![LEGEND: Before the first dynasty in Egypt (c. 3100 BC), time-keeping switched from a solely lunar calendar to solar calendar. And the god Djehuti (the Graeco-
Roman Thoth) played the role of giving us our solar calendar with 365 days a year. And this myth is associated with the first mention of a board game in human
history - and prior to 3500 BC. In legend, Thoth had played a game of draughts with the moon and won from him a seventy-second part of his light, from which he
created an extra five days in the year. Now, there are traditions that last for 5 or 10,000 years whose continuity can be connected between the archeological record
and people living today. The term used to account for this preservation is that such people have conservative traditions. EVOLUTION: When historians trace the
evolution of ancient objects they usually start with wood or stone and progress through the technological development of higher medium often called plastic medium
(e.g. wood, to stone, to bronze and gold, to iron, and sometimes onwards to canvass and modern ceramics). In the case of board games, we find their oldest
conseration in African (by African meaning one given to wooly hair and full nose, etc.) nations from predynastic times as in Cyprus [7, 8] and seen in African figurine
from ancient times in Cyprus [7, 8]. Conserved [see 1 - 5], they began in the plastic medium of sand, we can speculate [also 1 - 5], and tranferred to wood before the
time of Christ [7, 8, 11, 12]. They underwent a quantum jump from simple wood [e.g. 7] to a board on stand such as that of Tutankamun [12]. And underwent
complexity from two rows [9], to three [e.g. 1], to four [e.g. 10], to the modern chess board of 15th century Morocco in Africa [13]. During the time of Thoth, dental
affinities from neolithic Egypt indicate it had an African population (footnote 2). From the time of the Thoth myth to the early chess board of Morocco, do chess
& board games show African roots? The reader will come to her or his own conclusions...art, art history, Paul Marc Washington, paleoneolithic@yahoo.com](59-12-01.jpg)
Read of Egyptian dental affinities being African from prehistoric times to Roman times: Egyptian dental affinities.
Is the board game found around the world an example of a single worldwide culture (that accompanied it) with a seemingly common point of origin that became dispersed? Consider these six material markers or "artefacts" comprising a common kultural toolkit in the ages largely preceding what we call history:
1) God created the heavens and earth: paleolithic to today: click.
2) Shamanism: paleolithic to today: click.
3) First cloth in world through neolithic spindles, whorls: Click.
4) Diadems as first crowns 25,000 years ago through historic times: click.
5) Rock art 1 - from 25,000 years ago until today: click.
6) Rock art 2 - red and black human figures in Africa and Eurasia: click.
7) Common hair care products – the comb: click.
8) Pyramids: click.
9) Neolithic pottery burials: click.
10) Board games part 1: click.
11) Board games part 2: click.
12) The dug-out canoe: click.
13) The plank boat: click.
14) The Adze: click.
15) 11 points of contact in ancient AfroEurasia: click.