... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 130: JUL-AUG 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects There are More Pyramids in Sudan than All of Egypt The kingdom of Cush (or Kush) flourished south of Egypt along the Nile from the Eighth Century B.C . to the Fourth Century A.D . Here the rulers of Cush built some 228 pyramids, three times as many as the Pharaohs managed to pile up! We rarely hear or see anything of these strange, steeply pointed structures. They are usually less than 100 feet high and not as impressive and mysterious as those farther north beyond the Aswan Dam. The Sudanese pyramids are smaller, steeper, and more recent than those to the north in Egypt. The Cushite kingdom's passion for pyramids was probably acquired in the Eighth Century B.C ., when it actually ruled Egypt for a few years until the Assyrians pushed its armies back south in 671 B.C . With them, the Cushites took the pyramid idea, Egyptian art forms, and hieroglyphics. They liked pyramids so well that the Cushite rulers kept on building them until the kingdom's demise in 350 A.D . -- some 2,000 years after the Egyptians had abandoned this form of architecture altogether. There is nothing in the Cush pyramids that can be called anomalous. It's just so surprising to learn there are so many of them and that they are so neglected in the TV documentaries. The Cush empire did leave us one enigma: an alphabetical ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 38 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf130/sf130p01.htm
... This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Stone Alignments In Subsaharan Africa Megalithic sites are found everywhere; many were apparently used for calendar reckoning. Although numerous megalithic circles and other arrangements are known in Africa, particularly Ethiopia, astronomy does not seem to have been a primary objective of African sites. Now, however, a stone alignment in northwestern Kenya called Namoratunga has been found with unmistakable astronomical overtones. At Namoratunga, 19 large basalt pillars are arranged in rows forming a suggestive pattern. Since the site is dated at approximately 300 B.C ., archeologists have taken sightings on seven prominent stars as they would have appeared during this period. (The azimuths of some of these stars had changed by as much as 12 in 2,200 years.) The stars chosen are those employed by Eastern Cushites, the present inhabitants of the region, in calculating their rather sophisticated calendar. Pairs and frequently triads of these pillars line up very accurately (to less than 1 ) with the seven key stars. The people occupying this part of Kenya about 300 B.C ., therefore, probably possessed detailed astronomical information. (Lynch, B.M ., and Robbins, L.H .; "Namoratunga: The First Archaeoastronomical Evidence in Sub-Saharan Africa," Science, 200:766, 1978.) Comment. This astronomical sophistication is consistent with the celestial knowledge of the Dogon tribe mentioned in the controversial book: The Sirius Mystery. For more on African megalithic sites, see our Handbook: Ancient Man. Description here . Basalt pillar alignment at Namoratunga II From Science ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf004/sf004p01.htm
