Playing Piece

ca. 1938-1700 B.C.E.

Senet (the passing) was one of the most popular and enduring board games in ancient Egypt. Players moved their gaming pieces along a rectangular board of thirty squares arranged in three parallel rows. Although this blue glazed faience board resembles the traditional senet playing surface, it has only twenty-one squares. Perhaps it was intended as a funerary offering that merely represented a senet board. Although the board and “pawns” displayed here may have formed a set, they could have been assembled from several sources.