We like to think board games are having a bit of a moment right now, but apparently we've got some catching up to do! Archaeologists working at Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou in Cyprus have uncovered a large Middle Bronze Age building featuring carvings believed to represent a senet-style board game. The discovery was made during the 2026 excavation season, which ran from July 27 to August 21.
And yes, this means people in ancient Cyprus were carving game boards into stone long before anyone was arguing over who forgot to shuffle the cards! The Erimi settlement dates to the Middle Bronze Age, roughly 2000 to 1600 BC, making this an incredibly old example of gaming being part of everyday life.
A huge ancient building
The game discovery was made inside a substantial central building covering around 250 square metres. Archaeologists have now exposed the building's overall layout, revealing a central courtyard surrounded by six rooms arranged across eastern and western wings. The complex was built with massive perimeter walls and appears to have incorporated parts of an even earlier structure. One room, known as Unit 6, is particularly interesting. It can be entered directly from the central courtyard and contains a large stone threshold.
That's where the gaming discovery comes in.
A series of small linear cavities carved into the threshold form a pattern that researchers say is consistent with a senet-type gaming board. Rather than finding a board sitting neatly on a table, archaeologists have found evidence that the game itself was carved directly into the architecture!
Ancient senet!
Senet is one of the world's oldest known board games and is particularly associated with ancient Egypt. Boards featuring the game's characteristic grid have been discovered at archaeological sites dating back thousands of years. The Erimi discovery is therefore particularly fascinating because it adds another piece to the puzzle of how games travelled and were played across the ancient Mediterranean.
We don't know exactly who played the game at Erimi, or what their particular rules were. The archaeological evidence can show us the board, but unfortunately it can't tell us whether someone was absolutely unbearable when they started losing!
More than a game
The building itself appears to have been an important part of the settlement. Researchers uncovered evidence of a staircase that probably led to an upper floor, while the southern section reused an earlier building with a different orientation. There was also a huge underground storage space in Unit 6, capable of holding approximately 2.8 cubic metres.
Elsewhere at the site, archaeologists investigated three chamber tombs in the settlement's southern cemetery. One of them contained an unusual layout, including a bench and a second chamber connected by an internal passage.
Gaming has history!
The Erimi discovery is a brilliant reminder that games aren't exactly a modern invention. Thousands of years ago, people were still gathering around games, creating boards and presumably getting very competitive about the outcome. The biggest difference is that today's players can pack their games back into the box. At Erimi, someone decided the board belonged in the building!
And honestly, that's one heck of a permanent game night.
