Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt

Oxford, writes, “The Nile and its annual flooding were dominant factors in the newly formed Egyptian state”; 3 and Dr.
Richard Wilkinson, Egyptologist at the University of Arizona, adds that the great importance of Sirius to the ancient
Egyptians “lay in the fact that the star’s annual appearance on the eastern horizon at dawn heralded the approximate
beginning of the Nile’s annual inundation.” 4 Likewise, Dr. Ian Shaw of Liverpool University and Paul Nicholson of
Cardiff University write that “the Egyptian year was considered to begin on . . . the date of the heliacal rising of the Dog
Star, Sirius.” 5
When we observe the daily cycle of Sirius, or indeed of any other star that rises and sets, the place of rising in the
east will always be the same—that is, it will have the same azimuth. *45 By placing two or more markers in a straight line
aimed at the rising place of a star, such as the upright stones placed at Nabta Playa, an observer can witness that same star
rising at that same spot each day. Strictly speaking, however, this is not quite true, for the star has, in fact, moved a bit,
but so minute is this movement in one day—about 0.00004 of a single degree—that it is not possible to notice except
with the finest optical instrument. This slight progressive movement is due, as we have seen in previous chapters, to the
precession of the equinoxes—that slow, gyrating motion of Earth, one full cycle of which takes about twenty-six
thousand years. Yet although it is not perceptible on a daily or even yearly basis, we can notice it over the span of a
human life. For each seventy-two years the change in rising position will be about 1 degree—that is, about the thickness
of a thumb with the hand outstretched. †46
Because the prehistoric star watchers of Nabta Playa observed the rising of stars over several generations and had
originally marked their rising points with straight lines of stones, they would surely have become aware that the rising
position changed over time. As we have seen in chapter 4, there is even evidence they had a subtle and elegant concept of
precessional motion. According to the latest estimates of Wendorf and Schild, Nabta Playa began functioning as a
regional ceremonial center during the Middle Neolithic (6100–5500 BCE) and remained in use until about 3500 BCE—
thus for at least two millennia of stellar observations. There is also evidence that the site was visited as far back as the
early Holocene Period (9000–6100 BCE), thereby giving an even longer observation period. They further explain that
“[f]ollowing a major drought which drove earlier groups from the desert, the Late Neolithic began around 5500 BC with
new groups that had a complex social system expressed in a degree of organization and control not previously seen.
These new people, the Cattle Herders (also known as Ru’at El Baqar people) appear to have been responsible for the
ceremonial complex at Nabta Playa. The newcomers had a complex social system that displayed a degree of organization
and control not previously seen in Egypt.” 6
We saw in chapter 4 that the people of Nabta focused their social system that displayed a degree of organization and
contol onto creating a megalithic astro-ceremonial complex. One primary feature of that complex was repeated
alignments to the rising of Sirius and to the circumpolar Bull’s Thigh stars. We might ask, then, why the ancient
astronomers of Nabta Playa also marked the rising of the star Sirius. What significance could this have had? In asking
this, we are suddenly reminded that this star had its so-called heliacal rising at around the summer solstice, and that it was
at this time of year that there began the monsoon rains that filled the lake at Nabta Playa. We can also remember that
there was indeed such a summer solstice alignment at Nabta Playa defined by the so-called gate of the calendar circle.
Was it possible that these alignments had been intended to work together in order to mark a direction as well as a specific
time of year? In other words, could the astronomy of Nabta Playa have served as a point that gave a specific direction at a
specific time of year? If so, what did it point to, and at what time of year?
MOVING EAST TOWARD THE NILE VALLEY
Around 6000 BCE, the heavy monsoon rains began to come regularly during the summer solstice season to fill the large
depression at Nabta Playa, turning it into a shallow, temporary lake and the region around it into lush prairies that were
idyllic for grazing cattle. Further, it was this hydraulic miracle that attracted the so-called Ru’at El Baqar, or cattle
people, every monsoon season. Year after year, the cattle people came around the time of the summer solstice to set up
camp, graze their cattle on the thick, soft grass along the playa, and remain until the lake eventually dried up some six
months later, in midwinter.
In this southern region of the Egyptian Sahara the summer nights are warm and crystal clear, and the starry
firmament is a truly marvelous sight to watch. It looms above like a giant cupola or a canopy of twinkling lights that very
slowly but perceptibly move majestically from east to west. The constellations appear to be so close that we might be
tempted to ignore common sense and reach out to touch them. In these nightly displays, the cattle people had ample time