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On a cloudless morning in northern Sudan, the first rays of the sun cast a glow on Jebel Barkal, a small tabletop mountain perched near the Nile River. Jebel Barkal rises barely 320 feet above the surrounding desert but is distinguished by one prominent feature: a pinnacle jutting out fr..."
On a cloudless morning in northern Sudan, the first rays of the sun cast a glow on Jebel Barkal, a small tabletop mountain perched near the Nile River. Jebel Barkal rises barely 320 feet above the surrounding desert but is distinguished by one prominent feature: a pinnacle jutting out from its southwestern cliff face.If your imagination is keen enough, the isolated butte might resemble a crown or an altar, and the pinnacle an unfinished colossal statue—perhaps arearing serpent, its body poised to strike.Striding toward an excavation near the base of the pinnacle, archaeologist Tim Kendall pauses momentarily to admire what he calls the "little mountain with big secrets." Thousands of years ago, Jebel Barkal and Napata, the town that grew up around it, served as the spiritual center of ancient Nubia, one of Africa's earliest civilizations.
The mountain was also considered a holy site by neighboring Egypt, whose pharaohs plundered and tyrannized Nubia for 400 years.
But in the eighth century
B.C., Nubia turned the tables on its former colonizers.
Its armies
marched 700 miles north from Jebel Barkal to Thebes, the spiritual
capital of Egypt. There the Nubian king Piye became the first of a
succession of five "black pharaohs" who ruled Egypt for six decades
with the blessing ofthe Egyptian priesthood. What happened? asks
Kendall. How did the Nubians, overrun by Egypt for centuries, crush
their colonizers? And why did the priests of Thebes decide the black
pharaohs had a mandate from heaven? Kendall has been searching for
those answers for 20 years. They can be revealed, he believes, by
cracking a code of geomorphological symbols at Jebel Barkal and by
parsing hieroglyphic texts that refer to the mountain as Dju-wa'ab, or
"Pure Mountain." "I feel as if I'm deciphering a mythological puzzle,"
Kendall says. "It's a real mystery story."
Kendall is convinced that
the physical form of Jebel Barkal is a clue. His research suggests that
when Egypt's warrior-pharaoh Thutmose I set out to conquer the far
reaches of Nubia in 1500 B.C., priests accompanying the armies took one
look at Jebel Barkal and its pinnacle and believedthey......
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Archaeologists have found a vast new network of royal tombs in Ethiopia, near the site where the 1,700-year-old Axum obelisk is to be re-erected. Experts using sophisticated imaging equipment discovered the burial chambers, even older than the obelisk, under a 1963 car park, said the UN. The stone monoliths were originally erected to mark burial sites for deceased members of the aristocracy. The final piece of the Axum obelisk was flown homefrom Italy on Monday. The whole structur...Early humans 'followed coast'
The first humans who left Africa to populate the world headed south along the coast of the Indian Ocean, Science magazine reports. Scientists had always thought the exodus from Africa around 70,000 years ago took place along a northern route into Europe and Asia. But according to a genetic study, early modern humans followed the beach, possibly lured by a seafood diet. They quickly reached Australia but took much longer to settle in Europe. Dr Martin Richards, of the University of...Stone age mass graves reveal green Sahara
Submitted by Marvy: One of the driest deserts in the world, the Saharan Tenere Desert, hosted at least two flourishing lakeside populations during the Stone Age, a discovery of the largest graveyard from the era reveals. The archaeological site in Niger, called Gobero, was discovered by Paul Sereno at the University of Chicago, during a dinosaur-hunting expedition. It had been used as a burial site by two very different populations during the millennia when the Sahara was lush. Careful examinati...The African foundations of New York
The remains of 20,000 African men, women and children have lain beneath the busy streets of New York for 300 years, waiting to tell their stories on the extent of slavery in the city. In March 1992, leading African-America archaeologist Michael Blakey arrived at the burial ground in downtown Manhattan. "I had readabout these people documented as chattel, " he said. "Now I was going to learn about these Africans in New York as human beings." A haunting sight greeted hi...Witchcraft legalised in Zimbabwe
News coming out of Zimbabwe has been surreal for quite some time, but from this month it could become even more so, as witchcraft and wizardry are legal again after a 107-year ban. But if President Robert Mugabe's new legislation is applied humanely then only good witches will find any solace in it, as the act prohibits the practice of witchcraft by people who use their supernatural powers to harm others.The 1899 prohibition which made it illegal to accuse anyone of being a witch or a wizard...The Mysteries of the Dogan People
By Ramon Thomas
From an interview with Credo Mutwa : Zulu Shaman, World renown traditional healer, Zulu
Sangoma and High Sanusi
In many western countries, when an old person dies it is simply the death of
an old human being who has gone through life and whose days on earth now come to
an end. But in Africa, the death of an elder- an old man or an old woman,
becomes a supreme disaster because in the mind of that elder often carries
knowledge passed down from parent to child. Knowl...The Memories of a Distant Star (Sirius)
The Dogan people of west of Africa
have a detailed knowledge of the universe that is astonishingly accurate. was it
as they claim, passed on by Ancient astronauts? Like many African tribes, the
Dogon people of the Republic of Mali have a shadowed past. They settled on the
Bandiagara Plateau, where they now live, some time between the 13th and 16th
centuries. For most of the year, their homeland - 300 miles (500 km) south of
Timbuktu - is a desolate, arid, rocky terrain of cliffs an...Comparison of Four African Creation Myths
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Ancient tombs found near obelisk
Early humans 'followed coast'
Stone age mass graves reveal green Sahara
The African foundations of New York
Witchcraft legalised in Zimbabwe
The Mysteries of the Dogan People
Humans, Reptilians and The Origins of the Gods
The Memories of a Distant Star (Sirius)
Comparison of Four African Creation Myths
Secrets of Great Zimbabwe
