Mark Heaton Wrote:
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> Some years ago Dr Hawass wrote an interesting
> article entitled 'The Peak and Splendour of the
> Old Kingdom from the Fourth Dynasty to the end of
> the Sixth Dynasty' which I accessed in March 2005.
> His words stuck in my mind. I have just checked
> and the article is still on the web
Thanks.
Quote
From the time of Snofru, pyramid building was the country's foremost national project. The precision of the engineering and orientation of these colossal stone structures of the Fourth Dynasty imply a profound knowledge of astronomy and mathematics for which there is as yet no written evidence. The enormous workforce required must have been drawn from villages throughout the country and organized into teams, probably based on their home district. Their housing and food supplies were probably administered through the same system of teams. The success of these mammoth building projects indicates that the necessary social organization and the administrative skills were well developed.
> I do not know what Dr Hawass meant by a profound
> knowledge of astronomy.
The AE didn't view astronomy in the same way that we do.
Quote
Astronomy is a modern science that deals with concepts of a worldview that did not exist for the Egyptians. The information sought from the stars by the Egyptians dealt with concepts that are as alien to modern thinking, particularly modern secular thinking, as astronomy would have been to ancient Egyptians … Ancient Egyptians understood the universe as sacred, not mechanical. (It's about Time: Ancient Egyptian Cosmology, Joanne Conman,Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur, Bd. 31, (2003), pp. 33-71; 41).
> Prior to my study of the
> Bent Pyramid I would have said that the ancient
> mind must have been fascinated by the cycles of
> the sun, moon and stars. And that it should have
> been possible to observe 309 lunar months in 25
> calendar years of 365 days. It should, of course,
> have been possible to observe 40 solar years in 40
> calendar years and one Egyptian week of 10 days.
> If the ancient Egyptians observed precession, and
> attempted to measure it, then I would say that an
> estimate within 1000 years of 25,800 years would
> have represented a very high standard of
> observational astronomy.
At this point, I suggest that it might be a good idea to look at what the AE actually did do, rather than what you think that they should have been able to do.
> Let me make it clear that I do not think that the
> ancient Egyptians had some secret technology which
> has not yet been discovered. They could not have
> measured as precisely as modern astronomers
> without modern instruments. Perhaps they were not
> scientific in the modern sense of the word,
No perhaps about it.
and
> may have wanted to see the world in convenient
> round numbers. But I think careful observations
> are the basis of scientific enquiry.
Who said that the AE were interested in scientific enquiry?
I would say
> that the determination of the annual solar cycle
> was a very important astronomical discovery in the
> history of the world.
> From memory I read that the ancient Greeks
> measured precession at not less than one degree
> every 100 years, which was justified by the
> observations. It concerns me that it may have been
> impossible to have estimated precession as
> precisely as a period of 25,920 years without a
> bit of luck. I should make it clear that I am
> interested in what the ancient Egyptians may have
> discovered.
Once again: there is no evidence that they understood the mechanism of precession.
I do not agree with mystical or extra
> terrestial theories which argue that the ancient
> Egyptians received knowledge from outside the
> boundary of science. And by science I mean what
> could have been discovered from ancient
> observations.
> If it was ever accepted that the ancient Egyptians
> had discovered precession, then it would be seen
> as a great achievement,
The AE achieved plenty. But, as I keep saying, a knowledge of precession was not amongst those achievements. Why would it have been?
but to many not as great
> as the construction of the Bent Pyramid. I am not
> claiming anything more marvellous than is already
> apparent, just something different, as many have
> done before me.
Hermione
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