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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Finally, to our relief, the light from the growing dawn was strong enough for us to spot in the distance the first<br />
megaliths <strong>of</strong> Complex Structure A. <strong>The</strong> inspector beamed at us, and with a broad gesture <strong>of</strong> his hand to express his<br />
excitement and approval, he seemed to tell us that all the previous animosity toward us was quickly forgotten. We had at<br />
long last arrived at Nabta Playa, but our work was only just beginning. We estimated it would take all morning and<br />
several more kilometers <strong>of</strong> fast walking in this vast complex to get all the GPS readings and photographs needed for our<br />
purpose. Slowly and diligently, we recorded the GPS <strong>of</strong> all the megaliths, and we also had enough time before noon to<br />
investigate a mysterious feature beneath the largest megalith at Nabta Playa—labeled X-1—that had shown up on the<br />
Quickbird satellite image. <strong>The</strong> day was now becoming seriously hot, but we pressed on to visit the Calendar Circle and<br />
took some photographs for our own use. When we were satisfied that we had all the information and photographs we<br />
wanted, we rendezvoused with the jeeps, and after a quick sandwich break and refreshments, we headed south to connect<br />
with the new tarmac road that would take us to the city <strong>of</strong> Aswan on the Nile.<br />
Back home in California, we carefully analyzed our GPS field measurements and compared the results to those<br />
obtained from the Quickbird image and found them to be in agreement (although we had to make a small correction for<br />
the very slight error in the satellite’s pointing vector from space). We now had multiple corroborating coordinate<br />
readings for all the megaliths, and, armed with this data, we were able to determine their exact alignments, satisfied that<br />
at last we could do this with certainty. We found that the 2001 CPE report included raw GPS coordinates for the<br />
megaliths that were fairly accurate, but azimuth calculations derived from them were incorrect. Correcting this error<br />
yielded a completely new set <strong>of</strong> dates for the stellar alignments <strong>of</strong> the six rows <strong>of</strong> megaliths. Most significant was the<br />
alignment to the rising <strong>of</strong> Sirius. Malville and Wendorf had proposed that one <strong>of</strong> the megalith lines, C1, was directed<br />
toward the rising <strong>of</strong> Sirius in about 4820 BCE, but our calculations showed a much earlier date <strong>of</strong> around 6090 BCE. At<br />
this point we sought the support from a close colleague, Paul Rosen, from our previous interplanetary robotic space<br />
mission work, who was now a leader in spacecraft radar remote sensing technology. Together in June 2005 we published<br />
the new results for the Nabta Playa megalith alignments in a peer-reviewed academic journal. 10 Because our results<br />
showed that the megalith alignments given by Malville and Wendorf were substantially in error, we proposed a new set <strong>of</strong><br />
dates for around 6200 BCE for the stellar targets that fit the corrected data. *14<br />
Although we were pleased to see that in 2007 Wendorf and Malville (with Schild and Brenmer <strong>of</strong> the CPE) formally<br />
acknowledged their errors and accepted our corrected calculations for the azimuths <strong>of</strong> the six lines <strong>of</strong> megaliths, they<br />
nonetheless rejected our earlier date <strong>of</strong> circa 6200 BCE, because, they point out, some <strong>of</strong> the megaliths in the alignments<br />
were on top <strong>of</strong> playa sediment that was dated to approximately 5100 BCE, and also 6200 BCE is “about 1500 years<br />
earlier than our best estimates for the Terminal Neolithic.” *15<br />
Even though we do accept that some <strong>of</strong> the megaliths were placed after the sedimentation <strong>of</strong> the playa’s basin, we<br />
also note that in their 2007 article Wendorf, Malville, and their coauthors suggested (as we also did earlier) that the<br />
original part <strong>of</strong> Complex Structure A, which is the center <strong>of</strong> all the megalith alignments and is part <strong>of</strong> the bedrock<br />
beneath the playa sediments, was “part <strong>of</strong> the symbolic landscape <strong>of</strong> the Middle Neolithic and became significant before<br />
the establishment <strong>of</strong> the complex ceremonial centre. Perhaps their locations had been marked by rock cairns before<br />
gradual burial by playa sediments.” 11 This indicates that there was much activity at Nabta Playa during earlier epochs,<br />
which is in any case confirmed by many radiocarbon dates, with most clustered around 6000 BCE. 12 On this basis, and<br />
also on the dating <strong>of</strong> circa 6200 BCE obtained from the corrected calculations, we reject the notion that none <strong>of</strong> the<br />
megaliths at Nabta Playa could have predated terminal Neolithic time, because most <strong>of</strong> the field evidence shows that<br />
parts <strong>of</strong> the ceremonial complex were indeed created before the terminal Neolithic.<br />
SIRIUS, THE CIRCUMPOLAR STARS, AND ORION<br />
We now felt that we were in a good position to integrate our and the CPE’s field findings and derive from them the most<br />
robust interpretation that fits the context <strong>of</strong> Nabta Playa. <strong>The</strong> findings that emerge from this integrated analysis are:<br />
1. <strong>The</strong>re are at least nine megaliths that form the three lines—A1, A2, and A3—that point north. <strong>The</strong>se track the star<br />
Dubhe in the Big Dipper over a considerable period <strong>of</strong> time.<br />
2. <strong>The</strong>re are at least six megaliths that form lines B1 and B2 pointing southeast. <strong>The</strong>se track the bright star Sirius at<br />
two epochs.