Re: Atlantean Mythology

[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Doug Weller) writes: 
 
> I'm familiar with Nabta Playa, and there is no henge there.  Nor any
> evidence that Middle Kingdom Egyptians knew anything about neolithic
> astronomy.

I would like to know your definition of a henge, since the structures at 
Nabta Playa include a stone circle used to mark the summer solstice.

Also, while there were apparently no cities per se in neolithic Europe, 
the remains of megalithic ceremonial centers indicate the organized 
efforts of some thousands of people.  Gatherings at ceremonial centers 
may have looked like a pretty good approximation of a city to a stone age 
traveller.

While the monuments at Nabta Playa are minuscule compared to European 
structures, the similarity is striking.

>From http://www.comp-archaeology.org/WendorfSAA98.html

"The role of Nabta as a regional ceremonial center is also indicated by a 
north-south alignment of nine large (average, 3 x 2 x 0.5 m) quartzitic 
sandstone slabs set upright about 100 m apart, and partially imbedded in 
playa sediments near the gathering area along the northwest margin of the 
seasonal lake. The blocks were unshaped, and many of them are now broken; 
however, they can be refitted. Outcrops of similar sandstone occur in the 
vicinity, some less than a kilometer from the alignment. The alignment 
cannot be dated precisely, but it is probably Late Neolithic in age, and 
if so it was erected between 7500 and 5500 years ago. It is similar to 
the large stone alignments found in Western Europe, where they are dated 
to the late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, about the same age as the 
Nabta alignment. There are other alignments known farther south in both 
East and West Africa, but they are thought to date much later, to the 
Iron Age.

"About 300 m beyond the north end of the Nabta alignment is a "calendar 
circle" consisting of a series of small sandstone slabs arranged in a 
circle about 4 m in diameter. Among the ring of stones are four pairs of 
larger stones, each pair set close together and separated by a narrow 
space, or gate. The gates on two of these pairs align generally north-
south; the gates on the other two pairs form a line at 700 east of north, 
which aligns with the calculated position of sunrise at the summer 
solstice 6000 years ago. In the center of the circle are six upright 
slabs arranged in two lines , whose astronomical function, if any, is not 
evident. Charcoal from one of the numerous hearths around the "calendar" 
dated around 6800 years ago (6000 bp +- 60 years, CAMS - 17287). "

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