Jacks is a children's game of dexterity played with a small set of six-pointed metal or plastic pieces called jacks and a small bouncing ball, in which a player tosses the ball, scoops up a specified number of jacks before the ball bounces a second time, and progresses through increasingly difficult rounds. The game descends from the much older game of knucklebones, played since antiquity with the small bones of sheep or goats known as astragaloi, and the modern ball-and-metal-piece form became standardized and mass-produced from the nineteenth century onward, remaining a common playground and family game since.
Facts
Classification
Player Count Player CountSmall Group (3-6 Players) 1 Player CountLarge Group or Variable 1 Disputed
Originating RegionLydia (western Anatolia) 1 Herodotus ascribed Lydian origins to the ancestor game of knucklebones, and this is an ancient claim, not a modern finding; the game is described as not native to Athens. Sport
Game Type (category) In the Other Atlases
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Sources
1. Knucklebones - Wikipedia
Introduction
Knucklebones, also known as scatter jacks, snobs, astragaloi (singular: astragalus), tali, dibs, fivestones, jacks, jackstones, or jinks, among many other names, is a game of dexterity played with a number of small objects that are thrown up, caught, and manipulated in various manners.
History section, first paragraph
The game was mentioned by Plato and Herodotus, the latter claiming although the game was famous in Athens it was not native to the city, ascribing Lydian origins to it (West of Anatolia), a story he recounts in his work The Histories.
Article text
played between two or more players
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