What Did Ancient Egyptians Do When They Were Bored? (Senet, Beer & Perfume Hats)

What did ancient Egyptians do on a boring, scorching afternoon with the Nile flooding their fields for months? The answer involves Senet, the ancient Egyptian board game played by pharaohs and farmers, a festival where getting drunk was an act of worship, and a hat made of perfume. Join Senu and follow Nakht, an invented farmer living in real daily life in ancient Egypt around 1400 BC. Every detail around him comes from tomb paintings, excavated objects and surviving texts. Where historians disagree, we tell you. In this video: Why the Nile flood (Akhet) gave Egyptians so much free time Senet, Mehen and the Game of 58 Holes, the oldest board games we know Ancient Egyptian beer: food, not a party drink The Festival of Drunkenness, Hathor and Sekhmet The perfume cones in the Nebamun banquet paintings and the 2019 Amarna study Wrestling at Beni Hasan and hunting in the marshes The Westcar Papyrus, the Shipwrecked Sailor and Egypt's oldest stories Why Tutankhamun and Nefertari took board games into the afterlife 00:00 The hottest, emptiest afternoon in ancient Egypt 02:44 Why Egyptians had so much free time (the Nile flood) 03:58 Senet: the game everyone played 06:32 Mehen and Hounds and Jackals 07:55 Ancient Egyptian beer and the Festival of Drunkenness 10:38 Banquets, music and perfume cones 14:03 Wrestling at Beni Hasan and hunting in the marshes 15:36 Stories, the Westcar Papyrus and the Deir el-Medina excuses 18:05 Why Senet became a map of the afterlife 23:10 Phone or Senet board? Your vote Question for you: if you could take one boredom killer with you for eternity, what would it be, your phone or a Senet board? Tell us in the comments and vote on the Community tab, where Senu is counting the results. Next video: what the Egyptians really did with a body after death. Subscribe so you do not miss it. Sources and further reading: Nebamun tomb-chapel paintings (British Museum); Westcar Papyrus; Anna Stevens et al., Antiquity (2019) on Amarna cemeteries; Betsy Bryan's research on the Festival of Drunkenness at the precinct of Mut, Karnak; tomb of Nefertari; Tutankhamun's game boxes; Deir el-Medina work journals. #AncientEgypt #Senet #AncientEgyptianGames