Dave L Wrote:
> > The association of Osiris/Sah and Orion is clear
> > from later periods, and Orion is variously
> > associated with the archetypal raised arm god. The
> > constellation is so prominent it would be
> > surprising not to find it in ancient
> > mythology....
>
> >>Any evidence for that ? She's trying to make out that various myths actually reflect
> >>changes in the sky over time. Some may have - but it's over egging the pudding.
>
> Well, I don't think anyone was aware of precession
> till Hipparchus of Rhodes 150BC?iirc, so I will be
> suprised if she managed to convince otherwise.

She's regularly quoted/referenced by pseudohistorians as evidence/proof of early AE knowledge of precession. There's a difference between "knowledge" of and "understanding" of. The former could well be a lot earlier.

> > So although the specific character of Sah may not
> > be found pre-5th? dynasty, in Egypt, the
> > constellation may have been identified/known
>
> > earlier, for example at Nabta Playa where they
> > were evidently interested in astronomy, probably
> > wrt measurng the annual seasons for farming and
> > pastoral migration.
>
> >>They were ? Any evidence for that ?
>
> Well, that's what Fred Wendorf, the archaeologist
> who excavated it, thought, and as it would be
> surprising to see a fully developed calendar
> suddenly appearing in OK egypt with no precursor
> or developmental sequence I agree with him.

Who says it "suddenly appears" ? If you read Wells, for example, he postulates two original predynastic calendars; one from Upper and from Lower Egypt. Joanne, I think, disagrees with him. Some sort of calendar was clearly in place centuries before the Old Kingdom but the epagomenal days aren't attested until that era. Unless we're suffering from the randomness of archaeological survival that's clearly a developmental sequence !

> There's no evidence of a similar structure in the
> Nile Valley, so you need to look at the closest
> example. Of course, there's no historical record
> or written record from this period to use as
> evidence, because this is prehistoric times when
> they couldn't write yet.

You can't do "astronomy" without some way of recording - albeit crudely - things. Additionally, the stones at Nabta are so crude that any alignments must be treated with caution. Even Bob is dubious about them.

> In addition, all the evidence for climatic induced
> migration points to the fact that the pastoral
> people who lived in the savannah lands that lay to
> the east and west of the Nile migrated there when
> the climate dried them out.

The Neolithic wet phase continued well into the Old Kingdom. Places like Giza couldn't have been constructed if it was as hot and arid as it is today. The reasons for the change in lifestyle are hotly disputed amongst scholars.

John