Nabta Playa, Egypt- What secrets does it hold?

Nabta Playa an area 60 miles west of the Nile near the Sudanese border, was happened upon 30 years ago by a team of anthropologists led by Professor Fred Wendorf, of the Southern Methodist University. Wendorf after noticing shards sticking up through the sand, later discovered stone slabs, each weighing up to 2 tonnes and 9 feet in length, were erected upright in such a manner that they align perfectly to east/west and north/south. A 12 foot in diameter stone calendar circule complements this structure. This is the oldest known astronomical megalith to date.

It is estimated that the area on the shoreline of an ancient lake, was used as a settlement as early as 11,000 years ago by nomads when the monsoons moved southwest, with the stone structures constructed by same ca. 4500BCE .A large find of cattle bones suggest these nomads were cattle herders, and possibly the first to deify the bull since the remains of at least one has been uncovered in a large clay covered chamber. This find coupled with Petrie’s Naqada, sheds further doubt on the claim to Mesopotamia’s fame for earliest civilization.

There is somewhat muted talk of a miles long underground configuration of the largest hewn stone blocks ever discovered, as well as elaborate carvings sinking 12 feet into the bedrock.

Satellite imagery of the stone alignments has prompted astronomists to suggest they were constructed to point toward Sirius, while the calendar circle points to Orion’s belt.
www.aas.org...

Nabtans, the oldest known astronomists

Because of Nabta's proximity to the Tropic of Cancer, the noon sun is at its zenith about three weeks before and three weeks after the summer solstice, preventing upright objects from casting shadows. "These vertical sighting stones in the circle correspond to the zenith sun during the summer solstice," said Prof. J. Malville, an archeoastronomer. "For many cultures in the tropics, the zenith sun has been a major event for millennia." read more...
www.sciencedaily.com...

What exactly then was the connection of these ancient herders to the two great suns, Sirius A&B?

the luminary of the constellation Canis Major, the Greater Dog,… Famed from times long past, the first glimpse of Sirius in dawn announced the rising of the Nile in ancient Egypt. (It no longer does because of precession, the 26,000-year wobble of the Earth's axis.).

The star is bright in part because it is indeed rather luminous, 23 times more so than the Sun. Though a "main sequence" "dwarf star" that, like the Sun, shines by hydrogen fusion, it is twice as massive as our star, and as a result is hotter and brighter, its 9400 Kelvin temperature making it quite white.

Sirius's greatest claim to fame may be its dim companion. Though at eighth magnitude (8.44), visually some 10,000 times fainter than the bright star we see (which is called "Sirius A"), Sirius B is actually the hotter of the two, a blue-white 27,000 Kelvin. Though typically separated from each other by a few seconds of arc, Sirius B is terribly difficult to see in the glare of Sirius A. The only way the companion star can be both hot and dim is to be small, smaller than Earth.

From the orbit, we find that the little one has about the mass of the Sun. Called a "white dwarf," on the average it packs a metric ton into a cubic centimeter, roughly a sugar cube. White dwarfs are the end products of ordinary stars like the Sun, tiny remnants that have run out of nuclear fuel. Most are balls of carbon and oxygen whose fates are merely to cool forever. Sirius B itself is the end product of a star that at one time was much more massive and brilliant than Sirius A is today. read more...
www.astro.uiuc.edu...

And how did these ancients discover that a star so far away was in sync with the Nile, enough so that their calendar was based on same?

To develop a calendar, you need a regular event that is predictable. And what was more regular and important to the ancient Egyptians than the rise and fall of the River Nile?
The waters started rising around the end of June, and the flood period (achet) lasted until October, covering the land with rich black mud and preparing it for the sowing and growing period (peret). The harvest time (schemu) started at the end of February and ended with the new Nile flood This predictable, ongoing cycle defined the agricultural year.
But there was a problem! The flood came within a range of 80 days with variable intensities .... all in all, not very accurate timing.

And what caused the calendrical change?

Sirius, or Sothis as it was called by the ancient Egyptians, the star who's heliacal rising was in early July 3000 years ago, but due to the wobble of the earth on its axis is now a few weeks later, turned out to be a very reliable predictor of the recurring flood and defined the exact length of the trip of the earth around the sun . read more... www.touregypt.net...

The Papyrus Ebers confirms the importance of Sirius in their calendar

Ninth year of the reign of his majesty the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Djeserkare - may he live forever! Festival of the New Year: third month of summer, ninth day - rising of Sirius

Perhaps the sun the ancients worshipped was not in fact the big ball we orbit, but rather, Sirius, and perhaps this star bears more importance to our planet’s existence than our own. Whatever Nabta Playa’s mystery may be, the archaelogical world is either disinterested or purposely silent, preferring instead to leave the studies to the likes of NASA and archaeoastromomists.

For more information: www.smu.edu...

zebu.uoregon.edu..." target='_blank' class='tabOff'/>

Thanks for the link to the papers. SMU is, in fact, the school that I hope to get my PhD from.

...as soon as I can figure out how to afford it.

Yet again we see that Sirius is considered to be important.
The Dogon tribe also venerated Sirius, and also seemed to know that it had it's Brown Dwarf companion - plus planets orbiting it.

And again we see the Orion's belt correlation, exactly as it is in the Giza Pyramid attributed to Khufu/Cheops.

Originally posted by neil wilkes
Yet again we see that Sirius is considered to be important.
The Dogon tribe also venerated Sirius, and also seemed to know that it had it's Brown Dwarf companion - plus planets orbiting it.

And again we see the Orion's belt correlation, exactly as it is in the Giza Pyramid attributed to Khufu/Cheops.

The connection of Giza to Sirius and the Orion belt, given what is known of Nabta Playa may no longer stand on its own. Egyptian and Nubian history clearly shows a settlement march northward, hence the Nabtans would have likely influenced if not actually responsible for the evolution of Egyptian civilization, culture and reverence of the firmament.