Gaming Board Inscribed for Amenhotep III with Separate Sliding Drawer
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Object Label
The game called senet, or “passing,” was played for over three thousand years in Egypt. In it, two players rolled stick-like dice to advance their gaming pieces, which in this board were otherwise stored in a sliding drawer. The movement of pieces across the board symbolized the soul’s journey through the underworld, and the game was often included in the tomb.
Caption
Gaming Board Inscribed for Amenhotep III with Separate Sliding Drawer, ca. 1390–1353 B.C.E.. Faience, 2 3/16 x 3 1/16 x 8 1/4 in. (5.5 x 7.7 x 21 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 49.56a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 49.56a-b_view2_SL4.jpg)
Title
Gaming Board Inscribed for Amenhotep III with Separate Sliding Drawer
Date
ca. 1390–1353 B.C.E.
Dynasty
Dynasty 18
Period
New Kingdom
Geography
Reportedly from: Thebes, Egypt
Medium
Faience
Classification
Dimensions
2 3/16 x 3 1/16 x 8 1/4 in. (5.5 x 7.7 x 21 cm)
Credit Line
Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
Accession Number
49.56a-b
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
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Frequent Art Questions
What's this?
This is an unusual game set for an ancient Egyptian board game called senet.The material--faience--and the decoration to the sides are what set it apart. The decoration includes the name of the king Amunhotep III so scholars speculate that this set belonged to king himself.Senet was a popular game for the living and the dead in ancient Egypt. Two players would use marked sticks to determine the number of spaces to move their pieces.The stylized markings at the end of the board represent some of the obstacles the soul was believed to encounter on the journey to the afterlife.Tell me more.
This is an unusual example of a senet board. Few boards made from faience are known. This, coupled with the inscription, leads scholars to believe that this board belonged to King Amunhotep III himself.Is this a mosaic?
This game set is actually molded from a material called faience; the blue color is a glaze and the black may be a paint, that is applied to the material's white surface. Faience is a quartz-based paste that can be modeled and molded and then fired, like ceramic, at a high temperature to harden.thank youCan you explain what the drawings mean and represent?
What you see on this end of the board is actually a hieroglyphic inscription. The falcon to the right is shown standing on top of a representation of the palace. This symbol is known as a serekh and tells us that the writing is the king's name.The inscription reads "Kha-em-maat," which is believed to be an abbreviated version of Amunhotep III's Horus name, "Ka-nakht-kha-em-maat."Is that the eye of Horus?
There isn't an eye of Horus here. If you mean the sign that is in the top center, that is the hieroglyph "kha."The kha sign is based on a hill with the sun's rays rising behind it.What are these symbols?
These symbols on the sides are "tyt" or the Isis knot which is a protective symbol, and "djed" which means endurance and strength.The djed pillar is said to be based on the spine of Osiris, the legendary first king of Egypt.
Thank you so much. Why is it repetitive?You're welcome! It is common in Egyptian art to create repeating bands of these two signs, or possibly incorporating "ankh" and "was." When you see these bands it means that it is about the concepts that the signs represent (protection and strength) rather than the sounds that they would stand for in an inscription.Do these mean anything?
These are the pieces that players would use to play the game of senet. The different shapes are for the two different players. These are relatively plain versions of senet pieces; we know of other examples that are in the shapes of people and animals. But these don't really have a symbolic significance.What do the four symbols on top mean?
The symbols in the last couple of spaces indicate that these spaces are somehow special in game play. Scholars don't know exactly what they mean because no written rules for senet have been found. I'll share with you what we think the symbols mean though...The first sign (starting from the left) is the hieroglyph "nefer," which means good. Scholars have determined that this space has something to do with goodness, truth, or cosmic balance (known as ma'at in ancient Egypt).Based on other game boards with more elaborate decoration, scholars have determined that the x has something to do with water, possibly a hippo hunt.The three lines are, of course, three or many of something, likely souls or parts of souls. (The soul is made up of three parts, the ba, the ka, and the akh, according to ancient Egyptian beliefs.)The two lines certainly represent two people or deities. They may be friends or the sisters Isis and Nephthys, the archetypal mourners.The final square is blank here, but is decorated on more elaborate examples. In this highly stylized version, the fact that it is the last square may be enough to know its function. The decoration that is known for the last square seems to refer to birds–maybe even Horus–and beginning or flying.Thank you so much!
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