The Constellations of the Egyptian Astronomical Diagrams
The Constellations of the Egyptian Astronomical Diagrams Gyula Priskin University of Szeged EPICTIONS OF THE constellations that the ancient Egyptians observed in the sky first appeared on some coffin lids at the beginning of the 2nd millenium BCE, as inserts into the tables that listed the names of the asterisms signalling the night hours D 1 (decans). These early sources only include the representations of four constellations, two in the northern sky, and two in its southern regions: the goddess Nut (Nw.t) holding up the sky hieroglyph, the Foreleg (msḫt.jw), belonging to Seth according to later descriptions, the striding figure of Sah (sȝḥ), the celestial manifestation of Osiris, and the standing goddess of Sopdet (spd.t), who is often associated with Isis [fig. 1].2 The last three kept being shown in later documents, while the first one disappeared completely after the Middle Kingdom.3 A more detailed visual catalogue of the constellations has come down to us in the form of the astronomical diagrams that were first recorded at the beginning of the New Kingdom,4 though these diagrams very possibly existed earlier, as a fragmented and now lost specimen seems to indicate.5 Although their particular elements vary to a certain degree, these astronomical diagrams continued to be depicted on tomb ceilings, water clocks, temple surfaces, and coffins well into Graeco-Roman times. When towards the end of the first millenium BCE the Egyptians started to represent the zodiacal signs on their monuments, these zodiacs also included the figures of the most salient constellations.6 It should be noted, however, that according to certain decanal names,7 and the relevant entries in Amenemipet’s onomasticon (Ramesside Period),8 the Egyptians knew some further constellations for which apparently no pictorial records have survived.
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