The Egyptian Barter Game
This game was made for very young kids who might have low reading skills (hence the use of symbols)
but some older kids played it and had fun too! It’s basically a game to teach about bartering for the
things you need using things you have or make. I created (using good old cut-up file folders and yarn)
“nametags” for each player with their occupation and symbol. These could be loosely hung around their
neck and make them identifiable to the other players. Then I created a little “pocket” for each player,
out of the same file folders and black electric tape. On one side was their occupation. On the other side
was a list of the things they needed to barter for. Inside the pocket were cards representing goods they
had to barter with—made with different color index cards. Again, I used symbols for everything to make
it easy for the non-readers to handle.
The rules of the game were that you were to try to barter for the things you needed. So if you were a
weaver and needed vegetables from the farmer, you needed to see if you could convince the farmer to
trade. You also had to determine how many of your cards you’d be willing to trade-you didn’t want to
trade too cheaply but you still had to get all your needs. For some of the older kids, the game was a
little more complicated because they couldn’t directly trade for the things they needed (these were the
roles of Papyrus Maker, Scribe and Trader). They had to find out what the people they wished to trade
with wanted, get these items and then trade for what they needed.
The list is this:
Occupation
Scribe
Has
4 Service cards, 1 papyrus
Baker
Farmer
Fisherman
Trader
Papyrus Maker
8 Bread cards
8 Vegetable cards
12 Fish cards
1 Papyrus, 1 Stylus, 2 Jewels &
Gold, 2 Flour cards
3 Papyrus cards
Jewelry Maker
3 Necklaces
Weaver
6 Cloth cards
Potter
9 Pot cards
Needs
Cloth, papyrus, stylus (gets food
from Pharoah)
Vegetables, Flour, Pots, Papyrus
Fish, Cloth, Pots, Bread
Vegetables, Bread, Cloth, Pots
Bread, Pots, Papayrus, Cloth,
Jewelry
Vegetables, Bread, Scribe
Services, Necklace
Jewels & Gold, Fish, Bread,
Scribe Services
Scribe Services, Necklace, Fish,
Vegetables
Scribe Services, Fish, Vegetables,
Bread
You could have 2 of the following occupations, depending on the number of players: Scribe, Farmer,
Fisherman, Papyrus Maker
The following are scans of the playing pieces for your reference. Obviously, you can change anything
you want but you just have to be careful that everyone needs something from someone else who also
need something from them.