Spool-Shaped Game Pieces from Neferkhawet's Tomb

A family tomb, established by a man named Neferkhawet, was excavated by the Egyptian Expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1935. One of the last people buried in the tomb was a woman whose name was not recorded on any of the objects in the tomb. Inside her coffin was an incomplete set of gaming pieces, five spool-shaped like this one and five conical. These would have been used to play the games senet and 20-squares. No trace of an accompanying game box was recorded by the excavators. The coffin itself was badly damaged by rot and insects, so remains of a wooden game box may have been indistinguishable from the coffin.

The five conical game pieces are quite uniform in shape, size, and color. Four of the spool-shaped pieces are also quite simiilar, but the fifth is different enough that it may have been a replacement piece.

Credit: Rogers Fund, 1935