10 OLDEST Board Games In History

2. Senet (3100 BCE)

Bit of controversy with my numbers 1 and 2. I know, what am I like? Stir that ancient board game pot. Generally speaking, Senet is widely regarded as the oldest board game in the world. No f***er knows how to play it, people have guessed, but there’s no single ruleset. What people tend to agree on is that it’s dated back to at least 3100 BCE, with boards believed to be Senet boards being found in burials stretching as far as those of the first Egyptian kings. And speaking of royalty, Senet is commonly believed to have been a game of Gods and kings, almost a spiritual game, with scholars suggesting that the movement of the tall and squat pieces around the board’s 30 squares is metaphorical of the journey into the afterlife. Paintings of the game have been found in third dynasty tombs, there’s a painting of Queen Nefertari playing it, there’s even a reference to it in the Egyptian funerary text, the book of the dead. You be careful, Brendan Fraser, or Imhotep’s going to school you with backgammon’s granny. A board game that existed in the Age of the Pyramids, can you say that about your stupid hobby? No you can’t. Unless your hobby is building pyramids, in which case fair enough.