Nefertari playing Senet

The game of Senet (Ancient Egyptian: “znt”, meaning ‘passing’ and in Coptic: ⲥⲓⲛⲉ/sinə, meaning “passing, afternoon”), is a board game consisting of 10 or more pawns on a 30 square playing board.whose origins stretch back to the earliest dynasties of Ancient Egypt, was more than a pastime of the living; it was a symbolic rite of passage for the dead. Though it was indeed played during one’s earthly existence, often enjoyed by nobles and pharaohs alike, Senet took on a far more profound significance in the realm beyond. Depicted upon tomb walls, carved in reliefs, and delicately painted within Book of the Dead papyri, the game emerges not merely as entertainment, but as a sacred metaphor for the soul’s perilous journey through the afterlife.

The board itself, typically composed of thirty squares arranged in a 3-by-10 grid, functioned as a spiritual map. Its playing pieces, each moved according to throws of casting sticks, symbolised the soul navigating through the obstacles of the netherworld. Scenes often show the deceased seated alone before a Senet board, their posture contemplative, as if mid-play. In the sequence of funerary texts, this moment is frequently followed by the serene image of the deceased transformed into a Ba bird – a human-headed bird representing the soul-soaring freely toward Aaru, the fabled Field of Reeds, a paradisiacal afterlife realm.

This visual progression is no accident. To the Ancient Egyptians, the successful completion of the game was not merely about reaching the final square, but about demonstrating worthiness, triumphing over chaos, and attaining spiritual liberation. The board thus became a liminal space: part game, part ritualistic rite, part cosmic trial. It echoed the very structure of the afterlife itself, wherein the soul had to pass through gates, answer divine questions, and ultimately be judged before it could partake in eternal peace.

By the time of the New Kingdom (c. 1550 to 1070 B.C.), Senet had become so intertwined with theology that its iconography appeared in tombs of the highest elite, including pharaohs such as Tutankhamun. In this context, it was no longer a mundane object of leisure but a divine tool of passage, a board upon which fate and eternity were delicately played out beneath the watchful gaze of the gods.

Rules of Senet

Though the precise rules of Senet have been lost to time, scholars have reconstructed much of its gameplay through surviving boards, inscriptions, and written records. The game was typically played by two opponents, each with a set of pawns or counters – usually five to seven, moving across a grid of thirty squares arranged in three rows of ten. Movement was determined not by dice, but by the casting of flat sticks or knucklebones, whose fall dictated how many spaces a piece could advance.

Certain squares held special meanings: safe havens, penalty spaces, or points of transformation. The final five squares often bore particular significance, representing the stages of rebirth, purification, and entry into the divine realm. A player’s aim was to navigate all their pieces through the board, avoiding hazards and delays, and ultimately reaching the last square, an act mirroring the deceased soul’s journey through trials toward eternal serenity in the afterlife.

Senet boards have been found in homes, temples, and tombs, crafted from materials ranging from simple wood to elaborately inlaid ivory and ebony. Over time, particularly during the New Kingdom, the game evolved from a popular pastime into a sacred rite. This spiritual shift is most visible in funerary art, where Senet is no longer a contest between players, but a solitary endeavour, with the deceased seated alone before the board. Here, the game is no longer a competition, it becomes a symbolic ritual, a personal pilgrimage through the treacherous realms of the Duat, the Egyptian underworld.

In this sacred context, Senet was more than a game: it was a rehearsal for eternity. Its squares became stepping-stones to immortality, its tokens the very essence of the soul’s struggle to overcome death and attain a place amidst the blessed in the Field of Reeds. As such, it stands today not only as one of the oldest known board games in history, but as a remarkable testament to the spiritual imagination of Ancient Egypt.