Ancient Egypt had games of all kinds, some
for fun and entertainment and the others for fitness. Samples of these games
have been found in drawings located in the tombs at Saqqara, plus many others.
These pyramids were built nearly 2600b.c.e. and believe it or not we still play
some of these games to this day. As well as pictures, board games have also
been found in tombs from the same time period. Many of the fitness type games
depicted in paintings are of common games such as hockey, which used long palm
tree branches for sticks and a puck made from stuffed papyrus in between two
pieces of leather. There are also pictures of various types of games that use
handballs.
Various types of board games have been discovered such as Dogs and
Jackals,
Senet or Seega, and others such as
20-squares a similar type of game called 30 and 50 squares. Dogs and Jackals
games and pieces have been found in tomb of Reny-Seneb. It’s board was
made of wood, ebony and ivory and shaped like a piece of furniture and roughly
measuring 15x10cm. It had 4 animal carved legs and the board was made of ivory
with a palm tree carved into it with fifty five holes. There were drawers that
held the ebony pawns that looked like a jackal and a dog’s head on a
stick. Three coins were used to determine movements of the pieces on the board
and the first person with all pieces at the end won the game.
Senet is another board game that has been
found. One of these games was found in the tomb of Hesy along with painting of
it and how to play. The rules of this game were very complex. It consisted of a
board with 30 holes, 3 rows and 10 columns. Most of the games used 7 pawns,
sticks or knucklebones for each of the two players but some only had 5. During
the New Kingdom, the game of Senet had acquired a religious and magical meaning
which symbolized the passage of the deceased through the netherworld with his
resurrection dependant upon his/her ability to win the game. Since boards games
of all quality have been discovered it is needless to say that the games were
played by all classes of people in Ancient Egypt.
The Game of Senent, and, Dogs and Jackals by Catherine Soubeyrand
www.gamecabinet.com
Ancient Egyptian
Sports
www.sis.gov.eg/egyptinf/history/html/sport001.htm
Games of Egypt
www.ipl.org/youth/cquest/middle-east/eggames.html
Shareware computer games of Senet and Hounds & Jackals can be found
at www.zdnet.com/downloads
by Casey Boone
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