M.Williams: “The Queens Chamber Shafts take the shortest route to the exterior, a 90 degree angle from the exterior, and would have exited at the same course on the exterior.”
This is an old idea, and may well be true, but until we know what the angle of inclines for the upper reaches of the QC shafts are, I would wait until the survey data has been published before embracing it. Unless of cou
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Hans: “As does other stars I suspect”
A few stars crossed the same area of the sky as the 3-star asterism in Orion, but its not known if any of these other stars played an important role in the ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs as Orion did. One of these stars has an interesting connection with Orion. Epsilon Scorpii, in the scorpion constellation reached a similar altitude due south as Aln
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Hans: “I would which is why I find the idea that a picked line ''is pointed at a star', to make this true they have to pick a specific date….”
The opening at the top of the upper south shaft was facing an area of the southern sky where, at its highest point in the sky due south, the distinctive 3-star asterism in the centre of the Orion constellation crossed every 24 hours. The
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Mark: “The ancient Egyptian lunar cycle of 309 lunar months in 25 calendar years of 365 days is several times more precise than the Julian calendar introduced in (46 BC?)”
It's worth noting that AFAIK, the earliest textual evidence for the 25-year lunar cycle that has survived in the archaeological record, is found in the Greek Papyrus Rylands dated to c.200…100 BCE, about 2400 years afte
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Byrd: “Orion doesn't rise in the same position in the night sky throughout the year... just as the sun doesn't rise in the same place throughout the year.”
Orion always rose over the same area of the eastern horizon throughout the year during Khufu’s reign. The sun on the other hand rose over the north eastern horizon in the summer, due east at the spring and autumn equinoxes, and ov
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
I’m not sure I understand your diagram correctly, but when Mizar in the Big Dipper was at upper culmination due north, Kochab in the Little Dipper was about 49’ west of due north and not in vertical alignment with Alifa al Farkadain which is over a degree west of north. Orion was about 12 degs under the western horizon about 79 degs west of south. Has this something to do with a representation of
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Robin: “…would you also give the altitudes of Sirius and Kochab in 2560 BC ?”
Kochab: 39.755 degs
Sirius: 39.016 degs
Chris
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Robin: “I don't have an astronomy program at the moment but if anyone does (and has not yet become petrified by all this 'number crunching'), what are the altitudes of the suggested target stars in 2560 BC?”
2560 BC:
Alnitak: 44.69 degs
Alnilam: 44.98 degs
Thuban: 31.36 degs
2555 BC:
Alnitak: 44.71 degs
Alnilam: 45.00 degs
Thuban: 31.39 degs
(upper north shaft: Gantenb
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Pistol: “Hi all I'm trying to find all the names of Early-dynastic, Old Kingdom/MK area measures…”
“The common unit of area was the setat or square khet for which the Greek word aurora is often used as a translation. For smaller areas the setat was progressively halved, and special signs were used in the RMP for a half, quarter and eighth of a setat, which presumably had special names.
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Pistol: “pri {O1 D21 D54} to go up, ascend”
‘prt’ (heliacal) rising of Sopdet (Sirius) - the brightest star in their sky.
'ia' can mean 'ascend' (M17 (j) D36 (a) + det. ‘mastaba’):
".....you shall ascend (ia) to the god" P 334 (MN) (PT 483) Sethe Vol 2: 71; §1016d
‘ia’ can also mean ‘tomb’ (M17 (j) D36 (a) + det. ‘mastaba’)
"You have been giv
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Kanga: “It could have a geometric root, meaning right triangle, or profile triangle.”
The height of a triangle is mryt: U6 (mr) D21 (r) M17 M17 (y) X1 (t) (Faulkner 2002 (1962): 112)
Chris
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Ian Onvlee: “I will also not refer to any pyramid as of this or that king or dynasty, as it isn’t at all that certain who built it. Although I eventually discovered and can prove beyond a doubt who did build them, I will not yet reveal it for the purpose of suspense.”
If Ian Onvlee is to “prove beyond a doubt” that the largest pyramid at Giza was not built for Khufu in Dyn. 4, but for an early
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Cladking: “"Re" was also "khepri", of course, which Egyptologists take as the midday sun, I believe.”
“The Sun was the original and daily source of all life: his appearance at the creation and at every sunrise thereafter made life possible in the world. Newly born at dawn, he was often called xprr “Beetle” by analogy to the verb xpr “come into existence” or “evolve”; from
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Pistol: “I have only J.P. Allen's translation, and I did notice he refers to the Sun often rather than Re, I'm curious about this, has he ever stated why?
“In the Pyramid Texts, as elsewhere, the sun was usually called ra. Though often translated as the proper name “Re” or “Ra”, this word means simply “sun”; when the Egyptian language acquired a definite article (nearly a millennium
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Lee: “She was referring to findings from the Tomb of Tutankhamun, but this does not mean this is when any such cross identification began.”
She does state however that “…since the orientation of the forehead emblem is correlated with the symbolism of both Isis-Nephthys and Nekhbet-Wadjet, within the New Kingdom mortuary context in which it originated….”
Lee: They are also often portray
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Lee: “Edna Russmann, in ‘Vulture and Cobra at the King’s Brow’ (In “Chief of Seers” p. 271-2) makes the case that the Vulture and Cobra of the Two Ladies (G16) glyph can be seen as “representations of Isis and Nephthys”.
From what period?
Isis and Nephthys are first attested in the PTs, and AFAIK, the Old Kingdom PT’s and the Middle Kingdom CTs give no indication of Isis and Nephthys being
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Lee: “The "Two Ladies" are no doubt Isis and Nephthys”
The glyph on the lower row of text is G16 ideogram for the ‘Two Ladies’ (nbtj) - the vulture goddess Nekhbet (nxbt), protector of Upper Egypt and the cobra goddess Wadjet (wADt), protective deity of Lower Egypt.
Lee: “I am more inclined to think that the side thought to have faced east, actually faced south”
Orion (sAH)
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Pistol: “……'Amenemhet beholds the perfection of Re'
Shouldn't it be read from top to bottom? 'Re behold(s?) the perfection of Amenemhet'
The ‘Winged Sun-Disc’ protection motif hovers over the vertical inscription:
Two eyes sign, I40 - ideogram for ‘see’, ‘look.’
Heart and windpipe sign, F35 x 3 (nfrw), ‘beauty’
Sun sign, N5 (ra) located between the king’s b
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Pyramid Texts that involve Shu in the king’s ascent to the sky – translated by J.P. Allen 2005
Glossary (p. 441):
Shu (Sw “empty, void”). The atmosphere that keeps the waters of Nu from flooding the earth. Together with Tefnut, the first two “evolutions” of Atum at the creation, worshipped as Dual Lion (rwtj). Father of Geb and Nut.
Shu’s Lakes (Sjw Sw). Watery areas of the sky.
The
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
The Osirion has been dated using surface luminescence dating techniques and the results make it highly unlikely it was built in 10500 BC:
“For the sample from the northern wall of Seti A’ the estimated age was 1070±400 BC. The archaeological age estimation is Middle Kingdom (XI to XIII Dynasties, 2030 to 1640 BC), the lower age implies possibly later re-use. For Osirion samples, RHO-138 and 13
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
correction: 113m x 62m and over 10m high
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Hi Bryan: “do we know where his fathers tomb is?”
The twin mastaba tombs of Rahotep (greatest of the seers of Iunu) and his wife Nefert, and Nefermaat (‘Overseer of All the King’s Works’) and his wife Atet, lie to the north and east of the pyramid at Maidum.
Nefermaat and Atet’s mastaba tomb was one of the largest built in AE: about 113m x 862m, and over 10m high and covered with white lime
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Hemiunu (U36 (Hm) O28 (j(w)n) – Junker suggests ‘Servant of (the god of) Iunu’ (cf. Junker Giza I, p, 148)
Hemiunu was the eldest son of Nefermaat, and both were ‘Overseers of all the king’s works’. This title implies overall responsibility for the design and construction of the royal mortuary complexes of Snefru and his son Khufu, although, the inscriptions in Nefermaat’s tomb make no mention
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Pistol: “Also, nowhere (AFAIK) in the pyramid text, coffin texts or book of dead will you find that the deities or gods speak to the deceased or each other, the texts describe only their actions or deeds not their words.”
Sah (Orion), ‘father of the gods’ (PT 274 §408c), spoke:
A sweet breeze to your nose! Orion (sAH) says to the 'Plough' / 'Big Dipper' (msxtjw):
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Info about the Horus falcon from ‘The Lanner Falcon’, Giovanni Leonardi; revised ebook 2017 (Ist pub. 2015):
…....Since ancient Predynastic times, Horus depictions remained unchanged for two millennia and focused on symbolic and decorative qualities and not on associations with wild birds (Houlinan and Goodman 1986, Podgorski 2010, Porter 2011). It is possible that the Lanner falcon may also h
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Lee: “I've been trying to figure out on which species of falcon the depictions of the Horus Falcon were likely based. Anybody know of, or have, any information on this they could share or direct me to?”
Most likely the lanner falcon (Falco biarmicus). Its similar to the peregrine falcon - both have an eye ring or orbital circle of light skin, “but the lanner’s is far more distinct an
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Jacob: "Just curious whether anyone has determined the seked of G1's Grand Gallery? Ascending Passageway? If so, what are the evidentiary proofs?"
According to Middle Kingdom mathematical papyri, the AE defined an angle of incline as a rise of 1 cubit to palm run ratio - for example, a 45 deg. angle of incline = sqd 7 (a run of 7 palms). However, although this method of calcu
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Lee: "I now have in front of me Leclant's two volume publication on the Pepi I Pyramid Texts ("Les Textes de La Pyramide de Pepy Ier'), and find that in the text in question (number P A/S 51-64 in Leclant's identification system) the word "itn" - as it is usually spelled - does not appear."
So Allen's 'great disc' is iTn wr written with V
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
M. Williams: "How do we know "imperishable stars" isn't a reference to stars in general, as in they go down at sunrise and come back every night ?"
This issue was discussed some years ago here on the HoM. The predominant view is that the imperishable stars (j.xmw-skjw) are the northern circumpolar stars that do not rise and set, and stars that rise in the east and s
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt
Warwick: "would viewing an eclipse have been seen as a ball in front of a ball or a disk in front of a disk?"
Eclipses are not so common for any one place on earth, but the phases of the moon occur every lunar month offering more opportunity to observe in detail the moon's appearance.
The full moon and sun appear in the sky as similar sized circular discs, but the moon chang
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Chris Tedder
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Ancient Egypt