This past week I decided to photograph a collection of fourteen dice, which are currently displayed in the games case in the House of Life (fig. 1). Like modern dice, most are six-sided and cubed. Cubic dice have been in use in the Near East since the third millennium BC, with different systems used at different times for distributing the pips. In Egypt, examples dating to the New Kingdom are reported as isolated finds at Amarna, Lisht, and Deir el-Bahari. The numbering of the opposite sides (1-6, 2-5, 3-4), each adding up to seven, comes into more general use only later. During the Graeco-Roman Period, cubic dice became more common and gradually replaced throwing sticks and knucklebones for use with board games. Numerous examples have been found at Naukratis.
Fig. 1: Egypt Centre dice |
W508–W515 is a group of eight dice that are listed
in the Egypt Centre catalogue as coming from the collection the Reverend
William MacGregor (1842–1937), which were sold at auction in 1922. These dice
are listed in the auction catalogue (lot 671) as “five Ivory Dice, four of
cubicle form, the other half cubicle; another, in granite, well worn at the
edges; one in steatite; and one in pale green faience.” Unfortunately, there
are no details as to the provenance or dating of the objects. When they came to
Swansea in 1971, they were accompanied by a Wellcome object card (A15598),
which provided a brief description for each item, sometimes with MacGregor’s
own numbering system noted (fig.
2). Since stickers with these numbers are still on some of the dice,
this is particularly useful as it has allowed us to pair up each of the items
in Swansea with those listed on the flimsy slip.
Fig. 2: Wellcome flimsy slip A15598 |
As noted in the auction catalogue, four of the dice
are in bone/ivory of cubic form (W508, W509, W513, W515). The pips on the first
three of these show a dot-in-circle motif, which recalls designs presumed to be
of magical significance. This is possibly an abstract eye to ward off the
evil-eye, which serve an apotropaic function. Easily reproduced with a tool and
visible in many cultures and times, this symbol may have lost its meaning, and
become simply a decorative pattern, or may have one that we have not yet
discovered (fig. 3).
The fourth (W515) is very similar to our own dice in which the pips have a
solid black fill. W510 is also made of bone, but is half cubic in form. This
die is particularly well worn with the pips (dot-in-circle motif) only just
visible on the long sides.
Fig. 3: W513 |
The three remaining dice from the MacGregor sale
are made of faience (W511), stone (W512), and steatite (W514). The faience die
is circular in shape with pips taking the form of the dot-in-circle motif. The
stone die is the largest of all the dice in the Egypt Centre collection, with
the dot-in-circle pips and worn corners showing signs of heavy use. At the
opposite side of the scale in terms is size is the steatite die, which is one
of the smallest in the collection. Yet it is also one of the most interesting in terms of
production, with traces of an orange pigment present in the dot-in-circle pips
(fig. 4). The
composition of this fill is currently unknown, but it is something that could
potentially be researched in the future using modern scientific techniques.
Fig. 4: Orange pigment in W514 |
Five other dice (W516–W519, W521) can be traced
back to the collection of Frederick George Hilton Price (1842–1909), who formed
one of the largest private collections of Egyptian antiquities ever assembled,
which was sold at auction in 1911. Yet it wasn’t until 1931 that the dice—along
with one other not in the Egypt Centre collection—were purchased by Henry
Wellcome. W516 is a mosaic glass die, which is dark blue with yellow and red
pips (fig 5). The
number on the object (4085) relates to Hilton Price’s own numbering system, with
the object being published by the collector in the second of his two catalogues
in 1908. This die is identical to one in the Rijksmuseum
van Oudheden, Leiden, which is dated to the first century.
Fig. 5: W516 |
W517 is a rectangular die with only the long sides
numbered (1, 2, 5, 6). On one of the short sides, F.480 has been written in
black ink. This represents the old numbering system used by Hilton Price when
cataloguing his collection in four unpublished manuscripts compiled in 1894.
This was later replaced in 1896 by a sequential numbering system (2978 for this
object) when Hilton Price published the first of his catalogues. However, the
unpublished manuscripts often include additional information and images of the
objects not found in the two published catalogues (fig. 6). Hilton Price dated this
rectangular die to the Roman Period, noting that it came from Maṣr ‘Atîḳa,
which was used by Europeans to refer to Old Cairo (Fustat). The three remaining
dice from the Hilton Price collection are made of bone (W518), steatite (W519),
and stone (W521). A further example in the Egypt Centre (EC1483) is made of
lead. Although lead dice are attested in Egypt, the provenance and collection
history of EC1483 is completely unknown at present.
Fig. 6: W517 in the Hilton Price unpublished manuscript |
While these
objects might seem small and mundane, they are items that people today can
closely relate to. I often wonder who would have used these dice and in what
context. Photographing them up close also helped me to appreciate how they were
produced, particularly with the bone examples showing scratch marks of the
craftsman who made them (fig.
7).
Fig. 7: W508 displaying extensive cut marks |
Postscript:
While writing this blog over the weekend, I came across an image of a
cylindrical box identified as a throwing cup (12.181.259a, b)
by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. This immediately reminded me of a
similar object in the Egypt Centre collection (EC1448) for which we had no
photo on file. So, the first thing on Monday morning, I checked on the object in
the store and the similarities are very striking (fig. 8)! The surface interior appears to have
heavy denting, perhaps as a result of shaking the dice. This item comes from
the 1906 auction of Robert
de Rustafjaell (1859–1943), with writing on the underside suggesting that it
comes from Akhmim.
Fig. 8: Possible throwing cup (EC1448) |
I wonder if they were used for divining, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteCould well have been. Always interesting to think how they would have been used!
DeleteIdentical cube dice in the Royal Ontario Museum are dated to the Roman Period. Unfortunately they are not part of the museum's online collection and the museum's curatorial centre is not accessible so I cannot confirm any information about provenance.
ReplyDeleteI am speaking only of the cube dice which are marked with circles varying from 1 to 6 in number.
DeleteThe dice above seem likely to have been from a few different time periods.
Thanks for your comments. Unfortunately, for almost all our ours, they are without provenance, which makes it difficult to date them. For sure they are likely to be from several time periods.
ReplyDelete