Before Egypt: The Maa Confederation, Africas First

Civilization

by
Dr. Clyde Winters

 Clyde Winters, 2013

This copyright is only for the text and maps. The illustrations in this book belong to those individuals and organizations
who posted this material on the World Wide Web.

Table of Contents

Page

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Maps

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Maa Confederation

25

Chapter 2: Origins of Proto-Saharan Culture

39

Chapter 3: Boating in Ancient Africa

46

Chapter 4: Animal Domestication

54

Chapter 5: Plant Domestication

71

Chapter 6: Proto-Saharan Writing

85

Chapter 7: The Religions of the Maaites

92

Chapter 8: The Expnasion of the Children of Maa

113

General References

127

List of Illustrations
Figure 1:1. Yardangs that Resemble Pyramids
Figure 1:2. The God Amon compared to a Yardang
Figure 1:3. The Nabta Religious Site
Figure 1:4. An Anu Ruler of Egypt
Chapter 1 Figure 1:1. Saharan Bowmen
Chapter 1 Figure 1:2. Bowmen with horned Headress
Chapter 1 Figure 1:3. Niger-Congo Languages
Chapter 1 Figure 1:4. African Archers
Chapter 1 Figure 1:5. Black and Red Pottery
Chapter 1 Figure 1:6. Red and Black Pottery Sherds
Figure 3:1 Maaite Chief with Horns
Figure 3:1 Saharan Boats
Figure 3:2 Saharan Boats with Sails
Figure 3:4 Saharan Boat and Horned Captain
Figure 4:1 Maaite Goat
Figure 4:2 Saharan Cattle and Maaite Cattle Herders
Figure 4:3 Mixed Saharan Cattle
Figure 4:5 Various Saharans with Horses and Chairiots
Figure 4:6 Saharan Chairioteers
Figure 6:1 Qustul Incense Burner
Figure 6:2 Thinite Pottery (Syllabic) Signs
Figure 6:3 Gebel Sheikh Suleiman Inscription
Figure 6:4 Oued Mertoutek Inscription
Figure 6:5 Comparison of Writing Systems
Figure 7:1 Ancient Saharan God
Figure 7:2 Seth and Wepwawet

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Figure 7:3 The Canine God Wepwawet

Figure 7:4 The God Seth
Figure 7:5 Seth and Wepwawet
Figure 7:6 Big Head Monument
Figure 7:7 Yardang that Resembles Amon
Figure 7:8 Kushite God Amon
Figure 7:9 Poseidon
Figure 7:10 Greek Black Pottery Vase of Poseidon
Figure 8:1 Saharan Boat
Figure 8:2 Narmar Palette
Figure 8:3 Tehenu on Amrathian Pottery
Figure 8:4 Symbols of Royalty on Qustul Incense Burner

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List of Maps

Page

Saharan Highlands

13

Early Agricultural Sites in Middle Africa

18

Fertile African Crescent

Hydralic System and Ounanian Sites

27
35

Africa 3500-2500 BC
African Plant Domestication
Kushite Civilization in 3rd Millenium BC
West African Highlands
Kushite Migrations
125

Introduction

41
73
123
124

The French scholar Desplagnes (1906) noted that the people of Middle Africa claimed they once belonged to a great
civilization called: Maa. He noted that this view of the African people met was supported by archaeological evidence
that linked ancient civilizations from Egypt and the Fezzan all the way to the Niger Valley. Professor Desplagnes (1906)
mentioned that this ancient civilization was called the Fish or Maa Confederation and it stretched across Middle Africa.
The Maa Confederation was the original homeland of the Egyptians, Mande, Sumerians , Elamites and Dravidian
speaking people. I call these people Proto-Saharans or Maaites. They worshipped Seth and Amon/Amma.
I first became interested in the Maa Confederation when I began discussions of the Proto-Saharan civilization
which existed in the Highland areas of the Sahara after 5000 BC, back in the 1980s. The first evidence of a great
civilization formerly existing in the Sahara came in 1982 when Professor Al Baz, reported on "natural" formations he
found in the Sahara, which he called yardangs, that appeared to me to be similar to the Sphinx,and pyramids[1].
In the Siwa and Farafra Oasis there are erosional formations called yardangs. Geologist believe that these are
geographical features created in the desert as a result of winds eroding rock formations.

Although Al Baz says that the yardangs are geological formations made by the wind, I believe that they may be the
earliest monuments built by the Proto-Saharans who worshipped Amma(n) and Seth.
I believe that some of these yardangs may really represent pyramid fields and other monuments built by the ProtoSaharans when these regions were fertile. This view is supported by the fact that the yardangs resemble monuments
made in later years by the Kushites to represent Amon.

In this book I will call the people of Maa: Proto-Saharan or Maaites. The Maaites originally lived in the highlands of
Middle Africa.
The Proto-Saharans were tall in stature. The people of the Maa Confederation mined jade or amazonite in Tibesti,
Uweinat and other Central Saharan massifs.
The Maaites probably represented populations associated with the Ounanian and Tenerean cultures. These
populations are associated with projectle points (arrows) and cattle domestication.
Between 7700-6200 BC hunter-fisher-gathers dominated the Sahara. Between 6200-5200 BC, extreme aridification
forced many people in the Sahara to migrant to better watered areas in Africa.
Professor Paul Soreno, of the University of Chicago found that after 5200 BC a gracile population of humans enter
the Saharan Valleys and Oasis. This population was the Proto-Saharans of the Maa Confederation who along with their
cattle dominated much of the Saharan region between 5200-2500 BC.
Maaite population centers were established along paleolakes in the Sahara. The Maaites made many ornaments, tools
(adzes, scrappers) and other artifacts from jade (amazonite) and (hippo) ivory. The numerous finds of these Maaite
tools suggests that in Maaite times the Sahara supported a region rich in minerals, flora and fauna.
The research of Dr. Fred Wendorf, has found cattle bones dating back 9.5 thousand years ago (kya).
Domesticated goats appear in the archaeological record 7kya at Nabta Playa and Dakhlel.

The early domestication of cattle by the Maaites led to the creation of cattle worship among them. A major center of
cattle worship was Nabta Playa. At Nabta Playa the Maaites around 6kya erected stone slabs to study the heavens.
They also dug underground chamber(s) where cattle worship rituals may have been performed.

The people of the Maa Confederation were not Nilo-Saharan speakers. They were probably Niger Congo speakers

who belonged to the Ounanian and Tenerean culturesthic culture. The Aqualithic culture is much , much older than
the Kushite or Egyptian cultures (Winters,2012). I believe that the original founders of the African Aqualithic were
pgymy people. Nilo-Saharans may have learned this cultural tradition from the Anu or pgymy people who may have
earlier founded Egypt and lived in the Sahara.
The Kushites are known throughout the ancient world as expert bowmen. This is highly suggestive that the
Ounanians were Kushites because the arrows (=bowmen), was charateristic of this culture. Drake (2012) wrote
The Ounanian of Northern Mali, Southern Algeria,Niger, and central Egypt at ca. 10 ka is partly defined by a
distinctive type of arrow point (37). These arrowheads are found in much of the northern Sahara (Fig. 3) and are
generally considered to have spread from Northwest Africa. This view is supported by the affinity of this industry
with the Epipalaeolithic that also appears to have colonized the Sahara from the north (41). No Ounanian points occur
in West Africa before 10 ka, suggesting the movement of a technology across the desert from north to south around
this time.
The original inhabitants of the Sahara where the Kemetic civilization originated were Sub-Saharan Africans or
Blacks not Berbers or Indo-European speakers (Winters,1994,2002,2012). These Blacks formerly lived in the highland
regions of the Fezzan and Hoggar until after 5200- 4000 BC (Winters,1994 ,2002, 2012).
As the Saharan plains: Mountains of the Moon became less arid a fertile grassland existed and the Proto-Saharans
migrated down from the Mountains of the Moon to settle around the MegaChad and MegaFezzan lakes. At
MegaFezzan the Proto-Saharans founded the Maa civilization. Around this time West Africa and the Nile Valley was
probably controlled by the Pgymies or Anu people. The Anu were the first rulers of Egypt.

By the Late Stone Age (LSA) Negroes/Africoids were well established in the Sahara. These Maaites were
members of the Saharo-Sudanese archaeological tradition.(Camps 1974) The Fezzanese and Sudanese were Maaite
sedentary pastoralists.
In this book we will refer to Sub-Saharan Africans as Negroes or Africoids. There were
many Negro groups in ancient North Africa. L.P.Fatti and Hertha de Villiers, have documented the probable spread of

Negroes from southern Africa after 110,000 B.C., into first east and then into North Africa. In North Africa Negroes
were established in the area as early as 12,000 B.C. Numerous Negro remains dating to the fifth millennium B.C. have
been discovered in the Saharan and Sahelian belts. (Salama 1981:534) These Blacks possessed domesticated cattle and
sheep/goat.(McIntosh and McIntosh 1983).
By 4400 B.C., Negroes were at Asselar in Mali. Human occupation in Mauritania along the Atlantic coast dates
earlier than 4500 B.C.(Petit Marie 1979). They were in Mali much earlier. French archaeologist have found pottery at
Ounjougou dating 9-10kya (=thousand years ago). Japanese archaeologists have found pottery and arrowheads dating
to 11kya in the same area.
Agriculture has been practiced in Nubia for thousands of years. The most ancient grasses collected in Nubia was
barley in the north and sorghum in the south. Fred Wendorf, discovered that Nubians near Tushka as early as 17000
B.C. were cultivating and harvesting barley. This is 7000 years before the so-called advent of agricultural revolution in
West Asia. (Wendorf 1983)
This is significant because common barley is found throughout the Middle East, but domesticated barley mainly
occurs in ancient Nubia, where it later spread to West Asia and India. Seven thousand B.C. is accepted as the true date
for the African neolithic in West and Northwest Africa.
J.D. Clark, has shown that intensive grass collection appeared almost as early in Ethiopia as in Nubia. Grasses
were collected in 13000 B.C. on the Northern fringes of the Ethiopian highlands (Clark 1977). In 5000 B.C. sorghums
were being cultivated in Ethiopia. Around 3000 B.C. wheat and Barley was being cultivated. (Ehret 1979) And as early
as 6000 B.C. ensete
was probably being cultivated (Ehret 1979) .
By 10,000 B.C. Nubians began to migrate out of Nubia into Asia. These Nubians were not Proto-Saharans. The
Proto-Saharans were still living in the Saharan highlands at this time. These Nubians were the Anu people.
These Anu people made their way into Palestine. In Palestine these Nubians were known as Natufians, they
established intensive grass collection here. The Natufians were Africoid. They practiced the Ibero-Maurusian tool
industry which came from north Africa, especially along the NIle (Wendorf,1968).
The Natufians were about 5ft. 3ins. with narrow heads. They correspond to the Anu people who first ruled Egypt
(Diop 1974). These folk came from Nubia where intensive grass collection originated. Christopher Ehret (1979) has
observed that "grass collection was invented first in or near the lower Nubia, perhaps in the region between the Nile
and the Red Sea, and spread from there to its present areas of occurrence"(p.163).
The Natufians fished and hunted for food. They practiced evulusion of the incisors the same as Bantu peoples and
inhabitants of the Saharan fringes. These Africoids probably were one of the Anu tribes, they also took agriculture into
Iran and Pakistan. The Anu farmers cultivated barley and wheat. For much of the LSA period the Proto-Saharans were
sedentary pastoralists in the highlands. The Anu lived in the lowlands or the Saharan plains.
The Anu invented much of the early hieroglyphic writing used in ancient Egypt. By 4000 B.C. they probably
invented the precursor to the cuneiform writing of Mesopotamia. This writing was used by the Anu to keep records of

their business ventures and knowledge. This writing was later adopted by the Sumerian and Elamite speaking ProtoSaharans when they took over the former trade centres of the Anu, after the Anu civilization was destroyed as a result
of the great flood after 4000 B.C.
The Proto-Saharans practiced a mixed agropastoral culture. Often Barbary sheep , wild ass, hyena, wild cattle and
hare are found at Saharan sites such as Ti-n-Torha and Uan Muhuggiag. These sites typify Proto-Saharan campsites.

Most Proto-Saharans lived on hillocks or slopes near water. But some Paleo-Africans or Maaites lived on the plains
which featured lakes and marshes.

Ceramics have been found in the central and eastern Sahara on up into North Africa that illuminate the expansion
of the Proto-Sahrans. These ceramics were of Sudanese inspiration and date back to the 7th Millennium B.C. This
pottery was used from Ennedi to Hoggar. The makers of this pottery were from the Sudan (Desanges 1981).
The Tadrart Accacus massif is in the Libyan Sahara or Fezzan. This is a Neolithic/Epipaleolithic area with sites
dating from 9000-3000 B.C. During much of this period the Sahara, resembled the Mediterranean in climate and
ecology.

The faunal remains from Uan Muhuggiag , a major site situated in the Wadi Teshuinat in the center of the
Accacus massif has incised motifs of the Pastoral style that evidence stock keeping. The pictorial evidence in Tadrart
Accacus suggest that Accacus, was occupied from the 7th millennia B.C. The inhabitants of the Fezzan were round
headed Negroes (Jelinek, 1985:273). The cultural characteristics of the Fezzanese were analogous to the C-Group
Culture items and people of Nubia. The C-Group people occupied the Sudan and the Fezzan regions between 37001300 B.C.(Close 1988)

The archaeological research in Tadrart Accacus illustrates the rise of Proto-Saharan culture. This research
indicates that between 9500-8500 B.C., settlers of Tadrart Accacus used simple pottery, they were hunter-gathers.
As aridity set in the inhabitants of this area became sedentary. They hunted gazelle,sheep and intensively used plant
food.
Maaite hunters quickly learned the habits of wild game:sheep and goats. As a result of this hunting experience and
the shock of the short arid period after 8500 B.C., Maaites began to domesticate cattle, and goat/sheep so as to
maintain a reliable food supply. By 6000 B.P. (Before the Present), the inhabitants of Tadrart Accacus were reliant on
pastoralism, due to the increased aridity. They herded cattle sheep and goats. By 3000 B.C., aridity forced people to
seek new settlement areas (Barich 1984:684). This decline in climate and ecology led to the migration of Maaites out
of the Saharan highlands down into the lowland areas formerly settled by the pygmy/Anu people.

The Maaites in the Fezzan were sedentary pastoralists. Although the people may have had seasonal migration
patterns their ceramic tradition and intensive exploitation of plant foods show a continuity and intensive exploitation of
plant foods.This shows a continuity of the technological and structural tradition in the Libyan Sahara, and in my
opinion do not reflect a true nomadic herder tradition characterized by historic nomadic societies.
It is interesting to note that while cattle predominate the pictorial scenes in the Libyan Sahara, the faunal remains
from Uan Muhuggiag,and El Kaduna indicate that most Proto-Saharans kept goat/sheep. (Barich 1987) Moreover, the
earliest animal engravings in the Fezzan were of rams and goats/sheep.
These early Paleo-Africans of Libya are often referred to as the Temehu, by the Egyptians (Behrens 1984:30).
Ethnically the Temehu, had the same physical features as other Black Africans. (Diop 1977, 1978, 1984,1986,1987)
These sedentary pastoral people lived in Nubia and the Fezzan.
The C-Group people began to migrate into the Nile Valley after 3300-2500 B.C. This corresponds to the extreme
advance of aridity in the Libyan Sahara. The C-Group people kept small livestock (Diop, 1987; Farid, 1985;
Winters,1986b). Members of this group founded the first African empire at Qustul in the Sudan.
The northern and southern Temehu or C-Group people had different culture-dress (Winters,1994). The southern CGroup people, later called Nehesi, by the Egyptians were characterized by the single shoulder strap attached to a high
waist band . The northern Temehu, later called Thenu, by the Egyptians wore crossed shoulder straps. The northern
Temehu also wore this strap style cloak and penis sheaths (Osing 1980).
These C-Group people were the dominant Proto-Saharan group. They had their own writing system which was
used by the Minoans: Linear A; the Harappans: Indus Valley Writing; and the Manding: Libyco-Berber script (Winters
1985b, 1994).
It is interesting to note that the founders of the 12th Dynasty of Egypt appear to have worshipped the main
Proto-Saharan god Amon. This Dynasty is credited with the introduction of syllabic writing into Egypt.
The gods of the Temehu include Amon and Neith (the terrible with her bows and arrows). Founders of the New
Kingdom were worshippers of Amon, and were probably of Proto-Saharan descent.

Descendants of the C-Group people used a common black-and-red ware which later migrated into North and West
Africa, Iran and the Indus Valley (Winters,1994). These C-Group people spoke Niger-Congo, Mande and Dravidian
languages (Winters ,1986 b, Winters, 2011, 2012). B.B. Lal (l963) of the Indian Expedition in the Campaign to Save
the Monuments of Nubia, has pointed out the similarities between the pottery used by the ancient Dravidians and the
C-Group people of Nubia, especially the Megalithic people of South India. The Dravidians of South India and Africans
are closely related (Anselin 1982; Upandhyaya 1976,1979; Ndiaye 1972, Winters 1980,1981,1981b,1985a,1985c
,1989) .
It would appear that many Maaites spoke Egyptian, Dravidian, Mande and Niger-Congo languages. During the LSA
the Proto-Saharan speakers had domesticated ovicaprids (sheep/goats) (Greenberg 1970;Winters 1986,1989b). The
Proto-Saharans utilized selected plant food including millet (Winters 1986b, 2008) Plant remains from the Eastern and
Southern Nile Valley, dating to the 2nd and 3rd millennium B.C. include millet and sorghum (Close
1988:154) . G. Camps (l974) found pollen grains of cultivated Pennisetum millet from the Hoggar at Amekni, other
millet has been found at Meniet (Mcintosh and McIntosh 1983:238).
Many researchers believe that a food crop may have been the determining factor behind the Paleo-African
dispersals (Ehret and Posnansky 1982:243) .This hypothesis has merit, but given the sedentary-pastoral tradition of the
Maaites and their slash-and-burn method of hoe cultivation, along with the climatic shift of the 3rd millennium B.C.,
suggest that a number of
variables stimulated the African Negro migration waves from the Saharan highlands onto the Saharan plains, and
thence West Africa, not just the introduction of new crops.
Cultivated millet reached India by the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C. (Winters,2008).This indicates that 3000
B.C. millet had been domesticated in the Sahel or Sahara as supported by the work of Camps(1974) in the
Sahara.Murdock, has suggested that millet , sorghum and fonio domestication took place around 4500 B.C. By the 3rd
millennium B.C. rice was being cultivated in West Africa (McIntosh and McIntosh 1979; Winters, 1986b).
It does not appear that the Niger Bend area was a centre of plant domestication in West Africa. Although, many
African groups share the same name for many domesticated crops, the Niger region was not occupied until after 500
B.C. This suggest that these Negro-African groups first domesticated these crops in the Saharan zone and took them
with them to the
Niger Delta during their colonization of the area.
The Maaites were clearly influenced by the post Paleolithic complexes of the Hoggar and the Maghrib as evidenced
by North African influences in West Africa (Andah 1981). The Proto-Saharans may have used the Western Saharan
ceramic styles.But ,except for slight variations,there was a general cohesion between Saharo-Sudanese styles (McCall
,1971:38).
Early artifacts from the Niger area support a Saharan origin for West African agriculture. The bowl designs from
the Niger Delta are analogous to pottery styles from the southern Sahara which date between 2000-500 B.C.
(McIntosh and McIntosh 1979:246).

The early inhabitants of the Niger Delta were mainly pastoralists and fishermen. It is believed that millet cultivation
was not introduced until the first millennium A.D., to the Inland Niger Delta (McIntosh and McIntosh 1979; Winters,
1986b). Due to the Sahara's ecological decline, the Upper Niger replaced the Hoggar and the Fezzan as the heartland
for many West African groups especially the Mande speakers.
The Sudan/Nubia is an old centre of agriculture in Middle Africa, as is the Fezzan region of Libya for the ProtoSaharans. In the eastern Sudan as early as 4000 B.C. millet and sorghum were cultivated ( Marks,Ali and Fattovich
1986:48; Winters2008).
One of the most ancient sites for food production in Nubia, is Es Shaheinab dating to 4000 B.C. Here riverine
people bred goats , the pack ass and sheep. They also engaged in fishing, hunting and collecting grasses (Krzyzaniak
1978).
At Kadero, also in the Sudan people were dependent on vegetable foods and cultivated summer cereals. Some
groups also began cattle rearing, which reached its height during Meroitic times. Kadero dates back to 3310 B.C.
Given the wide variety of names for goats in Nubia, there is a good chance that Nubia's first goats were
domesticated along the Nile. This goat was different from the predynastic Egyptian goats. This goat had screw horns.
The screw horn goat was common to Algeria, where it may have been deposited in Neolithic times by populations
moving eastward as the once fertile plains of the Sahara dried up due to gradual desiccation. After 4000 B.C. we see
we certainly see cattle ,sheep and goat herding spread across Middle Africa westward (Winters,1986b): Tadrart
Accacus (Camps 1969), Tassili-n-Ajjer (Aumassip 1981), Mali (Petit-Marie 1979), Niger (Roset 1983), and the Sudan
. Barker (l989), has argued that sheep and goats increased in importance over cattle because it was better adapted to
desiccation.
No carbonized seeds have been found at Kadero, but many impressed potsherds have been discovered. The
majority of impressions are of sorghum and two kinds of millet, other impressions are of wild grasses (Krzyzaniak
1978:160; Winters,1986b).
There were no indigenous wild cattle, sheep, goat and wolf in the central Sudan. By 15000 B.P. people in Kenya
had domesticated cattle. Four thousand years later cattle appear in the Sahara which was becoming more habitable. By
7000 B.C. we find domesticated goats/sheep in the Saharan zone (Ki-Zerbo 1981). Davies (l978) maintains that the
earliest domesticated stock dates from the sixth to fifth millennium B.C. During this period cattle and sheep were
existing in the Sahara and coastal north Africa (Kabusiewicz 1976) .
Animal domestication in much of the Saharan zone came in response to the decline in resources around lake and
river valleys after 6000 B.C., when the Sahara entered a dry phase. (McIntoch and McIntoch 1981; Barker 1989:3536). To ensure steady and reliable food resources for bulging Proto-Saharan populations during this period of
ecological change urban centres were built, and complex political organizations and craft specializations followed, as
clans within tribal units began to specialize in selected occupations.
The shift from a hunter/fisher/gatherer lifestyle to a sedentary-pastoral way of life led many Proto-Saharans to
adopt a form of intensive agriculture characterized by the use of the hoe. Goats and sheep remained their primary

domesticate which they could take with them as

they moved from place to place--as their slash-and-burn agricultural methods dictated. They Proto-Saharans developed
related water storage and irrigation techniques, plus the application of fertilizer (manure) to the land (Winters 1981a,
1981b,1985).

Chapter 1: The Maa Confederation

The Maa Confederation was situated in that part of Middle Africa we call the Sahara. Although today the Saharan
region is arid, around 8000 years ago this area was a center for civilization, and manifested a mediterranean climate
(Winters,1985,2012).
The Saharan Highlands was the original home of the Niger-Congo, Egyptian, Elamite, Dravidian, Sumerian and
Manding people (Winters,2011). I call the ancestors of these people of Maa: Maaites or Proto-Saharans. The
ProtoSaharans began as a single linguistic community which shared cultural traits that were fashioned in their
Saharan homeland (Winters,1985). The Egyptians referred to the Saharan Highlands as God's land, the home of the
Gods.
The history of the ProtoSaharans of the Maa Confederation begins in the Sahara, some seven to eight thousand
years ago. The ProtoSaharan speakers remained in the highlands until the Sahara began to change from a
mediterranean to an arid climate.
The ProtoSaharans used paleorivers and paleostreams for communication purposes. Due to the abundance of water
during the Tenerean and Ounanian periods the leaders of the ProtoSaharans were men that could tame the waters by
dams, or building boats. The homes of the Maaites were often built on habitation mounds safe from the numerous
floods that occurned annually. Over time the ProtoSaharans formed a confederation of city states called the FISH
CONFEDERATION.
The population living in the Fish or MAA Confederation shared many common culture features.For example they
traced their roots back to the Sahara, especially Libya and Nubia. The principle god for these ProtoSaharans was
Amon or Amun in the East, and Seth in the Eastern Sahara. In the archaeological literature the Maaites are called
TaSeti (AGroup), CGroup (people of ancient Kush/Nubia). The Egyptians called the major Maaite tribe: Temehu.
Archaeologists call the Temehu: CGroup people. The CGroup people settled much of the Sudan. The cylindrical tomb
common to this area was also frequently built by ProtoSaharans when they migrated into Eurasia.

The Temehu originally kept small live stock: sheep and goats 9000 years ago. The Proto-Saharans worshipped a
number of gods, Seth and Wepwawet were worshipped in the western Sahara, while in the eastern Sahara Amon and
the goddess Neith were worshipped. In Europe, Neith was called Athena, to the Manding and Minoans she was known
as Nia.
The members of the Maa Confederation include the Egyptian founders of the New Kingdom, Elamites, Dravidians,
Manding and the Sumerians.The God Amon of the Egyptians was taken to Egypt during the New Kingdom.
The Proto-Saharans later became known as Kushites. They were recognized throughout history as great archers
due to their perfection of using the bow and arrow for hunting and warfare.
The Proto-Saharans belonged to the Ounanian culture (Winters, 2012). Drake et al (2012) make it clear there was
considerable human activity in the Sahara before it became a desert. One the earliest Saharan cultures was the
Ounanian culture.
Around the time we see the development of the Ounanian culture in North Africa, we see the spread of the SaharanSudanese ceramic style into the Sahara (Sereno, 2008,Winters,1986b).

There are many rock engravings of figures holding bows found in the Sahara (Soukopova,2012). The Ounanian
population hunted animals with the bow-and arrow. The Ounanian culture existed 12kya (Drake, 2012; Smith,
2005;Winters,2012). This culture is associated with sites in central Egypt, Algeria, Mali, Mauretania and Niger
(Blench,1999; Winters,1986b).
The Ounanians were members of the Capsian population.There was continuity between the Negroes in the
Maghreb and southern Sahara referred to as Capsians, Iberomaurusians, and Mechtoids (Sereno,2008). Many NigerCongo speakers are decendants of the Capsian population.

Ethnically the ProtoSaharans were round headed mediterraneans of the ancient variety commonly called Negroes
(Soukopova, 2012; Winters,2012). For purposes of this book we will call this group Africoid. Around 7000 B.C.
mediterraneans of a fairly tall stature not devoid of Negroid characteristics appears in the Sahara at Capsa (now
Cafsa).(Desange 1981) These Mediterraneans are called Capsians. This group flourished in an area extending from the
western borders of North Africa into the southern Sahara. They lived on hillocks or slopes near water. But some
Capsians lived on plains which featured lakes and marshes. Their way of life continued from the Neolithic era up to the
time of the Garamante.
Using craniometric data researchers it has been determined that the people who belonged to the Maa
Confederation were primarily related to the ancient Caspian or Old Mediterranean (Negro) population
(Winters,1985,2012). Lahovary (1963) and Sastri (1955) maintains that this population was unified over an extensive
zone from Africa, across Eurasia into South India. Some researchers maintain that the Caspian civilization originated in
East Africa (Lal,1963; Nayar ,1977).
Archaeological evidence indicates that there was unity between the ProtoSaharan populations in middle Africa.
For example, these Maaites used the bow, made pottery and herded animals as a reliable source of nutrition. Since the
climate was more wetter ten thousand years ago, the major crops of the Maaites were ensete, rice, sorghum, millet,
sesame, barley and fonio. Between 60005000 B.C.,the Sahara was parkland with a mediterranean vegetation. At this
time abundant streams, and rivers that dotted middle Africa. Due to the wet environment the ProtoSaharans
communicated mainly by boat.
The original homeland of the ProtoSaharans was in the Saharan zone. The Saharan zone is bounded on the north
by the Atlas mountains, the Atlantic Ocean in the West, the tropical rain forest in the south and the Red Sea in the East.
It was here that the ancestors of the founders of the river valley civilizations developed their highly organized and
technological societies.

During the late pleistocene clay pottery or baskets were probably used by hunter/fisher/gather groups to collect
grain, as evidenced by numerous millstones found on early Saharan sites. These baskets evolved into pottery.
Ceramics spread from the central and eastern Sahara into North Africa. These ceramics were of Sudanese
inspiration and date back to the seventh millennium B.C. The Saharan-Sudanese pottery was used from in the Saharan

highlands from Ennedi to the Hoggar .The makers of this pottery were probably from the Sudan(Desanges 1981). The
Capsian pottery tradition also came from the Sudan, and first appeared at the valley of Saoura, and later at Fort
Flatters. This type of pottery probably originated at Elmenteita in Kenya (KiZerbo 1979).

The Ounanian tradition is probably associated with the Niger-Congo phyla. This is supported by the reality that the
Niger-Congo languages are genetically related to Elamite, Sumerian and the Dravidian languages. The original
homeland of the Niger-Congo speakers was the Saharan Highlands. The dispersal of the the Niger-Congo speakers
from the Fezzan to Mauretania mirrors the Saharan sites associated with the Ounanian tradition (Winters, 2011, 2012).
This suggest that the Niger-Congo group introduced the hunting tradition and use of bow-and arrow into Mauretania,
Mali, Niger and Southern Algeria and played a prominent role in peopling the desert (Winters, 1986b, 2012).
For much of the early history of the Maaites they remained in the Saharan highlands. By the 8th millennium BC
Saharan-Sudanese pottery was used in the Air (Winters,1986b). Ceramics of this style have also been found at sites in
the Hoggar (Winters, 1985,1994). Dotted wavy-line pottery has also been discovered in the Libyan Sahara
(Winters,1986b). In the Sahelian zone there was a short wet phase during the Holocene (c. 7500-4400 BC), which led
to the formation of large lakes and marshes in Mauritania, the Niger massifs and Chad. The Inland Niger Delta was
unoccupied. In other parts of modern Niger the wet phase existed in the eight/seventh and fourth/third millennia BC

(Drake, 2012; Soreno,2008).

Due to the use of the bow people in the Maa Confederation were great hunters. They early domesticated the dog.
Maaite hunters early domesticated the dog. These dogs were used by hunters to catch their prey. The Egyptian
term for dog is uher #. This Egyptian term corresponds to many African, and Dravidian terms for dog:
Egptian

uher

Azer

wulle

Bozo

kongoro

Guro

bere

Vai

wuru, ulu

Bo(Bambara) -ulu
Wassulunka wulu
Konyanka

wulu

Malinke

wuli, wuru, wulu

Dravidian

ori

The linguistic data indicates that there is contrast between the Paleo-Afican l =/= r. The Egyptian uher # , Azer
wulle # and Manding wuru # suggest that the r> l in Paleo-African. There is also vowel alternation in the terms for

dog o =/= u. The predominance of the vowel /u/ in the terms for dog, make it clear that o<u. This evidence suggest
that there are two Paleo-African terms for dog: Paleo-African (PA) *uru and *oro.
The people belonging to the Maa Confederation used two pottery styles the Saharan-Sudanese style (dotted wavyline) pottery and the red-and-black ceramic tradition of the Sudan. Around 5000 years ago we see the expansion of
the Saharan-Sudanese ceramic style into the areas traditionally associated with the Ounanian.
Drake (2012) has done a marvelous job outlining the former hydraulic system of ancient Middle Africa in a number
of maps.

There is no one type of Negro. In the archaeological literature they were called Caspian, brown-skinned whites,
ancient Mediterranean type. This is because Negroes or Africoids have varying facial features which vary from small
lips and noses to broad noses and big lips (Dzerzykray-Rogalski, 1978).
In summary, skeletons of the Old Mediterranean type have been found throughout Middle Africa, Southwest Asia,
Mesopotamia, IndoPakistan, Central Asia and China. It was this population founded the civilizations of ancient Egypt,
Elam, Sumer and the Indus Valley. This Old Mediterranean people called themselves: KUSHITES (Winters,2005).
The Kushites are known in history as bowmen and great sailors. These Kushites called GroupA by archaeologists
founded the earliest empire in the World, in Nubia. The first recorded empire on earth was located at Qustul, Nubia
around 3300 B.C.. This is over a hundred years earlier than the founding of the Egyptian empire. As a result the term
designating royalty in Egptian nsw < n y swt = "(the man) who comes from the south".
This empire was called TaSeti, or the Land of the Bow.It was clear that the government and writing usually
associated with Egypt was first invented in Nubia, and later carried down the Nile into Egypt. The people of TaSeti,
were called "Steu" or "bowmen". The Egyptians called the area around Kush TataNeter "God's land".
The Kushites took the name Kush to many regions where they settled in Africa and Eurasia.The most important
Kushite colony in Eurasia was ancient Elam, i.e., hatam (Khaltam). The capital city of Elam, was called Kussi by the
Elamites. In Akkadian,Elam was called Gizbam or "the land of the bow". The ancient Chinese tribes called the
Elamites:Kashti. Moreover, in the Bible in Jeremiah (xlxx,35) we read "bow of Elam".

BlackandRed Ware (BRW)

Although the Maaites may have had seasonal migration patterns their ceramic traditions and intensive exploitation of
plant foods show a continuity of the technological and structural tradition in the Libyan Sahara, and do not reflect a
true nomadic herder tradition characterized by historic nomadic societies (Winters 1986b). It is interesting to note that
while cattle predominate the pictorial scenes in the Libyan Sahara, the faunal remains from Uan Muhuggiag and El
Kaduda for example, indicate that most Maaites kept domesticated goat/sheep (Obenga 1988 ; Barich 1985;
Soukopova, 2012; Winters 1985a,1986b). Moreover the earliest animal engravings in the Fezzan were of rams and
goats/sheep (Quellec 1985:367).
These Kushites used a common redandblack ware that has been found from the Sudan in Africa, across
Southwest Asia and the Indian subcontinent all the way into China. The earliest examples of the blackandred ware of
the ProtoSaharans date to the early Amratian period 40003500 BC. It was after 3500 B.C., and especially 2500 B.C.
,that the Proto Saharans began to deeply affect the activities of the Eurasian peoples.

The Amratian period of Middle Africa is the focal point for the spread of BRW. There is affinity between BRW
found at Anau, in Russian Turkestan, and similar pottery from southeastern Europe. Dr. J.G. Andersson (l934) found a
similarity between pottery fragments found at Anau, and fragments discovered at Yangshao sites in Henan and Gansu
province.All of these sites were early settled by Kushites after 4-5kya.

Chapter 2: ORIGINS OF PROTOSAHARAN CULTURE

Linguistic and archaeological evidence can help us to reconstruct the ProtoSaharan economy and social
organization. The economy was diversified and shifted from huntergatherer to herder and later food producing as a
result of the rise of consistent seasonal rains in Middle Africa after 7000 B.C. This regular rain pattern led to the
development of the mixed agricultureherding economy of the ProtoSaharans. The bioarchaeological remains from the
Sahara indicates a mixed economy based on the herding of cattle and goats, and the cultivation of millet and barley.
Over time the shifting Saharan climate limited , rather than determined the ProtoSaharan sedentary types of food
producing technology.
The earliest horizon of the Sahara during the Late Pleistocene pottery and baskets were probably used by
huntergatherer groups to collect grain, as evidenced by the abundance of millstones on early Saharan sites. Due to the
richness of the flora and fauna in the Sahara during this period ethnic groups in Middle Africa were semi-sedentary
hunter fishergatherers who engaged in the exploitation of their habitat. These people may have had a limited interest in
the domestication of plants and animals. But it was not until the return of an arid climate to the Sahara between 12,000
7000 B.C., that the Saharans were forced to domesticate cattle and goats to ensure a reliable source of food. It was
probably during the Ounanian period that ProtoSaharans probably began to seriously domesticate/collect plants to
supplement their diets (Winters,2012).

The Paleoclimate of Africa explains the south and eastern migration of Negroes/Africoids from North Africa and
the Sudan respectively, into West Africa after 1000 BC.There were various climates in Africa. In the Sahelian zone
there was a wet phase during the Holocene (75004400 B.C.) which led to the formation of large lakes and marshes in
Mauritania, the Niger massifs and Chad(Talbot 1980). In the Niger area, the west phase existed in the eight/seventh
and fourth/third millennia B.C.(McIntosh and McIntosh 1986:417).
There were very few habitable areas in West Africa during the holocene wet phase. According to McIntosh and
McIntosh (1986) the only human occupation of the Sahara during the humid phase was situated in the Saharan massifs
along wadis. By the 8th Millennia SaharanSudanese pottery was used in the Air region(Roset 1983). Ceramics of this
style have been found at sites in the Hoggar (McIntosh and McIntosh 1983,1983b). Dotted wavyline type pottery has
also been discovered in the Libyan Sahara (Winters,1986b).
The pastoralsedentary tradition is a highly developed specialization exploiting food resources of the Savanna and
herding cattle throughout Middle Africa over 5000 years ago. The bioarchaeological remains from the Sahara indicates
a mixed economy for the people of Maa, based on herding of cattle goats and sheep, and the collection of sorghum,
millet, yam and rice along the marshes and lakes.
The view that food production preceded pastoralism in the among people living in the Maa Confederation at this
junction in archaeological researchis untenable. It would seem more reasonable to assume that a huntergatherer
group which clearly specialized in the hunting of animals (as evidenced by the abundance of arrowheads) would have
moved from huntergathering to animal domestication, since they would be keenly aware of the habits of game, and
therefore make the shift to animal husbandry rapidly when climatic conditions in the Sahara made it impossible to
collect grains.
A short arid period affected Middle Africa after the African Aqualithic. The return of the rains during the Ounanian
period probably led to renewed interest in plant collection and later domestication. It was probably during this period
that various groups began to specialize either in a pastoral or mixedpastoral food producing economy. The fact that
both of these economies held the best benefit for a stable society, may have encouraged the diverse Saharan ethnic
groups to form some sort of "federal " relationship which encouraged trade and cooperation between the varying

peoples practicing different economies (Winters,2011,2012).

The contemporary nomadic pastoralist tradition in the Sahara was first introduced as a sedentary pastoral
adaptation around 7000 years ago. At this time the Sahara was a mosaic of lakes and marshes united by permanent
streams. The vegetation was Mediterranean and grew abundantly in the Saharan highlands, in Hoggar and Tibesti.
In addition to cattle, the archaeologist have found that the ProtoSaharans had abundant pottery and grinding
stones. This wavy line pottery was first discovered at Khartoum, and dates to 4000 B.C (Winters,1986b).
The collection of plants also provided a reliable source of food during the formative stages of ProtoSaharan
society. The discovery of large amounts of pottery and heavy grinding stones during this period at many sites suggest
the possibility that pastoralist were more sedentary at this time.
Each community in the Maa Confederation was led by a chief. These chiefs were usually recognized as men with
horns.

A comparative study of the languages spoken by the ProtoSaharans(PS) gives us a very clear indication of their
cultural traits. The prototerm for the ProtoSaharan culture trait will be PS plus an asterisk e.g.,*PS. For example the
ProtoSaharans had chiefs men with horns PS: *sar, and lived in cities/town PS:*uru. In these cities and between the
several cities they built roads PS:*sila (Winters,1985).

Language
CHIEF
WRITING
DRAVIDIAN CA,CIRA
CARRU
ELAMITE SUNKI,SALU TALU
SUMERIAN
SAR
SAR, RU
MANDING
SA
SEBE,SEWE

CITY
UR
UR(U)
UR
FURU

PLACE
TA
DA,TA
TA

The ProtoSaharans referred to themselves as people or humanity PS:*oku. The mother of the family was called
PS: *amma or *ma ; and the father was called PS:*pa. The children both boys and girls were referred to as
PS:*de/di/du. They lived in houses called PS:*lu/du.
Due to the abundance of water during the Ounanian period the ProtoSaharans used the suffix PS:*ta, to indicate a
place of habitation. They also used boats called PS:*kalam (Winters,1985).

LANGUAGE
BOAT
MAN FATHER
HOUSE PEOPLE
DRAVIDIAN
KALAM
APPAN
LON
UKAKU
SUMERIAN
KALAM
TIN,MU PAP
MU,U
UKU
MANDING
KULU
TYE,MOKO AP
LU,NU
MOKO

It would appear that at the time of the separation of the ProtoSaharans into distinct groups at the beginning of the
3rd Millennium B.C. they were familiar with mining and metal working techniques. As a result these people share the
term for digging a hole: Dravidian (Dr.) tulai, Sumerian (S.) dul/tul and Manding (M.) du, tyolo,tuta =PS: *tul
(Winters,1985).
Before the ProtoSaharansmigrated into Eurasia they also knew about blacksmithing e.g., Tamil/Telugu (languages
that belong to the Dravidian family) irumbu/inumu, M. numu 'forge', umu 'blacksmith'.Another PS term for blacksmith
was *kamara: Dr. Kamara, Wolof Kamara. It is interesting to note that throughout Africa the term 'uma', is suffixed to
the word for iron and iron working (Winters,1985).

LANGUAGE
COPPER
GOLD
STEEL
DRAVIDIAN
URUTTIRAN
KANI,KANAM,KANNE ALAVU,URUKKU
SUMERIAN
URUDU
GUSHKIN
MANDING
KURA, KU
SAANI
TUUFA
ELAMITE
UFA
PROTOSAHARAN
*URUT
*ANI
*UFA

During the Neolithic Subpluvial (ca. 70006000 B.C.), farming and herding were practiced by the ProtoSaharans in
the green savannas of the Sahara. Migrating ProtoSaharans probably remnants of the future Egyptians took
domesticated cattle into the Nile Valley(Hoffman 1979:102; Winters,1986b). These pastoral people moved from the
South into the Nile Valley, not from the Southwestern part of Asia into the Nile Valley.
The early ProtoSaharans made adequate uses of local game and plant life, and they established permanent and
seasonal settlements around well stocked fishing holes. The wanderings of this hearty folk were dictated by the
varying climatic conditions found in Middle Africa Hoffman(l979:218). commenting on the role of the ProtoSaharans
in the founding of Egypt observed that," A exploration of the Western Desert (also known as the Libyan Desert, or
more generally, the Sahara) proceeds at an ever quickening pace, it is now apparent that the despised foreigners of
Egypt's desert frontiers comprised a major areal tradition roughly comparable to those of Upper and Lower Egypt.
Paradoxically, it was this desert tradition and not those of the Nile Valley that contributed to prehistoric Egypt those
critical innovations like farming, cattle pastoralism, and longdistance trade that led to groundwork for her precocious
civilization".

Chapter 3: Boating in Ancient Africa

During the Ounanian period the ProtoSaharans maintained well developed trade links with the east African
homelands by boats which could travel across Africa along the numerous streams and rivers which dotted the more
watered Middle African environment 8000 years ago.

The socalled Egyptian and Mesopotamian style boats were first depicted in the Sahara at Tin Tazarift. As a result
we should really refer to the boats in Saharan rock art as Maaite boats. These boats used by the Egyptians, Sumerians
and Elamites are nothing more than the boats used by the ProtoSaharans. These boats were also used by the
descendants of the ProtoSaharans in Mesopotamia and India. To navigate these boats the ProtoSaharans used celestial
navigation.

Boat building has been known in Africa for thousands of years. Reed boats and reed boat illustrations are found
throughout Middle Africa. Apart from human and animal figures appearing in Nubian rock drawings the most dominant
motif is the reed boat.Other examples of reed boats have been found in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley, both areas
of early ProtoSaharan / Kushite settlement. The first use of the mast and sails on reed boats, along with cabins on
the deck appear at TaSeti, in Nubia over 5000 years ago.

In the riverine cultures of the ProtoSaharans, each community had marine architects, ship builders and expert sailors.
The captains of the Maaite ships were depicted bigger than the crewmen. They also wore a horned headdress
consisting of two horns or feathers to illustrate their status and rank in society.
The presence of an elevated bow and stern on many boats depicted in the Saharan rock art and the peculiar
"bowstring", astern and "fuse" for the rudder oar, indicate these ancient ships were used for navigation on the open
seas. Reed or plank boats are still made by the Dravidians in India, and the Bozo of West Africa along the Niger river.
The Maaite boats also had a cabin on the deck.
Boat building has been known in Africa for thousands of years. Boats illustrations throughout Middle Africa rock
art. For example, today reed boats are still constructed by the Mande speaking Bozo people and Dravidian speaking
people in India. Due to shared origin of boating and navigation among the Maaites they share the ter for boat.

Shared Maaite terms for Boat

LANGUAGE
BOAT
DRAVIDIAN
KALAM
SUMERIAN
KALAM
MANDING
KULU

The boat has played an important role in Africa since prehistoric times. As early as Nagada I (4000-3500 BC)
Africans were depicting boats on their pottery (Robert Partridge, ,p.16). The same style boats are found in the Sahara

at Tin Tazarift (Ki-Zerbo,1979,1981). Between 3500-3000BC we find evidence of sails on pottery from Nubia and
Egypt ( Partridge,1996).
The Prophet Isaiah mentions the expertise of the Kushites when he noted in the Bible at Isaiah 18:12 that:
" Country of the whirring wings beyond the rivers of
Cush, who send ambassadors by sea, in papyrus ships
over the waters".
This indicates that as late as the Meroitic Kushite empire papyrus boast were still being used by Africans.
Because the early civilization builders in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, Africa, and China after 3500 BC, originated
in the Sahara there existed great similarity between boats engraved on rocks in Mesopotamia, Indus Valley/ India and
ancient boats in the Sahara and Nile Valley (Hornell,1920).
Walter Resch (1967), noted that apart from human and animal figures appearing on the Nubian rock drawings, the
most dominant motif is that of reed boats, many of these boats like the boats at Nagada II, had sails. Henri Lhote
during his 1956 expedition to the Highland Tassili region of Algeria also found reed boat engravings (Lhote, 1957).
Boats with sails were still being used in throughout Africa in 1500BC. Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt, recorded in her
temple at Deir el Bahri a Puntite ship which had sails and 60 oars. This indicates that African ships were usually
prepared for sailing the oceans through the power of the wind, and /or by sail.
Punt is believed to be ancient Somalia/Ethiopia. The people who presently live in Ethiopia call the Puntite empire,
the Arwe empire.
Other examples of reed boats have been found in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. It is among the engraved
Saharan boats that we see the first use of masts and sails, along with cabins on the decks of ships as early as 3100
BC. The presence of this highly developed boat technology among the Proto-Mande provided them with the ability to
sail to America 2000 years ago to found the Mande speaking Olmec Empire along the east coast of Mexico.

Figure 3:4 Sahran Boat and Horned Captain

Papyrus boats were capable of traveling thousands of miles over the open seas. Earastosthenes, chief librarian of the
Egyptian papyrus library in Alexandria said that papyrus ships, with the same sails and riggings as on the Nile sailed as
far as Ceylon and the mouth of the Ganges (Indus Valley) (Heyderdahl,1981). In summary, the rock art from the
Sahara, across Mesopotamia, and India are identical. It indicates that during Proto-Saharan times each community
(Mande >Proto-Olmec, Sumerian, Dravidian, etc.) had marine architects, shipbuilders and expert sailors. The presence
of an elevated bow and stern and the peculiar "bowstring" astern and "fuse" for the rudder oar, indicate that the ships
used by the Proto-Saharans, including the Mande and Dravidians were used for navigation in the open seas.
Once the descendants of the tribes who formed the Maa Confederation moved into the African Savanna and Forest
zones, the Indus Valley and South India they began to discontinue the building of papyrus boats; except among the
Budumu along Lake Chad and the Bozo on the Niger River . Most West Africans began to build dugout canoes due to
the gigantic trees found in many parts of the Savanna and Forest zone.

Chapter 4: Animal Domestication

The ProtoSaharans had a mobile life style and cattle was the mainstay domesticate. Much of the evidence relating
to this pastoral way of life comes from the discovery of cattle bones at excavated sites in the Sahara, and the rock
drawings of cattle found at many of these sites.
Bones discovered at desert sites inhabited between 70002500 B.C.,indicate that residents here not only farmed but
herded sheep, goats and cattle, when the Sahara blossomed.
Animal domestication in much of the Saharan zone came in response to the decline in resources around lakes and
river valleys prior 5000 BC when the Sahara entered a dry phase(McIntosh 1980). The ProtoSaharans probably
domesticated sheep and goats initially, and supplemented these animals with cattle (Camps 1974). The ProtoSaharans
called the sheep *kari.
A major ProtoSaharan site was Tadrart Acacus (95008500 B.C.). Here the people were reliant on pastoralism by
4000 B.C. They herded goat/sheep.

LANGUAGE
SHEEP
DOG
CATTLE,COW,OX
HORSE
DRAVIDIAN KURI,KORI ORI
NAKU
PARI, IYULI

SUMERIAN
ZAR,SAR
UR
GUD
PARU 'MULE'
MANDING
SARA
WURU GUNGA,KONGO BARI,WOLO /WOLU
PROTOSAHARAN *SAR
*UR
*(N)GU *PAR

The Paleo-African hunters quickly learned the habits of wild sheep and goats. As a result of this hunting experience
and the shock of the short arid period after 8500 B.C., Paleo-Africans began to domesticate goat/sheep to insure a
reliable source of food. By 6000 B.P. the inhabitants of Tadrart Acacus were reliant on sheep and goats (Barich 1985).

The first domesticated goats came from North Africa. This was the screw horn goat common to Algeria, where it
may have been deposited in neolithic times. We certainly see goat/sheep domestication moving eastward: Tadrart
Acacus (Camps 1974), Tassili-n-Ajjer , Mali (McIntosh & McIntosh 1988), Niger (Roset 1983) and the Sudan. Barker
(1989) has argued that sheep and goats increased in importance over cattle because of their adaptation to desiccation.
The Egyptian terms for sheep,ram are zr #, sr # . In the terms for sheep we find either the consonant /s/ or
/z/ before the consonant /r/, e.g., s>0/#________r. This corresponds to many other African terms for sheep, ram:
Egyptian
sr, zr
Wolof
xar
Coptic
sro
Bisa
sir
Kouy
siri
Lebir
sir
Amo
zara
Dravidian kuri,korri
Bobofing
se-ge,sege
Toma
seree
Malinke
sara
Busa
sa
Bambara
sarha,saga
Koro
isor
Boko
sa
Bir
sir
Azer
sege 'goat'
Diola
sarha
There is phonological contrast between s =/= z. We find both sr # and 0 zr # for sheep. Here we have
s>z/V_______(V)r 'sheep'
There is also clear evidence for the Paleo-African domestication of the goat. The Egyptian word for ram is b
#, ba #. This corespondence to many African terms for goat:

Wasulu
ba
Malinke ba
Kpelle bala
Cham
bii
Vai
ba
Mende mbala
Daduja
bii
Bambara ba
Loma baala
Burak
bii
Dyala ba
Egyptian ba
Gban
bu
Bagirmien ba-t
Boko
ble
In the African terms for goat we find an a>i pattern . This suggest that /i/ developed from /a/ as a result of sound
change. This is not surprising because we find a similar a > i pattern in the African term for sheep. The Paleo-African
term for goat was *ba .

Cattle Domestication

As early as 15,000 years ago cattle were domesticated in Kenya. In the Sahara-Nile complex, people domesticated
many animals including the pack ass, and a small screw horned goat which was common from Algeria to Nubia.
The zebu or humped cattle are found in many parts of Africa.The oldest faunal remains of the Bos Indicus come
from Kenya, and date to the first millennium B.C.

The recent evidence that Bos Indicus , humped cattle, may have originated in East Africa suggest that this type of
cattle may have first been situated in Africa, and then taken to Asia by the Proto-Saharans. Testimony to the ancient
humped cattle in Africa is supported by the depiction of this type of cattle in the rock art of the Sahara.This view is
also supported by the fact that the advent of the Bos Indicus, cattle in Egypt corresponds to the migration of the CGroup people into the Nile Valley.
The C-Group people came from the Fertile African Crescent. Augustin Holl (1989) has made it clear that
pastoralism was the first form of food production developed by post Paleolithic groups in the Sahara.
In the western Saharan sites such as Erg In-Sakane region, and the Taoudenni basin of northern Mali, attest to cattle
husbandry between 6000 and 5000 B.P. (McIntosh & McIntosh, 1979,1981,1986,1988). Cattle pastoral people began
to settle Dar Tichitt and Karkarchinkat between 5000 and 3500 B.P. (Holl, 1989).
The term for cattle, cow in the various African languages show correspondence. Below we will compare the term
for cow from various African languages:

CATTLE/ COW
Egyptian

ng, nag

Wolof

nag

Fulani

nag

Hausa

nagge

Angas

ning

Ankwe

ning

Susu

ninge

Nuer

yang

Baguirmi

m-ang, mang

Gbea

m-angu, mangu

Sar(a)

m-ang, mang

Serere

nak

Mande

nika

Burma

nak

Tamil

n_ku

Malayalam
Tulu

n_ku
n_ku

Jarawa

i-nak

Kagoro

nyak

Kaje

nyak

Burak
Kagoma
Bobo
Kono-Vai

nyek
nyak
nyanga
nige

So.W. Mande
Sembla

ninke
nigi

Congo-Benue
Duala
Mpongwe

*i-nak
nyaka
nyare

Fang

nyar

Kwa

nare

Azer(Azayr)
Soninke
Gourmantche
Tamil
Malayalam
Konda

na
na
nua, nue
_, _n
_, _n
_.v

Kannda

_, _vu

Telugu

_vu

Senufo

nu

Ewe

nyi

Niellim

nya

Boua (Bwa)

nya

Tarok

ina

Iregwe

nya

Dadiya

nee

Amo

na

Baya

nday

Bobofing

nya-nga

Gera

ndiya

Koro

indak

Malinke

gu_ga, ko_go zebu

Songhay

dyu_go

Swahili

Ki-go_go

Kannada

g_nde

Kolami

k_nda, kanda

Gadaba

k_nde

Gondi

k_nda

The correspondence between Dravidian and African terms for cattle support the archaeological evidence for the
early domestication of cattle in the Maa Confederation. This view is supported by the similarity in the terms for
cow/cattle by speakers of the Dravidian, Mande, Niger-Congo, Chadic, and Afro Asiatic Supersets.

The oldest written evidence from Africa comes from the Egyptian language. The Egyptian terms for cattle/ cow
were ng and nag . In other African languages we find either the consonant n-, before the consonant g/k , e.g.,
n/v______(v)g/k ;or the nasal consonant n- , before the vowels -i,-y , and -a , e.g., n+i+a =nia , or n+y+a = nya .
This evidence of cognition in Dravidian, African terms for cattle/cow show considerable correspondence in
consonants and vowels within roots.
Table 1.
Correspondence within Roots
Niger-Congo

Nilotic

-g/-k

-s-

Dravidian

-g/-k

-k

--

-n-

-n-

Chadic

-z-

-n-

Egyptian

-g
s/z

-m-

n-

Table 2.
Correspondence within Vowels
Niger-Congo

Nilotic

-i/-y
a/u

Dravidian Chadic

-e/-a

-i/-y

a/u

a/u

Egyptian

-y
a

The linguistic evidence supports the view that the Paleo-Dravido-African term for cattle/cow in the Maa
Confederation was *n'n , *n'g /n'k , and *nia . This data also makes it clear that /g/ and /k/ were interchangeable
consonants long before the separation of the Proto-Saharans into distinct African cultural and linguistic groups.
It is interesting to note that the Chadic terms for cow and cattle corresponds to the Mande terms. Mukarovsky
(1987) provides numerous analogous Mande and Chadic terms for cow/cattle.
Mande
Bambara
Xassanke

Chadic
misi

Sha nisi mu

nyinsi

Dyula

misi

Malinke

nisi, misi

Gofa mizzaa
Welamo mizzaa
Zala

mizzaa

Basketo mizaa
Boro

miizaa

Anfillo mintso
*misi

*mizaa

This illustrates an ancient alternation of the s =/= z consonants in Paleo-African. In terms of the term for cow and
cattle it would appear that the usual pattern was m/v__(v) s/z__.

Susu

ninge

Anga

nin

Mende

nika

Goemai

Malinke

ningi

Kofyar

Kono

ningi

Sura

Vai

nii

Sha

nin, nen
nen
nin

nisi mu

Bande

nika-i

Lomo

nik

Malayalam n_ku

Kpelle

nina

Tulu n_ku

Bobo

nyanga

*nig / *nik, *nin

Tamil n_ku

*nin

In the above Chadic and Mande terms for cow/cattle we see the n/v_________(v) n. The pattern for Dravidian,
Chadic and Mande pastoral words is n/v_________(v) k. The cognition between Chadic Dravidian and Mande terms
for cattle/cow indicate that the speakers of these languages were in close proximity to one another during the neolithic.

Horse Domestication
It has usually been assumed that the horse was introduced into Africa by the Hyksos. But as indicated below the
affinities between the terms for horse in Dravidian and African languages indicate that the horse was domesticated by
Dravidians, and other Proto-Saharans before the Asian invasion of Egypt and spread of the Indo-European speaking
people. Archaeological evidence indicate that the horse was known to the Nubians centuries before its common use in
Egypt .
Saharan Africans used the donkey and later horses as beast of burden. The ass or donkey was domesticated in the
Sahara at Maadi 3650 BC . A domesticated Equus was found at Hierakonpolis dating around the same period .
The horse was also found at other sites in the Sahara. Skeletons of horses dating to between to around 2000 BC
have been found in the Sahara-Sahel zone
In West Africa according to Daniel McCall the horse was in the Sahara during the Second Millennium BC This
would explain the affinity between the Dravidian and African terms for horse outlined above.
The Saharan horse was small in size. These horses match perfectly the horses depicted with the Saharan chariot
riders. These horses were stiil be used by the warriors of ancient Ghana as noted by the Arabic writer al-Bekri when
he visited this area.
Most researchers believe that th horse was introduced to Africa/Egypt by the Hysos after 1700BC. This is an
interesting date, and far to late for the introduction of the horse given the archaeological evidence for horses at Maadi
and the Sahel-Sahara zone.
At Buhen, one of the major fortresses of Nubia, which served as the headquarters of the Egyptian Viceroy of
Kush a skeleton of a horse was found lying on the pavement of a Middle Kingdom rapart dating to 1675BC. This
was only 25 years after the Hysos had conquered Egypt. This suggest that the Kushites had been riding horses for an
extended period of time for them to be able to attack Buhen on horse back. This also supports the early habits of
Africans riding horses as depicted in the rock art.
The Nubians and Upper Egyptians were great horsemen whereas the Lower Egyptians usually rode the chariot, the
Nubian warriors of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty rode on horseback . The appearance of the horse laying on a Buhen
rampart may indicate it was used by Kushite warriors attacking Buhen. No matter what the use of the horse was, the
linguistic evidence makes it clear that the horse was part of Saharan culture before the advent of the Indo-

Europeans.

Figure 4:5 Various Saharans with horses and Chariots

The Nubians and Upper Egyptians were great horsemen whereas the Lower Egyptians usually rode the chariot, the
Nubian warriors of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty rode on horseback . The appearance of the horse laying on a Buhen
rampart may indicate it was used by Kushite warriors attacking Buhen. No matter what the use of the horse was, the
linguistic evidence makes it clear that the horse was part of Saharan culture before the advent of the IndoEuropeans.
There are many Dravidian and African words for horse, one of the most ancient Dravidian forms for horse may be
Brahui hulli and Tamil ivuli. This ancient form of the word for horse appears in African languages with consonant /l/
or/d/, as the main consonant and the vowels /o/ or /u/. Below we compare the Malinke(M.)-Bambara (B.), Nubia (N),
Wolof (W.) Hausa, Tamil (Ta), Malayam (Mal) Somali (Som.) Kanarese (Ka.) Telugu (Tel.) Kordofan Nubian (KN)
languages. The African languages belong either to the NigerCongo Family or the Cushitic Family of languages.
Horse
M. wolu, Bam. blu, wolo, N. unde Ta. Iyuli, Brahui hulli
Another ancient form of the word for horse was *par- / * far-. Below are other Dravidian-African terms for horse:
Mande wolu
Bam. Blu, wolo
Mande bara grey horse, Hausa baraba swift horse
Wolof fas
Somali fara-ka
Egyptian nefer
Serere pis
Tamil , Mal. Pari Tamil payyeru, Fulani puucu Mande bari
Geez faras
Galla or Oromo farda, ferda
Ka. Karte
Tamil kartai
Hausa doki
Tel. gadide
Kanuri Nile ko Hausa godiya
The Dravidians and Niger-Congo speakers formerly lived in the highlands of the Sahara. Many of these people
migrated into West Africa. In West Africa according to Daniel McCall the horse was in the Sahara during the Second
Millennium BC This would explain the affinity between the Dravidian and African terms for horse outlined above.

The fact that the chariots found in West Africa resemble those of Crete does not mean that the riders of these
chariots had to have come from Crete. In fact Greek traditions make it clear that the ancient Cretans, called Minoans
came from Africa

Figure 4:6 Saharan Chairioteers

The Dravidian and African languages share similar names for the wheel. For example:
Galla makurakura
Tulu gali, tagori
Swahili guru, dumu
Mande koli, kori, muru-fe
Tamil kal, ari, urul , tikiri
Ka. gali tiguri, tigari
It would appear that the Proto-African-Dravidian term for wheel was *-ori / *-uri *go/uri and *ko/uri. The protoSouth Dravidian term for wheel *tigu/ori . The linguistic evidence suggest that in the proto- language the speakers of
African-Dravidian used either the vowels o/u or a/i after the consonants. It is also evident that the l and r, were
interchangeable in the construction of the term for wheel.
The horse disappeared from the Sahara as the area became increasingly drier. This forced the original West African
domesticated horses to move southward where they are presently found.

Chapter 5: Plant Domestication

The earliest Neolithic farmers n Saharan Africa cultivated barley. They used a wavy line ceramic style of Middle
Africa referred to as the SaharanSudanese ware.
The ProtoSaharans, once engaged in intensive agriculture began to build towns. Complex political organizations
and craft specialization followed as Maaite ethnic groups, and clans became more and more sedentary.
The ProtoSaharans practiced a form of intensive agriculture characterized by use of the hoe, related water storage
and irrigation techniques, plus the application of fertilizers (manure) to the land.
The ability of the ProtoSaharans to produce surplus food led to an increase in population and changes in social
organization. Naturally population increases forced the ancestors of the ProtoSaharans to spill over into more marginal
areas. This forced them to domesticate plants and animals to preserve traditional levels of food production, that had
resulted
from plant collection.
In Nubia the people long practiced agriculture. In 17000 B.C the people at Tushka were cultivating barley. The
farmers at Tushka were the Anu people who first took civilization to Egypt and Mesopotamia.
At Kadero, a ProtoSaharan site in the Sudan we find that by 3310 B.C.,sorghum and millet was being cultivated.In
Northwest Africa rice was being cultivated by 3000 B.C.
Land of cultivation was called *ga(n), in ProtoSaharan. Barren land near water that was cultivatable was called
PS:*de(n)/di(n). The mainstay plant collected by the ProtoSaharans was millet and or sorghum. They took

this crop with them to Asia. The ProtoSaharans called their grain *se. The word for cultivate was PS:*be. They used
the hoe PS:* pari, to cultivate the land. In addition they had dogs PS: *ur, to help them hunt and watch over their

domesticated stock.

There is abundant evidence that African millets were cultivated not only in Africa but also in the Indus Valley during
Harappan times (Weber, 1998; Winters,1981a,1981b, 2008). Weber (1998) maintains that Indian agriculture was
"greatly influenced" by these millets from ancient to modern times (p.267).
The archaeological evidence ndicates that local millets were cultivated before the 3rd millenium B.C. (Weber, 1998;
Winters, 1981b). But by the founding of the Harappan civilization and rise of civilization in Gujarat the African millets
were integrated into a well established South Asian subsistence pattern (Weber,1998).
The major grain exploited by Saharan populations was rice ,the yam and pennisetum. McIntosh and McIntosh
(1988) has shown that the principal domesticate in the southern Sahara was bulrush millet (pennisetum). Millet
impressions have been found on Mande ceramics from both Karkarchinkat in the Tilemsi Valley of Mali, and Dar
Tichitt in Mauritania between 4000 and 3000 BP (McIntosh & McIntosh 1983a,1988; Winters 1986b; Andah 1981).
Given the archaeological evidence for millets in the Sahara, leads to the corollary theory that if the Dravidians
originated in Africa, they would share analogous terms for millet with African groups that formerly lived in the Sahara.
Controversy surrounds the transportation pattern for African millets to India (Weber, 1998). Yet it would appear that
millets arrive in South Asia, both in the 3rd and 2nd millennium B.C. It is interesting to note that where the African
millets represent the dominate cereal grain, rice was also a major domesticate (Weber, 1998).
Wiegboldus (1996) believes that these millets may have been transported to India, from African countries situated
along the Indian Ocean. The only problem with this theory is that Wiegboldus (1996) found no evidence of the African
millets and bicolor sorghum in East African countries until late antiquity, millenia after African millets were cultivated at
Harappan sites.
There is linguistic evidence that the Dravidians may have introduced African millets to India in Harappan times.
Many linguist believe that Dravidian was spoken by the inhabitants of the Harappan cities (Winters, 1990). This view is
supported by the large number of Dravidian tribal groups in North India, and the existence of Brahui, also a Dravidian
language, in Pakistan and other parts of Central Asia.
Thundy (1983) maintains that most Dravidiologist recognize Africa as the original home of the Proto-Dravidians.
Aravanan (1976,1979,1980) claims that the Dravidians and Africans share many similarities in culture and physical
type. Winters (1994) presents numerous linguistic examples that suggest a geneological relationship between the
Dravidian and African languages (Winters,2007,2008b).
Winters (1985, 2007,2008b,2010b) has suggested that the Proto-Dravidians formerly lived in the Sahara. This is an
interesting theory, because it is in the Sahara that the earliest archaeological evidence has been found for African
millets. Millet has been found in the Sahara dating back to 7000 kya from Dakhleh (Thurston 2003).
One of the principal groups to use millet in Africa are the Northern Mande speaking people (Winters, 1986,). The
Norther Mande speakers are divided into the Soninke and Malinke-Bambara groups. Holl (1985,1989) believes that the
founders of the Dhar Tichitt site where millet was cultivated in the 2nd millenium B.C., were northern Mande speakers.

To test this theory we will compare Dravidian and Black African agricultural terms, especially Northern Mande
(Winters, 2008,2010). The linguistic evidence suggest that the Proto-Dravidians belonged to an ancient sedentary
culture which existed in Saharan Africa. We will call the ancestor of this group Paleo-Dravido-Africans (Winters,
1994,208b,2010b).
The Dravidian terms for millet are listed in the Dravidian Etymological Dictionary at 2359, 4300 and 2671. A
cursory review of the linguistic examples provided below from the Dravidian, Mande and Wolof languages show a
close relationship between these language. These terms are outlined below:
Kol

sonna

Wolof (AF.)

suna

Mande (AF)
Tamil

-----

suna
connal
colam

Kannanda

---

----

----

bara, baga
varaga

Malayalam

*sona

---

de-n, doro koro

tinai

varaku

tina

baraga, baragu

tene

*baraga

---

*ten

kural
--korale,korle
*kora

Below we will compare other Dravidian and African agricultural terms. These terms come from the Mande
languages (Malinke, Kpelle, Bambara, Azer, Soninke), West Atlantic (Wolof, Fulani), Afro-Asiatic (Oromo, Galla),
Somali, Nubian and the ancient Egyptian.
The Paleo-Dravido-Africans came from a sedentary culture that domesticated cattle and grew numerous crops
including wheat and millet. The Egyptian term for cultivation is

The major grain exploited by Saharan populations

was rice ,the yam and pennisetum. McIntosh and McIntosh (1988) has shown that the principal domesticate in the
southern Sahara was bulrush millet (pennisetum). Millet impressions have been found on Mande ceramics from both
Karkarchinkat in the Tilemsi Valley of Mali, and Dar Tichitt in Mauritania between 4000 and 3000 BP. (McIntosh &
McIntosh 1983a,1988; Winters 1986b; Andah 1981).
Given the archaeological evidence for millets in the Sahara, leads to the corollary theory that if the Dravidians
originated in Africa, they would share analogous terms for millet with African groups that formerly lived in the Sahara
( Winters, 2008,2010).
The major grain exploited by Saharan populations was rice ,the yam and pennisetum. McIntosh and McIntosh
(1988) has shown that the principal domesticate in the southern Sahara was bulrush millet (pennisetum). Millet
impressions have been found on Mande ceramics from both Karkarchinkat in the Tilemsi Valley of Mali, and Dar
Tichitt in Mauritania between 4000 and 3000 BP. (McIntosh & McIntosh 1983a,1988; Winters 1986b; Andah 1981).
Given the archaeological evidence for millets in the Sahara, leads to the corollary theory that if the Dravidians
originated in Africa, they would share analogous terms for millet with African groups that formerly lived in the Sahara.
b j(w) #. Egyptian b j(w) # corresponds to many African terms for cultivation:
Galla

baji 'cultivated field'

Tulu (Dravidian language)

bey, benni

Nubian

ba, bat 'hoe up ground'

Malinke

be

Somali

beer

Wolof

mbey, ambey, bey

Egyptian

b j(w)

Sumerian

buru, bur 'to root up'

These terms for cultivate suggest that the Paleo-African term for cultivate was *be.
The Egyptian term for grain is sa #. This corresponds to many African terms for seed,grain:
Galla
Malinke

senyi
se , si

Sumerian

se

Egyptian

sen 'granary'

Kannanda
Bozo
Bambara

cigur
sii
sii

Daba

sisin

Somali

sinni

Loma

sii

Susu

sansi

Oromo
Dime
Egyptian

sanyi
siimu
ssr 'corn'

id.

ssn 'lotus plant'

id.

sm 'herb, plant'

id.

isw 'weeds'

The identification of a s>0/#_________e pattern for 'seed,grain' in the above languages suggest that these groups were
familiar with seeds at the time they separated into distinct Supersets. The fact that Sumerian se # and Egyptian
sen #, and Malinke
se # are all separated both in time and geographical area highlight the early use of seeds * se , by PaleoDravido-Africans.
The Paleo-Dravido-Africans used the hoe to cultivate their crops. The Egyptian terms for hoe are hbs # and
wb #, which mean 'to open up' in Egyptian. These Egyptian terms are analogous to Black African and Dravidian terms
for hoe:
Tamil

parai

Malayalam

para

Kannanda

pare

Nubia

bat

Malinke

daba

Egyptian

per 'to plough'

Hausa

fartanya

Swahili

palile

Egyptian

hbs

Galla

buqis 'root up'

Sumerian

buru 'to root up'

It would appear that contrast exist between b and (f)_______p.

This indicates that in Paleo-Dravido-African that b < p. The Paleo-Dravido-African term for hoe was probably
*ba(r)/pa(r).
The Paleo-Dravido-Africans also possessed other terms for hoe:
Malayalam

kuntali

Tamil

kuntali 'pickaxe'

Nubian

Kadid

Wolof

konko

Malinke

kope, daba

Galla

doma

Hausa

garma

Kod

guddali

Kannanda

guddali

Kpelle

kali

This evidence suggest that t > d. The phonological contrast between t =/= d, highlight the alternation patterns of many
Paleo-Dravido African consonants for hoe including:
b =/= p
l =/= r
g =/= k.

Rice
Soninke
Vai
Manding

dugo
ko'o
malo

Dravidian

mala-kurula

Mende

molo, konu

Kpelle

moloy

Boko

mole

Bisa

muhi

Busa

mole

Sa

mela

Bambara

kini
Yam

Bozo
Vai

ku, kunan
jambi

Malinke

ku

Dravidian

kui, kuna, ku

Bambara

ku

It would appear that all the Proto-Dravidians were familiar with the cultivation of rice, yams and millet. This is not
surprising because Weber (1998) made it clear that millet cultivation in ancient South Asia was associated with rice
cultivation.
The linguistic evidence clearly show similarities in the Afican and Dravidian terms for plant domesticates. This
suggest that these groups early adopted agriculture and made animal domestication secondary to the cultivation of
millet, rice and yams. The analogy for the Malinke-Bambara and Dravidians terms for rice, millet and yams suggest a
very early date for the domestication of these crops.
MILLET
soma, kenge
dyempi, pyin
kene, nyo
sonne, connal
suna
nyo
RICE
Azer
dankante
Soninke
dugo
Vai
ko'o
Manding
malo
Dravidian
mala-kurula
Mende
molo, konu
Kpelle
moloy
Boko
mole
Bisa
muhi
Busa
mole
Sa
mela
Bambara
kini
Yam
Bozo
ku, kunan
Vai
jambi
Malinke
ku
Dravidian
kui, kuna, ku
Bambara
ku
Azer
Bozo
Manding
Dravidian
Wolof
Bambara

In summary, population pressure in the Sahara during a period of increasing hyperaridity forced hunter/gather/fisher
Proto-Dravidian people to first domesticate animals (Winters, 1999a,1999b) and then crops. The linguistic evidence
discussed above indicate that the Dravido-African speaking Maaites migrated out of Africa to Harappan sites with
millet, yam and rice already recognized as principal domesticated crop.
Increased agricultural production also played a limited role in the expansion of the Proto-Mande. The major grain
exploited by Saharan populations was rice ,the yam and pennisetum. McIntosh and McIntosh (1988) has shown that
the principal domesticate in the southern Sahara was bulrush millet (pennisetum). Millet impressions have been found
on Mande ceramics from both Karkarchinkat in the Tilemsi Valley of Mali, and Dar Tichitt in Mauritania between 43kya (McIntosh & McIntosh 1983a,1988; Winters 1986b; Andah 1981).
It would appear that all the Proto-Mande were familiar with the cultivation of rice, yams and millet. There are
similarities in the Malinke-Bambara and Vai terms for plant domesticates. This suggest that these groups early adopted
agriculture and made animal domestication secondary to the cultivation of millet, rice and yams. The analogy for the
Malinke-Bambara and Dravidians terms for rice, millet and yams suggest a very early date for the domestication of
these crops.

Chapter 6: Proto-Saharan Writing

The ProtoSaharans had writing. They either engraved their syllabic script in rocks, or used a stylus to engrave wet
clay. This view is supported by the fact that the term for writing often has the long uu, attached to various initial
consonants usually /l/, /r/, or /d/. For example writing in Sumerian is Ru and Shu, Elamite Talu, and in Dravidian carru.
These terms agree with the Manding term for excavate or hollow out du/do, kulu, tura, etc. This shows that the
ProtoSaharan term for writing denoted the creation of impressions on wet clay or hard rock.The Sumerian term for
carving was du.
The Maaite ancestors of the Kemites (ancient Egyptians) originally lived in Nubia. The Nubian origin of Egyptian
civilization is supported by the discovery of artifacts by archaeologists from the Oriental Institute at Qustul. On a stone
incense burner found at Qustul we find a palace facade, a crowned King sitting on a throne in a boat, with a royal
standard placed before the King and hovering above him, the falcon god Horus. The white crown on this Qustul king
was later worn by the rulers of Upper Egypt.

Many Egyptologists were shocked to learn in 1979, that the A-Group of Nubia at Qustul used Egyptian type
writing two hundred years before the Egyptians (Williams 1987). This fact had already been recognized much earlier
by Anta Diop (1974) when he wrote that it was in Nubia "where we find the animals and plants represented in
hieroglyphic writing".

In reality the early Egyptians used the Thinite script. This was a syllabic form of writing later used by the people of
the Sahara, Elamites, Indus Valley and the Olmecs in America.

The Qustul incense burner indicates that the unification of Nubia preceded that of Egypt. The Ta-Seti had a rich
culture at Qustul. Qustul Cemetery L had tombs that equaled or exceeded Kemite tombs of the First Dynasty of Egypt.
The A-Group people were called Steu 'bowmen'.
The ProtoSaharan script was the model script for the ancient Mande script, ProtoElamite, Indus Valley writing
and Linear A. The ProtoSaharan writing was first used to write characters on pottery, to give the ceramics a
talismanic quality. Thus we find ProtoSaharans characters on ancient Chinese, Egyptian, Linear A and the Indus Valley
(Winters, 1977, 1985,1985b,1985c).
The first syllabic writing system of Africans was the Thinite script. This writing was used first by Blacks in Nubia,
like the Niger-Congo people who migrated out of this region into the rest of Africa.

The Thinite script provides many of the signs that are included in later scripts used by Africans. In Nubia, Black
Africans were using Thinite symbols before the rise of Egypt to record their ideas and report on important events.

At this time your people may have been living in the caves of the Caucasus mountains.
This writing was later used by Africans to write inscriptions throughout Middle Africa.

Figure 6:4 Oued Mertoutek Inscription

The evidence of this writing is found throughout the Sahara. By the time Mande speaking people settled Dar Tichitt
they left numerous inscriptions throughout the region ( Galand,1968; Monod,1938).
The people of Dar Tichitt were Mande speakers. These Mande speaking people also lived in the Fezzan where they
were called Garamante/Garamandes. The Garamante settled Crete and are recognized as the Eteo-Cretans or Minoans.

As you can see from the above chart the Linear A signs and Mande/Manding signs are identical. If you look careful
you will note that Africans, or Black people had also taken their writing system to Anatolia were your ancestors were
living in the Caucasus mountains as hunter-gatherers.
The Minoans, who were Africans introduced Linear A, whose signs are identical to the writing left by Africans
throughout the Sahara, like those found at Tichitt and presently represented in the Vai and several other West African
scripts.
Indo-Europeans adopted this writing to write business documents. Their writing system was Linear B. The other
Proto- Greeks obtained writing from the Blacks of Africa and Phonesia passed on writing to the Romans. With the fall
of Rome Western Europeans got writing from the African Muslims who taught them the arts and sciences.

Chapter 7: The Religions of the Maaites

The historic gods of Africa and Asia were of Maaite origin. Concepts concerning these ancient gods or great
ancestors were first developed around a gigantic lake that formerly existed in Middle Africa around 8000 years ago.
This is supported by the fact that the Saharan cultures have resemblances to those of Nubia.(Hoffman 1979;Diop
1991) This lake was known in ancient times as Lake Tritonis.
Lake Tritonis was situated in the Libyan desert. Here as early as 7000 B.C. there was a slow transition from
hunting , to cattle pastoralism. The prehistoric appearance of a great lake in Libya has recently been supported by
satellite pictures of the Eastern Desert which indicate that a lake was located in the Qattara depression of northwest
Egypt.
Around 10000 years ago pluvial conditions existed in the Sahara which led to the creation of numerous river beds
now buried under tons of sand.( McCauley, 1982) Due to the abundance of streams, rivers and lakes in ProtoSaharan
Africa men who were powerful, were men who could harness the powerful water of the numerous streams and
rivers. Such men as these were recognized as demigods or great ancestors. For example in Sumer and Egypt gods and
demigods were described as "reedboat navigators". In Egypt some of these great men that became gods include
Thoth, and Osiris.
This is supported by Dravidian and Egyptian traditions. In ancient Egyptian tradition Ptah, came from the Sahara
below Egypt in Kush. He found Egypt inundated , so he performed great works of dyking and land reclamation so the
land was more habitable.
The first 'avatar' or 'Tirumal of the Dravidians is regarded as a fish, who showed Manu, a boat to save himself
from being drowned. Tirumal,is the same as Visnu of Sanskrit literature, another name for this god is Mayavon, Mayan
and Mal.
According to references in the Bhagavata Purana, a fish who is identified with the first avatar (sage), showed Manu
a boat nearby to save himself from being drowned . In passing it is interesting to note that the emblem of the Pandya
Kings of South India was the fish. Moreover in the Mesopotamian deluge story two Tamil words: nir 'water' and min
'fish' .
Moreover, it is interesting to note that the Arivar or sages of the Dravidians were also called Vellalar "lords of the
flood " or Karatar "lords of the clouds". These sages earned these titles because of their skill in controlling the floods
and in storing water for agricultural purposes.
According to the Olympian Creation Myth the earliest groups to appear on earth were the LibycoThracians. The
Libyans were ProtoSaharans, as were the original Thracians, who were descendants of the Kushite and Egyptian
troops established at Trace , by Sesostris (Thutmose III or Ramses II),when he conquered Asia and Europe.
Apollonius Rhodius tells us that the goddess Athene was born beside Lake Tritonis in Libya. The goddess Athene,
was called Neith by the Egyptians and Nia, by the Manding and EteoCretans of Minoan civilization.
The early gods of the Maaites included a serpent, the sun: Hercules,Seth, Wepwawet, Amon/Aman/Amma, and
Kush or Khons. In Egypt and Kush, both Amon and Khons were depicted as coalblack in accordance with tradition.
The Kushites also worshipped a "lord of the mountains", which is analogous to Murugan, a Dravidian god in India. In
India, Khrisna, Mal ,Vishnu, and Kali were usually depicted as black in color. Kali, was held to be a form of
Paravati, consort of Siva. In addition the Dravidian god of the pastoral region: Mullai, was the black god Mayan, who
was beloved by the milkmaids and cattle herders.
The earliest gods associated with the great hidden all powerful god were associated with the Sky. They believed in
an unseen universal force called "Ko" or "Ka". As a result the ProtoSaharans offered prayers to "Ka", e.g., Egyptian Ka
'vital force', Dravidian Kan, Manding Kani, and Magyar/Hungarian Kaan. This Ka, is also often associated with
snakes,rain and the sky.

THE GOD MAA

Many of the ProtoSaharan beliefs originated during the wet African Aqualithic period. As a result their gods, who
had once been great ancestors were referred to as "Fish" or "reedboat navigators". This common god was called Maa
, the man fish (of Eridu) in Mesopotamia and Syria and the ithyphallic forms, the prototype of Amon/Aman in Egypt ;
and the goddess Minaksi, of Madura in South India the goddess of the fish eyes, the Malabar
fish bearer of Mana and the sacred fishes of the Mapilla of the west coast of the Dekkan. In the languages of the
Manding Maa, is used to refer to the ancient inhabitants of the African continent, and the invisible spirit who inhabits
the water-courses .In Egypt Maat, meant divine truth and justice.
Among the ProtoSaharans the name Maa, for their great ancestor/god was joined to many ethnonyms. The
descendants of the Maa clan, claim descent from Maa, as evident in the name Mande, for the parent group of the
Manding of West Africa. Mande means, Mande or "children of Ma". Some Dravidians of South India were also
members of the Mande Superclan, as illustrated in the Kannada, Telugu and Tulu, Dravidian tribes that use the terms
Mande or Mandi to denote "people or persons". The Sumerians called themselves MahGarri "God's exalted children".
The ProtoSaharans in honor of great Maa, use the term "ma", to denote greatness, for example Manding: Maga;
Sumerian: Mag; and Dravidian: Ma. The ma, element was also used in the names for their rulers e.g., Menes of Egypt;
the Mannan of the Dravidians; and the Mansa of the Manding.
The Mal, of the Dravidians is just another form of Ma. Mal, is the Fish. He was the prototype of the Fish god
among the PandyanTamils. Ama, Uma, Ammon, Amon and etc. seems to either refer to Mal's consort.
This goddess Amon is most ancient among the ProtoSaharans.This goddess has many names including Athene or
Neith, daughter of Poseidon god of the Sea (again reference to the great Fishman); and Demeter, the mare headed
patroness.
The Mother goddess Amma/Amon of Libya had her cult center at the Oasis of Siwa. In ancient Egypt Amon was
depicted as a ram with spheres. The god Amon was taken to Egypt during the New Kingdom.
The ProtoSaharans early used the oxen with sun disc between the horns as the symbol of their God, long before
the Egyptians worshipped Hathor. This god represented Amon/Amma of the Dravidians, Egyptians and Manding
speaking people.

Figure 7:1 Ancient Saharan God

Engravings in the Sahara, dating back to Neolithic times show the solar disk with "uraei", which was associated
with the worship of Ra/Re in Egypt, when worn by the ram it represented Amon of Thebes. There are depictions of
this god from the Saharan sites such as Bou Alam and Zenoga. Archaeologists believe that these engravings date back
to 4000 BC. This use of a ram god, with different names among the various groups indicate that the ProtoSaharans
worshipped the same religion.For example among the
Dogon of West Africa, the god Amma is a ram. In Yoruba Amon, means concealed the same as in Egyptian."

Seth and Wepwawet

A major god of the Maaites was Set/Seth. Seth was worshipped in Egypt and Saharan oasis such as Siwa. In the
Sahara, Seth was recognized as a father figure by the Maaites.
In Egyptian mythology Set represented the desert, and the foreign lands beyond the desert. The earliest evidence of
Set(h), comes from a small ivory piece found in a Badarian grave. Seth was also carved on a ivory Amratian comb
(c.4500BC), and the famous Scorpion mace head. The major center of Seth worship in Egypt was Nbt. The term Nbt
in Egyptian means ruler, lord and gold.
The oldest Seth and Anubis engraving is found outside the Dakhla Oasis, west of the Kharga Oasis. This engraving
was found by Salima Ikram in 2006, she is director of the North Kharga Oasis Survey.

Figure 7:2 Seth and Wepwawet

The engraving has Thinite inscriptions under the figures. On the left side we see a figure of a cannine and on the right

we have a figure of Seth. Reading the inscriptions from right to left I will decipher the writing. Under the cannine
figure we have: Be tu a ka na or "To exist obedient to the order in joy [with the] Mother".

Figure 7:3 The Canine God Wepwawet

Reading the inscriptions under the Seth figure we have reading the inscription from right to left: i lu i gyo fa yo
gyo, or " Thou hold upright this divinity of the cult, [our] Father, the vital spirit of the society consecrated to (Seth's)
cult".

Figure 7:4 The God Seth

This figure is important in relation to the Western Sahara and the Seth cult. Michael Rice, in Egypt's Making: The
Origin of Ancient Egypt 5000-2000 BC, makes it clear that Seth was the god of the Southern people and that Anubis
(the canine god) was the protector of the people of the South.
The major cannine god of the Egyptians was Anubis. Anubis (Anpu) was the Egyptian god who guided the dead to
judgment.
The Split Rock inscription above make it clear that Seth was also worshipped in the Western Sahara probably
before the people migrated to Naqada. This depiction of a cannine alongside Seth, suggest that this figure represented
Wepwawet, the ancient name for the canine god.

Wepwawet is depicted on the Narmar Palette and associated with the dog-fetish of Asiyut (Rice, p.109).
Wepwawet, was called both the "opener of the ways" and "guide of the gods" (Rice, p.52).

The inscription and depiction of Wepwawet and Seth at Split Rock in the Western Sahara, make it clear that
Wepwawet and Seth were worshipped as the Mother and Father gods of the Maaites. It makes it clear that the mini
cave at Split Rock was a temple where the people worshipped Seth and Wepwawet. The ritual centers at Nabta Playa
and Split Rock suggest that the Maaites established their religious centers underground.

The appearence of Isis and Anubis (or Wepwawet) on many Meroitic offering tablets may came from the fact that
these gods represent the wives of Seth and Osiris who guarded the passage of the dead to the after world as an
accomodation of the of Egyptians who believed in different gods,i.e, in the North (Osiris and Isis) and the South (Seth
and Anubis/Wepwawet) Egyptians.
The Western Sahara is also providings us information about African cultures that formed the foundation of the
Olmec civilization. For example, the discovery of green stone artifacts in the Sahara discussed by Holl and others make
it clear that the Maaites were working "jade" long before they came to Mexico.
In addition a number of stone heads have been found in the Western Sahara.

Figure 7:6 Saharan Big Head Monument

These heads suggest that Maaite people probably had a tradition of using stone to make the heads of their rulers.
Both the stone heads and green stone artifacts from the Western Sahara is helping us to learn more about the
civilizations that formerly were established by Maaites belonging to the Maa Confederation.
Amon/Athene
This worship of the ram may have resulted from the important part goat/sheep played in the Sahara as a source of
food when the Sahara increasingly became more arid.
Archaeology makes it clear that the first animal domesticated by the Maaites were rams and goats. As as a result,
the ram became an early god figure by the Maaites who recognized rams and sheep as domesticates that could
survive under any ecological condition
In the Sahara there are many yardangs. These yardangs resemble rams. This suggest that the Maaites built
architectural structures that were Ram Spinxes.

Figure7:7 Yardang that Resembles Amon Iconography

It is interesting to note that Siwa (> Siva?) Oasis, was recognized as the cult center of Amon/Amma, because in
the Siwa depression archaeologists have found numerous conical and pyramidal sand encrusted hills that resemble the
monuments of ancient Egypt, including a sphinx which resembles a gigantic ram. Although most scholars believe
these monuments in the Siwa and Farafra Oasis are natural erosional formations called yardangs, they may really be
the remains of monuments built by the ProtoSaharans now encrusted with sand harden by the wind.
The mother goddess was either identified as Amon or Athene. Amon or Amen of the Egyptians was primarily a
Theban god whose shrine was rebuilt around 2500 BC, when the Theban Kings defeated their northern foes. Amon
became an important god in Egypt beginning with the 12th Dynasty . The priests of Amon, called their god "the King
of Gods". The Egyptians recognized Amon as a primeval god. Amon is identified with the ithyphalli god Men(< Maa ?).

Figure 7:8 Kushite God Amon

Amon was recognized as an unseen god, because he could travel. He was also seen as an imperial god. Sesostris I,
is credited with building the Temple of Amon at Karnak, near Thebes. Sesostris I, is also credited with conquering the
whole sea coast of India, beyond the Ganges to the Eastern Ocean, he also conquered Europe as far as Thrace.
It is clear that Amon or Amen, was the ancient god of the Kushites/ProtoSaharans because Ammenemes I or
Ameny I of the 11th Dynasty was from the southern state of TaSeti, the first Nome (city/state) of Egypt.
Ammenemes means "Amon is in front".
Sesostris I (Thutmose I), probably helped establish Amon worship in Europe and Asia , because as he expanded his
Empire he left colonies in all the lands he conquered. Sesostrasen Osiritasen of the 12th Dynasty, is suppose to have
established colonies along the Danube river and the Black Sea. Strabo (Bk.3), said that Sesostris I, is suppose to have
conquered Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Iberia and Colchis.
Before the Egyptians conquered Greece the worship of Amon had already been established in the region. It was the
Garamante Manding speaking tribe who took Amon worship to Greece. In Appollonius Rhodius iv.1310, we discover
that the goddess Athene was born beside Lake Tritonis in Libya. Plato, identified Athene of Athens with the Libyan

god Neith. Athene was worshipped by the Manding and other Western Saharans including the Linear A people of
Minoan Crete. Athene is always associated with the god Amon. Moreover the Manding concept of N'ama as a
dynamic spirit among the other Mande tribes point to an earlier worship of Amon, before the Mande accepted Islam.
The Bambara call their ancestral god Gnia or Nia, this has affinity to the Greek term for the Libyan god called Neith. It
is interesting to note that in the Linear A inscriptions we find mention of the goddess Nia= Neith. Moreover, some
South Indian worship Amma = Amon. The priest of this cult are called Chom or Khonrini, the Greeks called them
Gymnosophists. This Chom, of the Dravidians has affinity to Khon, the leading Kushite god.
The goddess Neith or Athene was known by many names. Some names related to Athene include Anaitis, Nanaia
> Tanit of the Phoenicians; Nama in Albania; and the SumeroDravidian NinniIstar "the wild cow".
The ProtoDravidians and Sumerians had common religions. For example in the Sumer pantheon the emblem for
Inanna, was the date palm, while Ninsun, Dumuzi, Anu and Ishkur were associated with bulls. The Dravidian
equivalent to Anu, or bull worship was AnuRupa or Siva. The name of this clan in India was called Anu. Many of
these Dravidians were also established in Armenia.
In India we find the "men with horns". This term was given to Dravidian dignitaries who had crowns made of
animal horns. This type of horned figure appear on many Harappan seals, as do serpents. The wearing of animal horns
on crowns may date back to the time of Sesostris, because many Egyptian headdresses included horns.
In ancient Sumer, the goddess of the marriage rites was Ur. The goddess Ur, has analogies to the Dravidian cult of
the goddess Paravati, in Siva temples.
Dumuzi
The Sumerian god Dumuzi, may be a great ancestor of the Tamil. Prof. Muttarayan (1975) has suggested that the
word Tamil, may be an evolute of Dumuzi, the name for the Sumerian moongod. Originally Tammuz/Damuzi was
supposedly a king of Uruk. According to Sumerian tradition Dumuzi lived in the neither world.
In the neither world there was a place called "lapis luzuli mountains". The Dravidian speakers founded the Harappan
civilization and wrote the Indus Valley seals. (Winters 1984, 1985) The miners from the Indus Valley controlled the
lazurite ores of Badakhshan and Afghanistan.(Brentjes 1983). The Dravidians exported these metals to Mesopotamia.
Lapis lazuli is found in metamorphic limestone or dolomite. This material was used to make many prestige items in
the ancient world. The riches source of lapis lazuli was Badakhshan . Other lazurite deposits are found in the
Himalayan region, and the southern end of lake Baikal in Soviet Union. These centers of lapis lazuli were the central
factor in Dravidian colonization of Central Asia. (Winters 1990:127)
The Sumerian story about Dumuzi,probably records the expansion of the ProtoSaharan tribe from Mesopotamia
into Central Asia that later became the Tamil. Dumuzi, was suppose to have been exiled from the Sumerian city of
Erech or Uruk, by the "demons" of either of these cities. The phonetic laws operative in Dravidian offer no problem in
deriving Tamil from Dumuzi.
The marriage of the Dravidian cult goddess Paravati, in Siva temples to insure effectively the fecundity and
prosperity of the Dravidian people is analogous to the holy marriage of Dumuzi and Inanna, the Sumerian
mothergoddess. The Telugu, call the Dravidians aravaalu "noise makers". This noise made by the Tamils, may have
been ritual wailing , one of the major features of the Dumuzi cult in Sumer.
The possible ancient exile of people from Sumer to ProtoDravidian sites would explain the genetic unity of the
Sumerian and Dravidian languages. Interestingly, the Sumerians called themselves proudly saggigga "the black headed
people". In Tamil gig, means black. This points to analogy between Sumerian and Dravidian. During the reign of King
Asoka, of India the Dravidians were called Kalinka, which appears to be an evolute of
Sumerian (sag) gigga .
The Sumerians obtained lapis lazuli from the HarappoDravidians. S.Kramer, in the Sumerians, claimed that the
Indus Valley was called Tilmun/Dilmun by the Sumerians. This was the Sumerian paradise. The boats of Tilmun, or the
Indus Valley were suppose to have taken gold, copper and lapis lazuli to the Sumerian.
Demeter
The God Demeter was introduced to Greece by the Manding. The
descendants of the Manding were called Carians. The major Manding tribe responsible for the spread of this faith were
the Garamantes. They are associated with apiculture.
Demeter came from Libya. He is suppose to have introduced poppy seeds to Greece. The Carians practiced
matrilineal descent, they took the names of their mothers.
Hercules the Sun God
Hercules was an important god. His emblem was the sun. Megasthenes said that Hercules was the father of the
Pandyan dynasty of the Dravidians.

Arrian, on the authority of Megasthenes said that the Indian Hercules and the Theban Hercules, had the same
habits. Homer described Hercules as follows: "Black he stood as night his bow uncased, his arrow strung for fight".
The association of Hercules with arrows clearly indicate that he was related to the Kushites who used the bow.
Thus Hercules is identified with Khrisna and Mal of the Dravidians.
Poseidon
According to Greek traditions the father of Athene or Neith was Poseidon or Potidan "he who gives drink, the
wooden mountain". Poseidon was the god of the sea, his symbol was the trident.

Figure 7:9 Poseidon

The identification of Poseidon, with a "wooden mountain" or boat(i.e., a boat on the ocean is like a mountain on
the sea) suggest that Poseidon, is another name for the Fish, that showed Manu or Maa the boat that saved mankind
from the ancient great flood. The identification of the trident ( which also has affinity to the serekh sign of kingship in
Egypt and TaSeti), and the Fish emblem of the Pandyan Kings show the spread of the Maa worship from Middle
Africa to India. The agreement of Poseidon's name Potidan with Pandyan suggest that this god was popular among
the ProtoDravidians.
The identification of the Fish, with Maa and Manu, suggest that while the Fish or Poseidon was the inventor of
boats, Maa or Manu built dams that controlled the water levels in areas settled by the ProtoSaharans where they
cultivated their crops.

Figure 7:10 Greek Black Pottery of Poseidon

It is interesting to note that when Eudoxus of Cyzicus visited the coastal regions of Kush, Strabo reports that he
called this area Posidonius. This is interesting because the ancient people of Abyssinia and Somalia, were said to be
Icthyophagi, who worshipped the god Poseidon.
Siva
Siva, was probably introduced into India by the Kushana and Tamilitti Dravidian speaking tribes as they fled from
Southeast Asia and China, through Tibet into South India. The symbol of Siva are three eyes (the all seeing), tiger skin,
armed with a battle axe riding on a bullock. This indicates that Siva was the god of a people that had conquered the
worshipers of Mal (as bullock and fish) and also Murugan (who was symbolized by the Tiger) the god of the
mountains. Siva's riding of the bullock, suggest defeat of the mother goddess (worshipers) and rise of a patriarchal
clan system as a result of the many wars the Dravidians had to fight against the IndoEuropeans, Altaic speakers and
SinoTibetan speakers in China and Central and Southeast Asia.
Kanakasabhai (l966) believes that Siva worship, came from the Himalayan region. He said that "His [Siva's] abode
was the snowcapped mount Kailas situated north of the Himalayas, near the sources of the great rivers Ganges, Indus
and Brahmaputra. His greatest feat was the destruction of Tripiura or the "three castles" which were the strongholds of
Asuras who had caused much annoyance to the celestials. He married Par[a]vati, the daughter of the king of the
mountains" .
Siva is also sometimes analogous to the fish god Mal. In South India, Siva is referred to as the "Great Fish", and is
represented by Fish signs. Throughout Tamilnadu tridents are found in association with Siva temples.
Kumara
Among the Dravidians the god of youth is called Kumara or Skanda in the Puranic literature. Kumara is said to be
the son of Siva. This Kumara is analogous to the Egyptian god Horus, the son of Osiris.
The above evidence indicates that just as theorized by Diop many of the ProtoSaharan gods were really great
ancestors, e.g., Dumuzi, Mal and etc. This proves that except for these great ancestors the ProtoSaharans had a great
god which they saw as being far away from them , but firmly in control of events on earth.
Anta Diop (l991) has shown that the structure of kinship depends much on the material conditions of life. This

rule/theorem can be tested by the ProtoSaharans.

As outlined in Chapter One, the ProtoSaharans lived an idealized life where there was abundant food resources
until at least 3500 B.C. This situational experience led to the development of a semi-sedentary lifestyle. After 4000
B.C., as outlined in the previous chapter the ProtoSaharans began to raise cattle in addition to collecting grasses for
food. Because of the successful use of first goats/sheep and later cattle, this animal began to represent their gods. This
abundance of food led to a ProtoSaharan cosmology imbued with optimism.

Chapter 8:The Expansion of the Children of Maa

Variations in the weather patterns of Middle Africa forced the people to move from one area to the other depending
on the environmental conditions resulting from changes in the climate. The first major migration of the ProtoSaharans
from the nuclear Southern Sahara region occurred around 5200 B.C., when they began to move from the central
Sahara,into the southern Sahara, and northwest Africa, back into Nubia. Beginning around 4200 B.C. the Sahara began
to dry up (Drake, 2012, Soreno,2008,Winters,1986b). Many migrates fled the increasing harsh environment to settle
much of West Africa,and Nubia , Equatorial Africa, and much of the Niger Valley at this time was probably still a
forest zone.
For much of the Ounanian period the Nile Valley was a swampy (Winters,2011). At the end of the European glacial
period there was a decrease in the rainfall of the Sahara. This made the Nile Valley an attractive area of settlement for
many ProtoSaharans, because as the Sahara became more arid the Nile Valley changed from a swampy hostile
environment to one quite pleasant and habitable.
Due the decreased habitability of the Sahara, and the settlement of many ProtoSaharan populations in the choice
areas of Middle Africa, which were not covered with forest or swampy areas where sickness was rampant, after 3500
B.C. many ProtoSaharans began to migrate out of the Sahara into Europe, Asia, and after 2000 B.C. the Americas .
This ancient homeland of the Dravidians, Egyptians, Sumerians, Niger-Kordofanian-Mande and Elamite speakers
is called the Fertile African Crescent(Anselin, 1989, p.16; Winters, 1981,1985b,1991, 2002). We call these people the
Proto-Saharans (Winters 1985b,1991). The generic term for this group is Kushite.
The proto-Saharans specialized in the use of the bow. They were experts in navigation and boat technology.This
resulted from the presence of numerous rivers and lakes that dotted Africa at this time.

Figure 8:1 Saharan Boat

These Proto-Saharans were called Ta-Seti and Tehenu by the Egyptians (Winters,1994,2002). Farid(1985,p.82)
noted that "We can notice that the beginning of the Neolithic stage in Egypt on the edge of the Western Desert
corresponds with the expansion of the Saharian Neolithic culture and the growth of its population".
The original homeland of most African groups living in West and Central Africa, was East Africa and Middle
Africa. Therefore, those African living today in West Africa are mainly of Proto-Saharan rather than East African
origin. It would appear that the African Semitic speaking groups occupied most of East Africa and only recently
pushed their way into Southwest Asia and the Northeast African area after the migration of the Proto-Saharans
from this area after 3000 BC. The Proto-Saharans took control of the Nile Valley, and parts of Europe and Asia after a
great flood destroyed the Anu civilizations around 4000 B.C. The Anu controlled much of the Nile Valley until 40003500 B.C. The rise of contemporary Black African civilizations probably begins with the founding of Ta-Seti Kingdom
at Qustul, Nubia after 3500 B.C. After 3500 B.C.,taller Black Africans began to move progressively down the Nile to
occupy Anu settlements along this river.
Narmar was probably a descendant of one of the rulers of one of the city-states that were part of the Maa
Confederation. It was members of the Maa Confederation who introduced the system of mummification, syllabic
writing and kingship to ancient Egypt. Below is a palette of Narmar conquering the Anu ?

Figure 8:2 Narmar Palette

.

To settle new areas the ProtoSaharans used their ability as navigators to transport entire tribes from Africa to Asia
and Europe. The vessels of the ProtoSaharans were similar to the Egyptian style boats, as indicated by the boat
depicted in the Sahara at Tin Tazarift.

It was in the Saharan massifs that elements of non Anu Egyptian and Black African
cultures were created between 9000-6000 B.C. This area from the Sudan in the
south to the highland areas of the Fezzan in the north was a "Fertile Crescent". After 5200 B.C,, the Proto-Saharans
begin to expand down from the Highlands into fertile Saharan grasslands. A major region controlled by the Maaites was
the Fezzan in modern day Libya.
The inhabitants of the Fezzan were round headed Africans. (Jelinek, 1985,p.273; Winters,2002) The cultural
characteristics of the Fezzanese were analogous to C-Group culture items and the people of Ta-Seti . The C-Group
people occupied the Sudan and Fezzan regions between 3700-1300 BC (Jelinek 1985;Winters,1994).

Figure 8:3 Tehenu on Amrathian Pottery

The inhabitants of Libya were called Tmhw (Temehus). The Temehus were organized into two groups the Thnw
(Tehenu) in the North and the Nhsj (Nehesy) in the South. (Diop 1986; Winters,1994) A Tehenu personage is depicted
on Amratian period pottery (Farid 1985 ,p. 84). In the Amrathian piece above the Tehenu personage wore pointed
beard, phallic-sheath and feathers on their head.
The Temehus are called the C-Group people by archaeologists.(Jelinek, 1985; Quellec, 1985). The central Fezzan
was a center of C-Group settlement. Quellec (1985, p.373) discussed in detail the presence of C-Group culture traits
in the Central Fezzan along with their cattle during the middle of the Third millennium BC.
The Temehus or C-Group people began to settle Kush around 2200 BC. The kings of Kush had their capital at
Kerma, in Dongola and a sedentary center on Sai Island. The same pottery found at Kerma is also present in Libya
especially the Fezzan.

The C-Group founded the Kerma dynasty of Kush. Diop (1986, p.72) noted that the "earliest substratum of the
Libyan population was a black population from the south Sahara". Kerma was first inhabited in the 4th millennium BC
(Bonnet 1986). By the 2nd millennium BC Kushites at kerma were already worshippers of Amon/Amun and they used
a distinctive black-and-red ware (Bonnet 1986; Winters 1985b,1991). Amon, later became a major god of the
Egyptians during the 18th Dynasty.

There are similarities between Egyptian and Saharan motifs (Farid,1985). It was in the Sahara that we find the
first evidence of agriculture, animal domestication and weaving (Farid , 1985, p.82). This highland region is the
Kemites "Mountain of the Moons " region, the area from which the civilization and goods of Kem, originated
(Winters,2012).

The rock art of the Saharan Highlands support the Egyptian traditions that in ancient times they lived in the
Mountains of the Moon. The Predynastic Egyptian mobiliar art and the Saharan rock art share many common themes
including, characteristic boats(Farid 1985,p. 82), men with feathers on their head (Petrie ,1921,pl. xvlll,fig.74;
Raphael, 1947, pl.xxiv, fig.10; Vandier, 1952, p.285, fig. 192), false tail hanging from the waist (Vandier, 1952, p.353;
Farid, 1985,p.83; Winkler 1938,I, pl.xxlll) and the phallic sheath (Vandier, 1952, p.353; Winkler , 1938,I , pl.xvlll,xx,
xxlll).

Due to the appearance of aridity in the Mountains of the Moon the Proto-Saharans migrated first around the
megalakeFezzan. Here they founded the Maa civilization until this area was also overcome by arid winds.

Other Proto-Saharans, left the megalakeFezzan area migrated from there southward into Nubia and thence they
moved along the Nile up into Upper Egypt or Kem/Egypt which was originally occupied by the Anu or pgymy people.
The Proto-Saharan origin of the Kemites explain the fact that the Kushites were known for maintaining the most
ancient traditions of the Kemites as proven when the XXVth Dynasty or Kushite Dynasty ruled ancient Egypt. Farid
(1985, p.85) wrote that "To conclude, it seems that among Predynastic foreign relations, the [Proto-]Saharians
were the first to have significant contact with the Nile Valley, and even formed a part of the Predynastic
population" (emphasis author).
The ancestors of the Kemites originally lived in Nubia. The Nubian origin of Egyptian civilization is supported by
the discovery of artifacts by archaeologists from the Oriental Institute at Qustul. On a stone incense burner found at
Qustul we find a palace facade, a crowned King sitting on a throne in a boat, with a royal standard placed before the
King and hovering above him, the falcon god Horus. The white crown on this Qustul king was later worn by the rulers
of Upper Egypt.

Figure 8:4 Symbols of Royalty on Qustul Incense Burner

Many Egyptologists were shocked to learn in 1979, that the A-Group of Nubia at Qustul used Egyptian type
writing two hundred years before the Egyptians (Williams 1987). This fact had already been recognized much earlier
by Anta Diop (1974) when he wrote that it was in Nubia "where we find the animals and plants represented in
hieroglyphic writing".

The Qustul incense burner indicates that the unification of Nubia preceded that of Egypt. The Ta-Seti had a rich
culture at Qustul. Qustul Cemetery L had tombs that equaled or exceeded Kemite tombs of the First Dynasty of Egypt.
The A-Group people were called Steu 'bowmen'.
The Steu had the same funeral customs, pottery, musical instruments and related artifacts of the Egyptians.
Williams (1987, p.173,182) believes that the Qustul Pharaohs are the Egyptian Rulers referred to as the Red Crown
rulers in ancient Egyptian documents.

Dr. Williams (1987) gave six reasons why he believes that the Steu of Qustul founded Kemite civilization:

1. Direct progression of royal complex designs from Qustul to Hierakonpolis to Abydos.

2. Egyptian objects in Naqada III a-b tombs

3. No royal tombs in Lower and Upper Egypt.

4. Pharoanic monuments that refer to conflict in Upper Egypt.

5. Inscriptions of the ruler Pe-Hor, are older than Iry-Hor of Abydos.

6. The ten rulers of Qustul, one at Hierakonpolis and three at Abydos corresponds to the "historical"kings of late
Naqada period.

The findings of Williams (1987), support the findings of Diop (1991) because we also understand better now why
the Egyptian term designating royalty etymologically means: (the man) who comes from the South= nsw< n y swt =
who belongs to the South= who is a native of the South= the King of Lower Egypt, and has never meant just King, in
other words king of Lower and Upper Egypt, King of all Egypt (p.108).

During Kemite Dynasty I,the A-Group or Ta-Seti (Kushite) people of Lower Nubia disappear. Given the close
relationship between the Predynastic Egyptians and Ta-Seti who founded the first empire on earth (Williams 1985),
suggest that the Narmar Palette, depiction of the epic battle which unified Kem may also record the forced submission
of the A-Group people to Upper Egyptian rule. The terms of this victory may have called for the A-Group people to
move into Kem. This would explain the lack of archaeological data on the A-Group people after the unification of Kem.
This would also explain how the Egyptian form of government came from the south into the Delta. Trigger (1987)

noted that: Evidence that both the Red and the White Crowns were originally southern Egyptian symbols suggests that
most of the iconography originated in Upper Egypt" (p.63).

The research makes it clear that the first sepats or nomes of Egypt were probably founded by Kushites who
spoke a Niger-Congo language and belonged to the Ounanian culture. The A-Group people were the foundation of the
Egyptians. The Egyptians differenciated themselves from the Kushites once the former city-states or sepats became
Kem (Winters,1994,2002).
In reality the early Egyptians used the Thinite script. This was a syllabic form of writing later used by the people
of the Sahara, Elamites, Indus Valley and the Olmecs in America.

The advent of hyperaridity led to the collapse of the Saharan culture. High population density, and the resulting need
for a reliable food supply forced the ProtoSaharans to migrate out of the Sahara into other parts of Africa, Asia and
Europe. The first group to migrate out of the ProtoSahara was the Elamites and Sumerians.
The Nile Valley was already settled by the ProtoEgyptians and the AGroup people of TaSeti, so the
ProtoSumerians migrated into Mesopotamia while the Elamites made their way to Iran. These groups arrived in
these areas by sea. They commenced to settle in Mesopotamia many cities formerly settled by the Anu people, who
had fled these cities as a result of the great flood after 4000 B.C.
The linguistic evidenced shows that the Elamites were basically a mixed group speaking Dravidian and Manding
languages. These ProtoManding and ProtoDravidian elements migrated across the Zagros Mountains into Central Asia
and China after 3000 B.C. Remnants of these Kushites made their way into the Indus Valley.
The Dravidian people of South India are the result of possibly two migrations from Africa into the Indus Valley and
India. The ProtoDravidians were probably remnants of the ProtoSaharan herders who occupied the central and
southern Sahara until 2400 B.C., when hyperaridity began to dry up lakes, and cattle herding was more difficult
(Winters 1985,1989,1990) .

Up until 2500 B.C., most of the ProtoManding that had not made the migration to Iran were living in the Western
Desert and the southern Sahara. This is supported by the archaeological evidence that indicates that the Sahelian and
Sudanic zones were uninhabited by herders before 2500 B.C.(McIntosh and McIntosh 1981) After 2400 BC remnants
of the Manding lived in Libya and began to settle Crete. The other major Manding sites were at Karkarichinkat which
was occupied until 2000 B.C. By 1500 BC the ProtoManding lived in the Tichitt region.

The cultural and ethnic affinities of the ProtoSaharans encouraged the development of well organized trade
relations between these groups in Africa and Asia. From the 4th Millennium through the 3rd Millennium B.C. an
extensive trade network connected the Kushites/ProtoSaharans from Egypt to the Indus Valley, Iran and West Asia.
Homer alluded to the Kushite diaspora when he wrote: "A race divided, whom the sloping rays, the rising and the
setting sun surveys".
Archaeologists have found vessels from IVBI workshop at Tepe Yahya, in West Asia that have a uniform shape and
design. This style of vessel is distributed from Egypt to Soviet Uzbekistan and the Indus Valley. These intercultural
style vessels show clear parallels between Egyptian,Iranian, Sumerian and the Indus valley civilization.
The discovery of Intercultural style vessels from Susa (in Iran),Sumerian, Egyptian and Indus Valley sites suggest a
shared ideological identity among these people. In fact the appearance of shared iconographic symbols and beliefs
within diverse areas suggest cultural and ethnic unity among the people practicing these cultures. The common
naturalistic motifs shared by the major civilizations include, writing (symbols), combatant snakes, the scorpion, bull
and etc. This evidence of cultural unity is explained by the origin of these people in the ProtoSahara.

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