A game in the shape of a hippopotamus

Can you make out the hippopotamus? This small game board takes the animal’s shape and covers it with a pattern of holes. There are twenty-nine of them, with a decorative border of rosettes. Let your eye follow the arrangement before trying to decide how someone would have played. The board is made of faience, a glazed material used in ancient Egypt. Its colours include pale blue, white, red and dark blue. Look for the colours you can still distinguish and notice how they help organise the surface. The object gives us the board, although its appearance alone cannot recover the exact rules. Follow the holes with your eyes and look at how they fit inside the animal’s outline. You can recognise a carefully arranged playing surface while leaving the sequence of play open. People had time for games as well as for work. Here, the maker also gave the board the shape of an animal. Look at the head and the body and see where the hippopotamus becomes clearest. The outline and the holes belong to the same small object.