"Senet" Board

Description Egyptians enjoyed playing board games, especially senet, or "passing." During the 18th dynasty, the game acquired religious significance, which transformed it into a simulation of the soul's journey through the underworld to achieve immortality. Throw sticks, much like dice, determined a player's moves, and winning required both skill and luck. This senet game board of 30 squares required 14 game pieces, like these spool- and cone-shaped pieces.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
6/23/1982	Treatment	cleaned

Provenance Rev. William MacGregor Collection Sale, Sotheby's, London, 1922, no. 263 [as from Abydos]; Dikran Kelekian, Paris and New York, 1922, by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1923, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Translation] First of the Priests of Amun, One who is in the place of the Temple of Amun-Ré (an acolyte of Amun-Ré), King of the gods, Nesi-amun-ipet, the Justified of Voice, the gift of Amun himself.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1923