Senet
| Senet in hieroglyphs | ||||
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Senet Sn.t passage / gateway |
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Senet (or Senat[1]) is a board game from predynastic and ancient Egypt. The oldest hieroglyph representing a Senet game dates to around 3100 BC.[2] The full name of the game in Egyptian was zn.t n.t ḥˁb meaning the "game of passing."
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[edit] History
Senet is one of the oldest known board games in the world. It has been found in Predynastic and First Dynasty burials of Egypt,[2] circa 3500 BC and 3100 BC respectively. It was one of the most popular games of Egypt. Senet is also featured in a painting from the tomb of Merknera (3300–2700 BC) (see external links below). Another painting of this ancient game is from the Third Dynasty tomb of Hesy (c. 2686–2613 BC). It is also depicted in a painting in the tomb of Rashepes (c. 2500 BC).
By the time of the New Kingdom in Egypt (1567–1085 BC), it had become a kind of talisman for the journey of the dead. Because of the element of luck in the game and the Egyptian belief in determinism, it was believed that a successful player was under the protection of the major gods of the national pantheon: Ra, Thoth, and sometimes Osiris. Consequently, Senet boards were often placed in the grave alongside other useful objects for the dangerous journey through the afterlife and the game is referred to in Chapter XVII of the Book of the Dead. The game was also adopted in the Levant and as far as Cyprus and Crete but with apparently less religious significance.
[edit] Gameplay
The Senet gameboard is a grid of thirty squares, arranged in three rows of ten. A senet board has two sets of pawns (at least five of each and, in some sets, more, as well as shorter games with less). The actual rules of the game are a topic of some debate, although historians have made educated guesses. Senet historians Timothy Kendall and R.C. Bell have each proposed their own sets of rules to play the game. These rules have been adopted by different companies which make Senet sets for sale today.
[edit] In modern culture
The game is played in the TV show Lost in the episode Across the Sea. In Rick Riordan's The Throne of Fire, Carter and Sadie Kane and Bes play Senet against the moon god Khonsu. In the popular 1999 video game Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, the player (playing as series heroine Lara Croft), must play a game of Senet in order to advance through the Tomb of Semerkhet level.
[edit] See also
- Mehen, another ancient Egyptian game
- Royal Game of Ur, an ancient Mesopotamian game
- Tâb, a Middle Eastern game with a similar board
- Patolli
[edit] References
- ^ A history of board games
- ^ a b In Search of the Meaning of Senet by Peter A. Piccione
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Senet |
- Senet at BoardGameGeek.Com
- Speculation on what the rules were at BoardGameGeek.Com—"I think experienced game-players can make some reasonable judgments about what the rules probably were. I'm not sure that many Egyptologists have also been game-players, and some of their suggested rules don't seem to make sense . . "
- Egyptians games
- Informative article on Senet
