Senet

Senet is an ancient Egyptian board game played on a grid of thirty squares, with pieces moved according to throws of sticks or other casting pieces.

Senet board: The thirty-square playing surface of senet, usually arranged in three rows of ten squares. Its layout defines the route pieces travel across the game.
Predynastic Egypt: The period of Egyptian history before the formation of the dynastic state, ending around 3100 BCE. Early senet evidence places the game's beginnings near the start of Egyptian history.
Book of the Dead: A collection of ancient Egyptian funerary spells intended to guide and protect the dead. New Kingdom spells connect senet imagery with a deceased person's passage through the afterlife.
Tutankhamun's tomb: The royal tomb of the Eighteenth-Dynasty pharaoh Tutankhamun, discovered largely intact in 1922. Its burial goods included several senet boards, including elaborate examples.
Senet pieces: Small playing pieces moved across the senet board by two players. Players advanced these markers through the board's thirty squares.
First Dynasty of Egypt: The first ruling dynasty of ancient Egypt, conventionally dated to the early third millennium BCE. Senet boards and playing pieces appear in Egyptian elite burials from this early period.
Egyptian afterlife: The range of beliefs ancient Egyptians held about existence after death and the fate of the dead. Senet's funerary imagery was interpreted within these beliefs.
Senet board from the tomb of Amenhotep III: An elaborate senet board associated with the burial of the Eighteenth-Dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III. Its luxury materials show senet equipment made for royal use.
Casting sticks: Marked or unmarked sticks thrown to produce outcomes used in games of chance. Their throws determined how far senet pieces could move.
Hesy-Re: An Egyptian official of the Third Dynasty, buried at Saqqara in a decorated tomb. His tomb includes an early image often identified as a senet board.

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