The Sky is Falling
         Today we live in an Age of Science in which Precession is regarded as just another phenomenon. No great deal is attached to it. However when the remote Ancient Egyptians first recognized the effects of Precession more than sixteen thousand years ago it would have caused a crisis situation. (See Part 5)

         The visible effect of Precession for the remote Ancient Egyptians was that their Celestial Sphinx was gradually slipping southwards. Their Celestial Sphinx, Hu, was falling out of the sky! Over the centuries, it was gradually shifting its position southwards in the night sky to a point where it would begin to disappear below the horizon at Giza forever.

          It would seem to the remote Ancient Egyptians that their Dreamtime, their explanation of Creation built around the Celestial Sphinx, was coming to an end … that their world was coming to an end. By 13750 BCE (using the Gregorian Calendar) their worst fears would be realized; the Celestial Sphinx would no longer be visible in its entirety from Giza.

         In celebration of their Dreamtime, the remote Ancient Egyptians exactly reproduced their Celestial Sphinx, Hu, at Giza in readiness for the July 3rd and 4th 14000 BCE Festival. (See Part 2) Prophetically the Fall of Hu heralded the decline of the remote Ancient Egyptians and their entry into the Dark Ages. During this time only the intellectual elite would have been allowed to be initiated into, and share, a secret of such magnitude … The Secret of Precession.

         Evidence that the Secret of Precession was indeed shared by an intellectual elite down through the millennia is to be found on the Nermer Plate almost 10,000 years later.

The Nermer Plate
         The Nermer Plate, which is a ceremonial palette, is also referred to as the Narmer or Narma Plate. It was discovered in 1897/98 by a British archaeologist, J.E. Quibell, at, or near the very Ancient Walled Capital of Egypt, Hierakonpolis: usually referred to as "City of the Hawk".
         I have also translated Hierakonpolis as "City of the Sun", since the Hawk represents the Sun in Ancient Egypt. However the nearest translation of the name is attained by breaking down the word into its three components: "Hier" meaning "Sacred", "akon" meaning "glory", and "polis" meaning "city' … "City of Sacred Glory". Clearly the "Sacred Glory" referred to is the Sun in the guise of a hawk.
         The area of human habitation around Hierakonpolis dates back tens of thousands of years to the Lower Palaeolithic Period. There is an unbroken chain of habitation through to Dynastic Egypt.
         The Nermer Plate was named after the hieroglyph of the catfish and the chisel, which is recorded three times upon it. The catfish translates as "Ner" and the chisel as "Mer". Until now scholars have deciphered and misinterpreted the Nermer Plate in terms of its scenes commemorating the Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt and its accompanying battle in c3200BCE.
         Jean-Francois Champollion, who is renowned for having deciphered the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing using the Rosetta Stone as his reference, dated the Unification to 5867BCE. However this date was not acceptable to Egyptian Scholars as it contradicted the accepted "fact" that Sumer, the Land of the Two Rivers, was the First Civilization. In reality Sumer could not possibly have been settled before 5000BCE because it was still under the waters of the Persian Gulf! However the decision was made that the Nermer Plate must be dated to 3200BCE because that date was acceptable to Egyptian Scholars.

          Far from commemorating the Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt and its accompanying battle in c3200BCE … the Nermer Plate is a sky chart commemorating the Dawn of the Age of Taurus in the Precession of the Equinoxes!
         This astronomical event occurred on September 21st 4468BCE … when the Autumn Equinox of the Sun was in conjunction with the Milky Way. This conjunction initialized the movement of the Sun out of the Age of Gemini and into the Age of Taurus.
         As the Nermer Plate celebrates the Dawn of the Age of Taurus in 4468BCE, it is reasonable to suggest that the Plate itself also dates back to 4468BCE. It defies logic to suggest that it dates back to 3200BCE.