“Lifting a table rock from one of the pits” Photo credit: Romuald Schild
aligned to Ursa Majoris
(a yellow dwarf star
approximately 46 lightyears away from Earth
in the constellation of
Ursa Major), between
6,700 and 6,000 years
ago.
The enigma of the
table rocks
Another significant
feature of Nabta Playa
is the series of small
megalithic stone complexes that had been
built on top of table
rocks. Table rocks
are large mushroomshaped rocks that are
naturally formed by
erosion. Over thousands of years, they
became buried by several metres of clay and
silt, so one question
that has mystified scientists since their discovery is, how did the
people of Nabta Playa
find them? There would
have been no visible
trace of the rocks at
that time. One suggestion is that they
were discovered by
accident during digging
for wells, but it would
seem to be somewhat
of a coincidence for so
many table rocks to
11
have been located in
this way.
Once located, the people of Nabta Playa further shaped the table
rocks to have convex
sides and one straight
edge that faced north.
They then placed another large shaped stone
placed horizontally on
top of the table rock,
which some believe
had been sculpted to