The name of the children’s game Jackstone comes from its similarity to the older name, chackstone, which in its turn came from chuck-stone, in Scotland called chuckiestone.
Nowadays, in America at least, the game is played with five or six six-pointed (or knobbed) small iron pieces which are tossed or chucked into the air by the player and caught in the hand.
Formerly, however, the pieces so chucked were pebbles or small stones.
In still earlier times, dating back to ancient Rome and Greece, the objects so tossed and caught were the ankle bones of sheep, the tali and astragaloi.
