A GREAT COMET AND CEREMONIAL SITE DEVELOPMENT AT NABTA PLAYA

Abstract

Modern scientific tools and methods are playing an increasing role in illuminating key
aspects of past activities of humans on Earth. Such approaches complement the more
usual archaeological methods. Excavations at Nabta Playa, in the Western Desert of
southern Egypt, have yielded evidence of regularly arrayed buildings in the Neolithic
period, tumuli for cattle, hearths for animal sacrifices and megaliths aligned in a plurality
of directions (Malville et al., 1998; Malville et al., 2008; Wendorf et al., 1993; Kobusiewicz
and Schild, 2005). The area became habitable when monsoon rains collected in a large ba-
sin 11,000-4800 years ago (Wendorf et al., 1993). The structure and location of a stone cir-
cle there (Malville et al., 1998; Malville et al., 2008) associates the Sun (Malville et al.,
1998), the celestial pole (Malville et al., 1998) and the Bull’s Thigh constellation (Ursa Ma-
jor) (Haynie, 2014). Aligned megaliths radiate outward from a central complex, apparent-
ly having targeted the brightest heavenly bodies, based on comparisons of megalith co-
ordinates and star positions (Malville et al., 2008; Haynie, 2014). If Nabta Playa had a uni-
fied design, the megaliths were positioned c. 4300 BC, but the southernmost alignment to
the northeast did not point at a notable star (Haynie, 2014). The unified design hypothesis
is consistent with a combination of celestial and terrestrial targeting. Here, a consensus
megalithic alignment date is shown to coincide with a computed apparition of a great
comet. Ritualistic activities at Nabta Playa may have sought to align key “inhabitants” of
the heavenly and earthly realms.