Authors: Robert Bauval
The Egypt Code (9 page)
Each year the great river would begin to swell in June and eventually overflow its banks and flood the adjacent land. This was a phenomenon that completely mystified the Egyptians. They had absolutely no idea why the Nile should do that and were the more bewildered because the flood came not in the rainy season, as might be expected, but in the height of summer when the weather was at its driest. As Herodotus noted when he visited Egypt in
c.
450 BC:
c.
450 BC:
About why the Nile behaves precisely as it does I could get no information from the priests nor yet from anyone else. What I particularly wished to know is why the water begins to rise at the summer solstice, continues to do so for a hundred days, and then falls again at the end of that period, so that it remains low throughout the winter until the summer solstice comes round again in the following year.
12
For a people living in a climate where the sun shone nearly throughout the year, and who were thus accustomed to seeing sunrise each morning and sunset each evening, it was inevitable that they would eventually notice that the yearly cycle of the flood seemed to be in synch with the yearly cycle of the sky. It would have become quickly obvious to them that when the sun reached its most northerly position on the horizon (at the summer solstice), the Nile would begin to swell. They also noticed that preceding the summer solstice sunrise certain constellations would always be seen dominating the eastern horizon. All this prompted them to carefully count and record the number of days between each cycle. It would have taken but a few years to convince them that the cycle was 365 days long. It would also have been entirely natural for them to consider the summer solstice as the first day of the new year and call it, aptly, the Birth of Ra.
13
This is because many celestial and terrestrial events that happened at this time of year evoked the idea of a beginning or a birth. For, as we have already seen in the Introduction, was not the Nile reborn at the summer solstice, and along with it the whole of Egypt? And did not Ra himself emerge from his journey through the Duat, the world of the dead, when he reached the summer solstice, as we have also seen in the Introduction?
13
This is because many celestial and terrestrial events that happened at this time of year evoked the idea of a beginning or a birth. For, as we have already seen in the Introduction, was not the Nile reborn at the summer solstice, and along with it the whole of Egypt? And did not Ra himself emerge from his journey through the Duat, the world of the dead, when he reached the summer solstice, as we have also seen in the Introduction?
The various astronomical cycles known to the Ancient Egyptians
‘The ancient Egyptians were past masters of observing nature,’ wrote Anne-Sophie Bomhard.
14
They carefully observed nature, its creatures, its vegetation and its cycles. Nothing fascinated them more, however, than the observation of the celestial bodies. From earliest times they meticulously observed and recorded the rising of the sun and the stars in the east, which they called ‘the place where the gods were born’.
15
14
They carefully observed nature, its creatures, its vegetation and its cycles. Nothing fascinated them more, however, than the observation of the celestial bodies. From earliest times they meticulously observed and recorded the rising of the sun and the stars in the east, which they called ‘the place where the gods were born’.
15
An observer looking at sunrise from the same vantage point will quickly become aware that the sun changes position along the eastern horizon throughout the year and will alternate between two extreme points: the summer solstice north of east, and the winter solstice south of east. At these two extreme points the sun appears to be stationary for a week or so, hence the term ‘solstice’ (from the Latin, meaning ‘stationary sun’). In our modern Gregorian calendar the summer solstice falls on 21 June and the winter solstice on 21 December. Counting the days between two summer solstices will give 365 days, which we call the ‘year’. Most historians of science agree that this discovery was first made in Egypt, probably in the fourth millennium BC. It was most probably around 2800 BC that a 365-day solar calendar was put into practice by the priests of the Great Sun Temple at Heliopolis.
The exact solar (tropical) year is 365.2422 days long (although the extra 0.2422 day is assumed to be 0.25, i.e. an exact quarter-day, for calendrical purposes). So to keep our modern Gregorian calendar in synch with the seasons, we add one day every four years to the month of February. This special year is called a
leap
year. The Egyptians, however, did not have a leap year. They simply let their calendar drift out of synch with the seasons. As the eminent British Egyptologist Flinders Petrie explains:
leap
year. The Egyptians, however, did not have a leap year. They simply let their calendar drift out of synch with the seasons. As the eminent British Egyptologist Flinders Petrie explains:
We are all familiar with the leap year, when we put an extra day in the calendar to keep the account true. The whole checking of the chronology rests on the unquestioned fact that the Egyptians ignored the leap year, and counted only 365 days . . . Now the Egyptian slipped his months backward a quarter of a day each year, by not keeping up the enumeration as we do with a 29th of February. As the months thus slipped backward, or the seasons appeared to slip forward in the calendar
,
in 1460 years the [calendar] months shifted round all the seasons.
16
This ‘unquestioned fact’ that the ancient Egyptians ignored the leap year meant that a cycle was created of 1,460 years which can be seen as a Great Year. The value of 1,460 years is obtained by simply dividing 365 by 0.25. And although it is this value that is given by Petrie and also quoted by modern Egyptologists for the resynch of the calendar with the seasons, they are all assuming a yearly drift of the calendar of 0.25 days, which, of course, is not the case precisely. The true rate of drift is 0.2422 days, which gives us 1506 years (365 divided by 0.2422), which can be seen as a Great Solar Cycle. Actually the value of 1,460 years quoted by Petrie is not the resynch of the calendar with the seasons but rather with the heliacal rising of Sirius, an event which was called by the Egyptians
wp rnpt
, meaning ‘opener of the year’
17
(see below). The heliacal rising - or first dawn - rising of Sirius had two peculiarities which the Egyptians were quick to notice: first, it took place near the summer solstice, which also happened to be the start of the flood season; and second, it drifted forward by
exactly
one day every four years with respect to the calendar.
18
And although the ancient Egyptians were fully aware of this drift of the calendar, they made no attempt to correct it by having a leap year. This non-adjustment policy had immense repercussions on the way the Egyptians perceived time and the order of the universe. For although it is nearly certain that at one time in their past they had considered the heliacal rising of Sirius as being the first day of their calendar, and indeed called this event the ‘opener of the year’ throughout their 3,000-year history, they nonetheless obstinately refused to have a leap year. The question begs the asking: why such obstinacy? Why didn’t they simply add an extra day every four years to keep the calendar in synch with the heliacal rising of Sirius?
wp rnpt
, meaning ‘opener of the year’
17
(see below). The heliacal rising - or first dawn - rising of Sirius had two peculiarities which the Egyptians were quick to notice: first, it took place near the summer solstice, which also happened to be the start of the flood season; and second, it drifted forward by
exactly
one day every four years with respect to the calendar.
18
And although the ancient Egyptians were fully aware of this drift of the calendar, they made no attempt to correct it by having a leap year. This non-adjustment policy had immense repercussions on the way the Egyptians perceived time and the order of the universe. For although it is nearly certain that at one time in their past they had considered the heliacal rising of Sirius as being the first day of their calendar, and indeed called this event the ‘opener of the year’ throughout their 3,000-year history, they nonetheless obstinately refused to have a leap year. The question begs the asking: why such obstinacy? Why didn’t they simply add an extra day every four years to keep the calendar in synch with the heliacal rising of Sirius?
The answer, as we shall now see, lies in the simple fact that the ancient Egyptians did not compute their calendar in a linear manner starting from some event (such as the birth of Christ) and moving towards infinity, but in a cycle that always returned to its point of origin. In other words, to the Egyptians time was not linear but cyclical.
Our Western Christian culture has fixed ‘year zero’ of our calendar with the birth of Jesus, which is assumed to have happened 2,005 years ago (as I am writing this).
When was the ‘year zero’ of the ancient Egyptians?
Before we look into this, I first want to dispense with a misnomer regarding the Egyptian calendar. Modern Egyptologists call the ancient Egyptian calendar the ‘civil calendar’, which, annoyingly, gives the impression that the ancient Egyptians were essentially dull civil servants who devised a calendar fixing work and feast days and for levying taxes on livestock and suchlike tedious municipal and administrative tasks. This, of course, couldn’t be further from the truth. For one, the term
civil calendar
is not from the ancient Egyptians but comes from the more pedestrian Romans. It first appeared in the third century AD in a book titled
Die Natali
by the Roman chronicler Censorinus who prosaically wrote that ‘their (the Egyptians’) complete civil year has 365 days without a single intercalary day’.
19
But the truth is that the Egyptian calendar was predominantly religious and was thought of as some kind of cosmic instrument with which the cosmic order could be regulated on earth. The Egyptian calendar was not civil but divine. I shall, however, reluctantly stick to the term ‘civil calendar’ to avoid confusion.
civil calendar
is not from the ancient Egyptians but comes from the more pedestrian Romans. It first appeared in the third century AD in a book titled
Die Natali
by the Roman chronicler Censorinus who prosaically wrote that ‘their (the Egyptians’) complete civil year has 365 days without a single intercalary day’.
19
But the truth is that the Egyptian calendar was predominantly religious and was thought of as some kind of cosmic instrument with which the cosmic order could be regulated on earth. The Egyptian calendar was not civil but divine. I shall, however, reluctantly stick to the term ‘civil calendar’ to avoid confusion.
The civil calendar was divided in the following manner: 12 months of 30 days, with each month having three weeks or ‘decades’ of 10 days. The 12 months amounted to 360 days, to which were then added five days known as the Epagomenal Days or ‘Five Days upon the Year’, thus making up the full 365-day year. The Egyptian year had only three seasons of four months each. These were: First Season, called Akhet, meaning inundation, from months I to IV; Second Season called Peret or Proyet, meaning emergence or coming forth, from months V to VIII; Third Season, called Shemu, meaning harvest, from months IX to XII. Originally the months were not given names but only numbers from one to twelve. The first day of the first month of the First Season was known as I Akhet 1, i.e. month I, season Akhet, day 1. Later in the New Kingdom the months received official names: I Thoth, II Phaopi, III Athyr, IV Choiak, V Tybi, VI Mechir, VII Phamenoth, VIII Pharmuti, IX Pachons, X Payni, XI Epiphi and XII Mesore.
20
Egyptologists and historians can never agree how old the Egyptian calendar is. There is, however, much evidence to support the conclusion that it was already in place during the Old Kingdom, for in the Pyramid Texts there are several passages that allude to it indirectly:
20
Egyptologists and historians can never agree how old the Egyptian calendar is. There is, however, much evidence to support the conclusion that it was already in place during the Old Kingdom, for in the Pyramid Texts there are several passages that allude to it indirectly:
Osiris appears, the sceptre is pure, the Lord of Right is exalted at the First of the Year . . . The Lord of wine in flood, his season has recognised him . . . The sky has conceived him, the dawn has reborn him, and this king is conceived with him in the sky, this king is reborn with him in the sky . . . the king has gone up from the east of the sky . . .
21The king passes the night (in his tomb) . . . and the shrine is opened for him when Ra (the sun) shines. The king ascends . . . in the presence of Ra on that day of the Festival of the Year . . .
22O king, you have not died the death; live among them the Imperishable Spirits; when the season of Inundation (Akhet) comes, provide the efflux which issues from Osiris . . .
23The king is bound for the eastern side of the sky, for the king was conceived there and the king was born there. The Prince (successor of the king) ascends in a great storm from the inner horizon; he sees the preparation of the festival, the making of the brazier, the birth of the gods before you in the
Five Epagomenal Days
. . .
24
More direct evidence of the civil calendar in the Old Kingdom is found in the Fourth Dynasty (
c.
2500 BC) tomb of Princess Mersyankh III, a daughter of King Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid. An inscription on the entrance to her tomb at Giza, which was studied by the American Egyptologists Dows Dunham and William Kelly Simpson in 1974, gives the date of her death (referred to as ‘proceeding to the House of Purification’) and the date of her burial (referred to as ‘proceeding to her beautiful tomb’):
c.
2500 BC) tomb of Princess Mersyankh III, a daughter of King Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid. An inscription on the entrance to her tomb at Giza, which was studied by the American Egyptologists Dows Dunham and William Kelly Simpson in 1974, gives the date of her death (referred to as ‘proceeding to the House of Purification’) and the date of her burial (referred to as ‘proceeding to her beautiful tomb’):
King’s daughter Mersyankh, Year 1, month 1 of Shemu, day 21: the resting of her Ka and her proceeding to the House of Purification.King’s daughter Mersyankh, Year 2, month 2 of Proyet, day 18: her proceeding to her beautiful tomb.
25
Oddly, the time between Mersyankh’s death and her burial was 273 days,
26
a figure that comes very close to nine months. This has been taken by some scholars to refer probably to a ‘gestation period’ of the mummy (as a sort of ‘foetus’) awaiting rebirth in the tomb. But whatever the meaning of this time lapse between Mersyankh’s death and burial, it is undeniable that the ancient scribe was using the civil calendar when he carved the inscription. But how old was this calendar? How long before Mersyankh’s death was it first put into use?
26
a figure that comes very close to nine months. This has been taken by some scholars to refer probably to a ‘gestation period’ of the mummy (as a sort of ‘foetus’) awaiting rebirth in the tomb. But whatever the meaning of this time lapse between Mersyankh’s death and burial, it is undeniable that the ancient scribe was using the civil calendar when he carved the inscription. But how old was this calendar? How long before Mersyankh’s death was it first put into use?
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