Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt

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with unusual candor. The discovery of the first alignment of large stones in 1990 came as a complete surprise. It is not clear why we failed to recognize them previously, or rather why we failed to understand their significance during the first three field seasons at Nabta [1974, 1975, and 1977]. It was not that we did not see them because we did, but they were either regarded as bedrock, or in some instances where it was clear they were not bedrock, regarded as insignificant. Perhaps the most embarrassing failure is the Group A alignment, which appears on one of our earlier published profiles as a somewhat fanciful steep sided hillock, buried under playa sediments. We were so sure it was bedrock that we failed to drill a borehole near the megalith. Our view of the Neolithic societies in the Sahara at that time was that the sites we were excavating represented small bands with simple social systems. Building [such] large stone monuments was not expected among such groups. 30 Wendorf ’s candid words here show that even in the physical sciences there is a tendency to find only what we set out to find and ignore or fail to notice other features that do not fall within our preset objective. In other words, scientists have a tendency to discover what they expect. Important to note, at any rate, is that Wendorf and Malville in “The Megalithic Alignments” finally took notice of the mysterious megalithic alignments and structures and their possible astronomical meaning. They were in for quite a surprise. In their 2001 report Wendorf and Malville listed no fewer than twenty-five megaliths that were placed in six main alignments toward the horizon. Although most of the megaliths today are toppled and broken, as indicated earlier, originally they stood upright and created impressive lines of sight. They were generally about 2 by 1 meters (about 7 by 3 feet) in height and about 0.4 meter (about 1 foot) thick. The biggest of these megaliths was a massive 3 by 2.5 meters (about 10 by 8 feet) in height and 0.7 meter (about 2.3 feet) thick and is estimated to weigh more than 10 tons. Yet this was by no means the largest block found at Nabta Playa. The largest, although not part of any apparent alignment, was labeled Megalith X-1 by Wendorf and measured 4 by 3.1 meters (about 13 by 10 feet) in height and 0.7 meter (about 2.3 feet) thick and was estimated to weigh nearly 20 tons. Returning to the six megalithic alignments, the astronomer Kim Malville spent some time measuring their latitude and longitude to determine their precise azimuths, and he identified three of them going toward the north and the three others going toward the east. 31 Figure 3.4. Nabta Playa Megalith X-1, shown in the satellite image in the center of an oval hill and large, low, spiral-armed feature. The broken or cut X-1 is on the ground. Scale in the two images is indicated by the lengths of the labeled white bars.
ALIGNMENTS TOWARD THE STARS: WHEN AND WHY? Malville concluded that the megalithic alignments had been intended to point to the rising place of important stars on the horizon in the late Neolithic period. He proposed that the three alignments going north tracked the star Dubhe at 4742 BCE, at 4423 BCE, and at 4199 BCE. Of the set of three alignments going east, one was aimed at Sirius about 4820 BCE and the two others tracked the stars of Orion’s belt at 4176 BCE and 3786 BCE. What Malville had determined, even though he did not spell it out himself, was that the ancient builders were tracking the precessional shift of important stars over several centuries, perhaps even millennia. At this stage, however, we must quickly point out that though one of the functions of the megalithic alignments was to act as trackers of the changing rising points of stars on the horizon across the epochs, it is important to note that the dates allocated by Malville to the alignments are in error due to the miscalculation of the azimuths made in the 2001 report 32 —errors that have since been corrected. 33 Further, although the 2005 corrected azimuth readings gave much earlier dates for the tracking of the stars, and although Malville agreed on the corrections, he did not then apply those dates but instead proposed a set of different stars to fit his original (incorrect) dates. At this point we and Malville parted ways in the interpretation of these alignments. We chose to retain the original stars proposed by Malville—Dubhe, *6 Sirius, and those of Orion’s belt—for as we will see in chapter 4 these stars no doubt made far more sense to the prehistoric people of Nabta Playa. In addition, chapter 6 shows how this prehistoric star lore was eventually passed on to the ancient Egyptians, who built the pyramids, and how especially the bright star Sirius became the star par excellence of the pharaohs.
Page 3 and 4: For my daughter, Candice, and my so
Page 5 and 6: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book was not a
Page 7 and 8: More Mysteries at Nabta Playa The S
Page 9 and 10: INTRODUCTION ANCIENT EGYPT REBORN N
Page 11 and 12: 1 STRANGE STONES In Nabta there are
Page 13 and 14: desert” emerge from the surroundi
Page 15 and 16: stage the CPE anthropologists were
Page 17 and 18: arguments—and especially on the B
Page 19 and 20: This time, some archaeologists took
Page 21 and 22: who’s who of famous men: it inclu
Page 23 and 24: huge rocky massif sprouting out of
Page 25 and 26: Almasy planned an expedition to Gil
Page 27 and 28: of Setu and Irtet after having expl
Page 29 and 30: Sahara, and their bones were brough
Page 31 and 32: Djedefre Water Mountain, as Bergama
Page 33 and 34: Figure 2.5. Abu Ballas Pottery Hill
Page 35 and 36: can imagine how these scholars felt
Page 37 and 38: followed by the same determinative
Page 39 and 40: The surface of the now-covered bedr
Page 41 and 42: indeed, one of the main objectives
Page 43 and 44: In addition to tumuli tombs of catt
Page 45: since fallen. The largest ones were
Page 49 and 50: elated not only to the gates of the
Page 51 and 52: dates within thousands of years of
Page 53 and 54: the largest stone. Again, the dista
Page 55 and 56: thus sent in an order to Quickbird
Page 57 and 58: Finally, to our relief, the light f
Page 59 and 60: degrees and azimuth 22.5 degrees an
Page 61 and 62: associated with the heleical rising
Page 63 and 64: ight angle. After that date, Nabta
Page 65 and 66: also note that several megalithic a
Page 67 and 68: ceremonial complex of Nabta Playa.
Page 69 and 70: Figure 4.14. Bagnold Circle in, top
Page 71 and 72: have been placed by humans, possibl
Page 73 and 74: 5 THE BIBLE, THE HAMITES, AND THE B
Page 75 and 76: Even allowing that scholars tend to
Page 77 and 78: May 11, 2001, vol. 292, no. 5519, p
Page 79 and 80: egions: the Nile Valley and the vas
Page 81 and 82: At any rate, suffice it to say that
Page 83 and 84: perspective. We must also acknowled
Page 85 and 86: Plate 2. Djedefre Water Mountain, c
Page 87 and 88: Plate 8. Robert Bauval with herder
Page 89 and 90: Plate 15. Models of cows, Eleventh
Page 91 and 92: Plate 22. The rock-cut tomb of Hark
Page 93 and 94: wagging tail. We found them on the
Page 95 and 96: BCE to 2500 BCE. What she found odd
Page 97 and 98:
eassure us that all is not lost, af
Page 99 and 100:
Figure 5.3. Numerous prehistoric ha
Page 101 and 102:
themselves, our drivers uttered a b
Page 103 and 104:
arely kill their cattle for food ex
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to study the stars, perhaps even na
Page 107 and 108:
pointed star, which represents Siri
Page 109 and 110:
In the first century, some half-cen
Page 111 and 112:
Egyptologists have established that
Page 113 and 114:
Like the Nabta Playa prehistoric st
Page 115 and 116:
y the astronomer Sir Norman Lockyer
Page 117 and 118:
In appendix 1 we look in detail at
Page 119 and 120:
esynchronized every 1,460 years—t
Page 121 and 122:
÷ 10 = 3.9 years for the calendar
Page 123 and 124:
ole, he was known as Hor-Akhti, Hor
Page 125 and 126:
The rounded planisphere that is see
Page 127 and 128:
topped mound whose midpoint and end
Page 129 and 130:
POSTSCRIPT DISCOVERY OF THE KIFAH C
Page 131 and 132:
APPENDIX 1 BACK TO THE FIRST TIME V
Page 133 and 134:
TAKE A WALK AT THE FIRST TIME WITH
Page 135 and 136:
alignment is part of a symbolic sys
Page 137 and 138:
Pyramid at Zawiyet el-Aryan) is ass
Page 139 and 140:
APPENDIX 2 SOTHIC CYCLES AND IMHOTE
Page 142 and 143:
APPENDIX 3 SAVING NABTA PLAYA Will
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Figure A2. Rubbish dumps in the cen
Page 146 and 147:
a huge pumping station (the Mubarak
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In actual practice, though, the dev
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are not now capable of this percept
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*53. Actually, it is 365.242 days,
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Endnotes CHAPTER 1. STRANGE STONES
Page 156 and 157:
Mentioning Yam and Tekhebet,” Sah
Page 158 and 159:
13. J. M. Malville, R. Schild, F. W
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41. Thomas Brophy, The Mechanism De
Page 162 and 163:
34. G. A. Wainwright, “Seshat and
Page 164 and 165:
100. The story is told in the Westc
Page 166 and 167:
Bibliography Abed, Wael T. The Othe
Page 168 and 169:
Genzlinger, Neil. “Chasing Mummie
Page 170 and 171:
Millennium: A Reassessment.” Jour
Page 172 and 173:
About the Authors Egyptian-born Rob
Page 174 and 175:
BOOKS OF RELATED INTEREST Lost Know
Page 176:
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