Game piece "Token" in hieroglyphs |
---|
Draughtsman in hieroglyphs |
---|
The ancient Egyptian Game piece (hieroglyph), also a Token, or the general term for any gaming-gambling piece, Draughtsman is an ancient hieroglyph. Gaming pieces were certainly required in predynastic times, as the cultural creation of games and entertainment has a long history in most cultures. An ivory-piece lion is known from the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt; the set contains three lions, and three dog tokens of ivory. [1] [2]
The Senet is recorded as the oldest boardgame in history, for which tokens are used.
To Dance" [of the god] (2 plurals, 1 chick, 3 tokens) in hieroglyphs |
---|
The basic word for "Game piece" or "Draughtsman" is "ab". By implication, people on a flat arena were moving like "pieces" (from a distance), and numerous varieties of the word 'to dance' include varieties using the "Game piece", as a determinative; two examples are shown: the word 'draughtsman', and 'to dance'-(the plural of "ab", "abU"-(U being the language plural-but also the "quail chick (hieroglyph)" in Ancient Egypt).
The most common use of the "Gaming piece" as an artefact of ancient Egypt, would be the use with the game of Senet. The Senet game was often put into tombs and grave sites, as part of the grave goods; the games were part of the pastimes for the afterlife, including any other common 'hobbies' of the deceased–(for example hunting ducks at the marsh using a throwstick). Since board games represent the common man's activities, the Senet game has numerous examples from Ancient Egypt; this also includes the reliefs shown on temple walls, of individuals enjoying their activities in the afterlife.
Some example game pieces of ancient Egypt. One of the more famous games was "Hounds and Jackals", a race game, with far less artefacts found of the game.
Senet, with game tokens:
Osiris is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was classically depicted as a green-skinned deity with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive atef crown, and holding a symbolic crook and flail. He was one of the first to be associated with the mummy wrap. When his brother, Set, cut him up into pieces after killing him, Isis, his wife, found all the pieces and wrapped his body up. Osiris was at times considered the eldest son of the god Geb and the sky goddess Nut, as well as being brother and husband of Isis, with Horus being considered his posthumously begotten son. He was also associated with the epithet Khenti-Amentiu, meaning "Foremost of the Westerners", a reference to his kingship in the land of the dead. Through syncretism with Iah, he is also a god of the Moon.
Egyptian hieroglyphs were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with a total of some 1,000 distinct characters. Cursive hieroglyphs were used for religious literature on papyrus and wood. The later hieratic and demotic Egyptian scripts were derived from hieroglyphic writing, as was the Proto-Sinaitic script that later evolved into the Phoenician alphabet. Through the Phoenician alphabet's major child systems, the Greek and Aramaic scripts, the Egyptian hieroglyphic script is ancestral to the majority of scripts in modern use, most prominently the Latin and Cyrillic scripts and the Arabic script and Brahmic family of scripts.
Senet is a board game from ancient Egypt, whose original rules are the subject of conjecture. The oldest hieroglyph resembling a senet game dates to around 3100 BCE. The full name of the game in Egyptian is thought to have been zn.t n.t ḥˁb, meaning the "game of passing".
The Uraeus is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in ancient Egypt.
Hor-Aha is considered the second pharaoh of the First Dynasty of Egypt by some Egyptologists, others consider him the first one and corresponding to Menes. He lived around the 31st century BC and is thought to have had a long reign.
Den, also known as Hor-Den, Dewen and Udimu, is the Horus name of a pharaoh of the Early Dynastic Period who ruled during the First Dynasty of Egypt. He is the best archaeologically-attested ruler of this period. Den is said to have brought prosperity to his realm and numerous innovations are attributed to his reign. He was the first to use the title "King of Lower and Upper Egypt", and the first depicted as wearing the double crown. The floor of his tomb at Umm El Qa'ab near Abydos is made of red and black granite, the first time in Egypt this hard stone was used as a building material. During his long reign he established many of the customs of court ritual and royalty used by later rulers and he was held in high regard by his immediate successors.
Deshret, from Ancient Egyptian, was the formal name for the Red Crown of Lower Egypt and for the desert Red Land on either side of Kemet, the fertile Nile river basin. When combined with the Hedjet of Upper Egypt, it forms the Pschent, in ancient Egyptian called the sekhemti.
The ancient Egyptian ship's mast hieroglyph is one of the oldest language hieroglyphs from Ancient Egypt. It is used on a famous label of Pharaoh Den of the First dynasty, but forms part of the location hieroglyph: Emblem of the East.
The Throw stick hieroglyph of ancient Egypt is an old hieroglyph that dates from the Predynastic Period; it is from the assemblage of hieroglyphs used on the ornamental, or ceremonial cosmetic palettes. It is used on the palettes both as a throwing-stick weapon in the animal hunt being portrayed-(the Hunters Palette), as well as on certain palettes, as a determinative referring to a "foreigner", or "foreign territory".
The ancient Egyptian papyrus stem hieroglyph is one of the oldest language hieroglyphs from Ancient Egypt. The papyrus stalk, was incorporated into designs of columns on buildings, also facades, and is also in the iconographic art portrayed in Ancient Egyptian decorated scenes.
Scarabs were popular amulets and impression seals in ancient Egypt. They survive in large numbers and, through their inscriptions and typology, they are an important source of information for archaeologists and historians of the ancient world. They also represent a significant body of ancient art.
The pectorals of ancient Egypt were a form of jewelry, often represented as a brooch. These were mostly worn by richer people and the pharaoh.
The Egyptian hieroglyph representing gold, phonetic value nb, is important due to its use in the Horus-of-Gold name, one of the Fivefold Titulary names of the Egyptian pharaoh.
The ancient Egyptian Branch hieroglyph, also called a Stick, is a member of the trees and plants hieroglyphs.
The Ancient Egyptian Townsite-city-region (hieroglyph) is Gardiner sign listed no. O49 for the intersection of a town's streets. In some Egyptian hieroglyphs books it is called a City Plan.
The ancient Egyptian Pick hieroglyph, Gardiner sign listed nos. U17, U18 is a portrayal of a 'pick upon the side view of a block'; it is in the Gardiner subset for agriculture, crafts, and professions.
The ancient Egyptian Hand-with-droplets hieroglyph, Gardiner sign listed no. D46A is a portrayal of the hand, with droplet offerings. In the Old Kingdom usage it is found on ivory labels and slab stelas, presumably with the use of 'aroma' and unguents, or with incense. As the verb usage with 'libation', water or liquids are involved.
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, the hieroglyph is used for the phonetic value of sma, with meanings of to join together, to unite with.
The smiting-blade symbol (hieroglyph), a "horizontal blade-shape", is a symbol in Gardiner's sign list as no. Aa7, in the unclassified category. The symbol can be found in use from the First Dynasty of Egypt, for example on the MacGregor Label, one of Pharaoh Den's twenty labels (tags) found in his tomb. It is also seen on an artifact belonging to Queen Qaineit, possibly one of King Den's wives.
Hounds and Jackals is the modern name given to an ancient Egyptian game that is known from several examples of gaming boards and gaming pieces found in excavations. The modern name was invented by Howard Carter, who found one complete gaming set in a Theban tomb of ancient Egyptian pharaoh Amenemhat IV that dates to the 12th Dynasty. The latter game set is one of the best preserved examples and is today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He called it Hounds contra Jackals. Another, less often used modern name is fifty-eight holes.