Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt

Our hypothesis at this stage was thus that the ancient astronomer-priests of Nabta Playa had designed a device that
locked together the summer solstice sunrise and the culmination of Orion’s belt for ritualistic purposes and also for the
practical purpose of marking the coming of the monsoon rains. Yet could such a hypothesis be scientifically tested? Yes
—it could be accomplished by working out at which epoch the pattern of the three stars of Orion’s belt would have
matched the pattern of the three stones in the Calendar Circle and then comparing this result to the one resulting from
radiocarbon and other dating methods. If these dates matched, then the hypothesis would stand. We need not be bogged
down here in details regarding how the position of Orion’s belt can be worked out with precession calculations. This, in
any case, can be verified easily on a home computer equipped with good astronomical software. Any keen observer of the
night sky will know that Orion’s belt forms a very noticeable asterism (small group of stars) in the southern sky. Indeed,
so striking is this asterism that it was not only noticed but also used by many ancient cultures in their rituals and
mythologies. The asterism is at the center of the great Orion constellation that today dominates the southern sky in the
winter months.
Figure 4.1. Plot of all the radiocarbon dates from Nabta Playa published by the CPE
The current configuration of the constellation was formed about two million years ago *9 and will remain
recognizable in the night sky for the next two million years or so, making it one of the longest observableby-humans
constellations, and its familiar pattern was recognized by many ancient people, although these cultures represented it
differently. Most often, however, it was respresented as a giant human figure striding across the heavens. Thus, the
ancient Egyptians saw Orion as a giant man representing the god of resurrection, Osiris. To the ancient Babylonians, the
constellation was Mulsipazianna, the heavenly shepherd. The Greeks saw it as a giant hunter. Even the Bible speaks of
Orion and Orion’s belt in the books of Job and Amos. †10 Indeed, on a clear, cloudless night, it is almost impossible not
to be drawn to this bright and impressive asterism, especially to the obvious three-star asterism forming the belt—and
likely this pull was stronger for the ancient people of the Sahara, who, every night, had the opportunity to watch the stars,
unhindered by either obstacles or the light pollution of towns and cities.
Of course, it is important to note that the slow, twenty-sixthousand-year cycle of precession will change over time
the angle that the Orion’s belt asterism makes with the meridian. If we bear this in mind, it is relatively simple to verify by
computer simulation of the sky what the angle of the three stars is relative to the meridian and then match it to that of the
three upright stones at the center of the Calendar Circle. What epoch does the circle then represent? The CPE concluded
that the Calendar Circle must be dated to about 4800 BCE, because organic matter found nearby was firmly fixed at that
date by radiocarbon analysis and other archaeological methods. Clearly, then, it was worth checking the angle of the
Orion’s belt asterism around 4800 BCE in order to test our hypothesis. There was a hiccup at this point, however: our
software went back only to Julian date zero, 4712 BCE. 3
Scaliger’s Julian date counting Method
We note that the commonly used astronomy programs (SkyMapPro and StarryNight) employ approximation methods to
calculate the locations of stars. Because they approximate around the current date, they are extremely accurate for any