Senet

Sympkyn of the Moor

Number of players: 2
Type of game: Boardgame
Period: 2686 B.C. +

History

Senet or senat is a board game from ancient Egypt that consists of 10 or more pawns on a 30-square playing board. The earliest representation of senet is dated to c. 2620 BCE from the Mastaba of Hesy-Re, while similar boards and hieroglyphic signs are found even earlier, including in the Levant in the Early Bronze Age II period. Even though the game has a 2000-year history in Egypt, there appears to be very little variation in terms of key components. This can be determined by studying the various senet boards that have been found by archaeologists, as well as depictions of senet being played throughout Egyptian history on places like tomb walls and papyrus scrolls. However, the game fell out of use following the Roman period, and its original rules are the subject of conjecture.

Rules

To play you need

  • A board.
  • Five counters for each player (10 in total). We call the pieces ‘spools’ and ‘cones’. One player has the spools and the other has the cones.
  • Four throw-sticks or a dice.

There are lots of different reconstructions of the game’s rules, so here is one variation.

Play moves from left to right on the top row, then right to left on the second row, then left to right on the bottom row like this:

  1. Place the pieces on the top row (squares 1 –10) of the board alternating between spools and cones.
  2. The youngest throws the sticks or rolls the dice first, then the other player. Whoever gets the higher number starts.
  3. Throw the sticks or roll the dice to move one of your pieces.
  4. One square can only have one piece on it at a time.
  5. You can’t move your piece to a square already occupied by one of your own pieces.
  6. Pieces can jump over other pieces.
  7. Pieces can swap places with your opponent’s piece if you land on its square.
  8. Pieces cannot be swapped if they are next to a piece that is the same as them –or two in a row. A row of three or more of the same pieces together can form a ‘blockade’. This cannot be jumped or swapped by an opponent but you can jump over your own blockade.
  9. You must make a move if it is possible.
  10. If no move is possible, you pass your turn.
  11. The first player to get all their pieces off the board wins.

Special Squares

• Square 15 is the ‘House of Life’. This is a safe square; a piece cannot be swapped off it.

• You must land on Square 26, the ‘House of Happiness’ in order to progress further. This is a safe square.

• Square 27 is the ‘House of Water’. Landing on this square sends the piece back to Square 15, the ‘House of Life’.

• Pieces can leave the board from Squares 26 (‘House of Happiness’), Square 28 (three ba-birds), Square 29 (two men), and Square 30 (‘House of Ra-Horakhty’) if the correct number of spaces is thrown. These are all safe squares.