FEBRUARY iS, 1892^ 



NA TURE 



m 



ON SOME POINTS IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN 

 ASTRONOMY.^ 



f II. 



^.^The Probable Date of the Founding of Denderah as 

 derived from the Account of the Building Ceretnonial. 



SO much having been stated relating to the inscriptions 

 recording building ceremonials, I will now return 

 to the statement regarding Denderah,to see what can be 

 made of it on the view that either the middle or the chief 

 point — that is, the brightest star of the constellation of 

 the Great Bear as we now know it — was the part referred 

 to, and that the cord was stretched to the star on the 

 horizon. 



The first question which arises is, Was there any 

 reason why S Ursas Majoris at the centre, or a the 

 brightest, should have been used as the orientation point 

 at any time ? Was there any reason why any special 

 sanctity should have been associated with either ? Cer- 

 tainly not in the case of 8 on account of its magnitude, 

 because Dubhe, not far from it, is much brighter And 

 certainly not in the case both of S and a on account of 

 the time of their heliacal rising. We seem therefore in 

 an impasse along this line of inquiry, but a further con- 

 sideration of the question brings out the remarkable fact 

 that at two different points of time the North Polar 

 distance of a Ursa? Majoris was nearly the same as that 

 of a Lyrae and 7 Draconis, so that a Lyrit would be 

 visible at one of the dates and 7 Draconis with a Urste 

 Majoris at the other — all rising in the same amplitude. 



The stars rising at the same amplitude, a temple directed 

 to one would be directed to the other, but the stars would 

 rise at different times. This, it may be suggested, may 

 have been the reason why a was used by the king : the 

 most convenient hour of the night was chosen. But 

 there may have been another reason. 



We know enough of the Egyptian priests to imagine it 

 might be to their interest that even the king himself 

 should not know everything, and the question arises 

 whether, knowing the equal amplitudes of the risings of 

 these stars, the secret was retained while a Ursae Majoris 

 was used. 



This, of course, can only be put forward as a sug- 

 gestion, and to many, no doubt, it will seem to be far- 

 fetched ; but from the account given by Herodotus of some 

 of the ceremonials and mysteries connected with the 

 temple of Tyre, it is suggested that the priests used star- 

 light at night for some of their operations very much in 

 the same way as they might have used sunlight during 

 the day. According to Herodotus, in the temple in 

 question there were pillars of gold and emerald which 

 shone at night. Now, there can be little doubt that in 

 the darkened sanctuary of an Egyptian temple the light 

 of a Lyrs, one of the brightest stars in the northern 

 heavens, rising in the clear air of Egypt would be quite 

 strong enough to throw into an apparent glow such 

 highly reflecting surfaces as those to which Herodotus 

 refers. 



Supposing such a ceremonial as this used at Denderah, 

 the less the worshippers — who, reasoning from the analogy 

 of the ceremonial termed the manifestation of Rit,' would 

 stand facing the sanctuary with their backs to the chief door 



' Continued from_ p. 299. 



^ One of the inscriptions relating to the manifestation of Ra has been tr.nns- 

 lated by de Rougi as follows : — 



" II vint en passant vers le temple de Rfi ; il entra dans le temple en 

 adorant (deux fois). Le jer-heb [celebrant] invoqua (celui qui) repousse 

 les plaies du roi : il remplit les rites de la porte ; il prit le seteb, il se puritia 

 par I'encens : il fit une libation ; il apporta les fleurs de Habenben fa part of 

 the temple] ; il_ apporta le parfum (?). II monta les degrOs vers I'adytum 

 grand, pour voir Ra dans Habenben ; lui-mcme se tint seul ; il p'>ussa le 

 verrou ; il ouvrit les portes ; il vit son pcre Rfi dans Habenben ; il venira la 

 barque de Ra et la barque de Turn. II tira les portes, <rt posa la lerre 

 sigjilaire (qu'il) scella avec le sceau du roi. Lui-meme ordonne aux pretres, 

 ' J'ai place le sceau ; que n'entre pas quelqu'un dedans de tout roi qui se 

 tiendra (la).' " — '" Chrestomathie Egyptienne," de Rouge, iii. p. 60 



of the temple— knew about the question of a bright star 

 which might probably produce the mystery the better ; so 

 that it may be almost said that the priests had a reason, 

 and a very good one, for using a comparatively faint star 

 for the orientation of a temple, some of the uses of which 

 were to utilize for their own purposes some of the 

 phenomena presented by a bright one rising at the same 

 amplitude. These considerations have, however, only 

 full force as between a Ursa^ Majoris and a Lyrae. 



Of course, so far, nothing can be said with certainty 

 with regard to either of the stars in question having been 

 chosen for the original orientation, but in an inquiry of 

 this kind no line of evidence is to be neglected. 



We next come to possible dates. Taking the ampli- 

 tude of Denderah as 73°, the dates of foundation given by 

 either o Lyrse or 7 Draconis will be those at which these 

 stars had an equal amplitude. 



Roughly, and only roughly, these dates would have 

 been as follows : — 



Horizon 2" high 



a Lyrse 7200 B c. 



7 Draconis 4400 B.C. 



Now, what are the records concerning this temple? 

 We know that the structure now visible to us was built 

 in the time of the last Ptolemies and the first Roman 

 Emperors, and I have already shown that at those dates 

 the Great Bear (the old Thigh) did not rise at all, as it 

 was circumpolar. 



But it is also known that there was a temple here in the 



time of Thotmes III., and even earlier, going back to the 



I earliest times of Egyptian history. King Pepi, of the 



j 6th dynasty {circ. 3233 B.c ), is portrayed over and over 



I again in the crypts. 



j Even this is not all the evidence in favour of a high 

 ! antiquity. In one of the crypts (No. 9), according to Ebers 

 1 and Diimichen there are two references to the earliest 

 plans of the temple. One inscription states that the great 

 ground-plan (Senti) of Ant (Denderah) was found in old 

 writing on parchments of the time of the followers of 

 Horus (sun-worshippers) preserved in the walls of the 

 palace during the reign of King Pepi. Another in- 

 scription goes further, referring to the restoration by 

 Thotmes III. {circ. 1600 B.C.) of the temple to the state in 

 which it was found described in old writings of the time 

 j of the King Chufu (Cheops) of the 4th dynasty {circ. 

 I 3733 B.C.). If any faith is to be placed in this inscrip- 

 i tion, it seems to me to suggest a still higher antiquity. 

 1 There would have been more reason for describing an 

 I antique shrine than a brand new one, and the date 4400 

 I is well within the historical period, according to Mariette. 

 I If, then, I am right in my suggestion as to the word ak 

 I referring to a Ursse Majoris, and as to a star rising at an 

 j equal amplitude to 7 Draconis being for some reason made 

 ! use of in the building ceremony, we find the closest agree- 

 ment between the astronomical orientation, the definite 

 statement as to a certain star being used in the building 

 ceremonies, and the inscription in the crypts referring to 

 Cheops as the earliest historical personage who de- 

 scribes the building. I must confess that this complete 

 justification of the double record strikes me as very 

 remarkable, and I think it will be generally conceded 

 that further local observations should be made in order to 

 attempt to carry the matter a stage further. 



If the above results be confirmed we have a most 

 important indication of the fact that in the rebuilding 

 in the time of Thotmes III. and of the Ptolemies, the 

 original orientation of the building was not disturbed, 

 and that in the account of the building ceremonies we 

 are dealing as surely with the laying of the first foundation 

 stone as we are dealing with the original plan.' 



• On this point I am permitted by Prof. Masptfro to print the following 

 e.\tract from a letter I received from him : — 

 I "Tous les temples ptolemaiques et la plus grande panic des temples 

 laraoniques sont des reconstructions. Ce que vous avez observe de 



NO. TI64, VOL. 45] 



