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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ight angle. After that date, Nabta Playa and the ceremonial complex were abandoned. *22<br />
ONE YEAR OF ASTRONOMY AT NABTA PLAYA<br />
Now suppose you are viewing the various astronomical events during one year at Nabta Playa—say, 4500 BCE. You<br />
begin your observing year on the afternoon <strong>of</strong> the winter solstice. You intend to use the Calendar Circle that night, and so<br />
you observe that the winter solstice sun sets into the solstice gates <strong>of</strong> the circle and the sky begins to darken. You move<br />
to the north end <strong>of</strong> the circle to use the meridian gates as your sky-viewing guide, and over the next forty-five minutes the<br />
sky becomes dark enough that the stars seem to pop out around you. <strong>The</strong>n, fifty-five minutes after sunset, directly on the<br />
meridian, you see the belt <strong>of</strong> Orion shining into the deepening dark, oriented very much like the three southerly stones<br />
inside the circle. Trailing Orion is the brilliant Sirius, which crosses the meridian an hour and forty minutes later. Two<br />
hours after that the very bright star Canopus crosses the meridian, skimming low above the horizon. Perhaps, if you’ve<br />
learned your sky lessons, you know that when you travel north, Canopus drops even lower to the horizon. <strong>The</strong> starry<br />
show continues for eight more hours; then the sky begins to brighten, and the sun rises to make its low winter arc across<br />
the sky.<br />
One month later the nightly show is similar, except that the sun sets a bit north <strong>of</strong> the solstice gates <strong>of</strong> the circle, and<br />
when the sky darkens, you see that Orion has already passed the meridian and Sirius is already there. Two more months<br />
pass, and the sun rises due east and sets due west. It is the spring equinox, and now when the sky darkens after sunset,<br />
Orion’s belt is gone—already set below the horizon—but Sirius is still visible low to the southwest for about forty-five<br />
minutes before it too sets. About ten days later Sirius also disappears. *23 Another twenty-eight days later, just before<br />
dawn, Orion’s belt reappears in the southeast. †24 After another twenty-nine days, Sirius also reappears in the southeast,<br />
when you can glimpse it momentarily before dawn. *25 At Nabta Playa you have moved south <strong>of</strong> the Calendar Circle to<br />
view this heliacal rising <strong>of</strong> Sirius from Complex Structure A, the central megalithic construction that your society built<br />
to view stars rising over lines <strong>of</strong> megaliths. <strong>The</strong>re, just before dawn, you see Sirius rise above a distant line <strong>of</strong> megaliths<br />
to the southeast, and when you look to the northeast you see hovering there, above another line <strong>of</strong> megaliths, Dubhe <strong>of</strong><br />
the Bull’s Thigh constellation.<br />
Of course, these alignments are just as you have expected, because this is in fact a year <strong>of</strong> heavy construction, when<br />
you are completing the building <strong>of</strong> those two lines <strong>of</strong> megaliths. It is now just four weeks before summer solstice, and in<br />
seven more days, it will be exactly three weeks before summer solstice, the time when, at noon, the sun passes directly<br />
overhead and the standing stones cast no shadow, which occurs only twice per year.<br />
Now the annual rains have come, and if they are plentiful, the playa basin fills with shallow water. <strong>The</strong> Calendar<br />
Circle is located on a low mound just <strong>of</strong>f the edge <strong>of</strong> the playa, so you can continue your star viewing from there even<br />
while the playa is full <strong>of</strong> water. On the night before summer solstice you watch Orion’s belt rising about an hour after<br />
midnight, followed, as always, by Sirius an hour and forty-five minutes later. Orion’s belt moves toward the meridian and<br />
fades out <strong>of</strong> view about an hour before it reaches it, as the sky brightens and the sun rises in the solstice gates <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Calendar Circle. Three weeks after summer solstice the noon sun again passes directly overhead and the standing stones<br />
cast no shadow, and the nightly show repeats. This time you can see Orion’s belt just approaching the meridian as the sky<br />
brightens with the sunrise. <strong>The</strong> sun now rises a bit south <strong>of</strong> the solstice gate, as the sunrise location moves toward winter,<br />
and the whole annual show will repeat.