Hounds and jackals or dogs and jackals is the modern name given to an ancient Egyptian tables game that is known from several examples of gaming boards and gaming pieces found in excavations. The modern name was invented by Howard Carter, who found one complete gaming set in a Theban tomb from the reign of ancient Egyptian pharaoh Amenemhat IV that dates to the 12th Dynasty.[1][2] The latter game set is one of the best preserved examples and is today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.[3] He called it "Hounds contra Jackals". Another, less often used modern name is "fifty-eight holes".[4]
The gaming board has two sets of 29 holes. Gaming pieces are ten small sticks with either jackal or dog heads. The game appeared in Egypt, around 2000 BC and was mainly popular in the Middle Kingdom.[4] In the 1956 movie The Ten Commandments, Pharaoh Seti (Cedric Hardwicke) and Nefretiri (Anne Baxter) are shown playing the game.[5][6]
- ^ "4,000-Year-Old Board Game Called 58 Holes Discovered in Azerbaijan". Mysterious Universe. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
- ^ Metcalfe, Tom (10 December 2018). "16 of the Most Interesting Ancient Board and Dice Games". Live Science. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
- ^ Hayes, William C. (1953). The Scepter of Egypt, I. From the Earliest Times to the End of the Middle Kingdom. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 250, fig. 160. ISBN 0-87099-190-6.
- ^ a b Dunn-Vaturi, Anne Elizabeth (2015). "Game of Hounds and Jackals". In Oppenheim, Adela; Arnold, Dorothea; Arnold, Dieter; Yamamoto, Kei (eds.). Ancient Egypt Transformed, The Middle Kingdom. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 249, no. 188. ISBN 978-1-58839-564-1.
- ^ "Hounds and Jackals". Ancient Egyptian Games. 4 July 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
- ^ "Strange markings etched into floor of Bronze Age shelter was a 4,000-year-old board game". ABC News. 14 December 2018. Retrieved 21 December 2018.