Mind Games

Today PisecoDad is home sick with the same awful cold BabyGirl is just getting over. While the two of them napped upstairs, JediBoy and I went on a wonderful Egypt romp.

For old times’ sake, we read his two favorite books from when he was 3: Mummies in the Morning (Magic Tree House, No. 3) and The Best Book of Mummies. Then we spent a long time looking at a fantastic book that Pappy brought earlier this year: The Amazing Pop-Up, Pull-Out Mummy Book. The pages of this book unfold to a five foot long picture of Tutankhamen’s mummy case with little flaps to flip up to see inside.

Yesterday we had started our chicken mummy, and this morning the salt mixture was quite wet and clumping. We tossed out the old salt and made up a new, dry batch. According to what I’ve read, we’ll probably have to change the salt every day for almost a week, and then every few days or once a week for three or four more weeks before it’s done. (I’ll put up a longer post with pictures once we’re all done with the project.)

After changing the salt of “The Pharaoh’s Chicken,” we decided to make a version of the Ancient Egyptian game Senet.

I had picked up a small “bread board” (obviously meant only for decoration) at the craft store as well as two bags of small wooden pieces and a square dowel, all for around $4.

JediBoy painted the pieces (chosen to resemble the red and white crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt) while I drew the board with a permanent marker. We cut four small pieces of the square dowel and used files (I couldn’t find our sandpaper) to round off three sides. The “dice sticks” end up with one flat side and one rounded side. JediBoy painted the flat sides white and the rounded sides brown while I copied the rules onto the back of the board for future reference. (The rules were taken from the book Make it Work! Ancient Egypt.)

JediBoy was very impatient, waiting for the paint to dry so we could play a game. We had a great time playing, though sadly I was defeated in the end by the mighty Thoth.

If you’d like to make this game, you’ll need to make a grid with 3 rows of 10 squares. Each side needs 5 markers, and at the beginning of the game all the pieces are in the top row, alternating colors. Movement is to the right on the top row, then back to the left on the second row, and across once more to the right on the bottom row, in a back-and-forth route. (I drew small arrows on the board to remind us.) The goal is to get all 5 of your pieces off the board.

On your turn, you throw the four dice sticks that I described above. Each “flat” side that’s showing is a point, so if you throw 3 flats, you can move one piece 3 spaces. If you throw all “round” sides up, you get to move 6 spaces. A roll of 1 flat, 4 flats or 4 rounds lets you take another turn.

Your first move must be with the last piece of your color from the top row. After that you’re free to move any of your pieces on any turn. You can jump over pieces, both your own and the opponent’s. If you land on an opponent’s piece, that piece goes back to the square where your piece was coming from. If you have two of your pieces next to each other, they are “safe” and cannot be “attacked” (landed on and sent backwards). If you have three of your pieces next to each other, they are “safe” and also make a “blockade” that the other player’s pieces cannot pass. You may not move any of your pieces off the board if you have any pieces remaining in the top row.

Landing on the “water” square sends a piece back to the “ankh” square in the previous row. If the “ankh” space is occupied, the piece goes back to the top left square. The other three special spaces in the bottom row are “safe.”

Let me know if you make your own version!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 2:23 pm and is filed under arts, crafts & activities, history, pictures, you could call this "school". You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.