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Signs
of Stars in Ancient Egypt
The
Basics of Old Kingdom Stellar Representations
by Anthony Sakovich
I
am often at a loss to explain the fascination people have with trying to
make ancient Egyptian pyramids correlate to stars in the sky. In fact, this
behavioural phenomenon is not just restricted to pyramids any more...it's
now extending to pyramid fields, cities, obelisks and just about any other
man-made structure (and sometimes NON-manmade structures) just so people
can say they've "discovered" or "decoded" something. Of
course, what they are actually discovering are merely coincidences... but
they don't seem to care about that detail.
For purposes of this
article, it is of primary importance that the reader understand the
difference between a "stellar alignmnet" and a "stellar
correlation". A stellar alignment of a pyramid (or other structure) is
merely the act of aiming two parts of a structure, such as its
cornerstones, at a specific stellar target. According to both New Kingdom
and Old Kingdom references, the Stretching of the Cord Ceremony was a
stellar alignment process, by which the directionality of a pyramid was
fixed via some sort of "line of sight" procedure, with a star or
stars as the targeting focus.
A stellar
correlation, however, is where a group of stars is mapped out -- recreated
-- so that it could be recognized as the group of stars in question. An
excellent example of a correlation can be found in the depiction of the
Bull's Thigh star group (roughly corresponding to our "Big
Dipper"), which shows the stars in their actual shape in the sky.
Interestingly enough, there seemed to be absolutely no compulsion on the
part of the ancient Egyptians, however, to depict constellations
accurately, as many examples are "flopped" either vertically or
horizontally, depending upon aesthetic requirements of the particular
relief.
What is lacking from
virtually all of the alternative historians' "discoveries" is a
sense of reality with regard to what we do know about ancient
Egyptian cosmology... how they viewed the stars. Instead, the
assumption is quietly and pseudoscientifically made that they MUST have
seen the stars as WE do... as collections or groups in the night sky, with
exact angles and azimuths and the like. Evidence for this, however, is not
only scant...it's actually contrary to the real evidence from the Old
Kingdom.
Stellar
Depictions
In order to begin to understand what the ancient Egyptians were visualizing
when they thought of the stars in the heavens, we should probably look at
any available depictions of stars, especially if these depictions can be
found in conjunction with pyramids... the favorite target of alternative
historians with their stellar correlations.
The first depiction I
can find of stars in relation to a King's pyramid comes from the first
pyramid ever built... by King Djoser, in the Third Dynasty (approx.
2650BCE). I cannot find a photograph, but what I have is an artist's
drawing, by Segato, when the chamber was initially explored in 1820-21.
(courtesy of Siliotti's "Pyramids of Egypt") I'm sure the stars
are actually more dense than these, but you can a very clear idea of how
"accurate" a depiction the stars are of the various
constellations in the heavens:
These are stars... we know they are stars. However, a pyramid built a
hundred years prior to the construction of the Giza Three could be
irrelevant, if we have any indication of evolution in subsequent years. A
lot can change in a hundred years, and the desire to accurately portray
stars and star groups MAY have occurred in that time. The way to rule it
out is to examine other star drawings that occur either during or after the
building of the Giza monuments, but still within the Old Kingdom time
frame.
Our second depiction
of stars occurs in the pyramid of Unas, from 2356BCE... coincidentally, in
the same pyramid that contains the first copies of religious texts ever
found on earth. This pyramid is 200 years after Khufu... and 140 years
after Menkaure. In this chamber, we are able to see how much the
"accuracy" of stellar depictions has evolved since the time of
Djoser, in 2650BCE, 300 years earlier:
Or as can be seen in this
photo, from Mark Lehner's The Complete Pyramids:
It appears that there has been no change whatsoever in the view the
Egyptians had of their sky in 300 years. This king, a king just as
important as Djoser or Khufu or Menkaure, would surely have had the best,
most accurate depictions of stars available at the time, if indeed accurate
depictions of the stars were considered important.
However... we should
not take just Unas' word for what stars were thought to be, so long as
other evidence is available. Unas could have been a classical historian who
loved the old ways, and just copied them, rather than using the new, exact
stellar depictions that might have been available at the time. Since we
can, we should look at his successors, as well. The pyramid of Pepi I shows
the same style of star field:
And the same thing holds true for Merenre (2255BCE):
The evidence is quite clear. We have four hundred years of uninterrupted
depictions of starfields within the tombs of kings... and absolutely
none of them that convey the slightest indication that the ancient
Egyptians were the least bit interested in creating accurate maps of
stars... anywhere... ever.
Anyone who wants to
talk about the depictions of stars in the Old Kingdom period of ancient
Egyptian history must start from this point. This is the evidence with
which you must begin your theoretical constructs.
And based on this...
anyone arguing for any plan that "mapped" stars more accurately
than these simple rows is absolutely, 100% arguing against the evidence.
Let's re-examine what we know:
1.
Stars were not mapped accurately 100 years before the building of the Giza
pyramids, as evidenced by the depictions found within the pyramids of
kings.
2.
Stars were mapped in exactly the same fashion 300 years later; 140 years
after the last pyramid was built at Giza (and less than 100 years after the
pyramids at Abusir were begun, for those who are trying to turn that field
into a starmap).
3.
The Pyramid Texts, the body of texts from which alternative historians
cherry-pick their stellar references, appear within pyramids that show
stars to be no more accurate than they were 100 years before the
construction of the Giza trio.
In order to make any kind of correlation of the Old Kingdom pyramids fit
any accurate stellar mapping, one must argue that the desire for accuracy
suddenly sprang up, becoming the predominant factor in pyramid construction
in Dynasty IV... and then mysteriously de-evolved into precisely the same
kind of depictions that occurred prior to building at Giza and Abusir.
The level of special
pleading involved in this is beyond comprehension... and more than strains
the limit of rational credulity. It's simply absurd.
Bibliography
Lehner, Mark; The
Complete Pyramids
Siliotti, Alberto;
Guide to the Pyramids of Egypt
www-oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IS/SANDERS
for the close-up of Unas' ceiling
(c)
2003 Anthony Sakovich
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