Ancient Games: Senet (Egypt)

[Lord Lucan]

(This thread has been spun off from the Ouija Board thread.)

I'm placing this in the Ouija Board thread and although not technically a Ouija board, it appears new revelations suggest that the ancient Egyptian game of 'Senet' evolved from a regular board game into a conduit through which communication with the afterlife could take place. I find this kind of this quite fascinating.

A wall painting from the 3300-year-old tomb of Queen Nefertari shows her playing senet against an invisible opponent.
THE YORCK PROJECT/WIKICOMMONS

Ancient Egyptians took their board games seriously. The backgammonlike senet started out as a mere pastime, but over nearly 2 millennia it evolved into a game with deep links to the afterlife, played on a board that represented the underworld. Now, a version of the game sitting in a California museum might reveal when this dramatic transformation took place.

Senet probably wasn’t the world’s first board game, but it was one of the first to become a smash hit. It seems to have risen to popularity in all tiers of Egyptian society about 5000 years ago—and was still being enjoyed by Egyptians 2500 years later.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/original-board-game-death

 

[Frideswide]

fascinating!

what is

the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum

I don't want to search in case it is less wonderful than it sounds!

 

[Lord Lucan]

fascinating!

what is



I don't want to search in case it is less wonderful than it sounds!

I've just had a look and I don't think you'll be disappointed, although it is in San Jose, California. But, that's a great excuse to visit the U.S.
Here's their website: https://egyptianmuseum.org/
Their blurb says: ''Home to the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts on exhibit in western North America.'' and that's saying something having been to the Museum of Natural History & The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in NYC (both holders of large collections of Egyptian antiquities).

 

[Frideswide]

Field trip!

 

[Lord Lucan]

Field trip!

Can I come too?

 

[Frideswide]

Of course! We just need someone to fund it in exchange for some brilliant reviews and reports

 

[Spookdaddy]

...A wall painting from the 3300-year-old tomb of Queen Nefertari shows her playing senet against an invisible opponent...

Doesn't it strike anyone else as strange that for a civilisation which managed to pile millions of tons of stone into perfectly geometrical structures, their tables always look really, really flimsy; the one she's playing on doesn't look like like it would make it into the following week - never mind the afterlife.

 

[EnolaGaia]

This discussion of Senet achieved sufficient mass to warrant spinning it off into its own thread.

I highly recommend reading the (un-quoted) remainder of the Science article (link in post #1) to see how the Rosicrucian Museum's senet board reflects the transition from a secular game to something linked to the afterlife.

There's also a photo of the museum's senet board at the linked webpage.

 

[EnolaGaia]

This 2017 Metropolitan Museum of Art webpage:

https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/metkids/2017/ancient-egypt-board-games

... provides photos of senet sets and an explanation of the senet board's layout.

This webpage's description of (and ascriptions for ... ) the decorated squares from Square 26 onward don't exactly match the way they're described in the Science article (cf. post #1).

 

[EnolaGaia]

This webpage:

http://www.egyptianmyths.net/senet.htm

... suggests a different suggested context for playing senet alone - i.e., the visible player is deceased and is playing against the relevant powers in the afterlife to which he / she has already migrated.

The senet game was connected to the afterlife. Senet boards were often placed in tombs (Tutankhamen was entombed with four, it is assumed that the game was a favorite of his). The game was supposed to be a pasttime for the deceased. However, symbolically the game also was connected with the attainment of the afterlife by the dead. In many tomb paintings and Book of the Dead illustrations, the deceased is shown playing the game with no visible opponent. It may be that in these cases, the person is playing against the powers of the beyond. Winning against these opponents may lead to good fortune in the afterlife.

Note also that this description doesn't mention the evolution of senet from a purely secular entertainment to something with broader implications.

 

[EnolaGaia]

The Wikipedia article on senet:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senet

... emphasizes the fact that the game's rules remain a matter of conjecture and scholarly debate.

... Although details of the original game rules are a subject of some conjecture, senet historians Timothy Kendall and R. C. Bell have made their own reconstructions of the game.[11] These rules are based on snippets of texts that span over a thousand years, over which time gameplay is likely to have changed. Therefore, it is unlikely these rules reflect the exact course of ancient Egyptian gameplay.[7] Their rules have been adopted by sellers of modern senet sets. Scenes found in Old Kingdom tombs, dating 2686 to 2160 BC, reveal that Senet was a game of position, strategy, and a bit of luck. ...

 

[Frideswide]

their tables always look really, really flimsy; the one she's playing on doesn't look like like it would make it into the following week - never mind the afterlife.

I am suggesting that managing the flimsy playing surface became part of the developed game