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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mythical kings, the British <strong>Egypt</strong>ologist Henri Frankfort says this <strong>of</strong> the Shemsu-Hor:<br />
<strong>The</strong> designation [Shemsu-Hor/Followers <strong>of</strong> Horus] was reserved for rulers <strong>of</strong> the distant past. <strong>The</strong> texts leave no<br />
doubt that the term referred to earlier kings. An inscription <strong>of</strong> a king Ran<strong>of</strong>er, just before the Middle Kingdom,<br />
contains the phrase “in the time <strong>of</strong> your forefathers, the kings, Followers <strong>of</strong> Horus [Shemsu-Hor].” Texts <strong>of</strong><br />
Tuthmosis I and Tuthmosis III refer to them in the same manner. <strong>The</strong> first mentions fame the like <strong>of</strong> which was not<br />
“seen in the annals <strong>of</strong> the ancestors since the Followers <strong>of</strong> Horus”; the other states that, in rebuilding a temple, an<br />
old plan was used and proceeds: “<strong>The</strong> great plan was found in Denderah in old delineations written upon leather <strong>of</strong><br />
animal skin <strong>of</strong> the time <strong>of</strong> the Followers <strong>of</strong> Horus.” From these quotations it appears that “Followers <strong>of</strong> Horus” is a<br />
vague designation for the kings <strong>of</strong> a distant past. Hence the Turin Papyrus places them before the first historical king<br />
. . . 86<br />
From the Turin Papyrus we can work out that the Shemsu-Hor ruled for 13,420 years before the first historical<br />
pharaoh, who was identified as Menes. <strong>Egypt</strong>ologists place the reign <strong>of</strong> Menes about 3000 BCE. This means that the start<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Shemsu-Hor lineage was about 16,420 BCE—which can be rounded to 16,500 BCE. Could it be a coincidence<br />
that this very date <strong>of</strong> 16,500 BCE is found in the astronomy <strong>of</strong> the Calendar Circle at Nabta Playa, as we have seen in<br />
chapter 4? 87<br />
We now return to the alleged plans for the temple <strong>of</strong> the cow goddess Hathor at Dendera and the claim that the<br />
temple’s original plans were from the time <strong>of</strong> the Shemsu-Hor. If we assume that the original plans were from Nabta<br />
Playa, then we would expect to find the same kind <strong>of</strong> astronomy at Dendera that was dominant at Nabta Playa. This,<br />
unquestionably, is the astronomy defined by the focal point <strong>of</strong> the ceremonial complex at Nabta Playa, CSA, which<br />
contained the cow stone. We recall that from CSA there emanate a series <strong>of</strong> megalithic lines toward the star Dubhe in the<br />
north and a series <strong>of</strong> lines toward the east, directed toward the rising <strong>of</strong> Sirius.<br />
Could the same be found at Dendera?<br />
HATHOR, ISIS, THE BIG DIPPER, AND SIRIUS<br />
<strong>The</strong> entrance to the temple <strong>of</strong> the cow goddess Hathor at Dendera faces north. <strong>The</strong> huge gate is flanked by six imposing<br />
columns whose four sided capitals are decorated with faces <strong>of</strong> Hathor, here a woman’s face with cow’s ears. Beyond the<br />
entrance is the hypostyle hall with a further eighteen similar columns, thus equaling a total <strong>of</strong> twenty-four columns. <strong>The</strong><br />
whole temple is a maze <strong>of</strong> rooms, chapels, corridors, underground crypts, and stairs leading to the ro<strong>of</strong>. On the ro<strong>of</strong>, in<br />
one <strong>of</strong> the chapels, was found the famous Zodiac <strong>of</strong> Dendera, which we encountered in chapter 1, and which is now at the<br />
Louvre Museum in Paris. 88<br />
<strong>The</strong> Zodiac <strong>of</strong> Dendera<br />
<strong>The</strong> main Hathor temple is famous for having housed the so-called round Zodiac <strong>of</strong> Dendera (as well as a lesser known<br />
rectangular zodiac located on the ceiling <strong>of</strong> the first hypostyle hall). <strong>The</strong> round Zodiac is really more a planisphere, or<br />
sky map, that shows the whole celestial landscape from the perspective <strong>of</strong> having the north celestial pole near its center.<br />
<strong>The</strong> actual zodiac, which was fixed on the ceiling <strong>of</strong> a chapel on the upper floor <strong>of</strong> the temple, is made from the twelve<br />
familiar Babylonian-Greek astrological signs, which are scattered in a rough loop around the celestial pole. In a larger<br />
loop are scattered the thirty-six decans <strong>of</strong> ancient <strong>Egypt</strong>, which were used for timekeeping and rebirth rites (because<br />
they contain Orion and Sirius). It is worth reminding ourselves that the decans were known from at least the pyramid age,<br />
which suggests that the Dendera planisphere has incorporated elements <strong>of</strong> great antiquity. Here, Orion-Osiris is<br />
represented by a striding man who wears the royal crown, and Sirius-Isis is shown as a recumbent cow with a fivepointed<br />
star above her horns. Interestingly, behind the Isis-Sirius cow is the figure <strong>of</strong> a woman holding a bow and arrow,<br />
almost certainly Satis <strong>of</strong> Elephantine, whom, as we have already seen, was also identified with Sirius (particularly with its<br />
heliacal rising and the Nile flood). Very near the center <strong>of</strong> the zodiac is the figure <strong>of</strong> a small jackal on what looks like a<br />
hoe. To its left is a large standing hippopotamus that represents the constellation Draconis, and to its right is the familiar<br />
bull’s thigh that represents the Big Dipper. <strong>The</strong>se last two constellations, as we have already seen, can be traced back<br />
to the pyramid age, again giving the Dendera planisphere links to the distant past.