Throwing stone balls along a lane might have been a popular game in ancient Egypt, according to evidence unearthed some 56 miles south of Cairo by Italian archaeologists.

A mixture of bowling, billiard and bowls, the game was played at Narmoutheos [Narmuthis], in the Fayoum region, in a spacious room which appears to be the prototype of a modern-day bowling hall.

The room was part of a structure, perhaps a residential building, which dated from the Roman period, specifically between the second and third century A.D.

"We first discovered a room with a very well-built limestone floor. Then we noticed a lane and two stone balls," Edda Bresciani, an Egyptologist at Pisa University, told Discovery News...

The Roman castrum of Narmuthis, University of Pisa, 2006 - 2007.

Ancient Egyptian Ball Game Discovered, Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News, USA, July 25, 2007.

cf. Egyptians played ancient version of bowling 2000 years back, Daily India, India, July 26, 2007.

An artificial big toe attached to the foot of an ancient Egyptian mummy could prove to be the world's earliest functional prosthetic body part, say scientists.

Research at The University of Manchester is hoping to prove that the wood and leather artefact in the Cairo Museum not only looked the part but also helped its owner walk 'like an Egyptian'.

If true, the toe will predate what is currently considered to be the earliest known practical prosthesis — an artificial leg from 300BC — by several hundred years.

Jacky Finch, who is carrying out the study at Manchester's KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology, is recruiting volunteers whose right big toe has been lost in order to test an exact replica of the artificial toe...

Science steps in to discover wonders of Toe-tankhamun, Manchester University, UK, July 26, 2007.