The Great Pyramid Secret: Egypt's Amazing Lost Mystery Science Returns
Egyptologists generally hold that the ancient Egyptians invented a game that is in most respects like modern baseball. Ancient Egyptian scenes show a bat-and-ball game similar to the way baseball is played in America today. One ancient 'NBA scene' is shown at the Temple of Deir-el-Bahari, in southern Egypt. Pharaoh Thutmose III is shown holding a stick-like bat in one hand and a ball in the other. It's hard to think that he's not preparing to hit that ball.
Ancient Egyptian temple scenes feature pitchers, catchers, and outfielders. Their bases, ball, gloves, stick-like bats, and their hits and catching game would all be recognized by today's NBA champions. But Pharaoh's 'NBA champion team' was more violent in their game – and all were men of the linen cloth. They were priests, and the 'ancient NBA' form of the game was part of the solar religion -- like just about everything else in ancient Egypt.
Despite a wealth of interpretations, historians have not found enough solid information to determine the origins of either modern baseball or its similar ancient counterpart. The ancient ball game may have been an outgrowth of the Heb-Sed ritual, wherein the reigning pharaoh played out his role as the living Sun god. In that ritual, the pharaoh had to run around a court. His run represented the path of the Sun God through the houses of the zodiac. An early Heb-Sed ritual was recorded at Egypt's very first pyramid, built for Pharaoh Zoser over 4,500 years ago.
The Heb-Sed was traditionally held at the site of an obelisk. Religious custom held that the primordial form of the Sun God alighted on the tip of the obelisk in his form as the Benu bird, which the later Greeks called the Phoenix. In ancient Egyptian religious belief, the Benu / Pheonix let out a cry from atop the obelisk at the beginning of time. His call set the heavens turning and animated all things. Every Heb-Sed ritual game re-enacted that original, primordial moment.
Faithful carryovers from remotely ancient Egypt are not unheard of. Architects who have studied in Egypt are familiar with the way the 5th century Monastery of St. Jeremias, located near Zoser's Pyramid, imitates the Heb-Sed Court in Zoser's pyramid complex.
Egyptologists are familiar with the stories in ancient Egyptian literature that have come down to us as 'The Little Slipper' or 'Story of Cinderella.' In one ancient Egyptian version known from the Eighteenth Dynasty, a princess loses a lock of her perfumed hair when she goes down to the sea. Her hair is grabbed by the sea and swept to Egypt, where its scent finds its way into Pharaoh's clothing being washed in the Nile. The Pharaoh becomes so bewitched by its scent that he is compelled to search the foreign lands until he finds his future princess-wife.
In another version, the sandal of a princess is grabbed by an eagle who steals it away. The bird takes it directly to the Pharaoh and deposits it. The Pharaoh is enamored and sends his men throughout the land to find the woman who wore the sandal. When she is found, she is brought to Pharaoh's palace where he marries her. This story is preserved in connection with a princess in the royal family members for whom the Third Pyramid complex at Giza was built 4,500 years ago.
These ancient Cinderella tales were originally stories of the goddess Isis. Ancient Egyptian religious custom held that Isis was embodied on Earth as every Egyptian Queen or First Princess (the Queen heir apparent). So, the Isis tales were told of princesses. The Isis cult much later spread from Egypt to Rome, where it was popular in the early Roman Empire. From Rome it spread to Europe by way of Roman sailors devoted to the Isis cult. Over time, the sacred connotations of the stories were lost as the Isis religion slowly faded into oblivion. The old stories were reduced to folk lore and then to fairy tales.
Almost every ancient king, pharaoh and emperor was believed to be the living embodiment of the Sun God. It did not seem to matter that many of these 'Phoenix Suns' were alive at the same time. Sun worship dominated the nations of antiquity, and their governments were considered the earthly counterpart of the kingdom of heaven – with the Sun Kings on their earthly thrones. We do not know how this multiplicity of solar kings all alive at once worked politically. But much rivalry may have been eliminated by the sheer hardship of travel and the distance between nations.
England, France, Libya and Spain are all places that were engulfed by the Roman Empire. All of these countries are interpreted by baseball historians as places where an early form of baseball was played.
Many Egyptological puzzles loom despite long and diligent study by many erudite scholars who have come and gone since the beginning of Egyptology. Some of these puzzles can only be resolved as hard science plays a larger role in Egyptology. How did the ancient Egyptians make hard stone vases that today's skilled stonemasons cannot replicate with the best modern tools? How did the ancient Egyptians ingeniously perform feats that seem impossible by today's engineering standards? These questions, at least, are resolved in a new book from Scribal Arts.
Scribal Arts Announces....
'The Great Pyramid Secret: Egypt's Amazing Lost Mystery Science Returns'
With unique research contributions from MIT, Drexel University, the NASA-funded Space Technology Center of the University of Kansas, and others.
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