GAMES IN ROCK ART - 58-HOLES, OR HOUNDS AND JACKALS:

58 Holes game board pecked

in Azerbaijan rock shelter,

Photograph W. Crist, courtesy

of the director of the

Gobustan State Historical

and Cultural Preserve.

Back in 2013 I posted a number of columns about game boards carved into rock. Now a new example has been reported from Azerbaijan, an ancient Near Eastern game called 58 Holes, or Hounds and Jackals (the name Hounds and Jackals was bestowed by Howard Carter to describe an example he found in King Tutankhamen's tomb). (Gurevich 2017)

Egyptian 58 Holes game board,

metmuseum.org - public domain.

Apparently originating in Egypt at around 2000 BCE, 58 Holes spread throughout the Near East quickly. "At least 68 gameboards of 58 Holes have been found archaeologically, including examples from Iraq (Ur, Uruk, Sippar, Nippur, Nineveh, Ashur, Babylon, Nuzi), Syria (Ras el-Ain, Tell Ajlun, Khafaje), Iran (Tappeh Sialk, Susa, Luristan), Israel (Tel Beth Shean, Megiddo, Gezer), Turkey (Boghazkoy, Kultepe, Karalhuyuk, Acemhuyuk), and Egypt (Buhen, Thebes, El-Lahun, Sedment)." (Hirst 2017)

This newly discovered example was pecked into stone in a rock shelter in Azerbaijan, some 1000 to 2000 km. from the Near East. Archaeologist Walter Crist of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City saw a photograph of the pattern online and recognized it as a board for 58 Holes. Crist contacted a colleague in Azerbaijan who helped him arrange a site visit in April 2018. "Once there, Crist found that the site he saw online had been bulldozed for a housing development. But a scientific official in Azerbaijan told him of another rock-shelter with the same dot pattern. Crist, who has studied Near Eastern versions of 58 holes, recognized the two-person game when he reached that site." (Bower 2018)

Hopefully the knowledge and recognition of this will protect this site from the bulldozer. In any event RockArtBlog is grateful for the situation that put Walter Crist in place to save it.

NOTE: Images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the originals at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Bower, Bruce

2018 A Bronze Age Game Called 58 Holes Was Found Chiseled Into Stone in Azerbaijan, November 16, 2018, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/bronze-age-game-found-chiseled-stone-azerbaijan

Gurevich, Eli

2017 Hounds and Jackals, October 14, 2017, http://www.ancientgames.org/hounds-and-jackals/

Hirst, Kris

2017 58 Holes: Ancient Egyptian Board Game of Hounds and Jackals, November 12, 2017, https://www.thoughtco.com/50-holes-game-169581