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The origins of ancient Egypt are shrouded in mystery. Their culture and religious writings seemed to spring up overnight, which has long puzzled archaeologists. New findings are changing their view of the development of human society in north Africa. They have found an ancient civilization which predates the civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. A civilization which was until very recently, entirely unknown.
The evidence has gradually been uncovered over the past fifty years. This culture once spanned the northern Sahara region of Africa, concentrated in the central area. It was widespread and highly developed. Few people have heard of it – but findings are indicating that this central Saharan people may have been a source of origin for at least part of the culture, rituals and deities of the ancient Egyptians.
There is an abundance of rock art found all over the central Sahara from Libya to Egypt to Mali. The rock art depicts elephants, crocodiles, dogs, hippos and rhinos - animals who do not live in the desert. Scenes of hunting and rituals are shown, with men wearing animal masks. There are representations in rock art of dog-headed human figures which resemble Anubis, and a type of stamped pottery decoration later found in the southern Nile valley.
This ancient art provided clues to the activity this region once enjoyed. It piqued the curiosity of archaeologists, who eventually came to dig.
The society was nomadic. It consisted of groups of animal herders who traveled all over the region. They appear to have had a culture that was uniform throughout north Africa. Even though their culture reached its peak 6,000 years ago, these people have left behind evidence which indicates a fairly complex world view.
A complete mummy has been found from this culture that is 5,500 years old, dating to about 3500 BCE which pre-dates the earliest known comparable findings in ancient Egypt. It is the body of a small boy, whose remains were preserved through a very sophisticated technique which could only have been accomplished as the result of a long tradition of mummification. The body was found in the central Sahara in a place called Uan Muhuggiag. This discovery challenges the previously held position of the ancient Egyptians as the first in north Africa to mummify their dead. A sophisticated art of mummification was not practiced in ancient Egypt until the time of the Old Kingdom, 2686- 2134 BCE. [...]
The Goddess Neith is believed to have originated with the Libyan/Berber people of North Africa. In the pre-dynastic period of Egyptian history, She is represented as a Goddess of war and the hunt. There is a famous inscription which reads Neith of Tjehenoe (“N.t Thnw,”) at the 5th dynasty sun temple of Niusserre. Tjehenoe was a name used by ancient Egyptians for Libya.She arose in the north western area of the Delta. Her sacred city of Sais is located in Nome 5, in the northern delta area of Lower Egypt. The Egyptologist Wm. Flinders Petrie pointed out that in the pre-dynastic era, there was an area called Nome 3, located in the western delta region which was referred to as Libya by the Greeks. Sometime in the New Kingdom it was named Ament. This clarifies the statement made by the Egyptian priests to Solon when they were relating their history of Atlantis and said that the lost continent was even larger than their “Nome Three named Libya.”
Neith may correspond to a Goddess whose people, the Phoenicians, were originally of Berber ancestry, the Goddess Tanit of Carthage. The name “Ta-Nit” in ancient Egyptian translates as “Land of Neith.” The associations of Neith with Tanit have been well documented. However, there is another Goddess of the Libyan Berbers, who also shares many interesting attributes with Neith. She is the Goddess Ngame of the Akan of Ghana. [..]
quote:Originally posted by Mazigh: The origins of ancient Egypt are shrouded in mystery. Their culture and religious writings seemed to spring up overnight, which has long puzzled archaeologists. New findings are changing their view of the development of human society in north Africa. They have found an ancient civilization which predates the civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. A civilization which was until very recently, entirely unknown.
Any article about Egypt that begins with such a statement is nonsense to begin with and I cannot even start considering trying to take it seriously. Egypt originated in Africa, which is as self evident, obvious and clear as it gets. Bows and arrows have been used by Africans for tens of thousands of years. Females and males used such instruments during that history and the idea of a woman goddess with bows and arrows is nothing unique and special, considering you can find such things all over Africa. Only if you have a retarded view of Egypt as separate from Africa do you see convoluted argument about how "mysterious" it is for a woman to be shown with bows and arrows in Africa or for such a concept to have originated in Africa. That is inherently a reflection of the nonsense distortion of African history, as you have plenty of rock art all over Africa showing women with bows and arrows. The huntress and defender of the throne, the womb and protector.
Neith is only but one of the many archer goddesses of Egypt, with one of the earliest being Satet:
quote: Satet (Setet, Sathit, Satit, Sati, Setis, Satis) was the archer-goddess of the Nile cataracts, her name linking her to Setet Island (Sehel Island) and the area around it. She was also a fertility goddess, due to her aspect as a water goddess and a goddess of the inundation, and a goddess who purified the dead with her water. She was a goddess of the hunt who protected Egypt and the pharaoh with her bow and arrows.
Depicted as a woman, Satet was often shown wearing the crown of the south - Upper Egypt - and a pair of long antelope horns. She was originally worshiped as an antelope goddess. She was sometimes shown carrying a bow and arrows. More often she was shown carrying a sceptre and the ankh symbol.
As a goddess of the hunt, she was also believed to be a protector of Egypt and of the pharaoh. It was her arrows that protected the southern border, keeping the enemies at bay. Yet she was more closely linked to water than to the bow and arrow. There may be a connection between water and the bow and arrows she sometimes was shown to wield:
A Broken Image of Satet, from her Temple on Setet Island (Sehel Island)The name probably means 'to pour out' or 'to scatter abroad', so that it might signify a goddess who wielded the powers of rain. She carries in her hands a bow and arrows, as did Neith, typical of the rain or thunderbolt.
-- Egypt, Myths and Legends, Lewis Spence
Originally, Satet's name was written with the hieroglyph for a shoulder knot (st) and was replaced with a sign of a cow's skin pierced by an arrow (st). This was probably in relation to her function as a goddess of the hunt, giving her the name 'She who Shoots'. The sign was not only used for 'to shoot', but with water related words as well meaning 'to pour'. Satet could also mean 'She who Pours', a link with her guardianship over the Nile cataracts.
It is very much possible that Neith had a relation ship to the populations of the ancient Sahara, as it has already been shown that the dessication of the Sahara led to a migration of some of these people to the Nile Valley. Of course ancient rock art from the Sahara shows many women carrying bows and arrows. But these aren't simply Berbers, they are Saharan Africans.
Note the following passage, which shows the overt similarities between Neith and Satet, both of which state origins in Upper Egypt, along the Nile (inner Africa):
quote: As the mother of Ra, the Egyptians believed her to be connected with the god of the watery primeval void, Nun. (Her name might have also been linked to a word for water - nt ntwater determinative - thus providing the connection between the goddess and the primeval waters.) Because the sun god arose from the primeval waters, and with Nit being these waters, she was thought to be the mother of the sun, and mother of the gods. She was called 'Nit, the Cow Who Gave Birth to Ra' as one of her titles. The evil serpent Apep, enemy of Ra, was believed to have been created when Nit spat into the waters of Nun, her spittle turning into the giant snake. As a creatrix, though, her name was written using the hieroglyph of an ejaculating phallus - phallus determinative - a strong link to the male creative force a hint as to her part in the creation of the universe.
According to the Iunyt (Esna) cosmology the goddess emerged from the primeval waters to create the world. She then followed the flow of the Nile northward to found Zau in company with the subsequently venerated lates-fish. There are much earlier references to Nit's association with the primordial flood-waters and to her demiurge: Amenhotep II (Dynasty XVIII) in one inscription is the pharaoh 'whose being Nit moulded'; the papyrus (Dynasty XX) giving the account of the struggle between Horus and Set mentions Nit 'who illuminated the first face' and in the sixth century BC the goddess is said to have invented birth.
-- A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, George Hart
One must remember that all of these dieties reflect an Egyptian cosmology which has the Nile as its central focus, which flows from SOUTH to NORTH and the primeval mound represents the mound of creation IN AFRICA, normally symbolized by the Islands in and around Upper and points south, like Elephantine and so forth.
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"The origins of ancient Egypt are shrouded in mystery. Their culture and religious writings seemed to spring up overnight, which has long puzzled archaeologists..."
This article must be outdated or something because all archaeological evidence since the late 60s and especially in the 90s clearly showed the development of ancient Egyptian culture along the Nile Valley and such a culture being continuous with 'Nubian' culture in the south, as well as being continuous with cultures in the Sahara.
And Doug is also correct about women of Africa bearing weapons for hunting or war since times immemorial.
Welcome back by the way, Mazigh, unfortunately you still pursue this silly idea of not only Egypt being seperate from black Africa but Berbers as well.
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Hello everybody, I begin my reply with an answer to "abdulkarem3": I'm a Riffian (Berber from north Morocco).
To the ropic: I was happy with the article i cited in this topic. Not because of its introduction. But, because i was glad that someone (who is starting from another point of few) is sharing my opinion.
To Doug M: I dindn't realy understand your goal with the discussion on "Bows and Arrows", although i suggest your using your reply to reanswer some threads that are discussed elsewere. Because the correlation between the Berbers and Neith was not based on "Bows and Arrows". Did i misunderstand you?
I don't also agree with your attack against the introduction. Egypt is undoubtless geographically African. But some "writers/historians" have some doubts on its cultural source. Wether that it is an intellegent of a silly thought/doubt, it stays a valid point to be referred to. My second comment, is considering the auther as an adapter such "silly thoughts". No, the author seemed to be african minded. He attributed Neith to a Saharan origin: From Berbers to Mali. My third comment is on the logical speech: "It can be saharan, but the saharans aren't simply Berbers". It is true that the saharans aren't simply Berbers. But, that is not evident to our topic. The author is speaking on the saharan Berbers. So, in that sense, the saharans are Berbers. Like the Semits are Arabs when speaking on Hubal.
And thanks to Djehuti for welcoming me back! My point on the Egyptians, Berber and black being seperated would not be understood as denying of relationships but a non-common point. The Egyptians and Berbers would be related to the blacks like the Nubians, but to all the blacks like south Africans. While it stays valid that the Egyptians would have common points with white people like Semits, but not to all the whites like Germans. This idea is based of liguistic data. The spread the afro-asian folks/people is independent form the color-based and geographical data.
Thanks for the replies to all!
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My point was that the origins of Egyptian culture are no mystery. Egyptian culture originated in Africa. The idea of a female hunter/defender with bows and arrows is nothing new in Africa and goes back tens of thousands of years. Such a concept could have come from anywhere in Africa.
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Neit was a goddess of the Libyan people; but her worsip was firmly implanted by them in Egypt. She was a goddess of hunting and weaving, the two arts of a nomadic people. Her emblem was a distaff with two crossed arrows, and her name was written with a figure of a weaver's shutle. She was adored in the first dynasty, when the name Merneit, 'loved by Neith" occurs, and her preisthood was one of the most usual in the pyramid period. She was almost lost to sight during some thousands of years, but she became the state goddess of the twenty-sixth dynasty, when the Libyans set up their capital in her city of Sais. In later times he again disappears from customary religions.
Religion of Ancient Egypt W. M. Flinders Petrie
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There is more than one warrior/huntress/fertility goddess from ancient predynastic Egypt. Satis and Anuket are two of them.
I am not saying that Neith has no relationship to deities that may have been worshipped elsewhere in North Africa. However, what I am saying that Egyptian cosmology, as it grew over time, used the same basic 'trinity' of proto-deities over and over in various forms. The identity of a woman with fertility, the Nile, bows arrows and hunting can be seen in the deities Anuket and Satis. These deities started out in Upper Egypt. In fact, some Egyptian texts even state clearly that Neith emerged from the primordial mound (inner Africa) and flowed up the Nile and became established in the Delta. Elephantine Island was one of the symbols of the sacred mound of creation, which really was only a representation of Inner Africa. The delta could have been considered to be symbolic of the vagina, as it is a triangular patch of very fertile soil connected to the Nile, the birth canal, which is connected to the primeval mound of creation.
There were way too many peoples and cultures all over the Nile Valley and the Sahara that had women using bows and arrows to limit the origin of the idea of a warrior goddess in Egypt to just the people of extreme Northern Africa. That is ridiculous.
Within Egyptian cosmology, these female deities associated with the Nile are symbolic of the Nile being considered the birth canal. These deities are also associated with reptiles as reptiles were considered some of the most ancient forms of life to emerge and bask on the primordial mound. The fact that human embryos look no different to crocodile embryos shows the fact of the ancient ancestral relationship of the two species. This association of women with the Nile symbolizing the flow of life and child birth eventually became merged with Isis and later the constellation Virgo. Also, as she was associated with weaving because the word Nit was the same as the name of the goddess, one could say this is the basis of the word Knit.
quote: Generally depicted as a woman, Nit was shown either wearing her emblem - either a shield crossed with two arrows, or a weaving shuttle - or the Red Crown of Lower Egypt. Nit was probably linked with the crown of Lower Egypt due to the similarities between her name, and the name of the crown - nt ntred crown on a basket determinative. Similarly, her name was linked to the root of the word for 'weave' - ntt ntt (which is also the root for the word 'being'). She was also often shown carrying a bow and arrows, linking her to hunting and warfare, or a sceptre and sceptre and the ankh sign of life. She was also shown in the form of a cow, though this was very rare.
In late dynastic times there is no doubt that Nit was regarded as nothing but a form of Hathor, but at an earlier period she was certainly a personification of a form of the great, inert, primeval watery mass out of which sprang the sun god Ra...
-- The Gods of the Egyptians, E. A. Wallis Budge
Statue of the Goddess Nit As the mother of Ra, the Egyptians believed her to be connected with the god of the watery primeval void, Nun. (Her name might have also been linked to a word for water - nt ntwater determinative - thus providing the connection between the goddess and the primeval waters.) Because the sun god arose from the primeval waters, and with Nit being these waters, she was thought to be the mother of the sun, and mother of the gods. She was called 'Nit, the Cow Who Gave Birth to Ra' as one of her titles. The evil serpent Apep, enemy of Ra, was believed to have been created when Nit spat into the waters of Nun, her spittle turning into the giant snake. As a creatrix, though, her name was written using the hieroglyph of an ejaculating phallus - phallus determinative - a strong link to the male creative force a hint as to her part in the creation of the universe.
According to the Iunyt (Esna) cosmology the goddess emerged from the primeval waters to create the world. She then followed the flow of the Nile northward to found Zau in company with the subsequently venerated lates-fish. There are much earlier references to Nit's association with the primordial flood-waters and to her demiurge: Amenhotep II (Dynasty XVIII) in one inscription is the pharaoh 'whose being Nit moulded'; the papyrus (Dynasty XX) giving the account of the struggle between Horus and Set mentions Nit 'who illuminated the first face' and in the sixth century BC the goddess is said to have invented birth.
-- A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, George Hart
There is confusion as to the Emblem of Nit - originally it was of a shield and two crossed arrows. This was her symbol from the earliest times, and she was no doubt a goddess of hunting and war since predynastic times. The symbol of her town, Zau, used this emblem from early times, and was used in the name of the nome of which her city was the capital. The earliest use of this Emblem was used in the name of queen Nithotep, 'Nit is Pleased', who seems to have been the wife of Aha "Fighter" Menes of the 1st Dynasty. Another early dynastic queen, Mernit, 'Beloved of Nit', served as regent around the time of king Den.
Her most ancient symbol is the shield with crossed arrows, which occurs in the early dynastic period... This warlike emblem is reflected in her titles 'Mistress of the Bow... Ruler of Arrows'.
-- A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, George Hart
Nit from the Tomb of NefertariThe later form of the Emblem is what some people believe to be a weaving shuttle. It is possible that the symbols were confused by the Egyptians themselves, and so she became a goddess of weaving and other domestic arts. It was claimed, in one version of her tale, that she created the world by weaving it with her shuttle.
She was linked to with a number of goddesses including Isis, Bast, Wadjet, Nekhbet, Mut and Sekhmet. As a cow, she was linked to both Nut and Hathor. She was also linked to Tatet, the goddess who dressed the dead, and was thus linked to preservation of the dead. This was probably due to being a weaver goddess - she was believed to make the bandages for the deceased.
She might have also been linked to Anubis and Wepwawet (Upuaut), because one of her earliest titles was also 'Opener of the Ways'. She was also one of the four goddesses - herself, Isis, Nephthys and Serqet - who watched over the deceased as well as each goddess protecting one of the four sons of Horus. Nit watched over the east side of the sarcophagus and looked after the jackal-headed Duamutef who guarded the stomach of the dead. Also, during the earliest times, weapons were placed around the grave to protect the dead, and so her nature of a warrior-goddess might have been a direct link to her becoming a mortuary goddess.
Her son, other than the sun god Ra, was believed to be Sobek, the crocodile god. She was regarded as his mother from early times - the two were mentioned as mother and son in the pyramid of Unas - and one of her titles was 'Nurse of Crocodiles'. She was also regarded, during the Old Kingdom, as the wife of Set, though by later times this relationship was dropped and she became the wife of Sobek instead. In Upper Egypt she was married to the inundation god, Khnum, instead.
Nit, Wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt "Give the office of Osiris to his son Horus! Do not go on committing these great wrongs, which are not in place, or I will get angry and the sky will topple to the ground. But also tell the Lord of All, the Bull who lives in Iunu (On, Heliopolis), to double Set's property. Give him Anat and Astarte, your two daughters, and put Horus in the place of his father."
-- Nit Addressing the Gods, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, RT Rundle Clark
By Greek times there was a great annual festival in honour of Isis-Nit. Part of the festival, recorded by Herodotus, said that the people lit their houses with lamps and torches that were fuelled by oil mixed with salt. The lamps and torches were kept burning until the morning, while the people themselves feasted.
Also keep in mind that bows and arrows were the mainstay of the early dynasties of Upper Egypt and that the first Nome of Egypt was called Ta-Seti "Land of the Bow".
Also note that some of the earliest occurrences of the Name were in associated with the early kings of the first dynasty, from Upper Egypt.
quote: These names to us are not more than names indicating that once there was a woman behind it. Nothing of their personal life or belongings, except for Merneith, has come down to us, an no knowledge is availabe of how they lived, how their station i life was carried out, how many children they had or how long they lived. In most cases not even their tombs are left. Yet we know that they were of some importance as wifes to kings and rather likely they were also mothers to kings. Already at this early period, the bloodline was important to show the right to heritage of the kingship and descent on the female side was what counted. The naming of the Royal Mothers have helped to throw some light over the first dynasties though when it comes to individual lifes we are left to speculations, perhaps with the background knowledge from later periods of woman and her conditions in ancient Egypt.
1st Dynasty:
Nithotep (Neithotep) This is the name of the wife of King Aha or Narmer. Once a lady of importance - perhaps the first queen of a united Egypt to ever have come down through history. The name Nithotep is spelled in various ways: NeithHotep, N-th-t-p, Nithetep - all of them indicating Nit as the aim of the devotions.
Her tomb, originally thought to belong to the mythical Menes, but later acknowledged as belonging to the mother of Aha, was found at Naqada. There has been some speculations if she was from Lower Egypt, as indicated by the name, Nit being a deity from there, and married Narmer for political reasons. Nothing has been found to support this theory. As she most likely buried at Naqada, it might be that she originated from there and that Narmer married her to secure an alliance with this important location in Upper Egypt.
Khenthap All we know of this lady is that on the Cairo Annals Stone*, she is said to be the mother of Djer.
Bener-ib The form of the name Bener-ib is somewhat uncertain but a fragment of ivory from a box links her with King Aha, the first king of the 1st Dynasty, c 3100 BC. That is all we know about her.
Herneith Herneith stands out a little due to her immense tomb at Saqqara, which show some special architectural features. Also, differing from other royal and noble burials at this period, there were no sacrificial burials alongside of her. Only her dog was found lying across the threshold. It was of the same breed which later in history followed kings and leaders of Egypt. Herneith is believed to have been the wife of King Djer, c3000 BC.
Naktneith Nakhtneith is only known form a stela from the funerary complex of Djer at Umm-el-Qaab.
quote:Originally posted by Mazigh: Neit was a goddess of the Libyan people; but her worsip was firmly implanted by them in Egypt. She was a goddess of hunting and weaving, the two arts of a nomadic people. Her emblem was a distaff with two crossed arrows, and her name was written with a figure of a weaver's shutle. She was adored in the first dynasty, when the name Merneit, 'loved by Neith" occurs, and her preisthood was one of the most usual in the pyramid period. She was almost lost to sight during some thousands of years, but she became the state goddess of the twenty-sixth dynasty, when the Libyans set up their capital in her city of Sais. In later times he again disappears from customary religions.
Religion of Ancient Egypt W. M. Flinders Petrie
These citations from old works of Petrie seem to be nothing more than mere assumptions. Where is the actual evidence that Neith or any Delta Egyptian figure or people are Libyan or rather Berber speaking in origin??
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Thanks Doug M, and sorry at the same time. Please give the point of the citation.
Djehuti, i think the Egyptians and the Libyans has decided in her origin. Neith called as "Neith of Tehenu" is something strong. The growth of the of Isis worship during the rule of the Libyan/Berber period is not less strong. The existence of Berber goddess called "TNT" (Tanit or Tinnit..) is a valid argument. That Herodotus and other Greek authors spoken about a "Libyan Neith" is not to be ignored. Our Greek scholar (although not of Greek race) said that the Greek goddess "Athena" was no one other than the Libyan goddess "Neith". So, Libya was a center of goddess called "Neith" by the Greeks, Tanit by the Carthagians and Nit by the Egyptians. Herodotus said that the Libyans offer animals (sheeps) to the Libyan goddess Athena/Neith. He (and other like Plato, maybe) tells us that the Libyan goddess "Neith" was born in the lake Tritonis, is enough for the exact origin of that goddess. Wallis Budge has already said it is of Libyan origin, too.
If Flinders Petrie who was awarded as the father of modern archeology doesn't produce more than a "mere assumptions", then let us stop with any assumption.
If those are not sufficiant, i do wonder what others could be said or thought.
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^ I am unaware of Neith being associated with Tehenu, if that is even true. The only goddess associated with Tehenu is Amentet.
Also Aset (Isis) definitely did not originate from Libya but from the south in Dendera among the proto-Egyptian Anu.
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I didn't speak about the origin of the Isis. I said that Neith is related by the Egyptians to the Tjehenu. I don' know were that is based on, but she seems to have been named somewhere as "Neith Tehenu".
Horus was also related to the Tehenu.
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^ As I recall the cult of Heru (Horus) also originated in the south either in southern Upper Egypt or Nubia. What evidence suggest Heru was Tjehenu? By the way, you are aware that the Tjehenu in physical appearance were not different from the Egyptians and were a black people.
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Mazigh never dwelt on colour? You brought that up and he responded "The Egyptians and Berbers would be related to the blacks like the Nubians . . . . This idea is based of liguistic data ... independent form the color-based ... data."
So why are you bringing up colour again?
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