NANU, NANU: NABTA AND NEW AGERS

Summary

Over a span of some 30 years, the Combined Prehistoric Expedition conducted investigations of Neolithic occupations at Nabta Playa in Egypt’s Western Desert. The most startling discovery was an elaborate expression of Late and Final Neolithic ceremonialism unprecedented in Africa. The expression included a "sacred mountain", tumuli burials, ceremonial burials, stellae and megaliths, and an astronomical calendar circle. The publication of the results has had unintended consequences: it not only attracted the attention of the archaeological community but also New Agers. New Agers began to pilgrimage the site and disturb some of the features, especially the calendar circle. The result was to move the circle along with several other structures to the Nubian Museum in Aswan to prevent their destruction. Others have advanced theories to explain the function of the circle and megaliths, including "star map" that indicates an astronomical knowledge at least as sophisticated as ours. This knowledge included the distance to the stars to which the megaliths were aligned and an intimate knowledge of the Milky Way, including the relative position, scale, and orientation of our sun, and placements of the spiral arms and the galactic center.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• News of the Weird (Archaeology)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage