August 



o> 



'«93] 



NA TURE 



3'9 



of the temple of Mut, so that the worship was as effect- 

 ively stopped as the worship of I sis was stopped at 

 Pompeii by the town authorities (when it was prohibited 

 by law), bricking up the window through which the star 

 was observed. 



Further, the shrine so restored was of such magnificence 

 that the Spica temple, which had hitherto held first 

 rank, became an insignificant chapel in comparison. 

 Nor was this all. In order still to emphasise the supre- 

 macy of Amen, a third-rate temple was erected to 

 Ptah. 



We may now return to Amen-hetep's doings at Tell 

 el-Amarna. The worship he emphasised there exactly 

 resembled that which had in early times been paramount 

 at Heliopolis. One based on it, but not identical with it, 

 had been in vogue at Thebes from 3200 B.C. to the 

 time of Thotmes, who, as the tool of the confraternity of 

 Amen, intensified the solstitial worship, and did his best 

 to kill that which had been based upon the Heliopolis 

 cult. 



The next question we have to consider is whether the 

 researches at Heliopolis bear this surmise out. It is 

 true we have but one poor obelisk, but let us see 

 what we can make of it. As I have shown, the north and 

 south faces bear 13" north of west — 13' south of east. 

 Amen-hetep or some one of the preceding kings of Egypt, 

 when reintroducing the old worship at Tell el-Amarna 

 orients the solar temple 13° north of west accord- 

 ing to the data available. Now when we take the 

 difference of latitude between Heliopolis and Tell el- 

 Amarna into account we find that the same declination 

 (within half a degree) is obtained from both. 



I have elsewhere shown that there is good reason for 

 believing that the original foundation of the temple at On 

 dates from the time when the north member of the 

 system was directed to a UrsK Majoris. This was some- 

 what earlier than 5000 B.C. 



Bearing in mind the facts obtained with regard to 

 other similar rectangular systems, we are led to inquire 

 whether at that date a temple oriented to declination 11° 

 north was directed to any star. 



We find that the important star Capella was in 

 question. 



Now so far in my references to stars no mention has 

 been made of Capella. It is obvious that the first thing 

 to be done on the orientation hypothesis is to see whether 

 any other temple, and if of known cult so much the 

 better, is found oriented to Capella. There is one such 

 temple ; it is the small temple of Ptah, just mentioned as 

 having been erected by Thotmes. (Timeof Thotmes III. 

 1600 B.C. Amplitude of temple ± 35^ west of north = 

 with hills 3' high 324° north declination ; Capella 33° north 

 declination about 1700 B.C.) 



And now it appears there is another. During the year 

 1892 the officers of the Museum of Gizeh, under the 

 direction of M. de Morgan, excavated a temple at 

 Memphis to the north of thehut containing the recumbent 

 statue of Rameses, and during their work they found two 

 magnificent statues of Ptah, " les plus remarquables 

 statues divines qu'on ait encore trouvdes en Egypte," ' 

 and a colossal model in rose granite of the sacred boat 

 of Ptah. 



These discoveries have led the officers in question to 

 the conclusion that the building among the ruins of 

 which these priceless treasures have been found is 

 veritably the world-renowned temple of Ptah of Memphis. 

 It may therefore be accepted as such for the purpose of 

 the present inquiry, although it is difficult to reconcile its 

 emplacement in relation to the statues with the accounts 

 given by the Arab historians. 



In January, 1893, Captain Lyons, R.E., was good 

 enough to accompany me to determine the orientation of 



' New Gizeh Catalogue, p. 6r. 

 NO. 1240, VOL. 48] 



the newly uncovered temple walls. We had already, two 

 years previously, carefully measured the bearings of the 

 statues of Rameses. We found the temple in all 

 probability facing westwards, and not eastwards, this 

 we determined by a seated statue facing westwards ; and 

 its orientation, assuming a magnetic variation of 44° west- 

 to be I2|° north of west and the hills, in front of it, as, 

 suming the village of Mit-Rahineh non-existent, to be 50' 

 high. 



Here, then, we get reproduced almost absolutely 

 the conditions of the obelisk at Heliopolis in a Ptah 

 temple oriented to Capella 5200 B.C. 



We are driven then to the conclusion that the star 

 Capella is personified by Ptah, and that as Capella was 

 worshipped setting, Ptah is represented as a mummy. If 

 this be so we must also accept another conclusion. That 

 the temples both at Heliopolis and Memphis were dedi- 

 cated to Ptah. About 5300 B.C. we seem almost in the 

 time of the divine dynasties, and begin to understand 

 how it is that in the old traditions Ptah precedes Ra and 

 he is called " the father of the beginnings, and the creator 

 of the egg of the Sun and Moon.' 



What, then, was this worship which had been absent 

 from Thebes, but which had held its own to the north 

 to such an extent that Amen-hetep IV. went back to it 

 so eagerly ? It could not have been the worship of 

 Capella as a star alone, for such worship had been pro- 

 vided for by Thotmes III. by building temple G. Nor 

 could it have been the worship of Spica as a star alone, 

 for in that case the precedent of On would not have been 

 appealed to. We are driven to the conclusion that it was 

 the worship of the sun's disc when setting, at the time of 

 the year heralded by these stars, when it had the declina- 

 tion of 10' north. The dates on which the sun had this 

 declination were, as already stated, about April 18 and 

 August 24 of our Gregorian year. The former, in Egypt, 

 dominated by the Nile, was about the time of the 

 associated spring and harvest festivals. 



So much for the Ptah mummy form of the Sun- God, 

 to which the Theban priests erected no temples. There 

 was still another, the worship of which existed at 

 Thebes, but which they did their best to abolish by the 

 intensification of the worship of Amen-Ra. I refer to the 

 worship carried on in the temple oriented to Spica. This, 

 there can be no doubt, was the worship of Min, Khem in 

 ithyphallic mummy form. This was associated with the 

 harvest home festival on May I. (Amplitude of temple, 

 174 north of west, declination 15° = sun's declination on 

 May I.) 



It seems, then, that the suggestion that possibly sun- 

 worship existed before the solstitial solar worship is 

 amply justified. 



Now so far as my inquiries have yet gone, there is not 

 above Thebes, with the single exception of Redesieh,any 

 temple resembling the On-Thebes ones to which I have 

 directed attention as having a high north-east ampli- 

 tude. 



Similarly, with one or two exceptions which may be 

 late, there are no temples facing the south-east below 

 Thebes. 



In short, in Lower Egypt the temples are pointed to 

 stars rising near the north point of the horizon or set- 

 ting west of north. In Upper Egypt we deal chiefly with 

 temples directed to stars rising in the south-east. 



Here again we are in presence of as distinct differences 

 in astronomical thought and methods of observation as 

 we found among those who directed temples to the sun 

 at the equinox, as opposed to those who worshipped that 

 luminary at some other time of the year. 



Now with regard to the northern stars observed rising 

 in high amplitudes we have found traces of their 

 worship in times so remote that in all probability at On 



iBrugsch," Religion and My tologie," p. m. Pierret, " Salle Historique 

 de la galerie Egyptienne" (du Louvre), p 199. 



