Rainy Day Activity: Ancient Egyptian Game

by Jessica Pertler The ancient Egyptians are known for being great creators of such wonders as the pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx as well as many wonderful temples and tombs. But did you know that it is also believed that they created the first board game? The Egyptians developed the game of Senet as far back as 3500 BC. Game boards and pieces have been found in Egyptian tombs, but no written record of how to play the game has been found, despite the fact that the Egyptians did have a system for writing. The following instructions tell you how to create your own Senet board and give you one set of directions for how to play the game. Several other sets of directions exist online and in books, but all seem to have the same goal in mind: get all of your pawns off the board as quickly as you can. Students learn the fundamentals of board games while honing their counting and probability skills. Work on analyzing strategy games while playing a game that's still fun over 5,500 years later! Materials

• Piece of cardboard measuring 24” x 10”
• Ruler or yardstick
• Pencil
• Permanent marker
• 4 craft sticks
• Colored markers
• 10 game pawns (5 each of two colors or shapes)

You can use anything you can find in your home for game pawns: buttons, checkers, coins, Legos, etc. I chose two colors of glass gems. Instructions

1. Using a ruler or yardstick and pencil draw five rows of twelve squares each 2” x 2” on the piece of cardboard. 
2. Using the permanent marker trace over all of the pencil lines except those in the outside squares. After you finish tracing erase the pencil marks around the edge leaving a border around the 30 x 10 square game board.
3. Starting in the upper left corner number the squares 1 to 30 in an “S” pattern. Draw the House of Rebirth in square 15, House of Happiness in square 26, House of Water in square 27, House of Three Truths in square 28, and the House of Re-Atoum in square 29.
4. Color one side of each of the craft sticks with the colored markers. You may make them any color or design you like.
5. You may wish to color or decorate your board to make it more attractive or easier to see the different spaces.
6. You are ready to play!

Game Directions

1. Setup your board so that the pawns alternate colors to fill the top row.
2. Two players may play this game. Each player controls all five of one color of pawns.
3. Toss the sticks to decide which player will go first. The player with the greater number of uncolored sticks will go first.
4. Toss the sticks. If you have one uncolored stick showing move one place, two places for two uncolored sticks, three places for three uncolored sticks, and five places for four uncolored sticks. If you have no uncolored sticks showing you lose a turn. You may only move one pawn per turn.
5. You cannot land on a space occupied by one of your pawns so you will need to move another one of your pawns.
6. If you land on a space occupied by your opponent’s pawn you switch places with that pawn, unless your opponent’s pawn is directly next to another one of his/her pawns. If you have three or four uncolored sticks showing you may jump over two of your opponent’s touching pawns, but you may never jump over three touching pawns.
7. If none of your pawns can move forward the necessary amount of spaces you must move backward.
8. If none of your pawns can move forward or backward you lose a turn.
9. These squares are safe squares or danger squares:

Safe Square – No pawn may be moved off of a safe square for any reason.  Therefore, a pawn on a safe square may never be switched with another pawn. Also, once you are on a safe square, you do not need to move backwards even if you cannot move forward, you simply pass your turn. Danger Square – A penalty is associated with a danger square.

• 15: House of Rebirth – This is a safe square. If you land on House of Water move your pawn back to this square.
• 26: House of Happiness – This is a safe square. All pawns must land on this square, and must do so with an exact toss of the sticks.
• 27: House of Water – This is a danger square. If you land on House of Water you must move your pawn back to House of Rebirth. If there is already a pawn on House of Rebirth you must go back to the beginning. To get to this square you must toss exactly a one from House of Happiness.
• 28: House of Three Truths – This is a safe square. You must toss exactly a two to get off this square.
• 29: The House of Re-Atoum – This is a safe square. You must toss exactly a one to get off this square.

10.  If you land on square 30, you may toss any number to get off the board. 11.  The winner is the first player to get all of his/her pawns off the board. Even young students should be able to construct the game board, but may need some assistance measuring out the squares and drawing the symbols. Older students could be challenged to create a three-dimensional game board using wood or additional cardboard. Depending on the artistic skill of the child, the decoration of the game board can be more or less complex. For the game play, it will go quicker and be simpler with the use of fewer pawns. I suggest no less than three pawns be used by each player and no more than seven. Older students can be challenged to think of their own rules for playing Senet. Also, older students can be challenged with discussion questions such as the following: What lasting impact did the ancient Egyptians have on civilization? People today have noted that Senet shares similarities with other board games such as Backgammon and Chutes and Ladders.  What other games do you know that are similar to Senet? Can you find other facets of our lives that can be tied back to the ancient Egyptians? Additional Resources and Links The Children’s University of Manchester – Ancient Egypt Pyramids!  50 Hands-On Activities to Experience Ancient Egypt by Avery Hart and Paul Mantell Jessica Pertler is an instructor for CTD’s Summer Leapfrog program. Since 2011 she has taught such courses as “Gods and Goddesses” and “Treasure Maps.” This summer, Pertler is teaching "Survivor: Ancient Egypt."