Game Piece
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
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.
MEDIUM
Faience
DATES
ca. 1938â1700 B.C.E.
DYNASTY
Dynasty 12 to early Dynasty 13
PERIOD
Middle Kingdom
DIMENSIONS
7/8 x Diam. 5/8 in. (2.3 x 1.6 cm)
ACCESSION NUMBER
36.3.10
CREDIT LINE
Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
PROVENANCE
Archaeological provenance not yet documented; by 1934, acquired by the Scheurleer Museum, the Hague, the Netherlands; 1936, purchased from the Scheurleer Museum by the Brooklyn Museum.
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MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
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