Painting Senet boxes using Egg Tempera

We decided when we first started creating Senet board games that we'd use egg tempera for any painted surfaces. Egg tempera, also simply called tempera, is a painting medium used since the time of the pharoahs, if not even earlier. It's simply a mix of pigments with a binder, in this case egg yolk. Egg tempera was the primary method of painting until oil-based paints gained popularity in the 1500s.  In the images below, we're mixing pigment with the binder, and have applied a base coat.

Senet Game Board Squares

We started experimenting with the game squares for Senet.  Here, we've simply painted the heiroglyphs onto the appropriate squares.  The meaning of the glyphs, as far as gameplay, is open to some interpretation.  I'll go into depth on gameplay in a later post.  The glyph in the center of the board (usually referred to as "square 15"), is usually called the House of Rebirth.  In some renditions of the rules, a player's piece must go back to this square if he lands on square 27, the House of Waters (4th from the last square).