EQUULEUS [Equ], AN EARLY EGYPTIAN CONSTELLATION? A Brief Communication (2025) by ROSALIND PARK

2017

In my recent analysis of the Dendera zodiacs, I proposed that the primary purpose of these artefacts, dating from the 1st century BCE and CE, was not to catalogue the various constellations of the sky, as has hitherto been widely believed,1 but rather to recount and illustrate the astral aspects of the myth of Osiris, including notably the birth of his son, Horus.2 My claim is essentially based on Plutarch’s remark that the conception and birth of Horus were tied to three key points in the annual solar cycle: the autumnal equinox, the winter solstice, and the spring equinox.3 Acting on Plutarch’s hints, and assuming that the images in the zodiacs marked specific cultic or celestial events connected with the divine regeneration cycle, I could determine that Horus’ astral rebirth was centred not only around the yearly wanderings of the sun, but manifested itself through a series of occurrences that involved both the sun and the moon (see below). It is of course well-known that the con...

2004

The possible discovery, by ancient astronomers, of the slow drift in the stellar configurations due to the precessional movement of the earth's axis has been proposed several times and, in particular, has been considered as the fundamental key in the interpretation of myths by Ugo de Santillana and Ertha Von Dechend. Finding clear proofs that this discovery actually occurred would, therefore, be of relevant importance in a wide inter-disciplinary area of sciences which includes both social-historical and archaeo-astronomical research. In the present paper the possible discovery of astronomical effects induced by precession -such as the shift in the declination of the heliacal raising of bright stars or the so called precession of the equinoxes -is analysed for various ancient cultures in the world. Although definitive evidence of the discovery is still lacking, the quantity of hints emerging from the general picture is impressive and stimulating in view of further research.

Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 2025

Here, I test the long-held assumption that the ancient Egyptian Sky Goddess Nut represented the Milky Way by examining Nut's visual depictions on ancient Egyptian coffins. I assemble a catalog of 555 coffin elements, including 118 cosmological vignettes from the 21st/22nd Dynasties, and report several observations. First, the cosmological vignette on the outer coffin of Nesitaudjatakhet bears a unique feature: a thick, undulating black curve that bisects Nut's star-studded body and recalls the Great Rift that cleaves the Milky Way in two. Similar undulating curves bisect the astronomical ceiling in the tomb of Seti I and appear as part of depictions of Nut in the tombs of Ramesses IV, VI, and IX. Moreover, the undulating curve resembles similar features identified as the Milky Way on the bodies of Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni spiritual beings. Hence, I argue that the undulating curve is a visual representation of the Milky Way and that it supports a previously suggested identification of mr-nḫ3 (Winding Waterway) as the Galaxy's Egyptian name. However, the rarity of this feature strengthens the conclusion reached by Graur (2024a): Though Nut and the Milky Way are linked, they are not synonymous. Instead of acting as a representation of Nut, the Milky Way is one more celestial phenomenon that, like the Sun and the stars, is associated with Nut in her role as the sky. Second, Nut's body is decorated with stars in only a quarter of the cosmological vignettes, suggesting that the Egyptians of the 21st/22nd Dynasties may have had a marked preference for the day sky over the night sky. Finally, I discuss the interplay between Nut's cosmological vignette and full-length portraits inside coffins from the New Kingdom to the Roman Period in the context of Nut's combined cosmological and eschatological roles as an embodiment of the coffin.

Der Globusfreund/ Globe Studies, 2025

Three ancient globes have been completely preserved: the Mainz Globe, the Kugel Globe and the Farnese Globe. Their chronological classification is uncertain. This comparative study presents a method of reconstructing the uranographies from the surviving texts (uranologies) of Aratus, (Pseudo-)Eratosthenes, Hipparchus and Ptolemy, and comparing them (a) with each other and (b) with the depictions on the globes. The findings are that the constellation figures cannot be considered individually, tell different stories and have different cultures of origin, and that the Mainz globe (despite its errors) shows the most comprehensive of the three pictorial inventories of the star-heavens.

1999

In this thesis an exploration is made into whether or not hieroglyphs reflect ideas of the ancient Egyptians themselves. By examining "living creature" hieroglyphs one may contemplate why the ancient Egyptian chose a particular manner of depiction. The manner of depiction can then be examined insofar as what ideas they may reflect. In this way study into other groups of signs such as those of the environment may be used to further illuminate the lives and our understanding of the ancient Egyptian(s). This thesis begins with an examination of both the problem inherent in such a task and an overview of some of the "processes" involved. By understanding that a reconstructed reality, that of the hieroglyph, reflects both Tel11 and perceived characteristics represented in glyphic form, one may seek out the mental impressions considered relevant to the people themselves. Next the role literacy played and still plays is discussed. This discussion includes a brief historical overview of both the history of decipherment and the "language" of the ancient Egyptians. The importance of "writing", artistic in nature in Egypt in regards to hieroglyphs, is then discussed as it relates to its use as symbol. Hieroglyphs are then discussed in their role as ali, communication, and language emphasizing the multitudinous role(s) which they served. The impoliance is thus reiterated that hieroglyphs served as a communication of ideas to both the literate and the "illiterate" in at least a menial manner. After providing a "background" context of both the world and time of hieroglyphs and their subsequent "understanding" and interpretation, there is an analysis of the hieroglyphs for living creatures including the following Gardiner groupings: (1) mammals, (2) birds, (3) amphibians and reptiles, (4) fish, ( invertebrates and lesser animals. The signs are examined in regards to their function and variations followed by some observations and comments related to the "structure" and perspective of the sign itself. Summary observations and comments are then made about each group. The thesis is then brought full circle by examining the implications of what hieroglyphs can tell us about the ancient Egyptians, via the perceptive and communicative role which they played. By understanding hieroglyphs as "fingerprints" of/from the mind of the people and subsequently their culture, this framework may provide a new mechanism into understanding the Egyptian via their own visualization and perceptive nature. A case is then proposed that this new "mechanism", if it is indeed considered feasible, can be applied to not only the

From Alexandria to Al-Iskandariya. Astronomy and Culture in the Ancient Mediterranean and Beyond. Proceedings of the SEAC 2009 Conference in Alexandria, Egypt. , 2021

The 2009 SEAC Annual Meeting was deliberately planned within the celebrations for the International Year of Astronomy. It should contribute to a deepening of the understanding of human beings as inhabitants of the spaceship Earth in a vast space of countless worlds by looking back at the cultural history of astronomy and with a view to a common starry sky. The new library in Alexandria, Egypt, was chosen as the knowledge transfer site, as the old library once set it. In libraries, the cultures of all times come together, come alive, and continue to affect the future. It is about the transmission of knowledge and very much about the encounter of people. The European Society for the Role of Astronomy in Culture (SEAC), founded in 1992, is committed to studying Cultural Astronomy (with its sub-disciplines and in interaction with neighbouring sciences). The 17th annual conference took place from 25 to 31 October 2009 at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) host. It was about the following topics: Megalithic Phenomena in the ancient Mediterranean and beyond - Archeoastronomy in the ancient Mediterranean and beyond - Eastern Mediterranean Astronomy (Egypt, Greece, and Rhodes) - Astronomy at the Ancient Bibliotheca of Alexandria - Astronomy in Old Europe - Astronomy in Middle Ages - Islamic Astronomy - Copernicus and Galileo Galilei Revolutions - Babylonian Astronomy - Mesoamerican and Pacific Astronomy - Minoan Civilisation Astronomy - Traditional African Astronomy - Other Topics in Cultural Astronomy. More than lectures, including invited ones, were given. Almost 80 presentations, including some invited, were given. This volume contains contributions (peer-reviewed) from them.

L’analisi di una rappresentazione egizia ci lascia assai spesso perplessi e sorpresi, costatata l’apparente mancanza di metodo e l’evidente difficoltà di comprensione degli elementi figurativi. Nel caso di rappresentazioni astronomiche, e dunque con l’introduzione di elementi tecnico-scientifici, l’incertezza aumenta ancor più. La cultura scientifica egizia è infatti caratterizzata da una marcata oscillazione tra precisione e approssimazione. Ad esempio, di fronte all’orientamento della piramide di Cheope, esatto a meno di pochi centesimi di grado, oppure alla corretta formula per il calcolo del volume del tronco di piramide, in molti altri casi la soluzione è solo vagamente approssimata, come nel calcolo dell’area di un quadrilatero generico oppure di quella di un cerchio. Le rappresentazioni astronomiche non si sottraggono a questa norma, proponendo soluzioni a volte geniali nell’intuizione ma quasi sempre assai trascurate nella realizzazione. Né è semplice distinguere l’aspetto c...

The Westcar Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian papyrus thought to date to the Hyksos period (circa 18th to 16th century BCE). The collection of stories centres around the IVth Dynasty Pharaoh Khufu (aka Cheops) and a series of wonders or acts of magic performed by various priests. The stories have been given the title “King Cheops and the magicians”. In this paper, I review the stories within the Westcar Papyrus and seek to: Establish that the stories are using elements of mythological storytelling to convey astronomical data; Offer a new understanding of what Khufu seeks for his horizon or Pyramid through a new translation of a critical phrase within the story of Djedi; and Establish a timeframe based on the astronomical data encoded within the stories that has been interpreted to date.

A vulture and scorpion among the animals carved on Gobekli Tepe pillar D43, attracted several interpretations of a 'zodiac'. However no coherent star map, observational record, or zodiac emerged. Five different identifications extensively contradict one another. The artwork is not consistent with the interpretations of Stephany (who has two different views), Burley (supported by Hancock), Collins, or Sweatman and Tsikritsis. Yet there is some consensus that four species on two other pillars could be seasonal ‘beasts’, as all cultures identify the four solar calendar points with constellations. Like all artworks worldwide, the design on pillar D43 subconsciously expresses the five-layered archetypal structure that is also imprinted in myth, ritual, building sites, calendars and constellations, particularly in various sets of 16 to 36 decans. Characters expressing archetypes ever and always have an axial grid between their eyes, as demonstrated below. Various zodiacs worldwide also express some elements of archetypal structure, but culture does not come from the sky. Babylo-Assyrian boundary stones, and the Mul Apin (Starry Plough) list, demonstrate how apparently varied, yet how structurally rigorous iconography is. Nature and culture are compulsively sustained by the structure embedded in matter and energy, in our perception, and in our subconscious behaviour.

Ikhnos, 2011

La rappresentazione dello zodiaco circolare di Dendera, soprattutto per il suo presentarsi come prototipo, pone alcuni rilevanti problemi interpretativi, legati saldamente tra loro: - Ricercare le motivazioni dell’orientamento dell’asse del tempio, ruotato di circa 18 gradi rispetto al Nord, verso Est. - Studiare la disposizione delle costellazioni, cercando di comprendere se si tratta di una sorta di deformazione ad anello degli zodiaci rettangolari o piuttosto se il risultato derivi da un metodo riproducibile e riconoscibile. - Valutare se i dati in nostro possesso sono sufficienti per definire una precisa datazione del disco, oppure almeno un ambito temporale ristretto. - Analizzare il significato della rotazione, rispetto al corretto orientamento geografico, dei simboli geroglifici Est e Ovest, posti sull’anello esterno del disco. Se la prima domanda ha già trovato una quasi certa risposta definitiva, le altre costituiscono ancora oggetto di discussione.

The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 2016

The scenes that have come down to us from Graeco-Roman temples depicting the entire lunar cycle can be classified into two major groups. The first comprises some unanimously interpreted cases which show a line of gods in procession towards the moon. The second group is made up of the more complex scenes found in the temples of Edfu, Dendera and Esna, for which either unsatisfactory or conflicting, sometimes even diametrically opposed interpretations have been put forward. All these problematic representations are reviewed here in order to present a unified analysis that, on the one hand, aims to unravel the subtleties of the iconographic details of the individual scenes and, on the other, to establish clear interconnections between them.

prehistory and early history of Greece

JSRNC, 2016

The constellation images with their historically persistent nature and adaptability fulll many contemporary delnitions of culture. From the earliest Elamite seals of the fourth millennium to the list-maps in the lrst century CE through Ptolemy's Almagest, the constellation images became established in Western cultures. With the invention of printing and the age of the great star atlases from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, the constellation images continued to display cultural resistance by cartographers to Gothicise, Christianise, politicise or simply remove them. This resilience has shown that the constellation images are in fact a living gallery of human history with images ranging from the Palaeolithic to the modern world. Furthermore, with their acceptance across a diversity of people and nations, the constellation images today have come to represent a form of world culture, in that they constitute a culture of humanity that is not linked by tribes, clans, nations, religions, or languages.

Planets in Ancient Egypt, 2019

Joachim Friedrich Quack, Heidelberg University, Institute for Egyptology Año 2019 Los cinco planetas visibles ciertamente están atestiguados en fuentes egipcias de alrededor del año 2000 a. C. Los tres exteriores están conectados religiosamente con el dios Horus con cabeza de halcón, Venus con su padre Osiris y Mercurio con Seth, el hermano y asesino de Osiris. Los testimonios claros de los planetas se limitan en gran medida a programas de decoración que cubren todo el cielo nocturno. Hay una serie de pasajes en textos religiosos donde se pueden mencionar planetas, pero muchos de ellos son inciertos porque los nombres dados a los planetas en la mayoría de ellos no son lo suficientemente específicos como para excluir otras interpretaciones. Es posible que haya habido algunos tratados que ofrecieran una interpretación religiosa más detallada de los planetas y su comportamiento, pero están mal conservados y apenas son comprensibles en los detalles. En el Período Tardío, probablemente bajo la influencia mesopotámica, la secuencia de los planetas así como sus asociaciones religiosas pudieron cambiar; al menos una fuente vincula a Saturno con el dios Sol, Marte con Míysis, Mercurio con Thot, Venus con Horus, hijo de Isis, y Júpiter con Amón, ordenando los planetas con los considerados negativos en astrología en primer lugar, separados de los positivos por el Mercurio vacilante. Los monumentos tardíos que representan el zodíaco sitúan los planetas en posiciones que se consideran importantes en astrología, especialmente las casas o el lugar de máximo poder (hypsoma; es decir, "exaltación"). Probablemente bajo influencia babilónica, en el Período Grecorromano surgieron modelos matemáticos para calcular las posiciones y fases de los planetas. Estos se utilizaban para calcular los horóscopos, de los cuales están atestiguados algunos en egipcio demótico. Hay también tratados astrológicos (la mayoría aún inéditos) en lengua egipcia que indican la importancia de los planetas para las predicciones, especialmente para el destino de los individuos nacidos bajo una determinada constelación, pero también para acontecimientos importantes para el rey y el país en general; también podrían ser pertinentes para las empresas iniciadas en una fecha determinada. Hay cierta recepción de secuencias de planetas, nombres y asociaciones religiosas supuestas o realmente específicas de Egipto en fuentes griegas.