Ancient Egypt: the first board games
Excavating ancient burials, scientists have found unusual "boards" with holes, lines, and various patterns. Some finds of such objects were even in the burials of great people, princesses and pharaohs.
Further research proved the first hypotheses of scientists that the games of ancient people were ancient board games that developed the players' thinking, the creation of special tactics and the ability to find the right solutions in various situations, not only during the game, but also in life.
In the religious texts of the special "Book of the Dead", in chapter 17, there is a mention of an important game of that time, which was called "senet", which in translation meant passing. In those days, this game was associated with the journey of the soul of a deceased person along a cleansing path in the kingdom of the dead. The soul that passed all the trials united with the God of the Sun and received the highest bliss as a result of its correct life and atonement for all its sins. Many of the frescoes that have been found depict the greats of ancient Egypt playing this game with the "gods."
Previously, a person knew that his soul was immortal and did not die, but was tested in another world. The game of senet was considered an important element of preparation for such tests, because the passage of the path along the river of life is associated with various unexpected accidents, overcoming which will be the first experience for further testing in the afterlife. The player threw sticks and, according to the result, moved chips along the board, overcoming various labyrinths of the game, returning and ascending, passing the emerging traps. He was preparing to go through the maze after death, and as a result of some accident, some players were lucky, which was the reason for divine help to this person and the patronage of higher powers.
At the beginning of the 20th century, scientists discovered, among other objects during excavations, interesting boxes made of stone, wood, ceramics. They were oblong in shape with three rows of squares with pictures. Pharaohs, and even young Tutankhamun, were great connoisseurs of the Senet game and loved to play it. A special table was found with lion paws in place of the legs, decorated with gold. The counters are made in the form of turrets and cones, for the winners, figures of animals, which in the further game helped the owner to get victories.
Senet was played in Egypt for over 3 thousand years, but with the decline of the entire ancient civilization, it was forgotten. Only a few principles of the game were taken by the Arabs of Sudan, where the Bedouins play a similar game of tab.
The essence of the ancient game is similar to modern board games, where chips and a dice with points are used to knock out those who play the game. In Egypt, the number of game points was shown by special sticks with pictures, which were thrown by the players and then moved their chips. The highest number of dropped points was 5 and the pieces on the board had to go a path like the letter S, back and forth, gradually leaving the game. Of course, there is no exact description of this game, but the main task is to quickly complete the entire path along the board.
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The field for the game was 3x10, each player had 5 chips and they were placed in the top row. At the end of the row there were places with special hieroglyphs - houses with their own laws, different from the rest of the places on the board. There is even a legend about this, which formed the basis for the creation of this game.
The sky goddess Nut met at night with her lover Geb, the god of the earth. The sun god Ra found out about this and became very angry, deciding to punish the goddess. He forbade her to have children on any of the 360 days of the year. This curse could not be undone, but the goddess asked the god of wisdom to help her. Playing senet with the Moon, the god of wisdom Thoth won 5 days and there were 365 days in a year. On these days, the sun god could not spread his curse, and the sky goddess Nut could give birth on these days. They were delivered at the end of the year, and during these days, the goddess of the sky, five junior gods of the Great Nine were born: Osiris, Horus Behdetsky, Set, Isis, Nebethet. People received a new game of senet from the god of wisdom and an additional 5 days a year.
Today, senet-based games serve the development of children who play these board games. Senet is a kind of game, a bit like backgammon, but it differs in its main task: as much as possible to "hack" the opponent's chips, lock them, not allowing them to move and use the special properties of "houses" to conquer space and numerical superiority. Degree movement at the beginning of the game gives way to action in the middle and a big survival race at the end of the game. Accidental luck, or vice versa, a lucky number dropped plus a favorable action "at home" can lead to victory from the most unfavorable position in the game. The game captures the imagination of any player, makes you scroll through the possible options that should oust the opponent's chips and bring victory.
Finding various details from the game of senet, some scholars looked for the roots of the origin of this game in the Sumerian writing, in their games. But the modern interpretation of the Senet game and the Sumerian game "ur" shows the difference in the very principles of the game and the differences in the structure of the game fields. The Sumerian game is shorter, the pieces come into play gradually, the playing fields are divided and the pieces move in a trajectory like a loop. When playing senet, the opponents put all the chips at once, the length of the track is longer and it is bent for greater length, “houses” are grouped on the finish track, influencing the capabilities of their owner, increasing the incentive to win.
Delving into the basic principles of the game, you can decide that it is very simple. But this is not the case. The game makes you think, develop your own tactics of moves, fighting against the enemy's numbers and hope for luck when throwing the dice.
Lipanova Lyudmila Anatolyevna