Black Genesis (39 page)

*68.
Sirius is the brightest star of all. At visual magnitude −1.46, it is significantly brighter than Vega, but Sirius is in the Southern Hemisphere.

*69.
Atmospheric refraction affects the apparent viewing angle of a star significantly only when very close to the horizon—by up to about 0.56 degrees on the horizon. At an altitude of 26.5 degrees, the altitude of the subterranean passage, the atmospheric refraction would be very small, less than 2 arc minutes.

†70.
Of course, we believe our calculations are accurate according to the current knowledge of the long-term motion of the celestial pole and Vega's currently measured proper motion, which is quoted in the SIMBAD database as having small uncertainty. It is always possible, however, that new information might be measured or discovered about the long-term apparent motion of a star.

‡71.
In addition, if we were to consider only the part of the passage that descends through the bedrock, which is about two-thirds of its length, the Vega-shining-down time would be extended by a couple of hundred years.

§72.
In
The Origin Map,
Brophy estimates around 11,770 BCE for the match of Orion's belt and the pyramids, and in
The Egypt Code,
Bauval estimates 11,450 BCE. For a number of reasons, these matching dates should be considered estimates to within a few hundred years. For example, some date variation may arise from the choice between matching the line connecting the end stars (to the end pyramids) or matching the first two stars (to the first two pyramids). In addition, there may be some differences as to whether more recent, proper motion measurements were used for the stars and slight differences in approximations in the methods of celestial pole motion calculations. We do not, therefore, view the Orion's-belt-to-pyramids layout match as a highly precise date, though it definitely occurred within this era. The subterranean passage star shafts, however, offer more precise dating.

*73.
Dimmer stars cannot be viewed when they are just barely above the horizon, because of atmospheric extinction. As they rise farther above the horizon, often to a degree or more altitude, the light from the star passes through less of Earth's atmosphere and obscuring dust, and the star becomes visible to the eye.

*74.
The ancient names of its two sister structures were less poetic and seemingly less informative: Great is Khafre and Menkaure is Divine.

*75.
As we have said, there is a significant spread of half a degree or so in the viewing angle of these subterranean passages, due to their 1.2 meter- (3.9 feet) shaft heights, so the possible association of the precessional culmination of Vega does not depend on the fact that it seems to have hit directly the middle of the viewing angle—that amount of precision could be happenstance.

*76.
If we wanted to interpret the half-degree difference as precise to Vega, the central alignment would be about three hundred years later than for Khufu's subterranean passage. Alternatively, they may be considered as less precise versions of the same alignment to Vega.

†77.
Djoser's and Imhotep's step pyramid complex at Saqqara was the first major pyramid complex construction, but it contained a step pyramid, not a true pyramid.

*78.
Recent discoveries in Turkey, at a site called Gobekli Tepi, involve finely carved megalithic pillars and rings that have been firmly radiocarbon dated to the tenth millennium BCE. In a submission to an academic journal, we mentioned Gobekli Tepi as evidence that man was making fine megalithic constructions much earlier than the Late Neolithic to support our contention that some of the megalithic constructions at Nabta Playa may also predate the orthodox view of the Late Neolithic. The anonymous academic referee objected to our reference on the grounds that “authors' remarks on megalithic pillars found in Turkey are totally irrelevant. I reject any idea of possible contacts between Turkish site and Nabta assuming both sites were independently constructed.” In our paper, we neither claimed nor disclaimed contact between Nabta and Gobekli Tepi. We did claim that recent evidence pushed much farther back in time the dates of ceremonial megalithic architecture at other sites and that this evidence should lessen the resistance to consider new evidence, which might similarly push back dates at Nabta.

*79.
Orion's belt also culminated south during the same epoch, ca. 10,650 BCE.

†80.
In
The Origin Map
it is shown to be 10,909 BCE.

*81.
Ingham calculated four cycles: 1,458 years ending in 2769 BCE; 1,456 years ending in 1313 BCE; 1,453 years ending in 141 CE; and 1,450 years ending in 1591 CE.

*82.
One problem: we don't know how the ancient Egyptians defined the heliacal rising of Sirius. All we know is that they considered it very important and called it the reappearance of Sirius or, simply, the rising of Sirius.

*83.
There are two types of uncertainties regarding the serdab view angle. First is the spread of angles due to the aperture of the peepholes, and second is any remaining uncertainty as to the basic measures of its angles. Mark Lehner lists the altitude of the serdab as 13 degrees without reference, and the layout survey gives an azimuth of about 4.5 degrees for the whole complex. We then used a protractor and plumb bob at the site to estimate about 16 degrees for the serdab box. In any case, the serdab gazes generally in the correct region of the sky to view Alkaid simultaneous with Sirius rising heliacally on the day of summer solstice.

Endnotes

CHAPTER 1. STRANGE STONES

1.
Romuald Schild and Fred Wendorf, “Forty Years of the Combined Prehistoric Expedition,”
Archaeologia Polona
40 (2002): 11.

2.
Fred Wendorf and Romuald Schild, “The Megaliths of Nabta Playa, Focus on Archaeology,”
Academia
1, no. 1 (2004): 11.

3.
Fred Wendorf,
Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara,
vol. 1, in Fred Wendorf, and Romuald Schild, eds.,
The Archaeology of Nabta Playa
(New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum, 2001).

4.
The Mystery of the Sphinx,
NBC documentary, November 10, 1993.

5.
Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson,
The Illustrated Dictionary of Ancient Egypt
(Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2008), 82–83. See also Richard H. Wilkinson,
The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
(Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2005), 139.

6.
Wendorf,
Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara,
vol. 1.

7.
E. C. Krupp,
Echoes of the Ancient Skies
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), 259.

8.
Jed Z. Buchwald, “Egyptian Stars under Paris Skies,”
Engineering and Science Magazine
66, no. 4, California Institute of Technology (2003).

9.
E. G. Lesley and Roy Adkins,
The Keys of Egypt
(New York: HarperCollins, 2000).

10.
Norman Lockyer,
The Dawn of Astronomy
(London: Cassel and Co. Ltd., 1894), preface.

11.
Ibid.

12.
Ibid.

13.
Thomas Brophy,
The Origin Map: Discovery of a Prehistoric Megalithic Astrophysical Map of the Universe,
afterword by John Anthony West (Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, 2002), 118.

14.
John Michell,
A Little History of Astro-Archaeology
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1977), 68.

15.
Virginia Trimble,
Astronomical Investigation Concerning the So-called Air-shafts of Cheop's Pyramid
,
Mitteilungen der Institut Fur Orientforschung
10, no. 2/3 (1964): 183–87. See also Robert G. Bauval, “The Seeding of the Star-gods: A Fertility Rite inside Cheop's Pyramid?”
Discussion in Egyptology
16 (1990), 21–25; Robert G. Bauval, “Cheop's Pyramid: A New Dating Using the Latest Astronomical Data,”
Discussions in Egyptology
26 (1993): 5–6; Dr. Mary T. Bruck, “Can the Great Pyramid be Astronomically Dated?”
Journal of the British Astronomical Association
105, no. 4 (1995): 161–64.

CHAPTER 2. WANDERLUST

1.
A. M. Hassanein Bey, “Through Kufra to Darfur,”
Geographical Journal
64, no. 4 (Oct., 1924): 273–91.

2.
Ibid.

3.
Ibid.

4.
Ibid.

5.
Ibid.

6.
Ibid.

7.
Ibid.

8.
Ibid.

9.
Ibid.

10.
www.scribd.com/­doc/­21432876/­Rosita-Forbes-Bio
.

11.
Hans Goedicke, “Harkhuf 's Travels,”
Journal of Near Eastern Studies
40, no. 1 (January 1981): 1–20.

12.
J. H. Breasted,
Ancient Records of Egypt,
Part I (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1906), 328.

13.
David B. O'Connor, and Stephen Quirke,
Mysterious Lands
(London: University College, Institute of Archaeology, 2003), 10.

14.
Ibid.

15.
Claire Lalouette,
Textes sacrés et textes profanes de l'ancienne Egypte
(Paris: Gallimard, 1984).

16.
Breasted,
Ancient Records of Egypt,
Part I, 328.

17.
Bill Manley, “Where Was the Kingdom of Yam?” in
The Seventy Great Mysteries of Ancient Egypt
(London: Thames and Hudson, 2003), 135.

18.
Goedicke, “Harkhuf 's Travels,” 10.

19.
G. W. Murray, “Hakhuf 's Third Journey,”
Geographical Journal
131, no. 1 (March 1965): 72–75.

20.
A. J. Arkell,
A History of the Sudan: From Earliest Times to 1821,
2nd ed., rev. (London: n.p., 1961), 43.

21.
M. Kobusiewicz and R. Schild, “Prehistoric Herdsmen, Focus on Archaeology,”
Academia
3, no. 7 (2004): 20–23.

22.
R. Schild and F. Wendorf, “Forty Years of the Combined Prehistoric Expedition,”
Archaeologia Polona
40 (2002): 18.

23.
J. L. Wright,
Libya, Chad and the Central Sahara
(London: Hurst and Co., 1989), 22. See also R. F. Peel, “The Tibu Peoples and the Libyan Desert,”
Geographical Journal
100, no. 2 (August 1942), 73–87.

24.
Ahmed Hassanein, “Crossing the Untraversered Libyan Desert,”
National Geographic Magazine,
vol. XLVI, no. 3, September 1924.

25.
Wright,
Libya, Chad and the Central Sahara,
22; Peel, “The Tibu Peoples and the Libyan Desert,” 73–87.

26.
G. Wilkinson,
Topography of Thebes and General View of Egypt
(London: John Murray Publishers, 1835), 358–59.

27.
W. J. Harding King
, Mysteries of the Libyan Desert
(London: Century, 1925), 145.

28.
www.carlo-bergmann.de/­Discoveries/­discovery.htm
Accessed August 10, 2010.

29.
www.carlo-bergmann.de/­ex2004-5/­expedition2004-5-2.htm
.

For more on the issue of “Mefat” see: C. Bergmann and Kl. P. Kuhlmann, “Die Expedition des Cheops,” GEO Special 5, 2001, pp. 120–27; Kl. P. Kuhlmann, “The ‘Oasis Bypath' or The Issue of Desert Trade in Pharaonic Times,” in T. Lenssen-Erz, U. Tegtmeier, St. Kröpelin et al. (eds.),
Tides of the Desert. Contributions to the Archaeology and Environmental History of Africa in Honour of Rudolf Kuper.
Köln, 2002, pp. 133–38. Also R. Kuper and Fr. Forster, “Khufu's ‘mefat' expeditions into the Libyan Desert,”
Egyptian Archaeology
23, 2003, pp. 25–28.

30.
Ibid.

31.
Mark Lehner,
The Complete Pyramids
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1997), 120.

32.
Stefan Kropelin, and Rudolph Kuper
,
“More Corridors to Africa,”
Cripel
26 (2006–2007), 219–29.

33.
G. Burkhard, “Inscriptions in the Dakhla Region,”
Sahara
9 (1997), 152–53.

34.
Zahi Hawass and Lyla Pich Brock,
Egyptology at the Dawn of the Twenty-first Century: History, Religion
(Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2004), 374.

35.
Richard A. Bermann, “Historic Problems of the Libyan Desert,”
Geographical Journal
83, no. 6 (June 1934): 456–63.

36.
Ibid.

37.
Frank Förster, “With Donkeys, Jars and Water Bags into the Libyan Desert: The Abu Ballas Trail in the Late Old Kingdom/First Intermediate Period,”
British Museum
SAES 7 (September 2007): 7.

38.
Stefan Kropelin and Rudolph Kuper
,
“More Corridors to Africa,” 220.

39.
Joseph Clayton, Aloisia De Trafford, and Mark Borda, “A Hieroglyphic Inscription Found at Jebel Uweinat Mentioning Yam and Tekhebet,”
Sahara
19 (2008).

40.
Ibid.

41.
Ibid.

42.
Breasted,
Ancient Records of Egypt,
Part 1, 351, and Wallis Budge,
An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary
(Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 1978), 1050a.

43.
Charles Kuentz,
Bulletin de L'Institut Francais d'Archeologie Orientale
17 1(920): 121–90.

44.
Ibid., 137. See also A. Weidemann,
Recuil de Travaux,
tome XVII, 4, note 1.

45.
K. P. Kuhlmann, “The Oasis Bypath or the Issue of Desert Trade in Pharaonic Times,” in Tilman Lenssen-Erz, Ursula Tegtmeier, and Stefan Kröpelin,
Gezeiten der Wüste
(Köln: Heinrich Barth Institut, 2001), 141–42.

46.
www.carlo-bergmann.de
Result of Winter 2007/08 Expedition, Advance Report.

47.
Ibid.

CHAPTER 3. STONEHENGE IN THE SAHARA

1.
J. F. McCauley, G. G. Schaber, C. S. Breed, et al., “Subsurface Valleys and Geoarcheology of the Eastern Sahara Revealed by Shuttle Radar,”
Science
218, no. 4576 (December 3, 1982): 1004–1020.

2.
Vivien Gornitz, Springerlink Online Service,
Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments
(Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2009).

3.
Fred Wendorf and Romuald Schild,
Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara,
vol. 1:
The Archaeology of Nabta Playa
(Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic, 2001).

4.
The Fezzan Project: Geoarchaeology of the Sahara,
www.cru.uea.ac.uk/­~e118/Fezzan/­fezzan_home.html
. Accessed April 16, 2007.

5.
P. B. DeMenocal, J. Ortiz, T. Guilderson, J. Adkins, M.Sarnthein, L. Baker, and M. Yarusinski, “Abrupt Onset and Termination of the African Humid Period: Rapid Climate Response to Gradual Insolation Forcing.
Quaternary Science Review
19 (2000), 347–61.

6.
Milutin Milankovitch,
Théorie Mathématique des Phénomènes Thermiques produits par la Radiation Solaire
(Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1920).

7.
Details of this calculation are referenced in, for example, Thomas Brophy,
The Origin Map: Discovery of a Prehistoric Megalithic Astrophysical Map of the Universe
(Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, September 20, 2002).

8.
Ibid.

9.
DeMenocal, Ortiz, Guilderson, et al., “Abrupt Onset and Termination of the African Humid Period: Rapid Climate Response to Gradual Insolation Forcing,” 347–61.

10.
P. B. DeMenocal, “Cultural Responses to Climate Change during the Late Holocene,”
Science
292 (2001): 667–73.

11.
History Channel documentary:
How the Earth Was Made: Sahara,
December 15, 1999.

12.
Qur'an, trans. M. H. Shakir (Elmhurst, N.Y.: Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an Inc., 1983).

13.
G. I. Gurdjieff,
All and Everything: Meetings with Remarkable Men
(New York: E. P. Dutton and Co. Inc., 1963.

14.
CNN, April 2, 1998.

15.
J. McKim Malville, Fred Wendorf, Ali A. Mazar, et al., “Megaliths and Neolithic Astronomy in Southern Egypt,”
Nature
392 (April 1998): 488–91.

16.
Alex Applegate and Nieves Zedeño,
Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara,
vol. 1 (New York: Plenum, 2001), 463–67.

17.
Malville, Wendorf, Mazar, et al., “Megaliths and Neolithic Astronomy in Southern Egypt,” 490.

18.
A. F. Aveni, “Tropical Archaeoastronomy,”
Science
243 (1981): 161–71.

19.
Malville, Wendorf, Mazar, et al., “Megaliths and Neolithic Astronomy in Southern Egypt,” 490.

20.
Ibid.

21.
Ibid.

22.
Ibid.

23.
Fred Wendorf and Romuald Schild, eds.,
Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara,
vol. 1:
The Archaeology of Nabta Playa
(Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic, 2001).

24.
Ibid.

25.
Thomas Brophy and Paul Rosen, “Satellite Imagery Measures of the Astronomically Aligned Megaliths at Nabta Playa,”
Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry
5, no. 1 (2005): 15–24.

26.
Wendorf and Schild,
Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara,
vol. 1:
The Archaeology of Nabta Playa.

27.
Brophy and Rosen, “Satellite Imagery Measures of the Astronomically Aligned Megaliths at Nabta Playa.”

28.
J. M. Malville, R. Schild, F. Wendorf, and J. Brenmer, “Astronomy of Nabta Playa,”
African Skies/Cieus Africains,
no. 11 (July 2007).

29.
Brophy and Rosen, “Satellite Imagery Measures of the Astronomically Aligned Megaliths at Nabta Playa.”

30.
Wendorf and Schild,
Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara,
vol. 1, introduction to the chapter “The Megalithic Alignments,” 489.

31.
Brophy and Rosen, “Satellite Imagery Measures of the Astronomically Aligned Megaliths at Nabta Playa.”

32.
Wendorf and Schild,
Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara,
vol. 1, “The Megalith Alignments” by Wendorf and Malville. In the chapter Wendorf writes, “There are two parts to this chapter. The first, by Wendorf, describes the megaliths and the other unusual features that may be related to the megalith phenomena. The second, by Malville, documents the relationships of the alignments with the positions of several stars . . .” So comments from the latter part of that chapter are referenced “by Malville” and the introduction to that chapter is “by Wendorf.”

33.
Ibid.

CHAPTER 4. SIRIUS RISING

1.
David S. McKay, et al., “Search for Past Life on Mars: Possible Relic Biogenic Activity in Martian Meteorite ALH84001,”
Science
magazine (August 16, 1996).

2.
Wendorf and Schild,
Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara,
vol. 1:
The Archaeology of Nabta Playa,
489.

3.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_ Justus_Scaliger. Accessed January 2010.

4.
Ibid.

5.
Related, though not identical, planetary dynamics calculations were employed in T. G. Brophy, L. W. Esposito, G. R. Stewart, et al., “Numerical Simulation of Satellite-ring Interactions: Resonances and Satellite-ring Torques,”
Icarus
100 (1992): 412–33.