Senet, the Board Game Tutankhamun Took to His Tomb, and How to Play It at Home

Tutankhamun was buried with several board games, including senet, a game with a history stretching back more than 4,500 years. Its original rules haven’t survived, but you can play a reconstructed version tonight with just popsicle sticks and paper. Here’s what the ancient boards reveal—and how to set up your own.

Four Boards or Five Boxes, Depending on Who Counts

Howard Carter opened the tomb in 1922 and found game boards sitting among the gold. How many? Depends who you ask. Museum write-ups mention five senet boxes at least, other accounts say four boards, and the count stays fuzzy. The showpiece is an ivory board on an ebony stand, and it comes with a drawer for the pawns and the throwing gear.

The front carries thirty squares and the senet game. Turn it over and the back holds a second game, twenty squares this time. Nobody can say for sure how it worked, though one account says every board in the tomb was double-sided like this.

No dice. Players tossed casting sticks or knucklebones and moved however many squares came up. Luck still runs plenty of games, and luckyelfcasino has themed ones you can play. One of them has a raccoon called Smokey, borrowed from Le Bandit, wandering around the pyramids, and its default Le Pharaoh RTP is 96.18 percent. Each casino can set its own, so look at the game page before you start. Senet players got a throw and a shrug.

A Game of Passing, With the Manual Missing

The Egyptian name means passing. Go back to the Third Dynasty, around 2686 to 2613 BC, and you find the oldest known painting of senet, in the tomb of Hesy-Re. Some sources claim pieces from about 3100 BC. Queen Nefertari’s tomb wall has her playing too, against an invisible opponent. The Metropolitan Museum explains that Egyptians saw the game as a parallel to the journey into the afterlife, obstacles included.

Then the game faded out during the Roman period, and the rules went with it. Gustave Jéquier, a Swiss archaeologist, made an early guess at them. Timothy Kendall and R. C. Bell came later with versions of their own, and modern sets sell those. But the clues stretch over more than a thousand years, so the rules may not match how anyone really played.

The reconstructions fight each other too, mostly over three things.

• Pawn counts wander, from five a side in some paintings to seven or ten in others.
• Landing on an enemy piece swaps the two in some sets and sends the victim backward in others.
• Exit rules for the last squares change from set to set.

Setting Up Senet at Home

Grab ten tokens in two colors, four popsicle sticks with one side colored in, and a sheet of paper. Draw three rows of ten squares on the paper. Number the top row from the left, 1 to 10, run the middle row backward from the right, 11 to 20, and finish the bottom row from the left again with 21 to 30. The path ends up shaped like an S.

Here is the short version, mostly Kendall’s rules with the fiddly bits cut.

1. Line up the ten tokens along the top row, one color then the other.
2. Throw the sticks, count the light sides facing up, and move one token that many squares. Four dark sides count as five.
3. After a 1, 4 or 5, the same player throws again.
4. A token that lands on an enemy token swaps places with it.
5. Getting all five of your tokens off the far end wins.

The Squares That Ruin Your Evening

Most of the drama lives on a handful of squares. Sets vary, so agree on one version before the first throw. Egyptologists have argued about this for decades, which makes a family argument at least authentic.

• The House of Rebirth, square 15, catches pieces that fall into the water.
• Every piece has to stop on square 26, the House of Beauty, by exact throw.
• Square 27 is the water itself and sends a piece back to 15, or to the nearest empty square before it.
• From square 28 an exact 3 gets a piece out, from 29 an exact 2, and from 30 any throw will do.

Embracing Ancient Playfulness: The Legacy of Senet

As we explore the fascinating world of senet, we not only engage with a game that has captivated players for millennia but also connect to the rich cultural tapestry of ancient Egypt. The enduring allure of this game underscores its significance beyond mere entertainment; it served as a reflection of life’s challenges and the journey into the afterlife.

By recreating senet in our homes, we keep alive the spirit of camaraderie and competition that resonates through history. Whether you’re mastering the intricate rules or navigating the complexities of the game, senet invites us to dive into a playful past, inspiring both joyful moments and thoughtful reflection on the journeys we all undertake. So gather your friends and family, roll your makeshift dice, and let the games begin!