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Entertainment
Children’s Toys and Games
There is some difficulty in distinguishing true toys and games (intended to amuse and entertain their owners) from “dolls” or other figurines used for magical or religious purposes. Enough examples survive, however, to show that both children and adults played with and enjoyed a wide variety of toys and games. Young children played with dolls in cradles; animal toys, including crocodiles with movable jaws; puppets, including dancing dwarfs; rattles and tops; and miniature weapons. Many toys were discovered at the town of Kahun. These ranged from simple clay figurines (human, hippopotamus, crocodile, ape) that the children probably modeled from Nile mud to sophisticated wooden dolls that were painted and had movable limbs. They were found in a room in one of the houses, together with a pile of hair pellets for insertion into holes in the dolls’ heads. The excavator identified this as the workshop of a toy maker who was producing dolls on a small commercial scale. Children also played ball games; tomb scenes show girls throwing balls. Boys fished with sticks, shot at targets, wrestled (a limestone figurine from Kahun shows two boys wrestling), ran, jumped, and performed tightrope walking. Another game depicted in the tombs is similar to leapfrog. At Kahun wooden and leather balls were found, as well as whiptops and tipcats (a game played by hitting the “cat” usually a wooden peg into the air with a bat or stick; before landing on the ground, it would be struck again, and the person who drove the cat farthest would be the winner). There was also a woven sling, found with three small stones that were probably thrown together as one shot, to kill birds and small animals. . Adult Sports and Games Adults enjoyed playing a variety of sports and games. Kings and nobles engaged in target practice, and there are many scenes of hunting birds and animals in the marshes, harpooning fish, or striking duck with throwsticks. The Egyptians also hunted in the desert, where wild game and ostriches were favorite pursuits. King Amenhotep II in particular was proud of his sporting and athletic prowess and claimed that he was an excellent athlete, skilled charioteer, powerful archer, and expert horseman and trainer of horses. Many of the pharaohs were probably very physically fit in their early years, since they were expected to lead their troops into battle. As well as participating in sports, the upper classes also enjoyed watching contests, and tomb scenes depict wrestling and javelin-throwing contests. (Wrestling, used to train army recruits, is shown in tomb scenes at Beni Hasan.) Board games were popular too. These included serpent, dog-and-jackal, and senet. The latter is mentioned in chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead, where it is described as an occupation of the deceased in the next world. In the vignette accompanying this text, a man (often with his wife) is shown seated at a checkerboard, but no opponent is depicted. As early as the Old Kingdom tomb scenes show the owner playing this game, sometimes adjacent to scenes in which he listens to music or watches other kinds of entertainment. Although senet boards have been discovered (they generally have three rows, each with ten squares of which five might be inscribed with hieroglyphs), the rules of the game are not clear. There were five or seven playing pieces (often conical) for each player, and each player probably tried to be first to reach the square at the angle of the L-shaped arrangement inscribed with the sign meaning “happiness, beauty.” The moves were determined by throwing either knucklebones or four casting sticks. The game obviously appealed to all classes: Four boards were found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun, and two were uncovered at Kahun, one of which was painted on the inside of a wooden box lid. . Dancing Dancing was an important part of life in ancient Egypt. It had its origins in religious ritual and played a part in temple rites, festivals, and funerals. The dancers wore special costumes and masks to imitate the gods and followed a prescribed pattern of steps and rhythm. There were also special dances performed by local magicians: In a house at Kahun, ivory clappers, a canvas mask representing the god Bes, and a figurine of a magician/dancer wearing a mask and a false tail were discovered. The magician probably imitated Bes to utilize the god’s great magical powers. As well as the sacred dances there were also secular performances. These are depicted in tomb scenes and show the rhythmic and acrobatic actions of professional dancing girls who could be hired for entertaining guests at banquets and parties. . Music Musical performances were given by professionals. In the temples priests played instruments to accompany the sacred hymns that were sung by the “chantresses.” Musicians were employed to entertain nobles in their homes, and tomb scenes show the owner and his wife listening to performances by blind harpists or sharing a banquet where their guests are entertained by musicians and female dancers. At the burial ceremony, when the guests shared a meal at the tomb with the deceased, a harpist recited special songs that either urged the living to enjoy life to the fullest because the afterlife was so uncertain or emphasized the joys of eternal existence. Musical instruments played by the Egyptians included various kinds of harp, the lute and lyre (both imported from Asia in the Hyksos Period, c.1550 BC), trumpet, flute, double clarinet, and double pipes. These wind instruments were made of wood. To mark the rhythm, drums, tambourines, ivory or wooden clappers, and hand clapping were used, and large bead collars and metal or faience sistra were shaken and rattled. Despite modern studies on methods of playing some of these instruments and on the scales of the flutes and pipes, we have no detailed knowledge of how Egyptian music was played or sounded. . Songs and Sacred Drama Songs were intended to honor the gods, entertain the living, and comfort mourners. There were liturgical hymns and chants, sung by choirs in the temples as part of the daily rites or festivals, and also in the sacred temple dramas performed to enact events in the gods’ lives and bring their magical potency into effect. In the palaces and houses of the nobles, songs were performed by professionals to entertain the owners and their guests. The love songs of the New Kingdom were also apparently set to music and formed part of a formal entertainment. In the funerary processions and at the tomb, songs were an important part of the mourning process, and special songs were used in the treatment of the sick in the temples. In the fields and at major building sites, people sang their own refrains to ease the burden of their work and to provide a communal rhythm for their physical activities. .
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