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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itualistic and symbolic in this shape, a meaning we now find elusive. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Egypt</strong>ians clearly found this meaning to<br />
be important. <strong>The</strong> craftsmanship <strong>of</strong> the Bent Pyramid achieves a high level, and the entire structure is beautifully<br />
wrought. Clearly Sneferu and the <strong>Egypt</strong>ians <strong>of</strong> his time were using architecture to express something <strong>of</strong> great<br />
importance, and they were giving this work their all. 16<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bent Pyramid is the first true giant pyramid created by the ancient <strong>Egypt</strong>ians †77 under the reign <strong>of</strong> Sneferu, the<br />
founder <strong>of</strong> the fourth dynasty. Evidence suggests that it was located on a site that included preexisting symbolic<br />
architecture, such as the Zep Tepi Vega shaft that was revered and extremely ancient even in the time <strong>of</strong> Sneferu. <strong>The</strong><br />
duality symbolism repeatedly built into the Bent Pyramid may represent the dual times—Zep Tepi (the First Time), and<br />
the second time <strong>of</strong> the revival <strong>of</strong> monumental astroceremonial architecture in Sneferu’s fourth dynasty. This dual<br />
astroceremonial architecture is also present at Giza and was present at Nabta Playa. We can note that these two<br />
monumentalized epochs—Zep Tepi and the initiation <strong>of</strong> giant pyramid complex construction in Old Kingdom times—<br />
also represent two stations <strong>of</strong> the Great Year cycle <strong>of</strong> the ages: the southern culmination <strong>of</strong> Sirius at summer solstice<br />
midnight and the heliacal reappearance <strong>of</strong> Sirius at summer solstice dawn.<br />
We can note that when we find a new interpretation, one that will endure the test <strong>of</strong> time, for an ancient monument<br />
or set <strong>of</strong> monuments, there tends also to be found some bits <strong>of</strong> folklore, mythology, or story from the past, <strong>of</strong>ten ignored<br />
or dismissed by moderns, that points toward the same interpretation. Thus, once these alignments to Vega at Zep Tepi<br />
were determined, we searched the literature and indeed found that Manly P. Hall writes in 1928, “In the light <strong>of</strong> the secret<br />
philosophy <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Egypt</strong>ian initiates, W. W. Harmon, by a series <strong>of</strong> extremely complicated yet exact mathematical<br />
calculations; determines that the first ceremonial <strong>of</strong> the Pyramid was performed 68,890 years ago on the occasion when<br />
the star Vega for the first time sent its ray down the descending passage into the pit.” 17 W. W. Harmon, an esoteric<br />
<strong>The</strong>osophist, seems to have claimed to have received somehow, from an ancient initiatory tradition, the basic idea <strong>of</strong><br />
Vega shining down the subterranean passage as the first use <strong>of</strong> the Giza complex for ritual initiatory purposes. He then<br />
attempts to calculate a date on his own. It is interesting that he seems to have been correct about Vega and the<br />
subterranean passage but is completely wrong about the date. (Even going back to earlier precession cycles does not yield<br />
Harmon’s date.) Quite opposite Harmon, we first suspected Vega for purely astronomical reasons based on calculations,<br />
then we researched the cultural and contextual evidence in order to find that an intended Vega alignment does indeed fit<br />
into the historic-cultural sequence.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re seems to be mounting evidence that there was some symbolic architecture at Giza and Dashur during Zep Tepi<br />
and that it referenced Vega and Sirius, because these stars represented the First Time, the beginning <strong>of</strong> the Great Year <strong>of</strong><br />
precession. At this point defenders <strong>of</strong> the orthodox view may object along the traditional line <strong>of</strong> thinking that there was<br />
nothing at Giza before the Old Kingdom and that, therefore, it is not plausible that several millennia earlier there was<br />
monumental architecture. As Zahi Hawass, director <strong>of</strong> the Supreme Council <strong>of</strong> Antiquities, states, “But no single piece<br />
<strong>of</strong> material culture, not a single object nor piece <strong>of</strong> an object, has been found at Giza that can be interpreted as coming<br />
from a lost civilization [before the <strong>Egypt</strong>ian Dynasties].” 18 <strong>The</strong> Great Sphinx, however, must qualify as a piece <strong>of</strong><br />
material culture. Further, though the Sphinx may not have been in existence as far back as Zep Tepi, and perhaps it was,<br />
or is, only seven thousand years old, the minimum age required by geophysical weathering. In either case, the Sphinx is<br />
strong evidence that there was monumental symbolic architecture at Giza long before the pharaonic Old Kingdom times.<br />
In the orthodox view, <strong>of</strong> course, the physical evidence for the ancient Sphinx could be dismissed on the basis that it is an<br />
anomaly—the only piece <strong>of</strong> evidence—and, therefore, it doesn’t count. <strong>The</strong> Vega shafts and Sirius platform Zep Tepi<br />
findings can also be dismissed by some as anomalies based on the fact that this evidence is astroceremonial, rather than<br />
proved by radiocarbon or other traditional dating methods. At some point, however, enough anomalies from enough<br />
different disciplines add up to an overwhelming body <strong>of</strong> evidence. *78 19<br />
So the developmental sequence may have been thus: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Black</strong> African star people <strong>of</strong> the Sahara developed the<br />
forerunner <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Egypt</strong>ian civilization and, in the process, built the astroceremonial complex at Nabta Playa. When the<br />
extreme dryness <strong>of</strong> the region finally set in, they moved to the Nile Valley and developed the archaic temple <strong>of</strong> Satis at<br />
Elephantine Island. <strong>The</strong>y then spread throughout the Nile Valley, assimilating the existing populations into dynastic<br />
<strong>Egypt</strong> and increasing their megalithic building activities. By the third dynasty, King Djoser, with his astronomer-priest<br />
Imhotep, built at Saqqara the first major monumental complex <strong>of</strong> dynastic <strong>Egypt</strong>. <strong>The</strong>n fourth-dynasty founder King<br />
Sneferu, and Sneferu’s son, King Khufu, built the Bent Pyramid at Dashur, followed by the Great Pyramid at Giza, both<br />
constructed on top <strong>of</strong> much more ancient sacred subterranean passages and platforms from Zep Tepi. Thus, all the truly<br />
monumental pyramid architecture <strong>of</strong> the dynastic period (with the exception, perhaps, <strong>of</strong> the fourth-dynasty Unfinished