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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Figure 4.12. Photograph <strong>of</strong> Orion being followed by Sirius beneath the Milky Way<br />
MORE MYSTERIES AT NABTA PLAYA<br />
When some important and new discovery such as Nabta Playa might put into serious question the established views<br />
about the origins <strong>of</strong> civilization, there is a tendency to wait until a suitable theory can be developed before releasing any<br />
data about the discovery. <strong>The</strong> problem with this is that sometimes the data that fits an established theory is regarded as<br />
more valuable than mysterious new data that contradicts it. *26<br />
Others, like us, take an opposing view. We see the mysterious, unexplained data as more valuable, because if we try<br />
to understand the mystery, we might learn something new. To us that is what scientific research is—or ought to be—all<br />
about. In this frame <strong>of</strong> mind, then, we will look in more detail at some mysterious aspects <strong>of</strong> Nabta Playa in the hope that<br />
such an approach might shed even more light on this mysterious place.<br />
We recall that all the megalithic alignments at Nabta Playa radiate out from a central megalithic structure called<br />
Complex Structure A. CSA is composed <strong>of</strong> megaliths that lay on the surface; a large megalith carved by human hands (the<br />
so-called cow stone) buried 3 meters (about 10 feet); and finally, berneath the sculpted cow stone, a lump <strong>of</strong> bedrock,<br />
also partly carved by human hands. <strong>The</strong> megaliths on the surface are arranged in an oval shape, and some are partially<br />
sculpted. Two <strong>of</strong> these are partially sculpted into a curved geometric form, one into a convex form, and two into a<br />
concave form, giving the impression that they might have been chunks <strong>of</strong> a much larger structure that has now<br />
disappeared. 16 <strong>The</strong> cow stone that was buried beneath was 1.9 by 1.5 by 0.7 meters (6.2 by 4.9 by 2.3 feet) and composed<br />
<strong>of</strong> hard, quartzitic sandstone weighing about 2 tons. 17 Photographs <strong>of</strong> the cow stone immediately after it was excavated<br />
show that one part <strong>of</strong> the stone is finely shaped and smooth and another portion is either unfinished or was roughly<br />
flaked. According to Wendorf and Krolik, it “had a flat, possibly naturally smoothed, almost polished top. One side was<br />
convex and pecked smooth. At one end . . . there was a fan-like projection that might represent a head.” 18 From<br />
photographs and video frames <strong>of</strong> the cow stone taken after its discovery and from taking measurements <strong>of</strong> the arching <strong>of</strong><br />
its extended outer surface, we could see that it may have been shaped like a spherical section. As we have seen, the CPE<br />
concluded that this sculpture vaguely resembled a cow. *27<br />
As an integral part <strong>of</strong> an intensely astronomical construction linked to stellar alignments, this cow sculpture may be<br />
both bovine and supernal, both cow and star—that is, it may be symbolic astrologically. Because it was placed under<br />
CSA sometime around the start <strong>of</strong> the astrological Age <strong>of</strong> Taurus (the Bull constellation), usually assumed to be ca.<br />
4500 BCE, then a symbolic connection to mark this age is a viable proposition. †28<br />
Of course, it is a widely held notion that the ancient Greeks invented the zodiac signs based on their knowledge <strong>of</strong><br />
Babylonian-Chaldean star lore from the first millennium BCE. Yet there is significant dissent among historians as to the<br />
age <strong>of</strong> the zodiacal signs, with some proposing that they may be much older than we have generally presumed. 19 We can