Nabta Playa
Nabta Playa was once a large basin in the Nubian Desert, located approximately 500 miles south of modern day Cairo[1] or about 100 kilometers west of Abu Simbel of southern Egypt,[2] 22° 32' north, 30° 42' east.[3] Today the region is characterized by numerous archaeological sites.[2]
Early history
Beginning around the 10th millennium BC, this region of the Nubian Desert began to receive more rainfall, filling a lake.[2] Early people may have been attracted to the region as a source of water for grazing cattle.
Archaeological findings indicate occupation in the region dating to somewhere between the 10th and 8th millennia BC.[2] These peoples were herding domesticated cattle and using ceramics[2] adorned by complicated painted patterns created perhaps by using combs.[2]
By the 7th millennium BC, exceedingly large and organized settlements may be found in the region, relying also on deep wells for sources of water.[2] Huts are found constructed in straight rows.[2] Sustenance included fruit, legumes, millets, sorghum and tubers.[2]
Also in the 7th millennium BC, but a little later than above, imported goats and sheep, apparently from Southwest Asia [1], appear. Many large hearths also appear.[2]
High level of organization
Archaeological discoveries reveal that these prehistoric peoples led livelihoods seemingly at a higher level of organization than their contemporaries who lived closer to the Nile Valley:[2]
- above-ground & below-ground stone construction,
- villages designed in pre-planned arrangements, and
- deep wells that held water year-round.
Findings also indicate that the region was occupied only seasonally, likely only in the summer when the local lake filled with water for grazing cattle.[4][2] Analysis of human remains suggest migration from sub-Saharan Africa.[4]
Religious ties to ancient Egypt
By the 6th millennium BC, evidence of a prehistoric religion or cult appears, with a number of sacrificed cattle buried in stone-roofed chambers lined with clay.[2] It has been suggested that the associated cattle cult indicated in Nabta Playa marks an early evolution of Ancient Egypt's Hathor cult. For example, Hathor was worshipped as a nighttime protector in desert regions (see Serabit el-Khadim). To directly quote professors Wendorf and Schild:[2]
- ... there are many aspects of political and ceremonial life in the Predynastic and Old Kingdom that reflects a strong impact from Saharan cattle pastoralists...
Nevertheless, though the religious practices of the region involving cattle suggest ties to Ancient Egypt,[2] Egyptologist Mark Lehner[1] cautions:
- It makes sense, but not in a facile, direct way. You can't go straight from these megaliths to the pyramid of Djoser.
Other subterranean complexes are also found in Nabta Playa, one of which included evidence of perhaps an early Egyptian attempt at sculpture.[2]
One of the world's earliest known archeoastronomy
By the 5th millennium BC these peoples had fashioned one of the world's earliest known archeoastronomical device (roughly contemporary to the Goseck circle in Germany), about 1000 years older than but comparable to Stonehenge[2] (see sketch at right). Research suggests that it may have been a prehistoric calendar which accurately marks the summer solstice.[3]
The research done by the astrophysicist Thomas G. Brophy suggests that these monoliths might tell much more. The calendar circle itself is made up of one doorway that runs north-south, a second that runs northeast-southwest marking the summer solstice, and six center stones. Brophy's theory proposes first that three of the center stones match the belt of Orion at its minimum tilt and the other three match the shoulder and head stars of Orion at their maximum tilt. This cycle repeats approximately every 25,000 years, following the precession of the equinoxes. The last minimum of Orion's belt occurred between 6400 BC and 4900 BC, matching the radio-carbon dating of campfires around the circle.[5]
Another stone megalithic structure exists which consists of a central radial stone and several other stones in the distance. In interpretting this Brophy found that the lines made to these stones from the radial stone match the spots in the sky where the various stars marked by the center stones in the calendar circle at the time they rose as the vernal equinox heliacal rising. In analyzing the varying distances, mulling through assumptions such as that they represented the brightness of the stars, he inadvertently found that they matched the distance of the stars from Earth on a scale of 1 meter = .799 light years within the margin of error for astronomical distances calculated today. As long as there is no technique accessible to Neolithic people known, with which they could have measured the distances to stars, this correlation seems to be nothing more than chance coincidence.[6]
Notes
- ^ a b Archaeological Institute of America
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Comparative Archaeology Web
- ^ a b NASA
- ^ a b University of Texas
- ^ Brophy, T.G. and Rosen, P.A. Satellite Imagery Measures of the Astronomically Aligned Megaliths at Nabta Playa, Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 5(1) (2005) 15 - 24
- ^ Brophy, Thomas G. The Origin Map: Discovery of a Prehistoric, Megalithic, Astrophysical Map and Sculpture of the Universe, 2002, ISBN 0595241220