CAST
Four two-sided sticks determine movement. One to four light faces move that many houses; four dark faces count as five.
LAB / 002
EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY / PLAYABLE RECONSTRUCTION
SENETPASSING THROUGH
PLAY ↓01
PLAY SENET
YOUR TURNCAST THE STICKS
RTVAULT EXPERIMENTAL RECONSTRUCTION / ORIGINAL DIGITAL ARTWORK
MOVE —
02
THIS RECONSTRUCTION
PASS
Five pieces per side begin alternated across the first ten houses and travel through all thirty houses along an S-shaped path.
CONTEST
Landing on an unprotected opponent swaps the two pieces. Two adjacent allies protect one another; three form a blockade that cannot be crossed.
FINAL HOUSES
House 26 grants another cast. House 27 is a water hazard that sends a piece backward. Pieces must then leave the board by exact count.
Important: these are transparent modern conventions chosen to make the archaeological object playable. They are not presented as a surviving ancient Egyptian rulebook.
03
WHAT SURVIVES
Surviving Senet boards establish a thirty-house grid arranged in three rows of ten. Archaeological sets also preserve gaming pieces and casting implements, while decorated final houses provide clues to the game’s later symbolic meaning.
- BOARD
- 30 houses
- LAYOUT
- 3 rows × 10
- MOVEMENT
- Zig-zag / boustrophedon
- STATUS
- Rules only partially reconstructed
04
EVIDENCE / UNCERTAINTY
30-HOUSE BOARDHIGH
CASTING IMPLEMENTSHIGH
COMPLETE GAMEPLAY RULESPARTIAL
The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes Senet as a thirty-square game in which pieces followed a zig-zag route, with moves determined by casting sticks or bones. It also notes special decoration and hazards among the final houses.
Because no complete ancient rules survive, RTVault separates archaeological evidence from playable convention. The interactive game above is therefore a research-led experiment, not a facsimile of a lost rulebook.