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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Wednesday, October 02, 2013

catgame

Lion-Headed Gaming Piece, 1 of 5, ca. 1938-1759 B.C.E. Faience, glazed, 1 x 13/16 in. (2.5 x 2.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum,
Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 36.3.4. Creative Commons-BY
These have to be the friendliest lion heads I ever met.  They're Egyptian gaming pieces in faience, which is the term for tin-glazed pale earthenware pieces.  There has been the matter of a millenium or two to change the look of these, but I think they retain individual characters.  Wish I could see if they had each been pinched specially into shape rather than popping from some ancient mold.

1 comment:

The Lee County Clowder said...

Have any idea what kind of game they played with these? Or were they more a kid's doll?

Our first though was part of a chess set, but the dates seem a bit early for that.