Ancient Egyptian games: Children's games, toys, board games
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Line drawings after pictures at Beni Hassan |
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PlayChildren's games
Egyptians enjoyed the good life and playing was part of it. Children and adults are often depicted involved in games. Typically boys' games were rougher than those of the girls, but the latter were not above fighting and hair pulling, like the pair in the picture on the right fighting during the corn harvest
Excerpt from a wall painting in the tomb of Menna at Thebes. The way boys play doesn't seem to have changed much over the millennia. Whenever the number of boys was sufficient, they would form two opposing teams. One game seems to have been played as follows: Every boy held fast to the one standing in front of him, while the leaders stood opposite each other, trying to wrestle the opponent to the ground, while those behind cheered them on. Infractions of the rules were often punished with violence against the offender: kicking and punching, sometimes even tying him up and flogging him with sticks. Among the depictions of daily life in the tomb of Ptahhotep at Saqqara there are pictures of boys playing a variety of games. The rules are not always evident and our own knowledge of similar games we used to play may lead us astray. 
J. E. Quibell et al., Egyptian Research Account 1896 The Tomb of Ptahhetep, Plate 33
The two boys on the right seem to be aiming their stakes at a target lying on the ground. To their left another twosome are stting in the lotus position, holding their toes in their hands. The aim of this exercise escapes us, unless it is a competition to see who can sit there longest or who can upset the other by pushing. The boy below carrying two toddlers on his back as if they were carrying baskets is apparently playing the role of a donkey. Beside them are two boys engaged in what looks like a combination of tug-of-war and wrestling. The game beside this may be a game still played in Lower Egypt today. Two boys sit opposite each other with their arms stretched out forming an obstacle over which the other children have to jump. The jumper has to announce when he is about to jump and the two sitting boys try to catch his legs making him fall. 
J. E. Quibell et al., Egyptian Research Account 1896 The Tomb of Ptahhetep, Plate 33
On the right a boy is balancing on the shoulders of three of his comrades, while beside them, under the inscription Go round 4 times a number of boys try to revolve around two boys serving as axle. The game beside this one bears the inscription Look, you have kicked me (?). My sides are tired. and I have caught you, which suggests a somewhat rough game. 
Racing, whether on their knees or carrying another child on their backs, and other activities including running and catching each other, have always found favour with children, as have feats of dexterity, strength and balance: Boys and girls wrestled or sat piggyback on somebody else trying not to fall off. Some games, like the one the girls are playing in the picture on the right, were played with implements, and balls were the most popular among these. |
With rubber unknown, balls were made of a leather skin filled with chaff, dry papyrus reeds tied tightly together, string or rags. Boys again preferred team sports (like the hockey like game in the left margin), while girls apparently went in for games which were less fiercely competitive.
Marble games are very ancient. A white and a black stone marble and three little stones forming an arch seem to have been used in one such game which may have been played like a sort of mini-skittles.
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 Rag doll, stuffed with papyrus and rags |
ToysThe oldest toys ever found in Egypt, little toy boats carved from wood, came from a child's tomb dating to the Predynastic Period. From the same period baked clay animals and rattles have been discovered.
Lovely toys were made by the ancient Egyptians from wood [5], bone, ivory, ceramics and stone. Little children played with dolls of Nubians, dolls with jointed limbs [4], toy animals, spinning tops and mechanical toys like crocodiles with moving jaws and Jumping Jacks. At el Lisht a toy made up of three carved ivory dancers was found. The figures were set in an ivory stand and could be made to spin by pulling strings [17].
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But not everybody could afford intricate and expensive toys. Clay which was readily available, was formed into dolls [2], toy animals [1] and other play things [3].
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 Queen Nefertari playing Senet Excerpt Courtesy Jon Bodsworth |
Animals
Children love playing with animals, little Egyptians were no exception. One animal seems to have attracted their attention more than others, if the rather frequent depictions are anything to go by: the hoopoe, a colourful little bird, is often shown being carried about, generally held, somewhat brutally, by its wings.
Boy holding hoopoe. Board games
Board games were popular with Egyptians of all ages and all social classes though depictions show only adults playing them. A favourite during the Old Kingdom was Mehen , the game of the snake [13] which was played on a one-legged table. The board bore the picture of a coiled snake, either carved or inlaid. The body of the snake was divided into squares. Up to six players used three lions, three lionesses, white and red spheres, which were ranged in a box when the game was over. Like all other ancient Egyptian games, its rules are unknown. More than a dozen sets of this game were found in first dynasty tombs, two of them with beautifully carved ivory lions and lionesses. With them other objects were found: some like little ivory houses with pointed roofs, some looking like todays' chess king and rook. Other pieces were cylindrical, with a little sphere on top.
A roughly made, Middle Kingdom game board of clay has 29 holes along two paths, some of which were marked and others connected by lines was found by Petrie. Game pieces which had been given geometrically simple forms like cones or spools [11], became more elaborate [12]. Influenced by the militaristic mood of the New Kingdom they were sometimes shaped as archers or bound prisoners of war. Merneptah is depicted playing with jackal shaped pieces. From the Hellenist period onwards game pieces were called "dogs" in Egypt.
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Picture sources: [ ] Girls fighting: Lionel Casson, Ancient Egypt, excerpt [ ] Nefertari playing Senet: Courtesy Jon Bodsworth [ ] Toy cat: adapted from Vom Ackerbau zum Zahnrad, rororo Verlag [ ] Mehen board: Adapted from Les merveilles du Louvre, Hachette [ ] Senet board: Adapted from Lionel Casson, Ancient Egypt [ ] Die, Roman Period: Petrie Museum website Footnotes: 
[15] Genevieve Ward Swenson of the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, New York City, has kindly sent me this email: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has in its collection a 12th-Dynasty (Middle Kingdom) game board with ten game pieces - five hounds and five jackals. The museum dates the piece to the reign of Amenemhet IV (r. 1814-1805 BCE) and calls it the game of 'Hounds and Jackals.' It is referenced on page 24 of Jaromir Malek's Egyptian Art (Phaidon, 2000)..
The 'Hounds and Jackals' board on the right is even older, dating from the 9th dynasty. |
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|  | [12] Games found at Ballas by J.E.Quibel and W.M.Flinders Petrie |
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| These are just suggestions for further reading. I do not assume any responsibility for the availability or content of these websites. | ||
 | [1] Mud toys made by children: Crocodile (12th dynasty), Petrie Museum | |
| [2] Standing clay toy human figure with pinched face and impressed necklace (12th dynasty), Petrie Museum | |
| [3] Mud toys made by children; disc, with central prick and one circle of pricks on both sides (12th dynasty), Petrie Museum | |
| [4] Wooden doll (less face) that once had jointed legs (12th dynasty), Petrie Museum | |
| [5] Upper part of wooden doll (12th dynasty), Petrie Museum | |
| [6] Blue faience doll (12th dynasty), Petrie Museum | |
| [7] Stick for playing tipcat (Middle Kingdom), Petrie Museum | |
| [8] Wooden tipcats (Middle Kingdom), Petrie Museum | |
| [9] Pottery game-board, Petrie Museum | |
| [10] Limestone senet-board, Petrie Museum | |
| [11] Playing piece (12th dynasty), Petrie Museum | |
| [13] Limestone 'serpent-game' board (Archaic Period), Petrie Museum | |
| [14] Wooden gaming board for "Hounds and Jackals" (9th dynasty), Petrie Museum, UC31384 | |
| [16] Limestone Senet board (12th dynasty), Petrie Museum | |
| [18] A selection of ancient Egyptian toys (Mark T. Rigby) | |
| Toys and games in ancient Egypt by Dorothy L. Eady | |
| Los juegos y los juguetes by Manuel Crenes | |
| A selection of ancient Egyptian games (Mark T. Rigby) | |
| Ancient Egyptian 'Mehen' | |
| On-Line Egyptian Games | |
| | Games and videos about ancient Egypt: Senet, Hounds and Jackals, Mehen etc. | |
| Computer games based on ancient Egyptian game boards | |
| Senet, the Game of Passing by Rhonda K. Hageman | |
| Feedback: Please report broken links, mistakes - factual or otherwise, etc. to me. Thanks. | ||
Tipcat, in which a piece of wood with tapered ends is struck at one end to make it spring up and is knocked away while still in the air, may have been played during the Middle Kingdom [
Senet was a game for two with five to seven pieces per player. It seems to have been a game of skill and chance, perhaps akin to backgammon and was widely played by people of all social classes.
The Game of 20 squares (possibly called aseb by the Egyptians) is sometimes found on the reverse side of the Senet board and was played with the same pieces. An ancient game dating from Old Kingdom times it survived, unlike the Mehen, into to the Late Period. The oldest extant boards were made during the 17th dynasty.
