Nabta Playa: The Stone Circle That May Have Kept a Survival Calendar
About 7,000 years ago, seasonal rains formed shallow lakes at Nabta Playa, where people herded animals, raised stones, and buried their dead. The stone circle may have helped them track the rainy season, coordinate movement, and give calendar keepers authority to interpret the cycle.
Read in Vietnamese →About 7,000 years ago, seasonal rain formed shallow lakes at Nabta Playa in southwestern Egypt. Hunters and herders returned with their livestock. They dug wells, raised stones, and buried their dead. Today, a small stone circle is among the clearest remains in this dry landscape. Why would a community that depended on water place stones along directions that could track the Sun?
Nabta Playa lies near the Egypt-Sudan border, in a region once known as the Green Sahara. Archaeological teams led by Fred Wendorf and Romuald Schild recorded hearths, pottery, animal bones, wells, graves, and several groups of stones. The traces show that people returned across many seasons. They altered structures and left evidence of an organized way of life.
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