Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt

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