COSMOLOGY:

Unity in Kemetic Wisdom

Kemetic teachings stress the reality that there is only one Creator. All that we consider life and existence are a result of the actions of the Creator. Everything is a manifestation of the will of the one Creator. The Creator is the one true NTR (pronounced necher). The title of NTR is commonly mistranslated to mean God by Egyptologists, historians, and others trained by the culture of the European worldview. A more correct definition of the term NTR would be essential activating presence of the Creator within every and all aspects of existence. The intent of the NTR determines the growth and purpose of all life. This is acknowledging that the Creator is within all life and that the Creator’s presence is the force that drives every part of life to do the things it does. This is analogous to the spiritual concepts of traditional Native American teachings. Modern day European trained scientists examine the cells and atoms of everything to find a reason for life. They look for the origin of life by examining the physical properties of life. Their favorite methods are to cut off a piece (called a sample) of an organism or kill the organism in its entirety then subject it to a series of tests. The life force of the organism is never present when European scientists perform their examination. Neither method is capable of discerning the life processes of the organism from the Kemetic perspective. Kemetic teachings inform us that cells and atoms receive impulses on a sub-atomic level that directs them to operate, move, and grow in certain ways that manifests in the life forms seen under microscopes. These impulses are the province of the NTRW (plural for NTR). The NTR is the governor of the reproductive process. As an example, most plants are fertilized to reproduce with the help of birds and insects. These animals help in the reproductive process but do nothing to change the resultant offspring of the plants. The result of a fertilized plant seed is another plant not a combination plant and insect or bird. Cells and atoms follow the will of the NTR. The will of the NTR sets the parameters for all life.

The goal of education in the Temples of KMT was to teach all students how to become aware of and internalize the aspects of the one true NTR present in all life. This could only be accomplished to the extent that students developed their abilities and capacities by sensitizing themselves to the presence of the NTR in all life. Just as people have different sensitivities in using their five senses of taste, touch, hearing, smell, and sight we all have different sensitivities in detecting the NTRW in life. This is one reason for the multiplicity of NTRW in Kemetic teachings. There is a basic foundation of NTRW for all life that everyone must know. However, everyone has an area of specialization. They will give more energy to the NTR of that area of specialization or sensitivity. For example, a musician will seek to develop a relationship with the NTR of sound vibrations; an athlete will seek to develop a relationship with the NTR of muscles and coordination; a mathematician will seek to develop a relationship with the NTR of mental cognition and reasoning.

The second reason for the multitude of NTRW is a consequence of the Creator manifesting itself in harmony with the environmental conditions of each area of KMT and the world at-large. In those areas of KMT that had an abundance of fertile, arable land for farming the NTRW connected with growing crops were most important. In those areas of KMT with large mineral resources the NTRW of the minerals and the mining process were the most important. The animals and plants that live and thrive in a farming area are functionally and physically different from the animals and plants that live in a mining area. Even people who live in these two areas develop different personality traits and goals in response to their environment, job, and lifestyle. These variations are seen as the manifestation of different aspects of the one true NTR. The process of helping everyone become aware of the presence of the NTRW creates an acceptance, respect, and understanding of the variety of life in all its forms. It would be an overstatement to say that everyone in KMT always got along and that love and respect was a constant throughout everybody’s life. The historical record tells us that conflict and the resolution of conflict were a recurring part of life in KMT. It is important to know that the ideals and goals of Kemetic education were centered in the attempt to understand the fullness of the NTR to the best of your ability. The story of life’s creation, as told by the priests of KMT, can be understood on several different levels through the use of metaphor. All of them serve to reveal deeper meanings of the NTRW from a practical and scientific perspective. Understanding the concept of the NTR necessitates examining existence from a metaphysical aspect as well. All this can be gleaned from an analysis of the Kemetic creation story.

There were four major Temple systems in KMT that have left intact records of the creation stories. Each Temple in KMT told the story of creation in a way that fit their lifestyle, environment, and understanding. The Temple of Iunu (Heliopolis) was dedicated to Atum, The Temple of Khemenu (Hermopolis) was dedicated to Tehuti, the Temple of Waset (Thebes) was dedicated to Amun, and the Temple of Mem-nefer (Memphis) was dedicated to Ptah. There were many elements of the story common to all of KMT for its entire 4,000 plus year history. The most popular version was the one taught by the priests of the Temple at Iunu. In summary the story is: ‘Before the beginning of time and space all was Chaos, an unformed, undifferentiated mass they called Nun. In order to perceive itself Atum, the creator, had to differentiate itself from Nun. Atum then manifested itself as a mound of land in the chaotic, waterlike mass of Nun. Next Atum created air in the form of the twins Shu and Tefnut. The union of Shu and Tefnut created heaven, Nut, and earth, Geb. Shu, Tefnut, Nut, and Geb are NTRW with cosmic qualities. Nut and Geb united and created four children, Ausar (Osiris), Auset (Isis), Set, and Nebt-Het (Nephthys). These four children of Nut and Geb are the NTRW who have dominion over the Earth.’

People who read this story often misunderstand it by placing too much emphasis on the names of the NTRW. The names refer to the internal qualities of the elements made by Atum. I will repeat the story giving equal weight to the qualities and NTRW. This will reveal how metaphor was used to help understand the deeper meanings and memorize the story. ‘The Creator of all life existed as part of an inconceivable, undifferentiated realm known as Nun. In order to show that it was unique the Creator manifested itself as a mound of land known as Atum. This is another way of saying that something with a form that was different from the all-encompassing mass came into being. Next the Creator made air or atmosphere which has two qualities, light and moisture. These two qualities are called Shu and Tefnut respectively. The creation of the air provided a barrier around the entirety of the land. All land was now separate from the undifferentiated mass. This separation created the sky (heaven) and the earth as two distinct entities, Nut and Geb respectively. The sky (heaven) and the earth still interacted with each other. The result of their interaction created four beings that could function in the heavens and on the earth. These are the first semi-divine beings of Ausar, Auset, Set, and Nebt-Het. When Atum made humanity these four were the NTRW who were the closest to humanity. They communicated the rules of society and civilization from the heavens to humanity.’

Let’s look at the most popular stories given by Western science and religion for the creation of all life. Our current cultural paradigm is founded in the superiority of the physical form. Scientists of today hypothesize that all of existence began with one singular event. This event is called the Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang is actually an unproven hypothesis based on the visual observations of certain physical phenomena by the astronomer Edwin Hubble (Hubble: 2002). In 1929 Hubble discovered that the galaxies of the universe appear to be moving away from each other at an ever-increasing speed. He postulated that the universe is constantly expanding. Since all galaxies are moving away from each other in an outward direction something must have happened in the beginning to get them all moving. This is thought to be a colossal explosion (hence the name “Big Bang”) of a single atom in which all the potential of the universe was concentrated. Scientists are using the most advanced telescopes available looking throughout space for evidence of this singularity. If they ever found the exact location of the physical event they still would not know what caused the atom to explode.

The leading school of spiritual thought in European society is Christianity. According to Christian theological teachings all of existence began with God creating light. This is outlined in the book of Genesis in the Bible (The Open Bible: 1975). ‘According to the Biblical account of creation God first created the heaven and the earth and the earth had no form. The spirit of God moved upon the waters. God said let there be light, which began the cycle of day and night. God then said let there be a firmament in the middle of the waters to divide the waters from the waters. The firmament was called heaven. God commanded the waters under heaven to gather together and let dry land appear which he called Earth. God then commanded vegetation to appear followed by the stars, planets, and other heavenly bodies. Of these heavenly bodies he made two with special qualities so that one could rule the day and the other could rule the night. God proceeded to create animals that live in the sea and air followed by the animals of the land. He then created male humans and later created females from a part of the male.’ The Big Bang Theory and the Bible both seek to explain the creation of life by an examination of physical elements. The book of Genesis does not attempt to explain the creation of life by an examination of spiritual elements. It is revealing that the creation story of KMT has more detail and is more complete even though it predates the Big Bang Theory by 6,000 years and the book of Genesis by 3,000 years. Many contradictions in the Big Bang theory and the book of Genesis were resolved by the scholar/priests of KMT in their Creation stories.

In the Kemetic story the Creator willed itself into existence. The Big Bang theory hypothesizes that a random explosion of unknown cause occurred. In the Bible the creator made heaven and earth yet the earth had no form. The Kemetic story speaks to the will and intent of the creator as being the origin of the force that creates the definite area of existence. The Kemetic story offers a possible cause for the Big Bang but does not state that an act of potential violence occurred. The Bible states that heaven and earth were made yet the earth had no form. No reason is given to substantiate the existence of something that has no form and cannot be differentiated from other things. In the Kemetic story, after forming into a mound of land the creator makes air (or atmosphere) that separates the sky from the land. This is a representation of the sequential appearance of physical life on this planet. Life on this planet, as it currently is, could not exist without the air or atmosphere that envelops the land. The layer of air that surrounds this planet acts as a filter to block the deadly radiation of the Van Allen radiation belt and interstellar space from killing life as we know it (Van Allen et. al: 1958; Conspiracy Theory: 2001). We experience warmth on Earth when the rays of the Sun interact with the atmosphere. The area of interstellar space outside the envelope of air that surrounds this planet is also extremely cold. The temperature of interstellar space is estimated to be 3 degrees Kelvin or –273 Celsius (Keohane: 2002). This is cold enough to stop molecules from moving. It is much colder than any point on earth could ever be. This is evidence that the rays of the Sun carry no heat or warmth at all. The interaction of the rays of the Sun with the atmosphere of the planet is the cause of the light we see. The area of existence outside the envelope of air that surrounds this planet is totally dark and with out any sounds we can hear with our ears or measure with machines. We hear sounds when the air is caused to vibrate by certain excitations. In the absence of air there is no sound, light or warmth. Air and the qualities of the atmosphere are pre-requisites for life on this planet. The Kemetic creation story is the only one of the three that follows a sequence that can be confirmed using rational, logical, and scientific examination. The Big Bang theory does not attempt to resolve the issue of a sequential ordering of life. It merely presumes the explosions continued with certain masses sticking together to create planets, stars, and other things. The Bible’s book of Genesis has the spirit of the creator moving on waters that appeared immediately following the creation of heaven and earth. In Genesis the creator then manifested light by the use of sounds (speaking a word) yet no source for continued light was established. After establishing light the Bible has the Creator putting a firmament called heaven in the middle of the waters. If heaven was created first did the Creator back up and do it again? The actions of the Creator in the Bible do not follow the order of sequence needed to create or maintain life on this planet. When logical people ask how things could happen in this sequence they are told to develop more faith in unseen things.

In addition to informing us of the origin of life on this planet the Kemetic creation story is an example of the mathematical process used by the scholar/priests of KMT and taught to every child. The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus shows us that in KMT a process of doubling was used to do computations (Finch: 1998; Robins and Shute: 1987; Chace: 1979). A simple demonstration is to start with the number one, when you double the one you get two, when you double the two you get four, double the four you get eight, so on and so on. In the Kemetic creation story you start off with something indescribable, you make one come out of it, it makes two come out of it, these two make two more come out of them, the second two make four more come out of them. This is an example of the doubling process of one making two, two making four, and four making eight. This same process was used for algebra, multiplication, division, geometry, and trigonometry. The Kemetic creation story started with an indescribable undifferentiated mass. The Big Bang theory and the Bible tell us nothing existed before the creation began. The number systems of the Western societies place a zero prior to the number one. Nun (chaos) is the basis for all existence (Verharen: 2002). In our current system the zero holds a place to symbolize empty space. The Kemetic people did not have a number zero in their system. Due to the existence of something prior to the Creator manifesting itself as one it is never possible for the absence of all things to occur (Assman: 1989; Hornung: 1982). To quote Erik Hornung:

“For Egyptians the entire extent of the universe, both space and time, is embedded in the limitless expanse of the non-existent. The non-existence does not even stop short at the boundaries of the existent but penetrates all of creation (1971).

This signifies that KMT had a systematic unification of all Creation in 3,000 BCE (Allen: 1988). Einstein’s unified field theory and Quantum Physics have been trying to verify this for the past 60 years.

© 2002 Atiba King

Egypt before the Pharaohs

By Gamal Nkrumah

Dynastic Egypt, the classical “Two Lands” of the Pharaohs, did not miraculously spring fully ordered in all its fabled splendour. It took some five millennia before 3,500 BC for the inhabitants of the Nile Valley and Delta of Egypt to reach the cultural attainments now instantly and universally recognisable as unique to dynastic Egypt. There is abundant archaeological evidence of several predynastic kingdoms in Upper Egypt. It is commonly acknowledged that at least rudimentary political structures existed in Upper Egypt about 7,000 years ago. Because of the rise in the water table, it is rather more difficult to ascertain whether similar kingdoms existed in the Delta.

So, who were the people whose culture laid the seeds of the very first nation-state in recorded history? There is scarce, but categorical, evidence of very ancient human presence in Nubia and Upper Egypt. Early Paleolithic — Stone Age — hand axes believed to be over 70,000 years old were found in the vicinity of Abu Simbel, Nubia. But skeletal remains dating to that very distant past are yet to be discovered. How and why did the Nile Valley’s Neolithic, or late Stone Age, hunter-gatherers who had started experimenting with agriculture and animal husbandry, so rapidly progress to urbanisation and state formation at a time when the rest of humanity slumbered in prehistory? A precise answer is still a matter of conjecture.

However, Egyptologists all agree that the bounty of the lush Nile Valley was instrumental to the luxuriant flowering of Ancient Egypt. The Sahara was not always a desolate wasteland. Some 10,000 years ago, the Sahara received considerably more rain than it does today, permitting a savanna-like vegetation of open grasslands peppered with shrubs and trees, much like the East African plains of today. And, like their modern counterpart in East Africa, the Sahara was teaming with game and nomadic people who herded cattle — perhaps the first to do so in all of Africa — and roamed the savanna in search of grazing land. For watering cattle, they congregated along the banks of lakes. One such former lake is Nabta Playa — a mere 45 kilometres west of Ramses II’s temple of Abu Simbel. Today the site where these people performed their religious rituals is marked by a circle of small upright stone slabs only four metres in diameter. The curious circle looks like a miniature replica of England’s Stonehenge except that it was set up some 2,000 years earlier. Perhaps, these nomadic Saharan people were the ancestors of the early Nile Valley inhabitants?

There is evidence to suggest that around 6,000 years ago, these nomadic desert-dwellers left the Sahara Desert as it turned into the barren waste it now is and journeyed towards the life-giving waters of the River Nile and the lush Valley where first they practised hunting and gathering and gradually with the annual inundation that occurred every summer, year after year, they turned to settled agriculture. It seems that they journeyed along the tributaries of the Nile or wadi, today’s dried-up watercourses, until they reached the banks of the great river itself. The cultural remains of these prehistoric people can be traced in places like Wadi Es-Sebua, Abu Simbel and Toshka, 160 kilometres south of Aswan.

Nevertheless, the earliest human skeletal remains in Egypt’s Nile Valley were found in Jabal Sahaba, Nubia, and is some 12,000 years old. An excellent venue, therefore, in which to kick-start an exploration of predynastic cultural remains is the Nubian Museum of Aswan. The impetus for early predynastic cultural advancement in all probability came from the Khartoum Mesolithic people around 6,000 BC. These were the first people to domesticate cattle and cultivate cereal crops in the Nile Valley. In the Nubian Museum, Aswan, you can sample some of the ceramics, decorated ostrich-eggs and rock-carvings of these predynastic people. The principal material remains of these people are their stone tools, jewellery and numerous rock paintings, showing the animals they hunted. (See exhibition zones C, D and E, which display an interesting array of tools, utensils and handicrafts of the earliest inhabitants of the Nile Valley.)

The cultural influences of the Khartoum Mesolithic people appear to have drifted northwards, along the banks of the River Nile, into Lower Nubia and Upper Egypt over the next millennium. In the process, the Mesolithic cultures evolved into more advanced Neolithic culture. Between 5,500 BC and 3,100 BC, a number of successive Neolithic cultures in both Lower Egypt and, especially, Upper Egypt evolved into large, hierarchical and well organised communities. They excelled in the crafts of basketry, weaving, the tanning of animal hides and their pottery in particular was of outstanding quality. These cultures were the forerunners of dynastic Egypt. Many of the cultural features that later came to characterise dynastic Egypt originated first in predynastic Egypt. In the last stages of predynastic Egypt, sometimes referred to in literature as protodynastic Egypt, predynastic culture resembled dynastic, especially Old Kingdom, culture in more ways than one. Predynastic culture was fast acquiring those specificities that we today instantly recognise as characteristic of dynastic Egypt: an obsession with tombs and the afterlife, a preponderance of animal deities, a centralised government and the appurtenances of statehood, the first etchings of hieroglyphics, royal symbols and religious iconography. The provincial administrative divisions in dynastic times, which the Greeks called nomes, perhaps even represented the clan totems or fetishes of predynastic Egypt. Against this backdrop emerged the earliest urbanised societies in the world.

In the late Paleolithic period, from 25,000 BC, Egypt was inhabited by egalitarian nomadic bands who lived in small temporary camps close to the Nile and depended for their survival on hunting and fishing. Their material means of existence differed little from similar groups of Stone Age hunter-gatherers the world over. Beginning in 5,500 BC, Egypt’s nomadic bands began to build permanent settlements focused around agriculture, particularly the growing of cereal grains like wheat and barley. By the Neolithic period, the trend towards the establishment of more settled societies accelerated to such an extent that these people began to boldly experiment with stone, mud, metals, wood and leather to produce useful household utensils and artifacts.

The first nomadic tribesmen dwelt in temporary camps of reed or grass huts and moved with the seasons. They appeared to be acutely aware of the ebbing and subsiding of the Nile and sensibly built settlements that avoided the inundation. The mound, so prominent a feature in the creation myths and legends of dynastic Egypt, must have assumed special importance in predynastic times. The people, however, came in close proximity to the river in spite of the annual flood because it was a rich source of food. Later, they discovered that it was not only their lifeline, but a convenient highway as well. Most of their settlements were located at the edge of the floodplain. Rock-shelters were also used, and towards the end of the fourth millennium BC permanent settlements, on mounds, had become the norm. Very occasionally, the settlements even had one or two stone houses.

By 4,000 BC Neolithic communities ceased being organised into hunting bands, discarded the nomadic way of life and became settled agriculturists, artisans and traders. By this time, as their graves so graphically suggest, they were clearly divided into rulers and ruled, rich and poor. While hunting was no longer the only way of life, the early inhabitants of the Nile Valley held tenaciously to their animal totems — the falcon, the vulture, the ibis, the frog, the snake, the crocodile, the lioness, the hound and the hippopotamus. These were to emerge as gods in dynastic times. With urbanisation and settled agriculture came social organisation and a rigidly hierarchical society. The seeds of the hierarchical Pharaonic civilisation, with god-king or Pharaoh at the apex and commoners making up the base, were sown.

No study of predynastic Egypt can be complete without a reference to the work of the Father of Pots, William Matthew Flinders Petrie, a British archaeologist who meticulously unearthed the pots and grave goods of the predynastic period. Even though Petrie’s work was not confined to the predynastic, he was perhaps the first Egyptologist to scrupulously jot down notes about the predynastic objects he excavated.

Around 4,000 BC some of the finest and most elegant pottery were being produced in Upper Egypt. They were of a far superior quality to the pots produced in the Delta. At first the predynastic people of the Delta tried to imitate Upper Egyptian pottery but differences were eventually blurred when during the protodynastic period — the two or three centuries immediately preceding dynastic Egypt, Upper Egyptian kings overran the Delta and ultimately united the Two Lands. The Delta people then adopted the ways of the culturally dominant Upper Egyptian people. Indigenous pottery from the Delta ceased to exist and was replaced by pottery from Upper Egypt. Even the Delta houses ceased to be made of the traditional bundled papyrus and mats. The vanquished Lower Egyptians began to build their houses with mud bricks like those of the conquerors from the South, a style widely regarded as the prototype for dynastic houses. Several clay models of houses discovered in Hieraconpolis graves closely resembled future Old Kingdom dwellings. Other Upper Egyptian customs and traditions, like placing valuable grave goods with the deceased, were adopted by the people of the Delta. This particular custom emerged as an essential feature of dynastic Egyptian culture. Once set in place, the Egyptian civilisation was to prevail in all the splendour of its cardinal characteristics for the next 4,000 years.

Unconventional pottery, some with elaborate decoration, and an extraordinary ivory comb (bottom left) are among the finds in the new Nubia Museum in Aswan

Archaeologists divide the predynastic period into separate stages of development. The first relatively sophisticated Neolithic culture in Egypt proper, as opposed to Nubia, was of a people today commonly described as Badarians, in reference to the site at the village of Al-Badari, to the immediate south of Assiut, Upper Egypt, where many of their cultural remains were found. Next came the Amratian and Gerzean civilisations, also referred to as Naqada I and Naqada II — a site a few kilometres north of Luxor, where an impressive array of their cultural remains was located. The Amratians and especially the Gerzeans displayed an even more sophisticated cultural distinction than the Badarians. The Gerzean Civilisation can be regarded as the immediate forerunner of dynastic Egypt.

You can view all these people’s beautiful handicrafts at various museums abroad: The British Museum, London, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College, London, the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford, the Musée du Louvre, Paris, are among the best-stocked. In Egypt, the Nubian Museum, Aswan, the Egyptian Museum, Cairo; and hopefully the Maadi predynastic Museum, Cairo, which will open its doors to the public soon.

In Egypt, the Chalcolithic Period, sometimes also called Primitive predynastic, saw the emergence of Badarian agrarians. The Badarian culture also witnessed the first beginnings of stonemasonry in Egypt, which differed qualitatively from the primitive art of Stone Age toolmaking that had existed for millennia. The Badarians appear to have lived in shelters made of animal skins and dressed also in animal skins. They were skilled artisans who, while not entirely giving up hunting, bartered trade goods, had began to experiment with agriculture, and domesticated many animals. The Badarians obviously were a gregarious people who, judging from the artifacts they left behind, were fond of dance. The preponderance of female figurines in Badarian tombs hint at a more matrilineal political system or female-oriented religion than that which prevailed in Egypt in dynastic times, when male-gods predominated. Dancer figurines, mostly female, with upraised arms were common in graves. Perhaps these figurines represented the original belly dancers. Such figures are now scattered in museums all over the world. One especially expressive and mirthful figurine is deposited at the Musée de Lyon, France. Other figures are to be found in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo; the Musée du Louvre, Paris; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Art, Boston; the University of Chicago Oriental Institute Museum; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; and several museums in London including the Victoria and Albert; the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology; and the British Museum.

The Badarians’ wardrobe must have been essentially a collection of animal skins. But strong evidence suggests that the Badarians discovered the loom and were, therefore, producing textiles as well. A pottery dish depicting a horizontal ground-loom was found at a tomb at Al-Badari. The earliest known Egyptian flax and Neolithic linen goes back to the Badarian period.

The Badarians also cleverly crafted combs of ivory, bone and wood which are remarkably reminiscent of traditional African combs. But perhaps the most impressive feature of Badarian culture was their highly distinctive pottery. Of superlative quality, the Badarians’ pottery was of a reddish brown finish and the tops were burned black, by being inverted in the ashes of the kiln. The walls of the Badarian ceramics were fired to something of a metallic hardness even though they were often eggshell-thin.

But the handiwork of the Badarians pale into relative insignificance when compared with those of its two successor civilisations — the Amratian and the Gerzean. The first is named for the site at Al Amra (or Naqada I) in the vicinity of modern Luxor. Naqada, 30 kilometres north of Luxor, is one of the most important predynastic sites in Egypt. Carpentry and furniture-making began in earnest during the Amratian period. In time, objects began to be made not just with function in mind, but with aesthetic value as well. The beautiful black-topped pottery so characteristic of the time was produced in abundance.

Around 4,500 BC this new, dynamic and relatively sophisticated culture known today as Naqada I or the Amratian Period, produced veritable works of art. There was a distinct change in pottery decorations. Previously ceramics were decorated by simple geometric designs and bold bands of paint. But, in the Amratian period, the ever more complex designs that were not just purely functional came into vogue. Among the grave goods the Amratians left behind were solemn-looking cloaked and bearded male figures in ivory and clay. These figures are instantly recognisable as the antecedent of Osiris Lord of the Dead, Resurrection and Rebirth. Such figures are also reminiscent of the tightly-fitted Hed-Seb ceremonial dress of dynastic Pharaohs.

The Amratians grew Emmer wheat and baked bread. Food production gradually became a more sophisticated process and the domestication of cattle was firmly established by the fourth millennium. The Amratians traded with the peoples of Nubia, the Red Sea, the Delta and the Levant, perhaps even further afield.

One of the most important predynastic trading settlements was in the southern Cairo suburb of Maadi. A distinctly Maadi feature was the burial of dogs and gazelles. There is evidence of the extensive use of copper in the Maadi predynastic settlement. Copper was hammered cold and shaped into pins and harpoon heads. Such objects are found in the Maadi predynastic Museum, Cairo. Trade with the people of Sinai and Palestine was crucial to the economic well-being of the Maadi settlement. Donkeys were used as draft animals. Palestinian pottery and other artifacts from the Levant were found in abundance in Maadi. Jewellery and artifacts for personal adornment show a marked level of artistry. Moreover, the strong and astonishingly intact samples of teeth reveal that the people of predynastic Maadi had an exceptionally healthy and varied diet of grain, fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy products.

Other important and distinct predynastic cultures in Lower Egypt were found in Fayoum and Merimda in the Delta. A notable feature of Lower Egyptian predynastic sites like Maadi, Fayoum and Merimda is that they were once living quarters or trading settlements as opposed to the primarily grave sites of Upper Egypt.

The third stage of predynastic cultural development began at around 4,000 BC and is referred to as the Gerzean Period or Naqada III, in reference to the village of Gerzah halfway between Saqqara and Fayoum, on the western bank of the Nile. But the Gerzean predynastic culture spanned a long stretch of the Nile in Lower, Middle and Upper Egypt. In Hemamiya, just south of Assiut, Badarian artifacts were found beneath Amratian and Gerzean levels, suggesting a strong sense of continuity of predynastic cultures.

Artifacts from the Gerzean Period, however, are decidedly different from those produced in the earlier Amratian and Badarian periods. The difference between the Gerzean and the two other cultures is perhaps most marked in ceramics. Gerzean pottery was produced along not merely functional lines. The aesthetic or decorative aspect of ceramics became the hallmark of Gerzean culture. Geometric motifs on ceramics dating to the Gerzean period could be interpreted as a form of early writing. Gerzean exquisitely painted desert-hunting scenes and animals such as the ostrich and the inex abound. Another favourite object depicted on Gerzean ceramics was the boat.

The art of dyeing, using natural colours of local origin, was known in Egypt as early as the Gerzean period, with the textile fibres spun and then dyed. Spinning and weaving were practised in ancient Egypt from the Neolithic period, technical evidence being afforded by depiction, models and the surviving artifacts. But it is beginning of the Gerzean times that the art of dressmaking approached the excellence of dynastic times. Spare clothing for the afterlife was an archaic Egyptian custom, and dates back to the Gerzean Period when hanks of yarn were traditionally placed with the body of the deceased. Copper and silver needles and pins with loop heads are some of the surviving objects that were in everyday usage during the Gerzean period.

The Hierakonpolis Expedition uncovered a brewery, perhaps what is Egypt’s earliest temple destined to become the prototype for dynastic Egyptian temples. The predynastic rulers of Hierakonpolis were in all probability the kings who eventually united all Egypt: Delta and Nile Valley. Surviving dwellings from the predynastic periods are uncommon and a rare exception, however, is the house and workshop of a potter who signed his pots in one of Egypt’s earliest urban settlements — Hierakonpolis, the Falcon city. Hierakonpolis was a sprawling settlement of over 11 acres on the desert’s edge. The potter’s subterranean rectangular house was burnt down after what appears to be a devastating fire. The potter wisely rebuilt his house in stone. Because of the fossilised remains of the potter’s house, we are able to glimpse something of the architectural creativity of the late predynastic period.

Among the most important items left behind by these predynastic people were palettes of slate for grinding cosmetics — many in the shape of animals, birds and fish. Boats were the dominant theme of the pottery of the late predynastic, or protodynastic times. Naval battles were also depicted as on the handle of a knife discovered at Jabal Al-Arak. The names of certain predynastic kings such as Scorpion were depicted in a serekh, or cartouche, like their dynastic counterparts. By this time, of course, it is not entirely clear whether we are still talking of predynastic times. For it is at that historical moment that the predynastic, or protodynastic, metamorphosed into the far more familiar dynastic Egypt.

Intro to the Worldview of KMT

The spiritual practices of the people of KMT thoroughly permeated their entire society. Many of their traditions are based on concepts different from the traditions of the European society that we live under. The leaders and followers of European society and non-believers in general have negatively classified these practices, which were very real to the Kemetic people, as magic or worse since the formative years of the Greco-Roman Empire. Thousand of years before the birth of Greece and Rome what is often called magic was used throughout every period of KMT’s history in all aspects of their lives (Budge, intro; 1988). Similar spiritual practices were used throughout the entire Afrikan continent from the days of KMT until the present. The people of the Sudan (Budge; 1973), Burkina Faso (Some’; 1997), South Afrika (Mutwa; 1996), and the Gambia (Mali; 1999), who have not been co-opted by the western world, still hold rites of passage ceremonies that often involve all the children of the villages traversing to another dimension. The adults also make and use talismans or what we would call good luck charms and direct spells for good or bad at other living entities. All of these actions have parallels in the glory days of KMT.

The most powerful Afrikan country in the history of the world was KMT, the land we now call Egypt. KMT’s science was developed and safeguarded by an orderly, beneficent priesthood. All the authors of ancient Greek texts voice the opinion that KMT was the cradle of all knowledge and wisdom. The most famous Greek sages and philosophers crossed the sea in search of initiation into new knowledge by the priests of KMT (Sauneron; 2000). “The priests taught them many different subjects with geometry and astronomy being mentioned by the Greeks most often.” (Sauneron; 2000) A closer look at the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus and the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus reveals that the priests also knew and most probably invented trigonometry (Finch; 1998). The cosmological system of KMT taught much that is now referred to as mystical. One of the most elementary concepts of KMT’s cosmology is all of creation and time is cyclical. Therefore time and space move in a circle rather than a straight line from A to B as western civilization has taught for hundreds of years. Western scholars have long regarded the cyclical nature of space and time as idiotic. Using mathematics our western scholars have discovered that two lines moving in opposite directions will join in infinity (Ashby; 1997). The relatively new science of quantum physics has found evidence that our universe is not made of solid matter. Instead all we see, taste, and touch is simply energy vibrating at different rates (Ashby; 1997). The implications of this “discovery” are enormous. If nothing is actually solid then what is real? Compare this illusory aspect of reality, according to quantum physics, with the Kemetic concept of the afterlife. The bedrock of Kemetic belief in the afterlife is that our essence continues to exist on another plane when our physical bodies stop functioning. They teach that our essence (or soul) is held in our body to be released by death or by conscious direction through training. All who receive the proper training can see and communicate with life that exists in other planes or dimensions. To frame that statement in a manner that the acolytes of quantum physics may understand is important. If the physical groupings we call matter are just energy vibrating at various frequencies then by altering our sense perceptions to become in tune with various frequencies we should be able to communicate or at least observe those things which occur on those frequencies. Our current mental outlook imposes limitations that preclude the average person from the ability to visually or aurally become aware of the existence of other frequencies or dimensions. Everyone comes close to realizing this talent when dreaming. Most adults teach their children to ignore anything they see or are told in dreams. (Unless we dream a good lottery number.) Our dreams then scare us due to our lack of knowledge. In a culture that encourages the analysis of dreams as therapeutic, like the aborigines of Australia, the whole family discusses each other’s dreams every morning. Your immediate family often knows you better than you know yourself. European psychologist Sigmund Freud popularized the theory that your dreams are the doorway to deeper levels of your mind. Who do you trust more to help you understand your subconscious and unconscious mind than your family? Talking dreams over with your family is more likely to elicit a correct response than discussing them with a stranger. No matter how many degrees the psychoanalyst may hold they can not make a diagnosis until you tell them who you are and how you came to be that person. Imagine the money and time saved by not having to undergo years of Freudian or Jungian psychoanalysis. When a way of understanding the world is not only accepted but promoted by the whole community it shapes and molds the social customs of that community. In other words it becomes a religion (Quirke; 1992). The Kemetic religion served those two functions so well that it was a binding force for the entire community.

Western intellectual discourse has targeted the Kemetic civilization as the “Other.” Critics of KMT often accuse the society of operating on both sides of an argument. They are said to be excessively symbolic and suffer from childish literalism (Hare; 1999). The contradiction of this statement should point to the absurdity of the argument but somehow the intellectuals close their minds to their own thoughts. The Bible and the state documents of classical Greece and Rome are two pillars of European tradition, which do not speak kindly of KMT. KMT is the oppressor in the Bible and a land of mysterious barbarians in state documents of both these countries. The fact that all the Greek philosophers were taught in KMT does not alleviate the negativity heaped on KMT. Socrates was made to commit suicide on the threat of being killed because he taught young Greek men the Kemetic principles too forcefully (Hamilton and Cairns; 1961). Plato toned it down some so they let him live and prosper.

There is evidence that surgery and contraceptives were used throughout the entire history of KMT (Edwin Smith, Ebers, and Ramesseum papyri). John Nunn, the author of the book Ancient Egyptian Medicine, commits the same intellectual double fault as earlier western intellectuals. On page 112 concerning the use of magic he writes, “With relatively few effective drugs and operations available it would be wrong to underestimate the curative value of suggestion and expectation of cure which must have accompanied the use of magic.” On page 131 of the same book he writes, “There can be little doubt that the medical papyri fulfilled a role no less important than that of medical texts today. Many were in a format which simply listed remedies for named diseases and these clearly intended for reference because the drugs available to the people of KMT were far too numerous to remember.” First there are few effective drugs then there are far too many to remember. Throughout his book Dr. Nunn is more sympathetic than most Egyptologists but it is difficult for someone with a Western European education to fully understand that which they ignore. He is a medical doctor so he understands many of techniques Kemetic healers used but he insists on judging them from the perspective of European medical practices. He criticizes healers in KMT for only performing surgery when treating trauma cases. This is not the practice of European culture. Our highest most well paid class of doctors are those who specialize in performing surgeries. They are trained to skillfully remove any part of the body that is malfunctioning. Our doctors will let bad medical conditions grow for years until it is life threatening and surgery is necessary. Many surgeons will cut out your body parts if you simply don’t feel comfortable. Prior to the late 1970’s tonsillectomies were done for this reason. Doctors felt the tonsils did not have a function. We now know tonsils are a vital part of the human immune system. Look at all the plastic surgeries and silicon injections being done just for the hell of it. Who’s fooling who?

Many wholistic medical techniques used in KMT are classified as attempts at magic when nothing could be further from the truth. Priests and magicians in addition to doctors practiced medicine in KMT. The wholistic medical concepts that the healers of KMT practiced were a precursor to the type of medicine practiced by Asian doctors throughout history. The use of acupuncture, massage, meditation, the prescription of various herbal remedies, and the manipulation of a person’s chi or life force are staples of Asian medical practice as it was in KMT. According to our present day interpretations of Kemetic medical teachings they didn’t know that the brain was the center of thought. This makes the Kemetic doctors seem stupid to our scholars. Western scholars are overly proud of the rational mental processes to the extent that we teach the brain is superior because it is the center of thought. There is evidence that the Greeks knew the brain was the center of comprehension in the Hippocratic corpus (430-330 BC). Keep in mind that the Greeks learned all they knew from KMT. The people of KMT knew the brain enabled us to think, see, and hear. Those things were not the focus of life for them. They knew the physical things we think, see, and hear are the very things that keep humans distracted from the communicating on the frequencies quantum physics only recently informed us are the basis of reality. They felt the heart was the center of life. Most Egyptologists and western scholars have long ridiculed this but now we know the heart is the strongest organ in the body. It is capable of generating more bio-electric energy than a 120 volt battery and over 25,000 Btu’s of body heat (Matrix; 1999). Scientific studies show that the human body clearly has a vibrating bio-electric field measurable with EEG, EMG, and EKG machines (China Healthways Institute; 1999). The magnetic field of the heart extends throughout the body and has been measured to be one hundred times stronger than that of the brain. In 1991 the magnetic field of the hands of Chinese chi gong healers was measured at 1 milligauss. This is 1,000 times stronger than the magnetic field generated by the heart. Throughout the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus the physician is instructed to put his hands on the body of the patient near the perceived problem. It is entirely possible that the physicians were not just feeling for soft tissues and broken bones as is implied by the translator of the text (Breasted; 1930). It is more likely that Kemetic physicians felt the energy meridians of the body to manipulate and influence biological functions.

One of the most universal and significant cosmogonies or creation myths known in KMT has the Neter Atum creating the original nine Neteru from his own being. These nine original Neteru or Gods became known as the Ennead. The details of the myths have Atum accumulating material for this creation by either masturbating or spitting into his hands (Barnett; 1996). This seems so sexual and nasty to us today that scholars and laypeople alike discount the whole story as a fairy tale. If this creation story is considered a metaphor it can be understood as the source of two important scientific hypotheses of modern times (James; 1992):

1. The Sun is the parent of the planets in our solar system
2. There are nine major planets

In the video “The Metaphysics of the Bible Pt. 1 Phil Valentine states, “The christian concept of jesus(god) giving up his life to redeem us all is a perversion of the scientific theory of the Sun generating the planets in this solar system by giving up part of its life.”(The christian church switched the Sun to Son.) Remember Europeans believed that the Earth was the center of the universe until Copernicus proved otherwise. European scientists did not discover the ninth planet Pluto until the early 20^th century. The Atum creation myth was known in KMT 3,000 years B.C.E.

In Wayne Chandler’s book “Ancient Future he tells us of the Second Hermetic Axiom of Tehuti: “As Above, So Below; As Below, So Above.” To this I will add “As Within, So Without; As Without, so Within.” What we know to be true in the outer levels of life must also be true in the inner levels of life. In the Book of Coming Forth by Day (Egyptian Book of the Dead) the priests of KMT taught that the human soul is composed of nine inseparable parts:

1. The KA: An abstract personality of the person to whom it belongs possessing the form and attributes of a person with the powers of locomotion, omnipresence, and the ability to receive nourishment like a human. It is the equivalent to eidolon (image).
2. The KHAT: The concrete personality of the physical body. That which is mortal.
3. The BA: Our heart-soul that dwells in the KA and sometimes alongside it in order to supply it with air and food. It has the power of metamorphosis and changes its form at will.
4. The AB: Our heart, the animal life in people. The source of our rational, spiritual, and ethical nature and is associated with the BA. In the judgement scene of the Book of Coming Forth by Day it undergoes examination in the presence of Osiris.
5. The KHABIT: Our shadow. Associated with and receives nourishment from the BA. It has the power of locomotion and omnipresence.
6. The KHU: Our immortal spiritual soul. It is an ethereal being closely associated with the BA.
7. The SAHU: Our spiritual body and location of the KHU. All the mental and spiritual attributes of the natural body are united with our own eternal nature to create new powers in the SAHU.
8. The SEKHEM: The spiritual personification of the vital force of in humans. Its dwelling place is in the heavens with the spirits or KHU.
9. The REN: Our name or the essential attribute for the preservation of a Being. The Kemetic people believed that in the absence of a name an individual ceased to exist.(James; 1992)

The concept of Number 9, The REN, is interesting because we all believe this today but don’t acknowledge it as deeply as we should. This concept one keeping the names of our ancestors alive is one of the things that drives the popularity of both school and family reunions. Remember the lyrics of the song Fame? “I’m gonna live forever, you’re gonna remember my name. Speaks to the same issue doesn’t it?) Afrikans in general have been criticized for practicing ancestor worship but everywhere you go in the western world you find buildings, streets, holidays (holy-days), schools, products, children, companies, and more named after their dead ancestors. Damn near every college and church is named after a dead white person or person who supported white causes. There is nothing wrong with them doing this. It’s their money and their stuff so they can name it after whomever they please. It’s the height of hypocrisy and totally wrong to accuse other people of being a heathen who practices ancestor worship when they practice ancestor worship constantly and will beat you up if you disagree with them.

While laughing at things they did not understand the European world closed their eyes and minds to some very important truths about life and existence. There have been European scholars who knew the truth about KMT. It suits their purpose not to tell the masses about the lies and half-truths that have circulated for thousands of years. Will the general public ever find out the true nature of Kemetic civilization? The answer has to be a resounding no. There are many obstacles on the path. This culture does not honor the scholar or scholarly endeavors. The search for riches and money are the driving forces in our society and there is much profit to be made believing in lies and half-truths. Knowing the truth about KMT can assist you on the journey through life. It can help you in the afterlife too.

Atiba King

Bibliography

E.A. Wallis Budge; From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, 1988 Dover Pub. New York

E.A. Wallis Budge; Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, 1973 Dover Pub. New York

Malidoma Some’; Of Water and the Spirit, 1997 Penguin Books. New York

Credo Mutwa, Song of the Stars, 1996. Barrytown Ltd. Barrytown, NY

Isha Mali, African Powers Unveiled (video), 1999. Detroit, Mich.

Serge Sauneron, Priests of Ancient Egypt, 2000 Cornell University. Ithaca, NY

Charles Finch, Star of Deep Beginnings, 1998 Khenti Inc. Decatur, GA

Muata Ashby, The Ausarian Resurrection, 1997 Cruzian Mystic Books. Miami, Fla.

Hamilton and Cairns, The Collected Works of Plato, 1961 Bollingen Foundation Princeton

John Nunn, Ancient Egyptian Medicine, 1996 Univ. of Oklahoma Press. Norman, OK

James Breasted, Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, 1930 Univ. of Chicago. Chicago. Ill

The Matrix, the movie, 1999 Warner Bros. California

China Healthways Institute, 1999 San Clemente, California

Mary Barnett, Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt, 1996 Smithmark Pub. NY

George G.M. James, Stolen Legacy, 1992 Africa World Press. Trenton, NJ

Stephen Quirke, Ancient Egyptian Religion, 1995 Dover Pub. NY

Tom Hare, ReMembering Osiris, 1999 Stanford, California

From the book: The Ruins of Empires

There a people, now forgotten, discovered, while others were yet barbarians, the elements of the arts and sciences. A race of men now rejected from society for their sable skin and frizzled hair, founded on the study of the laws of nature, those civil and religious systems which still govern the universe.
French scholar C. F. Volney (1789 C.E.)

A very old image of the Hor Em Akhet before the sand was removed from it’s Paws.

What does this quote really mean? This quote written by a white man in reference to African people and their descendants. He in the times in which we were being chained, enslaved, raped,lynched, sold and the likes was able to see the power, beauty, and civility of our culture and ancient and contemporary ways of life. He was able to see what a lot of our young brothers and sisters don’t get to see today. That we have a history that goes so far back into antiquity it baffles the modern mind which is why our former colonial masters seek to alter our story. Through understanding who and what we are we will then innerstand that our African culture and spiritual paradigm is the key to the freedom we seek. That is keeping in mind like Queen Mother Iyanla Van Sant said “Freedom must be a mind state, before it can become a physical condition.” Our ancestors call to us all day every day seeking communion spiritually with their descendants who have forgotten them. We have also forgotten the burden we carry as people of African Descent. The gratitude we owe the those who made it through a journey and hellish life that takes the same power attributed to Jesus who walked through the valley of the shadow of death. That was what slavery, sharecropping  and Jim Crow/Apartheid was for our people a valley of death. We have forgotten the burden we carry as surviving descendants of the worst holocaust and largest forced human migration in human history.

Every other people that have suffered know the importance of NEVER FORGETTING what has happened to them in order that their descendants never allow history to repeat itself. Volney was able to see that our ways of life were based on much more than faith but on science which is nothing but the confirmation of spiritual teaching. Science for ancient Nile Valley people (who had one of the first civilizations on Earth) was meant to confirm the existence of and the power of the (NTR) Deity and our Ancestors. By validating on metaphysical levels, esoteric and scientific levels what we know to be true about ancestors and the deities of our Ancestors. That they were living both in us (in our genes) and in the universe (Ntr/Nature). The texts our ancestors wrote like the Pyramid Texts, The Book of Coming Forth By day & Night etc were not only meant to help the deceased to traverse the the Dwat (The World of the Dead) they were also shamanistic texts documenting the experiences of the Pharaoh and priests in ritual and their journeys to the Dwat while in higher states of consciousness while still living. (See the Book: Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts by Jeremy Nadler) These texts and others are living texts and meant for the living as well as the deceased.

We have tried every other form of religion that was forced on us from the times of slavery (Judaism, Xtianity and Islam) and were taught to fear and or hate all things African in the process. That fear and hatred of ourselves and lack of knowledge about who we are are the invisible handcuffs that bind our minds and souls today. Until we reunite with our culture and with each other all things we seek as a people will not come to pass and that includes true liberation.

By Khalif “Ras” Williams

All faith is FALSE, all faith is TRUE
TRUTH is the shattered mirrors strewn
In myriad bits; while each BELIEVES
his LITTLE BIT the whole to own

(From: “The Kasidah of Haji Abu el-Yezdi”; as translated by Sir Richard F. Burton)

“Mental bondage is invisible violence. Formal physical slavery has ended in the
United States. Mental slavery continues to this present day. This
slavery affects the minds of all people and, in one way, it is worse
than physical slavery alone. That is, the person who is in mental
bondage will be SELF CONTAINED, Not only will that person fail to
challenge beliefs and patterns of thought which control them, they will
defend and protect those beliefs and patterns of thought virtually with
their last dying effort.” – Dr Ben

“African-Americans have not yet learned that no other people have continued worshiping
another’s God, especially their slave master’s god or gods and freed
themselves from cultural and physical genocide. why should Africans and
African-Americans be the only exception to this historic reality.” – Dr Ben

Pan African News Wire: Fatwa of Cairo gathering on looted artefacts

By Tajudeen Sowol
Nigerian Guardian

COLLECTIVE attempt made last month – perhaps for the first time – by countries demanding for restitution of disputed cultural objects is though laudable. However, it is an uphill task and capable of rattling existing conventions on the issue.

The two-day conference tagged International Cooperation for the Protection and Repatriation of Cultural Heritage and held in Cairo, Egypt came eight years after keepers of these artefacts gathered under the name, Bizot Group and declared a concept of universal museum. The ownership of such works, Bizot argued in France, should not be confined to geographical boundaries.

During the Cairo event organized by the country’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), the Secretary General of the host, Dr. Zahi Hawass urged participants to brace up for a near impossible mission. He said: “We need to co-operate, we need a unification between our countries. Every country is fighting alone; every country suffered alone, especially Egypt”.

As he declared that, “we will battle together,” he also sounded a note of warning that “maybe we will not succeed in a lifetime, but we have to open the subject.”

Sources said about 25 countries were represented at the event. Some of these countries are Nigeria, Greece, Bolivia, Italy, China, India, Peru, Libya, Syria and Mexico.

Even though it is not yet known if there was another declaration of the Bizot Group after the Inaugural gathering, the last meeting in Chicago, last year, showed that the group is growing in numerical strength. From 20 members in 2002 – currently under the leadership of its chairman, British Museum President, Neil MecGregor – about 60, sources said, attended the Chicago event.

With a clique such as Bizot, made up of directors of some of the strongest museums of the world, it’s just a matter of time before International Council of Museums (ICOM) is rendered irrelevant. Named after its founder Irene Bizot – former head of Reunion des Musees Nationaux, France’s – the group had stated: “Declaration on the Importance and Value of Universal Museums: We should, however, recognize that objects acquired in earlier times must be viewed in the light of different sensitivities and values, reflective of that earlier era. The objects and monumental works that were installed decades and even centuries ago in museums throughout Europe and America were acquired under conditions that are not comparable with current ones.”

However, Hawass and his new group hinged the hope of success of their mission on possible review of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on cultural and religious objects.

Even though the documents, comprehensively prevents and protects illegal movements of cultural and other related objects, it has no retroactive value; not binding on issues that are pre-ratification of the convention. It therefore, covertly, protects the Bizot Group and other keepers of these disputed objects.

In fact Bizot concurred with UNESCO when it emphasised: “Over time, objects so acquired-whether by purchase, gift, or partage have become part of the museums that have cared for them, and by extension part of the heritage of the nations which house them. Today, we are especially sensitive to the subject of a work’s original context, but we should not lose sight of the fact that museums too provide a valid and valuable context for objects that were long ago displaced from their original source.”

This position was taken when Greece demanded for the Parthenon Marble, currently housed in British Museum.

In Cairo, each participant country, sources explained, presented a wish list of artefacts for restitution. For Nigeria, works on this list are: Benin bronzes, including the ivory hip mask of Queen-Mother Idia, currently in the British Museum, U.K., Ethnology Museum, Berlin, Germany and other Western museums. The country also added the famous Ife head, Ori Olokun (even though its current keepers are not known).

Aside the UNESCO, a world governing body such as ICOM is also indifferent to retrospective issues on illegal acquisition by members. In fact, the body builds its ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums, 2006 on existing international conventions; an apparent silence on objects illegally acquired before ratifications of these coventions.

While Hawass’s group is after an outright return of the objects to their countries of origin, someone has what could be described as interim measures. During the lecture section of Peju Layiwola’s art exhibition Benin 1897.com: Art and the Restitution Question, the guest speaker, Prof. Folarin Shyllon, preferred a bilateral benefit of these objects. In his paper, Towards a Strategy for Curbing Illicit Trafficking and the Return of Cultural Property – which dwelled on the richness of Nigeria’s antiquities as well as past and recent developments by other African countries on restitution issue – he made some recommendations.

Shyllon stated: “Nigeria should commence bilateral negotiations with the governments of the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany.” This he explained, should involve discussion for the “establishment of a branch of the British Museum in Nigeria so that the Benin Bronzes can be viewed on Nigerian soil.” Similarly, Germany should be engaged to have a branch of their museum in Nigeria, Shyllon said.

And just in case the gathering in Egypt could lead to something positive in future, preparation of individual countries would determine the level of success or even failure. Some countries, according to information from that event, are not actually prepared for restitution. Nigeria appeared to be one of such countries. The Director General, National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), Mallam Yusuf Abdallah, who represented Nigeria at the conference said the gathering urged members to take adequate inventory of artefacts stolen from each country and where they are located. On his return, Abdallah lamented that in the case of Nigeria, it was difficult to know the number of objects taken out of the country. More importantly, keepers of most lost works of Nigerian origin are also unknown.

Also when it comes to protecting the objects back home, either from illegal excavation or acquisition from museums, the NCMM keeps coming under criticism for not doing enough. Before the Egypt event, Abdallah argued that, “not a single loss has been recorded from the national collections of the NCMM in the last ten years.” Noting that, indeed there are “unauthorized excavations and movement of ancient works of arts at various discreet and private locations within the country,” the NCMM, he explained, finds it “very difficult to ascertain because these objects don’t pass through the commission’s legitimate official channels.” And as those involved in illicit excavating appear to be evading several security measures, including NCMM, awareness, he assured, is ongoing, particularly at the borders and overseas.

In the last one year, Egypt’s, SCA, under the leadership of Hawass has recorded quite some success in return of its stolen artifacts. It is hoped that, as the initiator of this historic gathering, Egypt will bring her recent success bear on this laudable attempt.
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Distributed By: THE PAN-AFRICAN RESEARCH & DOCUMENTATION PROJECT–
E MAIL:

GIZA’S CAVE UNDERWORLD
SEALED SHUT

EGYPT’S CHIEF EGYPTOLOGIST CLOSES THE ENTRANCE TO THE CAVERNOUS REALM EXISTING BENEATH THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZA

The new gate on the Tomb of the Birds (NC2) at Giza. Inside is the entrance to Giza’s cave underworld (pic credit: Larry Hunter, 2010)

Cairo: The entrance to Egypt’s cave underworld has been sealed shut just two years after its modern day discovery. Access to the tomb leading to these natural caverns, located beneath the famous Pyramids of Giza, is now blocked by a metal gate set in concrete.

The move follows recent work to clear the interior of the tomb known as NC2 or the “Tomb of the Birds”, and located in the plateau’s north cliff.

This came in the wake of revelations in the press last summer that British explorer and writer Andrew Collins had in March 2008 located a previously unknown opening into a natural cave system long thought to exist at Giza, but never before explored in modern times.

The excavations inside the tomb – coordinated by Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities – uncovered a series of subterranean rooms and galleries thought to have been used in the past as a necropolis for the interment of bird mummies.

Despite these recent discoveries, Dr Hawass has publicly denied that any natural cave system extends from the tomb, stating that what exists beneath the ground are catacombs carved by human hands, something that Mr Collins disagrees with strongly.

“We have dozens of clear photos, along with film footage, that make it clear that extending from the Tomb of the Birds is an extensive series of cave passages that almost certainly reach beneath the main pyramid field,” Collins said.

“These caverns are natural, and must not be confused with the subterranean galleries entered by Dr Hawass and his team, which are accessed elsewhere in the same tomb.”

Collins backs up his claims by producing radar satellite imagery that shows geological faulting coinciding precisely with the position and orientation of the caves explored so far. This faulting is seen to extend hundreds of meters from the position of the tomb to beneath the plateau’s Second Pyramid, the site of the fabled Cave-tomb of Hermes according to ancient Arab sources.

Collins’s evidence is supported by the memoirs of British explorer Henry Salt who in 1817 records how he gained access to the same cave system, and explored them for a distance of “several hundred yards” before coming up four spacious chambers, from which went various labyrinthine passages.

With the sealing of the entrance to the tomb, any hope of further exploration in the caves now becomes impossible.

“It is sad that we won’t be able to continue our investigations in the caves,” Collins admitted. “Now only Dr Hawass’s promised report on his clearance of the tomb can throw any further light on the caves, and their possible usage during an age even before the building of the pyramids some 4,500 years ago.”

For more information on the rediscovery of Giza’s cave underworld, see Andrew Collins’s book Beneath the Pyramids (4th Dimension Press, Virginia Beach, VA, 2009).

THE SEALING OF THE TOMB OF THE BIRDS -ITS GREATER IMPLICATIONS AND THOUGHTS FOR THE FUTURE OF CAVE RESEARCH AT GIZA

A Report by Andrew Collins

The above press statement was released on April 4th, 2010. The matter was brought to my attention recently by correspondent Larry Hunter. He gained access to Giza’s north cliff, where the Tomb of the Birds is situated, on March 5th, and took a series of revealing photos. The entrance to the tomb has been sealed in concrete with the gate in position, preventing any access to the sepulchre, where Dr Hawass’ team had for several months been busy removing tonnes of debris both from the tomb and its underground galleries. Indeed, planks and excavation equipment still litter the floor, even though it is now sealed. Whether or not this is a permanent fixture remains to be seen, for attached to the gate is a new lock, still in its plastic bag, that might well be fitted in time. Yet to do this, the concrete casing around the gate would have to be first removed.

A close up of the gate now in place at the entrance to the Tomb of the Birds (NC 2) at Giza.
Note the lock in the plastic bag. (Pic credit: Larry Hunter, 2010).

In addition to the gate on tomb NC 2 (north cliff No. 2), i.e. the Tomb of the Birds, a similar gate has been placed on tomb NC1, located further along the cliff in the direction of the Great Pyramid, while a further gate was in March 2010 about to be put on a much smaller tomb, designed NC3, located a few hundred metres west of the Tomb of the Birds. It seems that the Supreme Council of Antiquities want to ensure that no one disturbs any of these tombs in the plateau’s north cliff, which are all barely recorded in Egyptological terms.

Double Edged Sword

The sealing of the Tomb of the Birds is a double edged sword. On the one hand it preserves the caves’ delicate eco system, which includes a colony of bats, along with species of spiders and other types of large bugs, and protects for future generations any untouched archaeology the caves might contain. This includes fragments of mummies, and possibly even the last vestiges of primitive rock art. Certainly this was the conclusion of Richard Gabriel and his partner Judith, who would now seem to have been the only people to have explored the caves other than us. They went there in late 2009, and took a fabulous series of still images that are to be seen on Richard’s site richardgabriel.info.

On the other hand, the sealing of the caves now means that we are unable to continue our own investigations on site. I had hoped to return there, perhaps in the company of a geologist, who might have been able to throw better light on the nature of the caverns. However, this now seems impossible.

What Lies Beyond the Stone Tube?

Whether or not the caves do reach the Second Pyramid, as the radar satellite imagery suggests, might now never be known. During our own explorations we came to a halt in a compartment beyond which was a narrow horizontal tube that appeared to connect with an even deeper section of the caves. Yet due to the stressful circumstances that had brought us to this moment, and the fact that my wife Sue had clearly heard something moving about beyond the tube, we had decided against venturing further. Strangely, Richard Gabriel and his partner Judith also came to a halt at this same spot, and decided that it was not the right time to press on without suitable preparation (he had seen and photographed various dangerous looking spiders, some arguably the size of camel spiders).

Which Bird Cult?

The future of the caves, and our knowledge regarding their past usage, is now in the hands of Dr Zahi Hawass. His people cleared the Tomb of the Birds and uncovered the entrances to lower galleries that would seem to have last been explored by Col. Richard Howard Vyse and his engineer friend, John Shae Perring, in 1837. We know that they came across evidence of the interment of bird mummies, and so it is hoped that Dr Hawass’s team might be able to shed further light on this subject. Identifying what type of birds were interred might well provide some clue as to how the ancient Egyptians viewed the entrance to Giza’s cave world. My money would be on the birds being either ibises, indicative of the cult of Thoth (the Greek Hermes), or falcons, suggestive of the cult of Horus or more intriguingly that of Sokar, the guardian of the Memphite necropolis in its role as the Fifth Hour of the duat-underworld as portrayed in the Am-duat funerary text. Other bird types might include the vulture, indicative of the cult of Mut; the goose, the totem of the earth-god Geb, the eagle, examples of which were found recently in a new tomb discovered at Saqqara, or even the crane, which might hint at a very archaic cult indeed.

My own intuition tells me that the key influence connected with the caves will always have some link to serpents, an obvious symbol of Geb and also of the goddess Hathor, a female patron of the Giza pyramid field during the dynastic period. This seems borne out by the snake simulacrum caught on camera inside the caves by Richard Gabriel (click here to see), and the fact that local folklore states that el-kahf, “the caves”, are thought to be the haunt of a great serpent called el-Hanash. Serpents were guardians of the underworld in ancient Egyptian tradition, since they were so intimately associated with holes in the ground.

Snake simulacrum caught on camera by Richard Gabriel deep inside the Giza cave complex in late 2009. Did simulacra like this influence the nature of anyritual activity that might have taken place in the cave underworld during some distant epoch? (Pic credit: Richard Gabriel, 2009)

A Clue to the Dogon

Beyond this is my belief that to truly understand the influences anciently venerated inside the caves, we must look towards the animistic and totemic cults and ancestral myths of central Africa, like those that survive today in parts of the Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya. It might even be important to look further a field to tribal peoples such as the Dogon of Mali, whose ancestors might easily have had contact via the sub-Sahara with the prehistoric races of the Nile Valley. As writer Laird Scratton persuasively demonstrates in his book The Science of the Dogon, there are tantalising links between the Dogon and ancient Egyptian creation myths, particularly those of Heliopolis and Hermopolis. Robert Bauval’s upcoming book Black Genesis might also provide new clues regarding the African origins of ancient Egyptian religion.

Interestingly, the Bandagari Hills of Mali, where the Dogon live today, has produced evidence of the oldest pottery ever to be found in Africa. Dating back 12,400 years, it rivals even the earliest known pottery discovered in the Near East, the accepted cradle of civilization. Thus it is quite clear that advanced peoples existed in central and western Africa even before this age, offering the prospect that their beliefs might well have reached the Nile valley prior to the foundation of dynastic Egypt sometime around 3100 BC.

West Africa Magazine