Board for the Game of Pegs and Holes in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, June 2010

Board for the game of pegs and holes
Near Eastern, Levantine, Middle Bronze Age, about 2000–1500 B.C.

Dimensions: 4 x 13.4 x 28 cm (1 9/16 x 5 1/4 x 11 in.); Legacy dimension: L: 28 cm W: 13.4 cm H: 4 cm

Medium or Technique: Limestone; reproduction pegs

Classification: Tools & equipment

Accession Number: 1996.62

This board was used for an immensely popular game enjoyed from Egypt to Iran. Played with pegs, the game seems to have been a race in which the opposing pieces, by counts of dice, were moved down the inner rows of holes and up the outer rows on their respective sides. The first player to reach the hole at the top probably seized an opposing piece, and the game likely continued until one player won all his opponent's pieces. The displayed pegs, with heads of horses and hounds, have been reproduced from fragmentary ivory originals excavated by the Museum in the Sudan in 1919.

Text from: www.mfa.org/collections/object/board-for-the-game-of-pegs...