Nabta and Ng'amoritung'a

Nabta and Namoratunga II are both megalithic sites in Africa, and are thought to be astronomically related. Both could also be ceremonial sites. At both sites the rocks are tilted unlike many megaliths such as Stonehenge, where the rocks are perpendicular to the ground. This information suggests that the people who built Namoratunga II could somehow be connected to the people who built Nabta thousands of years earlier.

Many differences between Nabta and Namoratunga II weaken the suggestion that the two could be connected. Nabta has been excavated and studied thoroughly, and radio carbon dated to have been built around 6000 B.C. Namoratunga II was not excavated. It was assumed to have been built around 300 B.C. because that was the radio carbon date on a related site. Nabta is reasonably well established to be astronomically related, with orientations north/south and with the summer solstice. There has been much discussion about whether Namoratunga II's astronomical alignments are correct or not, although the preponderance of evidence seems to be that it is. Nabta and Namoratunga II are also different because the Nabta calendar deals with alignments with the Sun, and Namoratunga II aligns with the stars. Nabta was a burial site. The bones of cows were found there. Namoratunga I was a burial site, but bones have not been found at Namoratunga II.

Many differences also exist in the way the two megaliths were built. Nabta consists of several sites spread out over approximately one square mile. Namoratunga has three sites spread out over a greater area. Nabta sites are circular, but Namoratunga II is more linear. The rocks themselves are also different. The rocks at Nabta are much bigger than the rocks at Namoratunga II, which are only about one meter high, or less. Nabta's rocks are unshaped, but the rocks at Namoratunga II have been shaped to have four flat sides and a slanted top. The rocks at Namoratunga II also have petroglyphs on them and the rocks at Nabta do not. Many pieces of pottery that had symbols on them were found at Nabta, but no pottery was found at Namoratunga II.

It can be theorized that the same line of people who built Nabta could have migrated south over the thousands of years that passed between the construction of the two megaliths, and built Namoratunga II. Cultural changes over the large time span could account for the diferences between the two megaliths. Not enough evidence exists to come to a conclusion.

(H. Price)

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