Archeologists have uncovered a 3,500-year-old board game they say was used to communicate with the dead.

Dubbed “the board game of death” by archeologists but known as “Senat” in its day, the game wasn’t much different than many of today’s tabletop offerings. Players rolled dice to move their pawns around the board, simulating one’s journey through the underworld. Whoever got all five of their pawns to the end first won. “It may be one of the first times that this aspect of the journey through the afterlife is visually rendered on the board,” says archaeologist Walter Crist.

Senat became a popular game in Egypt about 5,000 years ago, and remained a family favorite for about 2,500 years before it fell out of favor, according to The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology.

Doesn’t this game sound more similar to Sorry or a Ouija board? Do you think video games will eventually drive all board games to extinction?

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