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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THE EGYPTIAN TEACHER AND THE MALTESE BUSINESSMAN<br />
Mahmoud Marai is an <strong>Egypt</strong>ian chemistry lecturer who, like Carlo Bergmann, dropped his career in the classroom for a<br />
more adventurous career in the desert. He set up a tour-operating business, taking tourists and adventurers into the deep<br />
desert, eventually specializing in trips dedicated to exploration. Mahmoud’s infatuation with the desert began when he<br />
was stationed at the oasis <strong>of</strong> Siwa during his military service. <strong>The</strong>re, roaming the golden dunes at the edge <strong>of</strong> the Great<br />
Sand Sea, he was hit by the explorer’s bug, and his experience with the desert was love at first sight. Mahmoud just had to<br />
become involved with its barren beauty, its haunting and alluring isolation, and, <strong>of</strong> course, its many mysteries. Like<br />
others before him, he dreamed <strong>of</strong> finding the legendary lost oasis <strong>of</strong> Zarzora and going to places that were still<br />
unexplored. This strange pull that the desert has on some people is not uncommon. <strong>The</strong>re is an inexplicable attraction to<br />
being alone in its vast emptiness where earth and sky seem to meet and become one. Somehow, the isolation from human<br />
habitation brings us closer to the essence <strong>of</strong> our humanity. <strong>The</strong>re is an old Arab saying that God lives in the desert. To put<br />
it slightly differently, it feels as if it is not us but our soul that is alive when we roam the open desert, for it provokes a<br />
strange and very strong sensation that God is standing near us when we are alone in its vastness.<br />
At any rate, Marai’s enthusiasm for daring and challenging desert trips attracted the attention <strong>of</strong> many explorers. In<br />
the winter <strong>of</strong> 2007 a Maltese businessman, Mark Borda, hired Mahmoud Marai for a desert trek 39 to Uwainat. <strong>The</strong><br />
permits for this expedition were issued via Mahmoud Marai as a registered tour operator by the Ministry <strong>of</strong> Interior and<br />
the <strong>Egypt</strong>ian military authorities, who are responsible for the safety <strong>of</strong> travelers and tours in the Western Desert. Borda<br />
and Marai had met the previous year through the intermediary <strong>of</strong> Carlo Bergmann. Borda’s objective was to search<br />
unexplored areas for anything that might be <strong>of</strong> scientific interest to scholars <strong>of</strong> geology, botany, archaeology, and<br />
anthropology. By carefully studying satellite imagery before the trip, Borda had drawn up an extensive list <strong>of</strong> targets.<br />
Upon his arrival at Jebel Uwainat, Borda immediately set about the task <strong>of</strong> surveying these targets systematically, very<br />
<strong>of</strong>ten with Marai accompanying him on his treks. <strong>The</strong>y combed many areas in the lower slopes, wadis, and plateaus<br />
mainly southeast <strong>of</strong> the Uwainat massif. Each day they trekked about 15 to 20 kilometers (9 to 12 miles), checking every<br />
nook, crack, and cave they encountered. This method paid <strong>of</strong>f, and they found the locations <strong>of</strong> dozens <strong>of</strong> unreported<br />
prehistoric works <strong>of</strong> art.<br />
PHARAONIC INSCRIPTIONS! A CARTOUCHE OF A KING!<br />
By November 27, Marai and Borda had already been walking and searching for nine days. On that day, just as they were<br />
about to arrive back at camp for lunch, Borda scanned with his powerful binoculars the last remaining section <strong>of</strong><br />
boulders that lay strewn on a slope. <strong>The</strong>y were in a region at the southern rim <strong>of</strong> Jebel Uwainat—which is some 50<br />
kilometers (about 31 miles) into Sudanese territory—an area into which it is dangerous to venture. (In September 2008 a<br />
group <strong>of</strong> Italian tourists was kidnapped at Jebel Uwainat by rebels, and they endured a two-week ordeal before they were<br />
freed after a gunfight between the rebels and the <strong>Egypt</strong>ian military.) As Borda panned with his binoculars, he suddenly<br />
saw an unmistakable shape on the surface <strong>of</strong> one <strong>of</strong> the larger boulders some 100 meters (about 328 feet) from where he<br />
stood. It was a shape that he had seen many times before—but only hundreds <strong>of</strong> kilometers from Jebel Uwainat.<br />
He exclaimed to Marai in disbelief, “<strong>The</strong>re is a pharaonic cartouche on that boulder!” As he moved closer, focusing<br />
his eyepiece with growing excitement, he began to see hieroglyphic inscriptions inside and outside the cartouche (see<br />
plate 3). <strong>The</strong> two men could barely contain their excitement, for there it was, after decades <strong>of</strong> speculation, incontestable<br />
evidence that the ancient <strong>Egypt</strong>ians managed to reach this remote place after all! <strong>The</strong> whole geography <strong>of</strong> ancient <strong>Egypt</strong><br />
suddenly changed before their eyes. <strong>The</strong>y immediately took dozens <strong>of</strong> digital photographs and carefully recorded the<br />
coordinates <strong>of</strong> the location with GPS. After leaving Jebel Uwainat, Borda also decided to check various prominent hills<br />
and rocky outcrops and managed to discover a magnificent cave with exquisite prehistoric art in a region previously<br />
considered void <strong>of</strong> such work. <strong>The</strong> images were not engraved but painted in bright colors. <strong>The</strong>re were scenes showing<br />
slender <strong>Black</strong> men and women tending cattle, performing daily chores, and dancing and acting out rituals. <strong>The</strong> details and<br />
colors were so vivid that it was difficult to accept that they were thousands <strong>of</strong> years old. <strong>The</strong>se works and the pharaonic<br />
inscriptions were by far more than Marai and Borda had dreamed <strong>of</strong> finding. Now they could return to Cairo with this<br />
historical trophy and an amazing story to tell.<br />
Upon their return, Mark Borda immediately flew to London to get a quick translation <strong>of</strong> the Uwainat Inscriptions, as<br />
they are now known. At the Institute <strong>of</strong> Archaeology, University College London, Borda showed the photographs to<br />
Maltese <strong>Egypt</strong>ologist Aloisia de Trafford and British ancient languages specialist Joe Clayton <strong>of</strong> Birkbeck College. We