Astragali, the ankle bones of animals, with signs scratched on them come from the graves and settlements of the Xiongnu.[1] Some of the signs resemble the tamgas that marked kin groups.[1] Among the bones are five from tomb 3 of the burial ground of Gol Mod 2 in Mongolia and one from a settlement at Middle Duren in Buryatia.[2]

Not all the signs are tamgas.[1] Others stand for events or things and are interpreted as “sun”, “forest” and “chariot”.[1] The same set of signs, together with tamgas, turns up on astragali from the first century BCE onward both in the East and in the West.[1]

In the Crimea, astragali of the eighth to tenth century from the settlement of Tepsen bear scratched marks.[3] Among them are a pair of two-toothed signs and a group of six signs that some read as a tamga text.[3] Most of the other marks are horizontal strokes, ladders and grids.[3] The authors who describe the bones call the assignment of the signs to tamgas or runes unproved and doubtful.[4]

The signs on the bones may not mark the property of single persons at all.[1] They could name a nomadic kin group, either in divinatory rituals or in a game.[1] The find itself does not say which.

Kashgari’s dictionary of the 1070s records the play in a word.[5] Čik is “a particle used in playing knuckles”, and when the bone falls on its underside one says čik turdï.[5] The Arabic gloss of the game is al-kaʿb.[5] The entry does not say what each fall counted for, how many played or whether the play was for a stake.[5]

The Sui Shu says that the Göktürk men liked to play chupu.[6] One translation renders the game as knucklebones. The men’s game of the Göktürks is open to other interpretations.[7]

What remains is a set of bones with signs on them and a Turkic word for a cast, with no source that tells how the game was won.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Bogdanov 2017, p. 8
  2. ^ Bogdanov 2017, p. 20
  3. ^ a b c Mits 2000 (Jahrgang after dem Dateinamen), p. 270
  4. ^ Mits 2000 (Jahrgang after dem Dateinamen), p. 267, 270
  5. ^ a b c d Dīvān Lughāt al-Turk; al-Kāshgharī 1072–1074, p. 265
  6. ^ Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84
  7. ^ Julien 1864, p. 353

Sources

Literature

  • Evgeniy S. Bogdanov, The Origin of the Tamgas of the Xiongnu (2017)
  • Maḥmūd al-Kāshgharī, Dīwān Lughat al-Turk (1072–1074)
  • Stanislas Julien, Documents historiques sur les Tou-kioue (Turcs) (1864)
  • Viktor Leonidoviç Mits; Vadim Vladislawoviç Mayko (Turkish translation: Risbek Alimov), VIII.–X. Yüzyıl Tavrika Türk-Bulgarlarının Runik ve Damgavari İşaretleri Meselesi Üzerine (2000 (Jahrgang after dem Dateinamen))

Related

What links here3

Places
Gol Mod
Customs & Pastimes
Culture of the Turkic Peoples · Stakes and Wagers

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Knucklebones.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/customs/knucklebones/

Last revised: 8 November 2026