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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Footnotes<br />
*1. <strong>The</strong> English Patient, 1996, features Ralph Fiennes and Kristen Scott Thomas. <strong>The</strong> so-called Cave <strong>of</strong> Swimmers<br />
(which is actually in Gilf Kebir’s Wadi Sura), where the heroine, Lady Clayton, dramatically dies, was also filmed not<br />
on location in southwest <strong>Egypt</strong> but in Morocco. <strong>The</strong> real Lady Clayton actually died many years later in England by<br />
jumping from the open cockpit <strong>of</strong> her airplane and breaking her neck against a metal bar.<br />
*2. As the historian <strong>of</strong> science Jed Z. Buchwald describes, the Dendera ceiling was constructed in the interregnum years<br />
after the death <strong>of</strong> Cleopatra’s father, Ptolemy Auletes, in 51 BCE, when there was no king and therefore no royal name<br />
to put in the cartouches. We note, however, that is the date <strong>of</strong> the construction <strong>of</strong> the ceiling. <strong>The</strong>re is still uncertainty<br />
regarding the date(s) to which the actual contents <strong>of</strong> the zodiac itself may refer. We caution the curious reader that<br />
before launching <strong>of</strong>f to date the Dendera zodiac again, it is best to be aware that no less than the likes <strong>of</strong> LaPlace,<br />
Fourier, and Biot expended significant efforts at extracting dates, and their results remained inconclusive.<br />
*3. [Bey is a Turkish title for “chieftain.” —Ed.]<br />
*4. <strong>The</strong> eccentricity is currently about 0.017, meaning that Earth is 3.4 percent closer to the sun during closest approach<br />
compared to the farthest it is from the sun in the yearly orbital cycle. <strong>The</strong> gravitational pull from Jupiter, Mars, and the<br />
other planets causes the eccentricity <strong>of</strong> Earth’s orbit to vary from a mostly round path (0.005) to a more elongated one<br />
(0.058) in a complex cycle <strong>of</strong> about one hundred thousand years. Also, the time <strong>of</strong> year when Earth is closest to the<br />
sun varies. Currently, Earth is closest to the sun on January 4 (perihelion).<br />
*5. Oddly, in all subsequent publications on Nabta Playa by Malville et al., there is no more mention <strong>of</strong> this highly<br />
accurate due-east alignment.<br />
*6. As the primary member <strong>of</strong> a set <strong>of</strong> circumpolar stars.<br />
*7. Some scholars who emphasize the cultural approach rather than the physical approach to archaeology claim this<br />
method <strong>of</strong> analysis or puzzle-solving is invalid, because, they say, any proposed astronomy should be linked directly to<br />
ethnographic justifications—that is, we should have access to other evidence, including writings or stories, already<br />
proving that the specific people who built the structure in question were in fact interested in the proposed astronomy.<br />
We absolutely agree that ethnographic justifications greatly improve the validity <strong>of</strong> any archaeoastronomical finding,<br />
but we also note that considering astronomy first and then, subsequently, considering the ethnographics is equally<br />
scientific.<br />
*8. Of course, critics chime in at this point: “<strong>The</strong>re is no reason to assume the Calendar Circle builders were interested in<br />
the stars <strong>of</strong> Orion’s belt. <strong>The</strong>refore it is pseudoscientific to consider such a solution to the Calendar Circle puzzle!”<br />
Our answer is that we must not start with ethnographic associations or presumptions. In fact, for the moment, we<br />
exclude from the puzzle as we have defined them ethnographic assumptions in order to have a well-defined question<br />
that involves only simple physical astronomy and a man-made pattern <strong>of</strong> stones on the ground. Further, to isolate a<br />
problem by employing well-defined parameters is actually good scientific method. If we come up with a solution to the<br />
well-defined simplified astronomy puzzle, then we can consider whether there are or are not ethnographic<br />
justifications. This is at least as scientific a procedure as starting with ethnographic presumptions in the first place.<br />
*9. <strong>The</strong> constellations change shape very slowly over long periods <strong>of</strong> time due to the so-called proper motions <strong>of</strong> stars.<br />
All the stars are moving with respect to each other, like billiard balls scattering on a pool table—though at extremely<br />
slow, angular rates.<br />
†10. <strong>The</strong> Bible mentions Orion three times: Job 9:9, “He is the maker <strong>of</strong> the Bear and Orion”; Job 8:31, “Can you loosen<br />
Orion’s belt?”; and Amos 5:8, “He who made the Pleiades and Orion.”<br />
*11. One key aspect <strong>of</strong> this interpretation is the visibility <strong>of</strong> the stars on the meridian. Also, given that solar zenith<br />
crossing was considered to be <strong>of</strong> significance to the Neolithic people and that at Nabta Playa the sun crossed the zenith<br />
two days per year—21 days after and 21 days before the day <strong>of</strong> summer solstice—we can use this information to<br />
define an operational window for the Calendar Circle (that is, those years when the Orion’s belt stars would have been<br />
visible on the meridian in the proper configuration any time during those six weeks around summer solstice). Further,<br />
we estimate that the stars could be seen in the sky up to about forty-five minutes before the sun rises above the<br />
horizon. This gives an end date to the Calendar Circle operational window <strong>of</strong> about 4800 BCE. <strong>The</strong> start <strong>of</strong> the<br />
window is when the configuration angle and altitude become a good match, which we estimate to be about 6400 BCE.