💬 Before the likes of Monopoly and Chess, our ancient ancestors played many, unique board games. It’s a pastime that has endured for 9,000 years - maybe longer!

⚡ And the rules to one mysterious ancient game have just been cracked - using artificial intelligence. Walter Crist is an expert in the archaeology and history of board games, and recently used AI to uncover the rules of a 2,000 year-old game from the late Roman Empire.

In this episode he tells us all about this incredible discovery, while exploring the full history of our ancient obsession with board games. What games have we played through the ages - and why is it such a human thing to do?

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🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ How a 6,000 year-old gaming set was found buried in a tomb in Egypt

➡ The cultural and religious importance of games through history

➡ The earliest gaming pieces people used - and why dice are so ancient

➡ What games like Senet or Hounds and Jackals are like to play in the modern age

➡ Exactly how Walter used AI to crack the mystery of this ancient Roman game

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Email: hello@ogpodcasts.co.uk

Image Attributions:

Senet & 20 Twenty Squares board - Rogers Fund, 1916, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Senet game board - Enoch Leung, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons