What child's toy was originally made from knuckle bones of dogs and sheep?

Sandra

i know for definite that dice used to be made from the knuckle bones but i thought it was of humans but it may have been from cats and dogs also. Feb 12 01, 5:24 PM

cocomojoe

It is definitely dice Feb 12 01, 8:36 PM

McGruff

Anyone want to try to reference this? Posted reply from Calahanras: Original Qn (#10361): What child's toy was originally made from knuckle bones of dogs and sheep? Marbles Jul 20 07, 2:14 PM

Baloo55th

There's a rather nice reference that Frankie might be able to extract something from for us - http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0015-587X(190109)12%3A3%3C280%3ATAAMGO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S Unfortunately, I don't have JSTOR access. I can find a reference for the game of Jacks, which as I thought, was originally played with bones http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/games/beard/jack_stones.htm I've not found a reference to the game of marbles being played with them. And I would consider it rather difficult unless one did quite a lot of work on the bones, and in fact merely used them as a source of raw material. You can't roll them like marbles. Knucklebones is a different game from marbles altogether. Jul 20 07, 2:43 PM

sdorph

In Australia we played a game with the knuckle bones of sheep, it was simply called 'knuckle bones' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knucklebones Sep 08 09, 1:29 AM