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The Constellations of Ancient Egypt | Juan Antonio Belmonte

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The Constellations of Ancient Egypt | Juan Antonio Belmonte 187 CHAPTER 7 THE CONSTELLATIONS OF ANCIENT EG,PT JosI Lull and Juan Antonio Belmonte Summary. In this chapter we wi study the conste ations0 asterisms and indiCidua stars which popu ated the skies of ancient Egypt for more than three mi ennia. Awo masterpieces of ancient Egyptian art0 the astronomica cei ing of the tomb of Senenmut at 3eir e .ahari in Muxor0 and the circu ar Rodiac of the temp e of Oathor at 3endara0 wi be used as the reference frameworks where our ana yses wi be out ined. .y making Cery simp e assumptions and using the information proCided by the ancient Egyptian skywatchers in the decana and Ramesside c ocks0 and in the ce estia diagrams of the New 4ingdom onwards0 we wi be ab e to uncoCer near y three-2uarters of the ancient Egyptian firmament. Ahis ce estia tapestry was popu ated by the images of anima s0 symbo s and diCinities that were most significant in understanding the Egyptian interpretation of the cosmos. Mater0 in the Rodiac0 these conste ations were ama gamated with those of the Mesopotamian (and SreekI tradition producing a co age that was to remain as the standard sky- ore during the Sraeco- Roman period. 7.1. Introduction Ahe study of ancient sacred sources enab es us to contend that the ancient Egyptians had a comp ete set of conste ations coCering the who e area of sky which cou d be seen from Egyptian atitudes. Ahere were two dominant groups0 one (probab yI in the southern sky and another for northern dec inations. Ahe northern sky0 as beautifu y represented in some New 4ingdom tomb cei ings0 was fu of conste ations. Ahose took the form of a ion0 a crocodi e0 a bu Ds fore eg (sometimes a comp ete .u I or a fema e hippopotamus. Ahe southern group was essentia y formed by a be t of —conste ations' known as the de ans0 indiCidua stars or asterisms whose he iaca rising was presumab y used for time-keeping0 at east from the end of the O d 4ingdom (c. 2200 ..C.I0 if not ear ier0 since some decana stars or conste ations0 such as sAH (SahI or spdt (SopdetI0 are a ready mentioned in the Pyramid Aexts. Te know this group from the diagona star- c ocks decorating coffin ids (17 haCe so far come to ightI of the First Intermediate Period and the Midd e 4ingdom0 and a so from ater tombs and temp e cei ings0 inc uding the famous Rodiac of 3endara. Ahe system needed to be updated during the Midd e 4ingdom when the decana star-c ocks were presumab y deCe oped0 a though our on y information about them comes from a ater source known as the Cosmology of Nut0 with two re eCant extant copies in the cenotaph of Seti I at Abydos and in the tomb of Ramses IL (4L2I. OoweCer0 in the New 4ingdom (c. 1800 ..C.I0 the de ans were no onger usefu for time-keeping0 due to the wandering nature of the ciCi ca endar0 and a new system was deCe oped0 using on y the meridian (or near-meridianI transit of certain stars0 be onging in some cases to huge conste ations0 such as the Fema e Oippopotamus (rrtI or the Siant (nxtI0 and a few asterisms. Ahese star charts haCe been found in the tombs of the ast Ramesside pharaohs (c. 1100 ..C.; hence the name —Ramesside c ocks or star- charts'I in the La ey of the 4ings (notab y Ramses LI0 LII and Id; 4L90 1 and 60 respectiCe y)0 where they were painted for the benefit of the deceased king. 188 Figure 7.1. Ahe ancient Egyptian Ciew of the skies at the beginning of the New 4ingdom0 represented on the cei ing of the tomb of bueen OatshepsutDs faCourite0 Senenmut. Ahis is the ear iest comp ete representation of the Egyptian firmament reported so far (dated c. 1470 ..C.I. Ahe ower part represents the northern sky conste ations in the centre of the pane 0 inc uding the fema e Oippopotamus0 the Mion or the .u qs Fore eg0 surrounded by the 12 months of the ciCi ca endar and0 presumab y0 18 or 16 of the gods of the moon cyc e. Ahe upper part inc udes the decans0 starting with tpy-a knmt and finishing with Ast spdt (represented as the goddess Isis-SopdetI0 four p anets and the so-ca ed triangu ar decans. Notice a so the southern conste ations of Sah (represented by a man standing in a boatI0 the Sheep (sit or srtI and the .oat (wiAI. It is the obGectiCe of this essay to estab ish re iab e e2uiCa ents for these ancient conste ations in the ce estia Cau t. Adapted from Mu and .e monte (2006I. Ahe number and Cariety of documents of an astronomica character substantia y increase during and after the New 4ingdom. As we haCe mentioned0 astronomica cei ings began to depict a comp icated pattern0 or —ce estia diagram' as it is fre2uent y ca ed0 in which ists of stars were combined with actua representations of both southern0 such as Sah0 Sopdet0 sit9srt (Sit or Seret0 the SheepI or wiA (Tia0 the .oatI0 and northern conste ations such as msxtyw (Meskhetyu0 the Fore egI0 mAi (the MionI or 189 anw (Anu0 a fa con-head godI. Ahe best preserCed0 which cou d be considered masterpieces of Egyptian art0 are those found at Ahebes in the tomb of Senenmut (AA3830 the o dest extant examp e0 shown in Figure 6.1I0 the Million Eear Temple of Ramses II (the RamesseumI or the La ey of the 4ings tombs of Seti I (4L17I0 Aousre (4L14I0 and again Ramses LI or Ramses Id. Ahe c epsydra of 4arnak0 dated in the reign of Amenhotep III (c. 1380 ..C.I but possib y representing an o der tradition0 a so depicts one of these singu ar diagrams. After the New 4ingdom0 there are Carious usefu sources for comprehending the Egyptian ce estia Cau t. Among these0 we might mention the ce estia diagrams in the astronomica cei ings of the tombs of Pedamenope and of Montuemhat0 in western Ahebes0 which date from the Mate Period0 and certain c epsydrae or coffins. Fina y0 during the Pto emaic and Roman periods the documentation is again abundant0 with new astronomica cei ings or Carious astronomica representations in the decorations of c epsydrae0 coffins or sarcophagi. Ahe Cast maGority of these sources were di igent y assemb ed by Otto Neugebauer and Richard Parker (hereafter N&PI0 two of the most respected scho ars in the fie d of ancient Egyptian astronomy0 in their remarkab e Egyptian Astronomi al Te5ts (EATI. Ahese Co umes are sti a basic source for any approach to the study of ancient Egyptian sky-watching. Ao —stand on the shou ders of these two giants' to pursue the obGectiCe of discoCering the sky as Ciewed by ancient Egyptians has not been an easy task. 7.2 On the most ancient Egyptian skies To attempt to go further in the determination of the de ans is not only of very little interest but would be ne essarily imply as ribing to our te5ts an astronomi al a ura y whi h they never intended to have (Neugebauer0 1969I. zzz Just as in the ase of the de ans, the rudeness of the underlying pro edures is so great that only under severely restri tive assumptions ould numeri al on lusions be abstra ted from the given lists. If we add the fa t of obvious errors and arelessness in details in the e5e ution of the te5ts as we have them, one would do best to avoid all hypotheti al stru tures designed to identify Egyptian onstellations from the analysis of the Ramesside star lo ks (Neugebauer and Parker0 1964I. Ahese (in our opinionI extreme y unfortunate paragraphs were written by N&P in the 1960s. 3espite the outstanding merits of these two inCestigators0 their negatiCe statements seCere y hindered any adCance in the study of ancient Egyptian sky- ore for decades0 especia y when focussed on an astronomica point of Ciew. Such adCances0 howeCer0 wou d haCe been high y desirab e0 especia y because (in the words of N&P when referring to the Ramesside c ocksI this devi e seems to have appeared so profound and effe tive that it be ame destined to indi ate the hours of night for all eternity on the eilings of the Ramesside tombs. .esides0 the Cacuum eft by the nu efforts of serious scho ars in respect of these topics has opened up the fie d to cohorts on 160 —researchers' of the unatic fringe0 who haCe produced a arge amount of pseudoscientific materia supposed y based on serious —astronomica ' data. OoweCer0 it is worth mentioning that seCera interesting (and some controCersia I approaches to the prob em haCe been made in the ast few years0 despite the exp icit adCice to the contrary by N&P. ECen accepting that the Carious hypotheses shou d be treated wari y0 we be ieCe that0 giCen the existence today of computationa faci ities that were non-existent in the 1960s when those unfortunate paragraphs were penned0 it may be possib e to use decana diagona c ocks and Ramesside star-charts0 with the support of ce estia diagrams and the necessary care0 to identify at east some of the stars or asterisms inc uded in these diagrams0 and their respectiCe conste ations.
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