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Inventory number

Cat.1775

  • Document
  • Writing Recto
  • Writing Verso

General description

Game papyrus

The front of the papyrus illustrates four different board games. The largest part is taken up by a game most similar to today's backgammon and ludo, the so-called "Senet" game. The back of the papyrus contains a “handbook”, a cursive-hieroglyphic description of the game pieces and the rules of movement.

Epoch

New Kingdom (1539-1077 BC)

Dynasty

---

Pharaoh

---

Provenance

Thebes (?)

Acquisition: Drovetti, Bernardino

Acquisition Date: 1824

Joining object(s) (log into TPOP)

Image(s)

Image

  • Text 1

Editor

Johannes Jüngling (JJ)

Script

hieroglyphs, hieratic

Text type

Drawing, Manuel/Handbook

Keywords

board games

Epoch

New Kingdom (1539-1077 BC)

Dynasty

---

Pharaoh

---

Drawing

Yes

Drawing description

---

Image

  • Text 1

Hieroglyphs

  • Hieroglyphs
    • Hieroglyphs
    • Hieroglyphs

Translation

Cat. 1775

 

(col. 1.1) [… We]⸢n⸣nefer lord-of-justification, the council-of-the-thirty,

(col. 1.2) […] that I enter the hall of thirty,

(col. 1.3) […] draughtsmen lying on my preferred place,

(col. 1.4) […] Neith, whose arms are on the altar.

(col. 2.1) I shall open the per-nefer with (?) Maat, [I] shall take […] to the chapel (?) of the thirty, I shall fasten the djed-symbol to the tit-symbol while I see Wadjet in [her] incarnations

(col. 2.2) next to the house of Mut. My haty-heart is sensible; it is [not] oblivious. My ib-heart is open when analysing his gambit against me. [His] draughtsmen shall turn around […]

(col. 2.3) His fingers are confused; his haty-heart – ⸢it departs […] from ⸢its⸣ place, [so that] he [may forget] his answer. As […] is revived in the [house] of Orion, so shall I live to […]

(col. 2.4) eternity. I shall pass by […] wind together with the ⸢sun-disk⸣ to the house of repeating ⸢life⸣, while 〈my〉 opponent is held back in the house of nets; he shall hang low (?) in the ⸢meshes⸣ […]

(col. 3.1) my figure on that-of-Mehen; I shall hold him back from the per-nefer; I shall take my draughtsmen so that I may find my house, while my opponent […]

(col. 3.2) I shall take my draughtsmen to my preferred place. I am guided […] in passing, made wise in ⸢their house […]

(col. 3.3) […] their […] I, the sensible⸣ (?) scribe, shall 〈not〉 be oblivious. After Mehen has instructed me, he shall give ⸢bread⸣ in the house of bread and ⸢libations⸣ in the house of pouring […]

(col. 3.4) my draughtsmen in the per-nefer. [I] seize […] my seven are with the wind, in front of my fingers like the jackals […]

(col. 4.1) […] barge […] my libations (?) in the house of water […]

(col. 4.2) […] ⸢draughtsmen in the house […] 〈my〉 opponent. [I] shall ⸢draw near⸣ […] 〈my〉 opponent and haul […]

(col. 4.3) […] in the per-nefer. […] shall be given to him […] his arms. ‘[You] are true of voice!’ […]

(JJ)

Editor

Johannes Jüngling (JJ)

Script

hieratic, cursive hieroglyphs

Text type

Manuel/Handbook

Keywords

Bark-of-Re, chapel, council, death, divine manifestation, heart, house, justification, knowledge, libation, Maat, number seven, place, religion, scribe, spell 017, travel, water

Epoch

New Kingdom (1539-1077 BC)

Dynasty

Dynasty 20 (1190-1077 BC)

Pharaoh

---

Drawing

No

Drawing description

---

Bibliographical reference

Devéria, T., Mémoires et fragments II, Bibliothèque Égyptologique 5 (Paris 1897), 94-96.

Donadoni-Roveri, A. M. (ed.), Egyptian Civlization. Daily Life (Milan 1988), 246, fig. 349.

Jacquet-Gordon, H. - Piankoff, A., The Wandering of the Soul, Egyptian Religious Texts and Representations 6 (New York 1974), pl. 46.

Piccione, P. A., The Historical Development of the Game of Senet and Its Significance for Egyptian Religion Volume One (Chicago 1990), 101-105. 110-154.

Pusch, E. B., Eine unbeachtete Brettspielart, in: Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 5, 1977, 200.

Pusch, E. B., Das Senet-Brettspiel im Alten Ägypten, Münchner Ägyptologische Studien 38, 1-2 (München 1979), 388. 392-400, pls 99-102.

Seyffarth, G., Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Literatur, Kunst, Mythologie und Geschichte des alten Aegypten. 2 Systema astronomiae Aegyptiacae quadripartitum (Leipzig 1833), pl. 3.

Museo Egizio