‘Shen’ sign … to be the goal, we find on either side twenty-nine holes, or including the goal, thirty aside. Among these holes, on either side, two are marked ..nefer, ‘good’; and four others are linked together by curved lines. Assuming that the holes marked ‘good’ incur a gain, it would appear that the others, connected by lines, incur a loss. Now the moves themselves could easily have been denoted by the chance cast of knuckle-bones or dice….and if so we have before us a simple, but exciting, game of chance.” Five Years of Explorations at Thebes, A Record of Work Done 1907-1911, London, Oxford, New York, 1912, p. 58

Hounds and Jackals appeared to have become extremely popular during the Middle Kingdom, after appearing in Egypt around 2000 B.C. The game itself seems to have spread across the Mediterranean into nearby or known lands. Archaeological finds tell us the game was known in the Caucuses as well as Mesopotamia. It is thought the game spread to Mesopotamia sometime during the 3rd Millennium B.C. It apparently has also been found to be played in ancient Babylon, Israel, Persia, Assyria and Anatolia. The game differs with different animals upon the pegs, spanning from horses, cats, to sparrowhawks. As recent as 2018, the game has been discovered by Walter Crist in Gobustan, Azerbaijan.

This particular set was discovered among the debris of Pit tomb CC 25, during the Carnarvon and Carter excavations in 1910, Asasif, Birabi – Thebes. It dates from the reign of Amenemhat IV, around 1814–1805 B.C. The board and the pieces are carved out of ivory with ebony attributes.

Summary:

Hounds & Jackals board game, made of ivory and ebony

Middle Kingdom, reign of Amenemhat IV, c. 1814–1805 B.C.

From the debris within Pit tomb CC 25, Thebes. Carnarvon and Carter excavations, 1910.