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  Nabta Playa

Nabta Playa is an internally drained basin that served as an important
ceremonial center for nomadic tribes during the early part of the
Holocene epoch. Located 100 km west of Abu Simbel in southern Egypt,
Nabta contains a number of standing and toppled megaliths. They include
flat, tomb-like stone structures and a small stone circle that predates
Stonehenge and other similar prehistoric sites by at least 1000 years.

The site was first discovered in 1974 by a group of scientists headed by
Fred Wendorf, an Anthropology Professor from Southern Methodist
University in Texas. The team had stopped for a break from their
uncomfortable drive from the Libyan border to the Nile Valley when, as
Wendorf stated, ?we were standing there minding our own business, when
we noticed potsherds and other artifacts." Throughout the 1970?s and
1980?s, Wendorf returned to Nabta several times. He determined that
humans had occupied the Nabta area off and on for thousands of years,
dating from as early as 11,000 years ago up until about 4,800 years ago.
Although the area was occupied for more then 5,000 years, the majority
of the stone structures and other artifacts originated between 7,000 and
6,500 years ago. It was considered by most to be the height of human
occupation at Nabta.

Nabta became a habitable area because of a climatic change that occurred
over North Africa around 12,000 years ago. This climatic change was
caused by a northward shift of the summer monsoons. This shift brought
enough rain to the Nabta region to enable it to sustain life for both
humans and animals. Although it was a small amount of rain, usually
around four to eight inches (10-15 cm) per year, it was enough to fill
the playas with water for months at a time. Between 11,000 and 9,300
years ago, Nabta saw its first settlements. The people living at Nabta
herded cattle, made ceramic vessels, and set up seasonal camps around
the playa. These people regarded cattle in much the same way as modern
peoples of West Africa regard them. The blood and milk of the cattle was
more significant than the meat. The ceramics that were found from this
period are minimal, but are considered to be some of the oldest
identified in Africa.

Once fall came and the playa dried up, these people had to migrate to
areas where more water was available, possibly to the Nile in the east
or perhaps to areas further south. Larger settlements began to pop up
shortly after 9,000 years ago. These people were able to dig wells that
supplied them with enough water to live at Nabta year round. They
survived on a number of wild plants and small animals like hares and
gazelles. By around 8,100 years ago there is evidence for the
domestication of larger animals including goats and sheep. This is also
a time when the people of Nabta started to produce pottery locally.

Settlements became larger and more sophisticated. One settlement from
this period contains 18 houses arranged in two, possibly three straight
lines. It also contains numerous fire hearths and these amazing walk-in
wells. This settlement also shows the establishment of an organized
labor force. This settlement and all the other settlements at Nabta were
abandoned for a couple of long stretches between 8,000 and 7,000 years
ago when two major droughts occurred. These droughts caused the water
table to be lowered to around the same level as it is today, causing
Nabta to be hyper-arid and virtually lifeless for long periods of time.

The groups of people that returned to Nabta after the droughts exhibited
substantial advancement toward a more complex society that expressed a
greater degree of organization and control. This control and
organization was probably centered around some ritual or religious
belief system. This is the time period when most of the major structures
were constructed at Nabta. They constructed five megalithic alignments
that radiated from a cluster of stones that has been named E-96-1
Structure A. These megaliths were constructed out of quartzite sandstone
that came from exposed sandstone that was at least a half -kilometer
away. The stones were erected and embedded into the playa. With the help
of GPS satellite technology, recent surveys by Wendorf and University of
Colorado at Boulder?s Astronomy Professor J. McKim Malville have allowed
them to map out the exact location of these stone alignments. These
studies confirm that one of the alignments of the megaliths form an
east-west line and another alignment forms a north-south line.

Although more research needs to be done, many scientists, including
Malville, believe that the alignments had an astronomical significance.
Three hundred meters north of these alignments is the stone calendar
circle. Compared to Stonehenge, this circle is very small, measuring
roughly 4 m in diameter. The calendar consists of a number of stones,
the main ones being four pairs of larger ones. Each of these four pairs
were set close together to form what Wendorf calls ?gates.? Two of these
pairs align to form a line very close to a true north-south line, and
the other two pairs or gates align to form an east-west line. The
east-west alignment is calculated to be where the sun would have risen
and set from the summer solstice 6,500 years ago.

Fire hearths from around the circle date to around 6,800 years ago.
Another 300 meters north of the calendar circle is a stone covered
tumuli that contained the remains of cattle. One of the tumuli contained
a cow that was fully articulated. This particular tumulus was dug into
the ground surrounded by a clay frame. It had a roof made from the limbs
of tamarisk. It was then covered with broken rocks that formed a mound
eight meters in diameter and one meter high. Wood from the roof of the
chamber has been dated to around 6,500 years ago. Other tumuli that were
found in the area were more basic and consisted of unshaped stones that
contained disarticulated cattle bones. They had no subsurface structure
and were basically piles of bones covered with stones. These tumuli were
dated to about 5,500 years ago.

Another major feature at Nabta is a group of thirty ?complex
structures.? These structures are located about a kilometer south of the
cattle tumuli measuring 500 meters in length and 200 meters in width.
The framework was constructed by using roughly shaped or unshaped stones
that were set upright to form a structure that was oval in shape
measuring 5 meters by 4 meters. Aside from a few minor details, all of
the structures were basically the same. They all face slightly west of
north and they all have one or two large stone slabs that lay
horizontally in the center of the structure. What makes them unique is
that they have been built over large mushroom-shaped tablerocks. The
tablerocks were shaped by years and years of erosion and then covered by
two to three and a half meters of playa clays and silts.

It is unclear as to how the Nabtians were able to locate these
tablerocks. One theory is that they were located by accident when they
were digging wells, but nobody knows for sure. The largest excavated
structure reveals that a large pit was dug before the erection of the
walls. The pit was about 6 m in diameter and 4 m deep. It was dug down
to the tablerock. They shaped the rock to have three convex sides and
one side that was worked to form a straight edge that face north. In the
pit they placed another large shaped stone or sculpture that resembled a
cow or some other large animal. The sculpture was placed upright with
its axis facing north, the same way as the tablerock below it. The pit
was backfilled with playa clay one meter thick in order to support the
sculpture. Two smaller stones were also placed in the pit to help secure
the sculpture even more. Once the sculpture was in place and the pit was
completely backfilled, the surface stones were then erected and placed
into position. Testing done on charcoal from around the structures
indicates a date to 5,500 - 5,000 years ago. The actual function of the
complex remains a mystery.

About 4,800 years ago there was another climatic change. The African
monsoons shifted south to approximately the same area that they were
prior to 12,000 years ago. The land became hyper-arid again and caused
human habitation at Nabta to cease. The cattle worshipping people of
Nabta had to migrate to a more livable area. But to where did these
people migrate? Some people believe that the people of Nabta eventually
made their way to the Nile Valley. Perhaps they were the people
responsible for the rise of the Egyptian Empire. This theory is based on
the prominence of cattle in the religious belief system of Pre-dynastic
Egypt continuing into the Old Kingdom.

In ancient Egypt, cattle were deified and regarded as the earthly
representative of the gods. Egyptian Pharaohs were said to represent two
gods. Horus represented Upper Egypt and Seth represented Lower Egypt.
Horus was the son of Hathor who was depicted as either a cow or a strong
bull. Another Egyptian god that is represented by a bull is the god of
rain, a very important entity to the people of Nabta, considering that
life or death could have been determined by the amount of rain they
received. Another point of interest is that pre-Egyptian societies did
not place the same importance on cattle in either a social or religious
capacity, indicating that outside influence must have played a part in
the Old Kingdom belief system. This may have happened because the
pastoralists from Nabta came to the Nile to conquer and take over the
land from their farming neighbors. Perhaps they simply joined together
with the farmers and their beliefs were blended with those of the
farmers. No matter how you look at it, given the closeness of Nabta to
the Nile, there had to have been interaction between them and ideas had
to be exchanged to some degree.

Whether or not the people of Nabta had anything to do with the Egyptian
civilization, it is still a site of great importance. It dates to a time
when climatic and social changes were occurring. Complex societies or
civilizations were starting to emerge not only in Africa, but throughout
the world. Nabta helps to provide us with a better understanding of what
life was like during this time in history.

*REFERENCES *

J McKim Malville, _News-University of Colorado at Boulder_, May 31, 1998

http://www.colorado.edu/PublicReleases/1998/Oldest_Astronomical_Meg

http://www.comp-archaeology.org/WendorfSAA98.html Wendorf, Fred and
Schild, Romuald, _Late Neolithic structures at Nabta Playa,_
_southwestern Egypt, _1998,

J. McKim Malville, Fred Wendorf, Ali a Mazar, and Romauld Schild,

_Megaliths and Neolithic astronomy in southern Egypt,_ Nature 1998

http://www.nature.com

StarDate Ancient Horizens, _Nabta: Circle in the Sand_,

http://stardate.utexas.edu/egypt/nabta01.html

Jeff Hertaus

 

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