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Ancient Egyptian Games

Public-engagement workshops and guides to the ancient games Senet, Mehen and more.

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At CEREHIS, we have spent years making the humanities accessible to the public, including the popular field of Egyptology. We discovered our enthusiasm for ancient games during a 2021 Košice Egyptological Autumn lecture, when Mgr. Marie Peterková Hlouchová of the Czech Institute of Egyptology introduced them to us. In 2023, we presented these games to children at Pharaoh's Secrets and at the popular PegasCon in Prešov.

Ancient Egyptian games workshop at Tabačka in Košice
Ancient Egyptian games workshop at Tabačka in Košice

Which ancient Egyptian games do we know?

Senet is an ancient Egyptian board game known from around 3100 BCE. Its name means ‘passing’ and is associated with the journey towards eternal life. It is the best-known ancient Egyptian game and remained popular from the Predynastic period, before Egypt's unification, through the Late Period, in the sixth to third centuries BCE. Senet was played not only by rulers and elites but also by the lowest-ranking members of society, for whom a simple board drawn on wood or papyrus was sufficient. Rulers, by contrast, enjoyed elaborate boards made from precious stones or ivory. Perhaps the most famous surviving Senet set was discovered in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
https://www.science.org/content/article/original-board-game-death
https://sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senet#/media/Súbor:SenetBoard-InscribedWithNameOfAmunhotepIII_BrooklynMuseum.png

⇑ Senet ⇗



⇒ Mehen ⇒

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Mehen_%28game%29#/media/File:-3000_Abydos _Spiel_der_Schlange_Mehen_anagoria.JPG
The game Mehen dates from the Predynastic period and the Old Kingdom, approximately 3000–2300 BCE. It is among the oldest known board games. The word ‘mehen’ means ‘coiled’. Mehen is also the name of a serpent deity who protected the sun god Ra on his journey.

 

We have prepared simple versions of both ancient Egyptian games as PDF files that you can print on A4 or A3 paper. The straightforward instructions let you start playing wherever you are. Even the youngest players can help creatively with cutting out and assembling the games, making the result more special to them and encouraging them to play. For a moment, you can also imagine being ancient Egyptians, who greatly enjoyed these games. We will gladly provide both SENET and MEHEN in return for a voluntary contribution. Your support helps cover part of the graphic design costs and supports our activities. We hope you enjoy these ancient games. Let us know at info[a]cerehis.sk or on our Facebook page 🙂
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