Ancient Egyptian Games: Senet
Games were, and still are, very popular in Egypt. Today locals in almost every coffee shop in Egypt are playing backgammon everyday. I couldn’t believe how popular the game was when I walked around Cairo for the first time. They play at lightning speed too! Well, backgammon is very similar to an Ancient Egyptian game called ‘Senet’.
The earliest known reference to Senet can be found on a wall painting in the tomb of the Third Dynasty Pharaoh Hesy from about 2650 BC.
Rules:
Senet is played on a rectangular board with three rows of ten squares. The exact rules of the game are unknown but educated guesses have been made and two main sets of rules exist as put forward by historians Timothy Kendall and R.C. Bell. The basic premise is much like the modern backgammon: two players race to get all their pieces from one end of the board to the other.
“Other elements found with the gameboards were pawns. The Hesy painting shows a game with seven pawns for each player. Then, some time after 1600 - 1500 BCE, the players were represented with seven or five pawns. Some games have even been found with ten pawns per player.
The movement of pawns was probably decided by the throw of four, two-sided sticks (as depicted in the Hesy painting) or, later, knucklebones might have been used to determine the moves.
What was the function of Senet? A game or something more? In his book, Lhôte notices that the first pictures show two human players whereas later the human player is depicted alone with an invisible opponent. It appears that Senet began as a simple game and later acquired a symbolic, ritual function.
Of course, the original rules of Senet are not known. No record of the rules on papyrus or tomb wall has ever been discovered. It is very difficult to reconstruct the game through the pieces and the tomb images.”
- Catherine Soubeyrand.
Catherine describes the history of the game and the two schools of thought on rules of the game. Read more at the The Game Cabinet
Some people have made their own boards:
There are even some big out door Senet boards:
Play Senet online:
More information on Senet:
Photograph and information on a New Kingdom, Dynasty XVIII, circa 1539-1295 BC Senet game from Thebes: Senet game in the Brooklyne Museum
‘GAMING WITH THE GODS: The Game of Senet and
Ancient Egyptian Religious Beliefs’ by Peter A. Piccione, Ph.D.
In Search of the Meaning Of Senet by Peter A. Piccione, Ph.D.
Purchase Ancient Egyptian Games online
