Great review of Prehistory Decoded by Timothy Williams
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Pillar 43 - the Horus Stone? Left: Pillar 43 from Gobekli Tepe (courtesy of Alistair Coombs). Right: wine? jar recovered from the Scorpion King's grave, Cemetery U-j, Abydos, by Gunther Dreyer (Director of the German Archaeological Institute in Egypt), image from Wikipedia. I discuss the Scorpion King in 'Prehistory Decoded' as I quickly trace the pre-history of Ancient Egypt back to its supposed origins around 6000 BC - just after the 8.2 kiloyear event. He is thought to be involved, somehow, in the unification of Egypt, circa 3200 BC. But it is not clear whether there actually was any king named Scorpion, or what role he played in Egypt's history, or exactly when he lived. Evidence for his existence is mainly interpreted from inscriptions on a variety of recovered objects that involve a falcon, or Horus, symbol above a scorpion symbol. In Egyptian hieroglyphics the Horus (falcon) symbol often precedes the name of a king, or pharaoh, which is why this
The sky-twin myth The sky-twin myth is conventionally accepted as one of the core parts of Indo-European mythology. It tells of twins, or brothers, one of whom is murdered or sacrificed while the other founds a new civilisation. In the context of comet-inspired mythology, it likely relates to a pair of comets in similar orbits, of which one crashes into Earth (dies), thereby resetting civilisation, while the other continues. Plato tells us about this cycle of cosmic catastrophes, by relating the story told to his ancestor, Solon, by an Egyptian Priest. It agrees well with Clube and Napier’s theory of coherent catastrophism, based on the Taurid meteor stream (which links this myth to bull-worship), and the latest science - the Younger Dryas impact for example. The reconstructed proto-Indo-European version tells how Manu and Yemo travel the sky with a giant cow. Yemo (or sometimes the cow) is sacrificed and Manu founds a new civilisation. Sometimes a battle with a cosmic chaos
Origin of the Egyptian Gods (Image from Wikipedia) There's a nice article here about the origin of the Ancient Egyptian gods by Caroline Seawright, an archaeology student. It dovetails nicely with what I say in 'Prehistory Decoded'. The only thing I would change is the reason predynastic Egyptians from different regions of Egypt chose their specific animal 'guardians', or patrons. Caroline repeats the orthodox view that the animals chosen either had agricultural value or were fierce or dangerous in some way. Again, while there might be some truth to this, the deeper reason is probably that they were the zodiacal signs used by each specific community, representing either a solstice or equinox. The Ancient Egyptians were, after all, very keen on astronomy, and as I show in 'Prehistory Decoded', this tradition likeky goes back many tens of thousands of years in Europe. One (of many) piece of evidence to support this idea are the Cippus of Horus