This study is a revision of the doctoral dissertation, "The Historical Development of the Game of Senet and its Significance for Egyptian Religion" (University of Chicago, 1990). Over the years, it benefited greatly from the assistance of many colleagues and friends. The members of my dissertation committee were generous with their time and insight: Edward Wente, Janet Johnson, Robert Biggs, and the late Klaus Baer and Helene Kantor. I am particularly grateful to Robert Biggs, who stepped in unhesitatingly and replaced Klaus after the latter's untimely death in 1987.
I originally performed most of the field work for this study in 1979 and 1980 while employed by the Oriental Institute Epigraphic Survey at Chicago House, Luxor. Thereafter, further field work was made possible by a grant from the University of Chicago through its overseas grant program for dissertation research. Between 1984 and 1991, I was able to add to my corpus of senet boards during various stays working in Egypt on expeditions.
Very special thanks are due to the Supreme Council for Egyptian Antiquities for permitting me to conduct research in the necropoli of Giza, Saqqara, Abu Sir, Western Thebes, and Aswan. Many thanks also to officials in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, for their permission to conduct research there and for their active assistance in the course of that work. The Oriental Institute provided me with significant logistical support for my research in Chicago. Similarly, I wish to acknowledge Dorothea Arnold of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as Timothy Kendall, then of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for allowing me to examine gameboards in their respective collections and for providing photographs for study. Likewise, the British Museum, London, T. G. H. James and Vivian Davies, deserve special mention for the consideration which they showed to me and for allowing me complete access to the collection of Egyptian and Mesopotamian gameboards.
Other individuals or institutions who rendered advice or provided information in one form or another were: Eugene Cruz-Uribe, Helen Jacquet, Herman teVelde, Peter Dorman, Richard Jasnow, Joseph Manning, John Darnell, Geoffrey Martin, Rainer Stadelmann, Laszlo Kakosy, John Larson, Jeanny Vorys Canby, May Trad, Robert Ritner, Dianne Campoy, William Murnane, Peter Lacovara, Carolyn Andrews, Irving Finkel, Henk Milde, Karl Seyfried, the Ashmolean Museum, Jaromir Malek and the Griffith Institute, Labib Habachi, the Inspectorates of Antiquities in Giza, Saqqara, Mallawi, Assiut, Qena, Luxor (East and West Banks), Edfu, and Aswan, the Zagazig Museum, the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, the University of Missouri Museum of Art and Archaeology, and the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Kairo.
In its early phases, this study was facilitated by the advice of the late Henri Wild and Winfried Needler who freely shared so much of their data with me. Sadly, neither lived to see the completion of the dissertation. W. Raymond Johnson, who has been a constant friend, inked in several of the drawings, including the synoptic edition of the great game-text. Mr. Chuck Jones, director of the Research Archives of the Oriental Institute, deserves very special mention for his assistance, empathy, and the answers to my many bibliographical questions over the years.
I must also acknowledge the unflagging moral, professional and technical support of the staff of the Epigraphic Survey at Chicago House, while I was employed there.
Chapter I. Toward a Definition of Senet
Defining the Game of Senet
The System of Numbering the Squares
The Typology of Senet Boards
Slab-style Senet Board
Graffito Senet Board
Box-type Senet Board
Peripheral Equipment for the Senet Game
Draughtsmen
Casting Sticks
Astragali
Teetotem Dice
Conclusion
Chapter II. Senet from the Predynastic Period Through the Middle Kingdom
Senet and Draught-Games Prior to the Old Kingdom
Senet in the Old and Middle Kingdoms
The Mastaba of Hzy-R'
The Mastaba of R' -Htp
The Senet Boards of el-Hawawish
The Coffin of the Lady 'It
Senet Boards of the Old and Middle Kingdoms
Graffito Boards
Synthesis of the Board Decoration
Representations of Senet-playing
Senet-scenes of the Old and Middle Kingdoms
The Model Boats of Nfwi and Mk.t-R' and the
Orientation of the Players
Synthesis of the Senet-Scenes
Senet in the Coffin Texts
CT Spell 405: Communication with the Hereafter
CT Spell 1019: Passing Through the Necropolis
A Spiritual Meaning for Gaming Draughtsmen
Chapter III. The Senet-Related Inscriptions of the New Kingdom and Later
Introduction
Defining the Textual Sources
The Game-Texts: Generic Description
The Great Game-Text
Documentation of the Variants
pCairo 58037
Tomb of Inherkhau (TT No. 359)
pTurin 1.775
The Great Game-Text:Translation and Commentary
General Remarks
Translation
Textual and Grammatical Commentary
The Tjaynefer Game-Text
Documentation and Description
Text A
Translation
Textual and Grammatical Commentary
Text B
Translation
Textual and Grammatical Commentary
Text C
Translation
Textual and Grammatical Commentary
Heading from the Tomb of Amenemopet (TT No. 265)
Description
Translation
Textual and Grammatical Commentary
The Petosiris Game-text
Documentation and Description
Translation and Commentary
Translation
Textual and Grammatical Commentary
Chapter IV. Analysis and Synthesis of the Great Game-Text
The Great Game-Text as Religious Process
The Funerary Character of the Great Game-Text
The Concept of "Passing" and Notions about Initiation
in the Senet Process
The Senet Game and the Nature of "Passing"
The Senet-playing in the Tomb of Sennedjem (TT No. 1)
Senet, "Passage" and Initiation
The Origins of Afterlife Passage in the Senet Game
Mehen, God of Mysteries
Mehen as Ally
Mehen, Foremost of Senet
Mehen as Guide
Mehen as Initiator
Thoth, First of the Thirty
The Council of the Thirty: History, Cosmology and
Meaning for Senet
Chapter V. Isolating a Senet-Based Religious Ritual
Introduction
The Pattern of Decoration in Squares No. 26-30 of the
Senet Board
The Sequence of the Squares on New Kingdom Senet Boards
The Game-Squares of ROM 922.17 (D.195)
Senet-Scenes of the New Kingdom
Senet in Book of the Dead Chapter 17
Coffin Text Spell 335: Predecessor of BD 17
Book of the Dead Chapter 17
The Vignettes of BD 17 and Representations of Playing Senet
The Dissociation of Senet from Book of the Dead Chapter 17
Turin Papyrus 1.775 and the Senet Ritual
The Sequence of Squares in the Great Game-Text
The Orientation of the Game-Squares
The Unified Character of pTurin 1.775
The Text of Tjaynefer and Amenemopet
The Ritualized Usage of the Senet Board
The Manipulation of pTurin 1.775
The Physical Evidence
The Decorative Evidence
Chapter VI. The Later History of Senet and Its Calendrical Associations
The Later History of Senet
Rhampsinitus and the Game of Senet
Senet and Setne Khamwas 1
Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 470
The Calendrical Implications of the Senet Game
The Houses of Thoth and Horus
The Sixth Day Feast
The Feast of the Mid-Month
Senet and the Reconciliation of Solar and Lunar Cosmologies
Chapter VII. Conclusions: Senet in a Religious Context
Synopsis
The Evidence of a Senet Ritual
The Essence of the Ritual
The Circumstances and Location of the Ritual
The Participants in the Senet Ritual
Passage and Renewal: The Underlying Themes
Appendices:
A. Corpus of Ancient Egyptian Senet Boards
B. List of Decorated Squares No. 26-30 of Egyptian Senet Boards
C. List of Senet-scenes of the New Kingdom and Later
D. List of Citations: Senet References in CT Spell 335 and Chapter 17
of the Book of the Dead
E. Selected Scenes of Senet-playing
Plates
Bibliography