Ancient Egyptian Games
by Erin
Ancient Egyptians were hard workders, but they also had lots of playtime for board games and toys.
Of course, not everybody played all games. A game like Senet was played mostly by adults and wealthy people. Mancala was probably played more by poor families because they could just dig holes in the earth and use stones as game pieces. Children in poor families could play with tops because they were very cheap to buy. A ball or rattle could probably be made of clay from the Nile. Wooden dolls or animals were more expensive.
Toys were almost always made of wood and/or clay. Tops, though, were made of powdered quartz that was shaped in a mold. Paddle dolls were made of wood and had a paddle-like shape that was decorated with paint and with hair made out of clay beads strung on twine.
One of the first Ancient Egyptian games ever found was Snake. The stone board represented a snake coiled with its head in the centre. The winner was the first person who moved their piece from the snake's tail to its head in the centre. The peices were often carved with an early Ancient Egyptian pharoah's name.
About Senet
Senet was a popular Ancient Egyptian board game. It was played mainly by wealthy adults. The game symbolized the struggle of good against evil. The evil forces tried to stop you from reaching the Kingdom of the god Osiris. The game was very important.
King Tut was buried with 4 Senet boards. They were made of ivory and ebony. They were made with a drawer for game pieces and stood on 4 legs carved like bull's feet. More commonly, the board was made of plain, undecorated wood. The pieces would have been made of stone or wood. Almost all boards were made with a drawer.
Rules of Senet
Senet is a two-player board game. Each player uses 5 game pieces of different designs or colour. The object of the game is to get all of your pieces off of the board and stop your opponent from doing the same.
The board is made up of 30 squares. At the start of the game, all pieces are placed on squares 1-10, scarabs on even squares, suns on odd squares.
Dice sticks are used for scoring. Throw the sticks in the air and count the number of blue sides facing up and the number of yellow. The moves you can make are: 1 yellow = 1move, 2 yellow = 2moves etc. and 4 blues = 6 moves.
The first person to score a 1 goes first and therefore uses the scarab pieces. The first move is always from square 10 to square 11. Then the moves are of your own accord. Your turn lasts as long as you throw a 1, 4, or 6. If you throw a 2, or 3 you make that move and give the dice sticks to the other player. They must move first from square 9 to square 10.
There are many dangers in this board game. If your piece lands on a square occupied by your opponenet, or vice-versa, the pieces switch places. It is a good idea to group your pieces together, because two pieces of the same colour on squares side-by-side cannot be switched. A "block" is formed by 3 pieces side-by-side. An opponents piece cannot pass a block, but your piece can. A piece must move forward if possible - even onto square 27 (explained later). If all pieces are blocked, they must move backwards. If you cannot move at all, you miss a turn.
Squares 26, 28, and 29 are safe squares, because no piece can switch places with you on them. If you opponent lands on a safe square that you occupy, they move back a space and use the extra move on another piece.
Square 27 is a water trap. If your piece lands on it, it must move back to square 15. If that is occupied, the piece must start over.
Square 30 is the last one, but all pieces must move off the board for you to win. If you throw a higher number than needed, use the extra moves on another piece. You may not move any pieces off the board unless all your pieces are off the first 10 squares.
Ouija
Ouija boards are Ancient Egyptian luck boards. They were used to tell the future.
Many people think that Ouija is an evil spirit. I have played Ouija many times and I'm here to tell you that he is nothing to be afraid of. Its wierd to have your hands being pulled around a board, but it certainly isn't dangerous.
Sometimes Ouija does wierd things, like zapping all over the board and landing on yes or no instead of just moving to one.
The way Ouija works is this: Two people place the board on their knees. A heart-shaped "table" is placed on the board. The two people place all fingers and their thumbs on the table. The first question you always ask is, "Ouija, are you there?" and he answers yes, or doesn't answer at all.
Children's Toys
Ancient Egyptian children played with many toys. One of the more popular ones was balls made of hollow painted clay and filled with seeds. They played ball games standing, jumping high in the air, or even piggyback. These games were popular, especially with girls.
Dolls were made out of wood, with twine threaded with clay beads for hair. These were called paddle dolls. They may have been for children, or they also may have been to accompany the deceased in the afterlife.
Toy animals with moving parts were very popular. A wooden toy mouse had a pull string to make the tail go up and dowm. Toy horses wer e popular in Roman Egypt because horses were used for hunting and in battle. A carved cat or lion was popular for its movable lower jaw on a string,
Tops were made of powdered quartz put in a mold and then glazed. These were inexpensive and therefore could be found in most poor homes. They spun by pulling a string or twisting fingers. Popular games for children were leapfrog and tug-of-war.
Mancala
Mancala is played with 7 pits per player - 6 playing pits and 1 score pit, called the Kalaha. At the start of the game each of the 12 playing pits contain 3 seeds, beads, stones or any other small object. To play, the player chooses 1 pit to take seeds from. Then they go along, dropping 1 seed in each pit along the way in a counter clockwise direction. If you don not reach the end of your row and all the seeds are out of your hand, you do not put any in your Kalaha. If you do not reach the end of your row or go past, drop all seeds but 1 in the pits and put the remaining one in your Kalaha. Seeds put in your Kalaha are points for you. Seeds are not put in your opponents Kalaha by you. The game ends when one side of the board is empty of seeds. The player with seeds left on their side of the board puts them in their Kalaha. The winner is the person with the most seeds at the end of the game. Note: The player using the right Kalaha uses the bottom pits while the one on the left takes from the top pits.