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Gaming Board, ca. 1938–1630 B.C.E.. Faience, 1 5/16 x 9 3/16 x 4 1/8 in. (3.3 x 23.3 x 10.5 cm). Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 36.2. Creative Commons-BY.
Senet (the passing) was one of the most popular and enduring board games in ancient Egypt. Players moved their gaming pieces along a rectangular board of thirty squares arranged in three parallel rows. Although this blue glazed faience board resembles the traditional senet playing surface, it has only twenty-one squares. Perhaps it was intended as a funerary offering that merely represented a senet board. Although the board and “pawns” displayed here may have formed a set, they could have been assembled from several sources.