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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÷ 10 = 3.9 years for the calendar to lose one day to the sidereal year, not exactly 4 calendar years. In the Reisner<br />
papyrus, a hired scribe wrote the approximation 39 ÷ 10 = 4 even though elsewhere in the papyrus he has correctly<br />
worked the problems 30 ÷ 10 and 9 ÷ 10, which when added together give the correct value <strong>of</strong> 39 ÷ 10, proving his<br />
ability (Gillings 1972: 221). Apparently the author <strong>of</strong> the Reisner papyrus knew or was told that the calculation 39 ÷<br />
10 was not to be performed in such a pr<strong>of</strong>ane location as the <strong>of</strong>ficial registers <strong>of</strong> a dockyard workshop.<br />
Furthermore, when the geographer Strabo (second century CE) wrote <strong>of</strong> Plato’s and Eudoxus’s studies in <strong>Egypt</strong> in<br />
the 4th century BCE, he tells us that the <strong>Egypt</strong>ian priests “did teach them the fractions <strong>of</strong> the day and the night<br />
which, running over and above the 365 days, fill out the time <strong>of</strong> the true year” (Strabo, Geography, pp. 83–85).<br />
<strong>The</strong>se priests understood that the “true year” contains 10 /39 <strong>of</strong> a day more than the 365-day calendar year they<br />
used, but they were “secretive and slow to impart” this knowledge. (From “Unit Fractions: Inception and Use,” in<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ostracon, Journal <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Egypt</strong>ian Study Society, vol. 14, no. 2, Summer 2003. [Note that 365 days plus<br />
10 /39 day gives the length <strong>of</strong> the sidereal day to within 4 seconds, whereas the crude approximation 365 days plus<br />
¼ day is <strong>of</strong>f by more than 9 minutes.])<br />
<strong>The</strong> difference, then, <strong>of</strong> two years represented on the walls progressing in time from east to west could also reflect<br />
the changing Sothic cycle—the next one will be two years shorter. Further, the difference between the east and west<br />
wall representations, two years, appears to be reflected in the north and south walls, each <strong>of</strong> which has 732 panels. Two<br />
years equal 730 solar days or 732 sidereal days. *59<br />
<strong>Egypt</strong>ologists agree that Imhotep lived in the reign <strong>of</strong> King Djoser during the third dynasty, which, they say, began in<br />
the year 2630 BCE. <strong>The</strong>y openly admit, however, that a margin <strong>of</strong> error <strong>of</strong> at least one hundred fifty years must be<br />
allowed for the early dynasties, thus placing Imhotep as living anytime between 2780 and 2480 BCE. 71 <strong>The</strong> date 2780<br />
BCE, which could well have been the start <strong>of</strong> Djoser’s reign, now also rings a bell, for it was the year when the summer<br />
solstice coincided with the heliacal rising <strong>of</strong> Sirius and also when, most chronologists strongly suspect, the <strong>of</strong>ficial civil<br />
calendar was set in motion. 72 <strong>The</strong>refore, we see that both the calculated value <strong>of</strong> 1,461 years and the actual value <strong>of</strong><br />
1,459 years <strong>of</strong> the Sothic cycle (which is a combination <strong>of</strong> the solar and stellar cycles) are expressed on the east and west<br />
sides <strong>of</strong> the boundary wall. Further, the precise difference between these two durations is expressed by the walls that<br />
connect them in terms <strong>of</strong> the number <strong>of</strong> sidereal days (or star days), which also is a combination <strong>of</strong> solar and stellar<br />
times. Finally, the whole step pyramid complex and the small stone cubicle/serdab are aligned with the Big Dipper to<br />
mark the reappearance <strong>of</strong> Sirius in the east at the one time in twenty-six thousand years that this occurs on summer<br />
solstice. All <strong>of</strong> these facts taken together cannot be a coincidence. <strong>The</strong> entire complex appears to announce the long-term<br />
cosmic cycles <strong>of</strong> Sirius—how they are measured and predicted and connected to the human-made cycles <strong>of</strong> the civil<br />
calendar, all constructed around the very special time when heliacal reappearance <strong>of</strong> Sirius coincided with the summer<br />
solstice. Of course, this interpretation addresses not only the elegant calendar and cosmic meanings <strong>of</strong> the wall panel<br />
design but also the reason why the step pyramid complex was built at that precise time.<br />
If we accept that Imhotep knew not only that an approximation to the Sothic cycle was 1,461 <strong>Egypt</strong>ian civil years but<br />
also the precise duration <strong>of</strong> the previous Sothic cycle and that this cycle is a combination <strong>of</strong> solar and sidereal motions,<br />
and if we also accept that he had a concept <strong>of</strong> the difference between the sidereal day and the solar day, then it is highly<br />
likely that he was informed by careful observations going back at least one Sothic cycle—that is, back to 4241 BCE, to<br />
the period <strong>of</strong> heavy activity at Nabta Playa.<br />
OTHER EVIDENCE OF THE LONG-TERM TRACKING OF SIRIUS<br />
We have seen that as early as 3200 BCE, the star Sirius was tracked at Elephantine with the changing axes <strong>of</strong> the<br />
multitiered temple <strong>of</strong> Satis. Yet there are shrines in <strong>Egypt</strong> other than the step pyramid complex and the Giza pyramid<br />
complex that also tracked this special star.<br />
In the area <strong>of</strong> ancient <strong>The</strong>bes (modern Luxor) are the remains <strong>of</strong> a small temple commonly known as Thoth Hill. <strong>The</strong><br />
temple was built on a high point in the <strong>The</strong>ban hills overlooking the Nile Valley below, with a clear view <strong>of</strong> the eastern<br />
horizon. Discovered by George Sweinfurth in 1904 and studied by Sir Flinders Petrie in 1909, the temple has been<br />
confirmed to have been built under the reign <strong>of</strong> King Mentuhotep <strong>of</strong> the eleventh dynasty. Extensive investigations<br />
between 1995 and 1998 by a Hungarian team from Eotvos Lorand University under the directorship <strong>of</strong> Dr. Gyozo Voros