Is this the original board game of death?

[Eldorado]

"Ancient Egyptians took their board games seriously. The backgammonlike senet started out as a mere pastime, but over nearly 2 millennia it evolved into a game with deep links to the afterlife, played on a board that represented the underworld.

"Now, a version of the game sitting in a California museum might reveal when this dramatic transformation took place.

"Senet probably wasn’t the world’s first board game, but it was one of the first to become a smash hit.

"It seems to have risen to popularity in all tiers of Egyptian society about 5000 years ago—and was still being enjoyed by Egyptians 2500 years later."

Full monty at Science Mag: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/original-board-game-death?

And the UK Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7979317/Ancient-Egyptian-board-game-used-talk-dead-3-500-years-ago.html

[Jujo-jo]

Remarkable! Thanks.

Isn't that interesting how the ancient Egyptians believed in UFO's and the after life, as many people do today. Hmmm...

[Skulduggery]

I was always more of a Mehen player than a Senet player, but I dig the aesthetic.

[Skulduggery]

I bought a nice senet board off Etsy once.

[esoteric_toad]

Where does it say it was used to contact the dead? Sounds like a game that might have illustrated aspects of the passage after lift but nothing about actual contact.

[Nnicolette]

4 hours ago, esoteric_toad said:

Where does it say it was used to contact the dead? Sounds like a game that might have illustrated aspects of the passage after lift but nothing about actual contact.

Right i don't see how it was interpreted that people were playing against dead relatives... What if they attribute the chance involved in rolling the dice as ghosts interfering? 

[MissJatti]

The much earlier form of the Ouija Board lol

[madmikey]

Bring out your dead.