The Tutankhamun Exhibit Senet Game Board In the introduction to
Chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead, playing a game called senet
is described as one of the occupations of the deceased person in
the next world, and the vignette accompanying the chapter
represents him seated, often in the company of his wife, at a
checkerboard but without an opponent. Like so many other
activities ascribed to the next life, playing this game was also
something that the deceased had done in his lifetime. It must
have a long history, because it is represented occasionally in
the scenes on the walls of Old Kingdom tombs, a thousand years
before the time of Tutankhamun, sometimes in association with
music and other kinds of entertainment. On the standard board
there were generally three rows of ten squares, five of which
might be inscribed with hieroglyphics; each player had five or
seven playing pieces, frequently conical in shape. To judge from
the number of boards in Tutankhamun's tomb, the game must have
been one of his favorite