Black Genesis (31 page)

Was the Calendar Secret?

Mathematician James Lowdermilk argues that there is evidence that an esoteric or secret tradition did exist.

Evidence of knowledge of the workings of the calendar being held secret is also found in the Reisner papyrus, circa 1900 BCE. If the Egyptian calendar year of 365 days is
¹⁰
/39 of a day short of a sidereal year, then it takes 39 ÷ 10 = 3.9 years for the calendar to lose one day to the sidereal year, not exactly 4 calendar years. In the Reisner papyrus, a hired scribe wrote the approximation 39 ÷ 10 = 4 even though elsewhere in the papyrus he has correctly worked the problems 30 ÷ 10 and 9 ÷ 10, which when added together give the correct value of 39 ÷ 10, proving his ability (Gillings 1972: 221). Apparently the author of the Reisner papyrus knew or was told that the calculation 39 ÷ 10 was not to be performed in such a profane location as the official registers of a dockyard workshop. Furthermore, when the geographer Strabo (second century CE) wrote of Plato's and Eudoxus's studies in Egypt in the 4th century BCE, he tells us that the Egyptian priests “did teach them the fractions of the day and the night which, running over and above the 365 days, fill out the time of the true year” (Strabo,
Geography,
pp. 83–85). These priests understood that the “true year” contains
¹⁰
/39 of a day more than the 365-day calendar year they used, but they were “secretive and slow to impart” this knowledge. (From “Unit Fractions: Inception and Use,” in
The Ostracon, Journal of the Egyptian Study Society,
vol. 14, no. 2, Summer 2003. [Note that 365 days plus
¹⁰
/39 day gives the length of the sidereal day to within 4 seconds, whereas the crude approximation 365 days plus ¼ day is off by more than 9 minutes.])

The difference, then, of two years represented on the walls progressing in time from east to west could also reflect the changing Sothic cycle—the next one will be two years shorter. Further, the difference between the east and west wall representations, two years, appears to be reflected in the north and south walls, each of which has 732 panels. Two years equal 730 solar days or 732 sidereal days.
^*59

Egyptologists agree that Imhotep lived in the reign of King Djoser during the third dynasty, which, they say, began in the year 2630 BCE. They openly admit, however, that a margin of error of at least one hundred fifty years must be allowed for the early dynasties, thus placing Imhotep as living anytime between 2780 and 2480
BCE.
⁷¹
The date 2780 BCE, which could well have been the start of Djoser's reign, now also rings a bell, for it was the year when the summer solstice coincided with the heliacal rising of Sirius and also when, most chronologists strongly suspect, the official civil calendar was set in
motion.
⁷²
Therefore, we see that both the calculated value of 1,461 years and the actual value of 1,459 years of the Sothic cycle (which is a combination of the solar and stellar cycles) are expressed on the east and west sides of the boundary wall. Further, the precise difference between these two durations is expressed by the walls that connect them in terms of the number of sidereal days (or star days), which also is a combination of solar and stellar times. Finally, the whole step pyramid complex and the small stone cubicle/serdab are aligned with the Big Dipper to mark the reappearance of Sirius in the east at the one time in twenty-six thousand years that this occurs on summer solstice. All of these facts taken together cannot be a coincidence. The entire complex appears to announce the long-term cosmic cycles of Sirius—how they are measured and predicted and connected to the human-made cycles of the civil calendar, all constructed around the very special time when heliacal reappearance of Sirius coincided with the summer solstice. Of course, this interpretation addresses not only the elegant calendar and cosmic meanings of the wall panel design but also the reason why the step pyramid complex was built at that precise time.

If we accept that Imhotep knew not only that an approximation to the Sothic cycle was 1,461 Egyptian civil years but also the precise duration of the previous Sothic cycle and that this cycle is a combination of solar and sidereal motions, and if we also accept that he had a concept of the difference between the sidereal day and the solar day, then it is highly likely that he was informed by careful observations going back at least one Sothic cycle—that is, back to 4241 BCE, to the period of heavy activity at Nabta Playa.

OTHER EVIDENCE OF THE LONG-TERM TRACKING OF SIRIUS

We have seen that as early as 3200 BCE, the star Sirius was tracked at Elephantine with the changing axes of the multitiered temple of Satis. Yet there are shrines in Egypt other than the step pyramid complex and the Giza pyramid complex that also tracked this special star.

In the area of ancient Thebes (modern Luxor) are the remains of a small temple commonly known as Thoth Hill. The temple was built on a high point in the Theban hills overlooking the Nile Valley below, with a clear view of the eastern horizon. Discovered by George Sweinfurth in 1904 and studied by Sir Flinders Petrie in 1909, the temple has been confirmed to have been built under the reign of King Mentuhotep of the eleventh dynasty. Extensive investigations between 1995 and 1998 by a Hungarian team from Eotvos Lorand University under the directorship of Dr. Gyozo Voros has led to the conclusion that this temple was sacred to the star Sirius. The structure stands on a terraced platform facing east. After excavating the foundations, the Hungarian team found that this eleventh-dynasty temple was actually built on top of the ruins of an archaic-period temple dating from probably about 3200–3000 BCE, which had a similar floor plan but had an axis 2 degrees farther south: “The Hungarian team that excavated these structures believes this difference may be attributed to the shift in astronomical alignments over the intervening centuries. Their research indicates that the later brick temple was aligned to Sirius. In the archaic period the same star would have appeared just over 2 degrees farther south in the eastern sky—exactly the difference visible in the orientation of the earlier building. Thus, rather than simply follow the physical orientation of the earlier sacred structure, the Middle Kingdom architects had carefully adjusted the temple's orientation in order to align the new building once more precisely to
Sirius.
⁷³

We can recall from chapter 2 that the name of the pharaoh Mentuhotep (ca. 2010 BCE) was found in the inscriptions at Jebel Uwainat in the Egyptian Sahara, which were discovered by Mark Borda and Mahmoud Marai in 2007. If the Black prehistoric people of Nabta Playa were the same people that once occupied Uwainat, and if these people came to the Nile Valley around 3200 BCE and brought along their astronomical knowledge of tracking the stars, especially Sirius, then it is not at all surprising to us now to find that King Mentuhotep knew of an archaic temple at Thebes, which was aligned with Sirius, and, consequently, that he built his own temple above it and knew that its axis had to be 2 degrees farther north.

The whole historical puzzle seems slowly to be taking shape, revealing a remarkable scenario that flows from the astronomical alignments of Nabta Playa as mentioned in the 1998
Nature
letter of Malville and Wendorf. Before we look at possible conclusions, however, let us examine further evidence that the tradition of the long-term tracking of the star Sirius persisted throughout the whole of pharaonic civilization until its closure around 30 BCE, when it fell under the dominion of Rome.

THOSE WHO FOLLOWED THE SUN

One of the greatest and most magnificent temples of ancient Egypt is the temple of Hathor at Dendera, located on the west side of the Nile near the modern town of Qena, some 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Luxor. The temple complex stands at the edge of the desert and is so well preserved that from a short distance it looks as though it was built only a few years ago. In fact, the temple is more than two thousand years old, and its origins may even hark back to earliest times.

The cult of the cow goddess Hathor goes back to the archaic period and ranked very high in the Egyptian religion. Evidence of her cult has been detected from the very early dynasties, and many Egyptologists believe that it was even much older than this. Her name, Hat-Hor, literally means House of Horus.
^*60
 
⁷⁴

As such, Hathor was very closely associated with the goddess Isis, mother of Horus. Indeed, so closely identified with each other were these two goddesses that in Ptolemaic times, when the extant temple at Dendera was built, their names were often fused or
interchangeable.
⁷⁵
At Dendera there are tombs that date to the first dynasties, indicating that the site was sacred in very remote, perhaps even prehistoric, times. The temple we see today, however, was founded by Ptolemy XII Auletes in 54 BCE. It is known with certainty that at the same place stood an older temple built under Tuthmoses III around 1450 BCE. In additon, there are inscriptions at Dendera that refer to Pepi I of the sixth dynasty, circa 2350 BCE. More intriguing still, there are inscriptions in a crypt that refer to the Shemsu-Hor, or Followers of
Horus,
⁷⁶
whom the pharaohs regarded as their remote ancestors, although Egyptologists tend to consider these as mythical
ancestors.
⁷⁷
One of these inscriptions actually claims that the original blueprint of the temple was provided by the Shemsu-Hor and was later preserved on the temple walls by Pepi I:

King Tuthmoses III has caused this building to be erected in memory of his mother, the goddess Hathor, the Lady of Dendera, the Eye of the Sun, the Heavenly Queen of the Gods. The ground plan was found in the city of Dendera, in archaic drawing on a leather roll of the time of the Shemsu-Hor [Followers of Horus]; it was [also] found in the interior of a brick wall in the south side of the temple in the reign of king
Pepi.
⁷⁸

According to the so-called Royal Papyrus of Turin, also known as the Turin Canon, Egypt was ruled in prehistoric times by the Shemsu-Hor kings (and Shemsu-Hor is commonly translated as the Followers of Horus). Horus was the solar deity par excellence of the Egyptians; he personified the sun, especially when it rose on the horizon. In this specific role, he was known as Hor-Akhti, Horus of the Horizon, and later, when the cult of Ra, the Heliopolitan sun god, came to power in the fourth dynasty, the two solar deities were united as Ra-Hor-Akhti—literally, Sun God Horus of the Horizon. This union was specific to the morning sun, leading Egyptologists such as Richard Wilkinson to assert that when Ra was “coalesced” with the more primitive Hor-Akhti, this caused the combined deities to become “Ra-Horakhti as the morning
sun.”
⁷⁹

From the many mentions of Hor-Akhti in the Pyramid Texts and other ancient texts, it is clear that the time at which this sun disk was most observed and venerated was not merely at sunrise, but especially at sunrise at summer solstice. This is confirmed in the Pyramid Texts, which say that Horakhti is in the “eastern side of the sky . . . the place where the gods are born [that is, the place where they
rise].”
⁸⁰
It was at the summer solstice, as we have already seen, that the flood season began. The very existence of Egypt depended on the flood—its agriculture, its ecology, and the survival of its people. It is therefore totally understandable that the sunrise at summer solstice would have a very special meaning to the ancient Egyptians—as it had thousands of years before to the prehistoric people of Nabta Playa, who lived by the monsoon rains. If the floodwaters were too low or worse, failed to come, strife and eventually famine would follow. The flood was, quite literally, the jugular vein of Egypt. Nothing frightened the pharaohs more than the possibility that the gods would fail to bring forth the flood. The early warning signal came from Elephantine, where the nilometer was carefully monitored at the time of the summer solstice. As Egyptologists Peter Shaw and Paul Nicholson explain: “Egypt's agricultural prosperity depended on the annual inundation of the Nile. For crops to flourish it was desirable that the Nile should rise about eight meters [26 feet] above a zero point at the first cataract near Aswan. A rise of only seven meters [23 feet] would produce a lean year, while six meters [20 feet] would lead to
famine.”
⁸¹

There was, however, another factor that required careful observation: the heliacal rising of Sirius, which also occurred around the time of the summer solstice.
^*61

The ancient astronomer-priests paid avid attention to the celestial events that took place at dawn at this important time of year, and they waited for the heliacal rising of Sirius. We get a glimpse of the importance of this event—the conjunction of the summer solstice, the heliacal rising of Sirius and the summer solstice—in some passages of the Pyramid Texts.

The reed-floats of the sky are set in place for sungod
Ra
that he may cross on them to the horizon; the reed-floats are set in place for
Horakhti
that he may cross on them to
Ra;
the reed-floats of the sky are set in place for me that I may cross on them to
Ra;
the reed-floats are set in place for me that I may cross on them to
Horakhti
and to
Ra.
The Fields of Rushes are filled [with water] and I ferry across on the Winding Waterway; I [the Osiris-king] am ferried over to the eastern side of the horizon, I am ferried over to the eastern side of the sky, my sister is Sothis [Sirius] . . .
⁸²

The king will be the companion of
Horakhti
and the king's hand will be held in the sky among the followers of the Sun god
Ra.
The fields are content, the irrigation ditches are flooded for this king today . . . receive this pure water of yours which issues from Elephantine . . . O King, your cool water is the Great
Flood . . .
⁸³

The reed-floats of the sky are set in place for me that I may cross to the horizon, to
Ra
and to
Horakhti.
The nurse-canal is open, and the Winding Waterway is flooded, that I may be ferried over to the eastern side of the sky, to the place where the gods were
born . . .
⁸⁴

The above quotes clearly show the conjunction of the start of the Nile's flood and the appearance of Sothis (Sirius). Although the summer solstice is not specifically mentioned, it is definitely implied, because, of course, both the “birth” (rising) of Sirius and the start of the flood occurred at that time of year when the sun rose to its extreme northern position. Another passage in the Pyramid Texts does imply this by having the departed king say: “I ferry across [the river Nile] that I may stand on the eastern side of the sky when the Sungod Ra is in his northern
region . . .
⁸⁵

With all this textual, astronomical, and archaeological evidence, we must include the Shemsu-Hor, Those Who Followed the Sun—those ancestral kings—as being the people who followed the direction of the summer solstice sunrise in 3200 BCE . . . namely the prehistoric Black people of Nabta Playa (see chapter 5). Further, it could also be the Shemsu-Hor who brought with them an astronomical plan drawn on a leather roll, which was used for the layout of the temple of the cow goddess Hathor. In spite of the obstinacy of Egyptologists who continue to see the Shemsu-Hor as mythical kings, the British Egyptologist Henri Frankfort says this of the Shemsu-Hor:

The designation [Shemsu-Hor/Followers of Horus] was reserved for rulers of the distant past. The texts leave no doubt that the term referred to earlier kings. An inscription of a king Ranofer, just before the Middle Kingdom, contains the phrase “in the time of your forefathers, the kings, Followers of Horus [Shemsu-Hor].” Texts of Tuthmosis I and Tuthmosis III refer to them in the same manner. The first mentions fame the like of which was not “seen in the annals of the ancestors since the Followers of Horus”; the other states that, in rebuilding a temple, an old plan was used and proceeds: “The great plan was found in Denderah in old delineations written upon leather of animal skin of the time of the Followers of Horus.” From these quotations it appears that “Followers of Horus” is a vague designation for the kings of a distant past. Hence the Turin Papyrus places them before the first historical
king . . .
⁸⁶

From the Turin Papyrus we can work out that the Shemsu-Hor ruled for 13,420 years before the first historical pharaoh, who was identified as Menes. Egyptologists place the reign of Menes about 3000 BCE. This means that the start of the Shemsu-Hor lineage was about 16,420 BCE—which can be rounded to 16,500 BCE. Could it be a coincidence that this very date of 16,500 BCE is found in the astronomy of the Calendar Circle at Nabta Playa, as we have seen in
chapter 4?
⁸⁷

We now return to the alleged plans for the temple of the cow goddess Hathor at Dendera and the claim that the temple's original plans were from the time of the Shemsu-Hor. If we assume that the original plans were from Nabta Playa, then we would expect to find the same kind of astronomy at Dendera that was dominant at Nabta Playa. This, unquestionably, is the astronomy defined by the focal point of the ceremonial complex at Nabta Playa, CSA, which contained the cow stone. We recall that from CSA there emanate a series of megalithic lines toward the star Dubhe in the north and a series of lines toward the east, directed toward the rising of Sirius.

Could the same be found at Dendera?