Feb 19, 2020 23:00:00

A board game may hold the key to solving the mysteries of ancient Egypt

'

Seneto ' is a board game that is said to have been played in ancient Egypt around 3500 BC. Seneto is said to have been a game of religious implications, not just entertainment, suggesting that it could be a missing link to fill the void of ancient Egyptian cultural history.

Passing from the Middle to the New Kingdom: A Senet Board in the Rosicrucian Museum-Walter Crist,
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0307513319896288

Ancient game board could be a missing link tied to the Egyptian Book of the Dead | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/board-game-tied-to-egyptian-book-of-dead.html

It is said that Seneto dates back to the pre-Dynasty of Egypt around 3500 BC, and is said to have been the origin of backgammon . Although the detailed rules of Seneto are unknown, it is believed that the game was played by moving pieces on a board on which a square with 3 columns x 10 rows was placed.

by

evan p. cordes

It is also believed that Seneto has evolved from a mere entertainment to a religious ceremony in ancient Egypt's 5000-year history. For example, since the New Kingdom of Egypt , Coffin ( Hitoshi ) Contains the book of the dead, stating, `` From the dead to eternal life to the paradise governed by the sun god Ra '', in which Senate is mentioned as a talisman carrying the dead . However, there are many gaps in the history of Seneto, and it is not known exactly how it has changed.

The following figure shows the Senate board as seen from the player. A is for the Old Kingdom of Egypt , B is for the Second Middle Age of Egypt, C is for the Early Egyptian New Age, D is for the Late Egyptian New Kingdom, and E is for the Third Middle Egypt to the Late Egyptian Dynasty . It is arranged in alphabetical order according to the flow. The figure shows that the board orientation has changed over time, and that the squares, which were just sticks and symbols in C and D, are now decorated with hieroglyphs . Hieroglyphs are sacred characters that are only engraved on temples and tombs, indicating that C and D Seneto have religious significance.

The Senate board, owned by the Rosicrucian

Egyptian Museum (REM) in California, was purchased from a British collector in 1947 and had not been surveyed, including radiocarbon dating . Walter Christo, an anthropologist at the University of Maastricht, claims that the REM-owned Senate is a 'missing link in the history of ancient Egyptian culture.'

At the top of the figure below is the Senate owned by REM. The center is Senate, owned by the Rijksmuseum, which is said to belong to the era of

Thutmose III , the sixth generation pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt (New Kingdom of Egypt) .The bottom of the figure is owned by the British Museum, It is a Senate excavated from the grave of Queen Hatshepsut , the fifth generation of the 18th dynasty of Egypt.

Looking at the REM-owned Seneto, the upper left shows two males, three males, water, and a hieroglyph showing goodness. The orientation of the board is the same as in the second half of Egypt, but the use of hieroglyphs is the same as in the style of the New Kingdom of Egypt.

Christo suggests that REM-owned Senate may be `` a stage of transition from mere entertainment to religious ceremonies, '' with the features of the Second Middle Egypt and the decoration of the early Egyptian New Kingdom. 'If a more detailed dating is known by radiocarbon dating, it may reveal the lost cultural history of ancient Egypt.'