Knucklebones

Knucklebones (Greek astragaloi, Latin tali) was one of the most popular games of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. Played with the four-sided astragalus bone from a sheep or goat's ankle, players tossed multiple bones to see how they landed. The best throw of four ('Venus throw') showed all four different sides. The game evolved eventually into modern six-sided dice, and its jack-catching variants survive today as children's jacks.