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Terracotta group of 'knucklebone' (astragalos) players

-330/-300

British Museum

British Museum
London, United Kingdom

The two figures play a game similar to the modern game of 'jacks'. It involved throwing the 'knucklebones' up in the air and catching as many as possible on one hand as they fell. The 'knucklebones' were in fact the anklebones of sheep or goats, or models made of ivory, bronze or terracotta. This game was apparently popular with children and young women throughout the Classical and Hellenistic periods of Greek art; it appears on vase paintings as well as in three-dimensional figures. It is not clear why representations of this game were thought to be specially suitable for the tomb, but perhaps they provided poignant evocations of the dead as they had been in life. This group has been very carefully constructed. Each crouching figure is made from a number of separately moulded parts, joined together before firing. Each has a peg in the under surface, which slots into a hole in the rectangular base, so the figures can be detached for transport or storage. Although it is said to have been found at Capua, the high quality of the figures and the appearance of the clay suggest that it might have been made at Taranto in Apulia (modern Puglia).

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  • Title: Terracotta group of 'knucklebone' (astragalos) players
  • Date Created: -330/-300
  • Physical Dimensions: Height: 213.00mm; Width: 240.00mm; Depth: 115.00mm; Weight: 1880.00g; Height: 13.97cm
  • External Link: British Museum collection online
  • Subject: sport/pastime
  • Registration number: 1867,0510.1
  • Production place: Made in Campania
  • Place: Excavated/Findspot Capua
  • Period/culture: Campanian
  • Material: terracotta
  • Copyright: Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum
  • Acquisition: Purchased from Castellani, Alessandro
British Museum

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