This rare knucklebone made of gabbro depicts figures of the deities Baubo, Eros, and Kronos (or Ganymedes) in association with Harpocrates. It is interpreted as a magical means in connection with the search for love, sex, and potentially fertility.
The knucklebone shares themes and ideas with the magical gems as well as with the magical papyri.
“(…) the interaction of the deities on the Metropolitan knucklebone was primarily associated with the player’s quest for love and sexual gratification, either through magic, or perhaps in more secular terms, through gambling.”
Ada Nifosi (see below), p. 13.
The dating of the knuckle bone is uncertain and ranges from the late Ptolemaic period to the first century AD.
A very informative paper about this knucklebone dice, with a lot of interesting side information, was written by Ada Nifosi, The Throw of Isis-Aphrodite: a rare decorated knucklebone from the Metropolitan Museum of New York, in: The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Volume 108, Issue 1-2, June-December 2022, pp. 1-13.
Link to the paper on Sage Journals website: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/03075133221137365
Link to the knuckle bone at the Met Museum: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/551035