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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Like the Nabta Playa prehistoric stargazers before them who experienced monsoon rains, the ancient <strong>Egypt</strong>ian<br />
astronomers could not help but notice that the annual arrival <strong>of</strong> the flood occurred when the sun rose at its most<br />
northerly position on the eastern horizon—that is, at summer solstice. <strong>The</strong> common view among scholars is that this<br />
prompted the ancient stargazers <strong>of</strong> the Nile to count the number <strong>of</strong> days between each cycle, reaching the conclusion that<br />
it took 365 days *53 —a year—which furthermore made the summer solstice their New Year’s Day.<br />
If we observe sunrise from the same place each day, we can notice that the sun changes position along the eastern<br />
horizon between two extreme points: the summer solstice to the far left (north) <strong>of</strong> due east, and the winter solstice to the<br />
far right (south) <strong>of</strong> due east. At these two extreme points, the sun appears to be stationary for a week or so, hence the<br />
term solstice, from the Latin, which means “stationary sun.” In our modern Gregorian calendar, the summer solstice falls<br />
on June 21 and the winter solstice falls on December 21. <strong>The</strong> sun’s journey from one solstice to the other and back takes<br />
365 days, which we call one year. Most historians agree that this discovery was made first in <strong>Egypt</strong> in the fourth<br />
millennium BCE. As we have seen, however, the evidence now strongly suggests that the discovery was made much<br />
earlier, in the <strong>Egypt</strong>ian Sahara, and was then imported into the Nile Valley by the <strong>Black</strong> people that traveled there from<br />
Nabta Playa. Admittedly, this discovery was probably refined a few centuries later—most likely, sometime around 2800<br />
BCE—by the ancient <strong>Egypt</strong>ians (by the sun priests <strong>of</strong> the Great Sun Temple at Heliopolis, near modern Cairo) to produce<br />
a sophisticated calendar with weeks and months.<br />
<strong>Egypt</strong>ian calendar divisions<br />
<strong>The</strong> civil (<strong>Egypt</strong>ian) calendar was divided in the following manner: twelve months <strong>of</strong> thirty days, with each month having<br />
three weeks, or decades, <strong>of</strong> ten days. <strong>The</strong> twelve months amounted to 360 days to which were added five days known<br />
as the Epagomenal Days, or Five Days upon the Year, thus making up the full 365-day year. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Egypt</strong>ian year had only<br />
three seasons <strong>of</strong> four months each: the first season, called Akhet, meaning “inundation,” from months 1 to 4; the<br />
second season, called Peret or Proyet, meaning “emergence” or “coming forth,” from months 5 to 8; and the third<br />
season, called Shemu, meaning “harvest,” from months 9 to 12. Originally, the months were not given names but were<br />
assigned only numbers from one to twelve. <strong>The</strong> first day <strong>of</strong> the first month <strong>of</strong> the first season was known as I Akhet—<br />
that is, month I, season Akhet, day 1. Later in the New Kingdom, the months received <strong>of</strong>ficial names: (1) Thoth, (2)<br />
Phaopi, (3) Athyr, (4) Choiak, (5) Tybi, (6) Mechir, (7) Phamenoth, (8) Pharmuti, (9) Pachons, (10) Payni, (11) Epiphi, and<br />
(12) Mesore. <strong>Egypt</strong>ologists and historians can never agree on the age <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Egypt</strong>ian calendar. <strong>The</strong>re is, however,<br />
much evidence to support the conclusion that the calendar was already in place during the Old Kingdom.<br />
<strong>The</strong> solar (tropical) year is, in fact, longer than 365 days by a very small fraction, almost a quarter <strong>of</strong> a day. <strong>The</strong> exact<br />
value <strong>of</strong> the year is 365.2422 days. Today, to keep our modern Gregorian calendar synchronized with the seasons, we add<br />
one day every four years to the year, making the lengthened year what is known as a leap year. Evidence suggests that<br />
even though the ancient <strong>Egypt</strong>ians were aware <strong>of</strong> this shift, they did not have a leap year but simply let their calendar drift<br />
relative to the seasons. This, by necessity, created a long-range cycle <strong>of</strong> 1,460 years—(365 × 4 = 1,460)—and can be<br />
seen as a Great Solar Cycle. It so happens that the ancients also observed the rising <strong>of</strong> stars, and they chose the heliacal<br />
rising <strong>of</strong> Sirius as a marker <strong>of</strong> the New Year. This means that their civil calendar New Year also drifted relative to the<br />
astronomical Sirius New Year at the rate <strong>of</strong> one day every four years, creating the same cycle <strong>of</strong> 1,460 years, which<br />
scholars call the Sothic cycle (because Sothis is the ancient name for Sirius). 53 <strong>The</strong> peculiarity <strong>of</strong> the annual cycle <strong>of</strong><br />
Sirius (or indeed any star that rises and sets) is that it will seem to disappear for a period <strong>of</strong> time—that is, it is hidden<br />
from view (because the star is up only in daylight). This period was about seventy days in the case <strong>of</strong> Sirius in ancient<br />
<strong>Egypt</strong>, after which it reappeared at dawn in the east. This first reappearance at dawn is known as the heliacal rising. <strong>The</strong><br />
heliacal rising <strong>of</strong> Sirius was significant to the ancient <strong>Egypt</strong>ians for two reasons: it took place near the summer solstice<br />
and also appeared at the start <strong>of</strong> the flood season. 54<br />
<strong>The</strong> Heliacal Rising <strong>of</strong> Sirius