Senet: The Ancient Egyptian ‘Game of Death’ | Ancient Architects

Recently, ’Science’ published a fascinating article on an ancient Egyptian board game, that was popular in all tiers of society from 3000 BC to 2500 BC, and experts and the media are calling it the Game of Death. This article is the basis for this video and you can read it here: Senet was enjoyed by the Egyptians for hundreds and hundreds of years and experts have analysed just how the game evolved through time because thankfully, the pieces of the game have survived in the archaeological record. We only have snippets of ancient text and a new paintings that show the game being played and Egyptologists believe it was played by two players, each with around five pawns that were placed on a grid of 30 squares which are arranged in three rows of 10. Each player would take it in turn to throw a gaming dice to decide how many squares to move one of the pawns in each turn. Watch this video to learn all about the ancient game of Senet, how it was played and how the game evolved from an entertaining past time to become known as the Game of Death, being associated with religion and the Ancient Egyptian underworld: The Duat. All images are taken from Google Images and the below sources for educational purposes only. Sources: