Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt
Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt
Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt
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6<br />
THE CATTLE AND THE STAR GODDESSES<br />
About the time the rains were falling <strong>of</strong>f in the desert, the people in the Nile Valley suddenly started taking an<br />
interest in cows, building things with big stones, and getting interested in star worship and solar observatories. .<br />
. .<br />
FRED WENDORF, THE NEW SCIENTIST, JULY 28, 2000<br />
<strong>The</strong> . . . risings <strong>of</strong> Sirius had been observed on Elephantine throughout all periods <strong>of</strong> ancient <strong>Egypt</strong>ian history.<br />
RONALD A. WELLS, SOTHIS AND THE SATET TEMPLE ON ELEPHANTINE<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Egypt</strong>ians . . . were the first to discover the solar year, and to portion out its course into twelve parts. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
obtained this knowledge from the stars.<br />
HERODOTUS, THE HISTORIES, BOOK II<br />
TAMING THE AUROCH<br />
In our modern world we take much for granted. One is the common domestic cow—one <strong>of</strong> the most gentle, most<br />
accommodating, and most useful animals on our planet. When we drive along a country road or walk past an open field<br />
and see these gentle and docile animals grazing or lazily walking about, we may give them a fleeting glance, but we soon<br />
forget about them. To ancient people, however, cattle were the main display <strong>of</strong> prosperity. <strong>The</strong> pharaohs <strong>of</strong> <strong>Egypt</strong>, for<br />
example, not only measured their wealth by the number <strong>of</strong> cattle they possessed but also were themselves, as were many<br />
<strong>of</strong> their gods and goddesses, identified with cattle. Yet if cattle were <strong>of</strong> great importance to the ancient <strong>Egypt</strong>ians, they<br />
were <strong>of</strong> crucial importance to the prehistoric people <strong>of</strong> the Sahara. <strong>The</strong>ir very survival depended on cattle. Without cattle<br />
they simply could not have existed in the harsh conditions in which they lived. Indeed, it would not be an exaggeration to<br />
say that without cattle there would have been no civilization, at least in the way we understand the word civilization<br />
today.<br />
When and from where, however, did cattle come, and what did humans do before cattle were domesticated?<br />
Scientists agree that the now extinct auroch, or Bos primigenius, is the ancestor <strong>of</strong> domesticated cattle. <strong>The</strong> auroch,<br />
however, was a much larger and certainly a much more ferocious creature than our common farm cow. Its height was<br />
more than 2 meters (7 feet), and it weighed as much as 2 tons. <strong>The</strong> male auroch was black with faint stripes, and the<br />
female was reddish brown. It is probable that the ancestor <strong>of</strong> the auroch itself existed in Africa some one million years<br />
ago and eventually spread to Asia and Europe around two hundred fifty thousand years ago. At first, and for many<br />
thousand <strong>of</strong> years that followed, the auroch was hunted for food by prehistoric man—a feat that must have been quite<br />
terrifying and very dangerous indeed, requiring many able hunters who could work together to bring down such a wild<br />
and powerful beast. <strong>The</strong>n, around 8000 BCE, the auroch was finally domesticated, although we don’t fully understand<br />
where and how. Only a few years ago scientists thought domestication <strong>of</strong> cattle had originally taken place in Turkey or<br />
southwest Asia and that, somewhere along the line, the domesticated breed spread into other parts <strong>of</strong> the world. Recent<br />
research in the mitochondrial DNA <strong>of</strong> cattle stock from Africa, Asia, and Europe, however, strongly suggests that there<br />
was not one domestication event, but several, which occurred independently in each continent in roughly the same epoch.<br />
Normally, domestication <strong>of</strong> cattle and other animals follows the establishment <strong>of</strong> agriculture, but there are<br />
exceptions. In Africa, for example, domestication took place before agriculture or even without agriculture. <strong>The</strong> Masai <strong>of</strong><br />
eastern Africa are well-known herders who do not practice agriculture, yet their lives are completely interwoven with<br />
cattle: their protein intake—milk, blood, and sometimes meat—is almost totally derived from their cattle. <strong>The</strong> Masai very