This is a 3,000-year-old games box from ancient
Egypt. Board games were very popular among all levels of society, especially
the game of senet, or ‘passing’. The game was first played in the Predynastic
period (6000–3150 BC), and a form of it is still played in Egypt today.
Senet could be played with highly decorated sets, plain sets
or simply on a grid of three rows of ten squares scratched in the dust or on a
stone. Each player had a set of seven pieces. The players threw sticks or
knuckle bones to move around the board via the squares indicating good or bad
fortune. The object of the game was to safely navigate all the pieces off the
board, while preventing the opponent from doing the same.
