People have been playing board games for over 4,000 years, not just in Egypt but right across the ancient world in places like Israel, Cyprus and the Lebanon. Many games have been found by explorers and archaeologists in the ruins of palaces, temples and tombs.
Senet is one of the oldest games i...
People have been playing board games for over 4,000 years, not just in Egypt but right across the ancient world in places like Israel, Cyprus and the Lebanon. Many games have been found by explorers and archaeologists in the ruins of palaces, temples and tombs.
Senet is one of the oldest games in the world. It was played by the wealthy and the poor. A board could be drawn in the sand and stones used for the pieces, or if you were rich you may own a board made by a craftsman from wood with pieces made of clay, faience or even ivory.
Egyptian faience is the nearest material that the Egyptians had to glass, blue-green was the most common colour. The board and pieces may be moulded or carved with animals or pictures of humans or gods. For some winning the game represented the safe journey of their ba (spirit double) from the tomb at sunrise across the sky in the company of the sun god Re, in his solar barge, and returning safely to their tomb at sunset. Re had many enemies who tried to destroy the ba.
The Ancient Egyptians did not have dice, they used two sided throwing sticks. One side would be marked. When you throw the sticks if the marked side landed upwards then that counted as one.
