The Throw of Isis-Aphrodite: a rare decorated knucklebone from the Metropolitan Museum of New York

Knucklebones were ubiquitous objects in the ancient world and they had several meanings, from gaming pieces to oracular dice. The study of a new unpublished decorated knucklebone from Graeco-Roman Egypt with a ‘Baubo’ image of a squatting naked woman, preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of New York, offers the opportunity to explore the variety of contexts of use of decorated knucklebones in this area: from play and divination to Orphic rituals and local religious festivals. Its decorated sides represent three Graeco-Egyptian deities whose meanings and magical interactions can be understood through the comparison with other Romano-Egyptian gaming pieces, terracottas, magical gems and papyri.