Harchebi (astronomer)

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Harchebi or Harentbo , English Harkhebi , was an astronomer and snake charmer in Ptolemaic Egypt . The only source is a hieroglyphic inscription on the back pillar of a damaged statue (Kairo JdE 38545), which was found in 1906 by a farmer in a field near Tell Farun (or Tell Nebesheh) in Lower Egypt and depicts Harentbo. The broken base had already been discovered by WMF Petrie in 1888, but was only later recognized as belonging by H. de Meulenaere . The inscription was initially dated to the early Ptolemaic period. The allegedly suggested by Jean Yoyotte identification with Dioiketes Archibios mentioned in a Greek papyrus from Tebtunis , which his work in the middle or late 1st century BC. Was displaced by correcting the reading of the name.

The first edition of the text was done by AB Kamal . An improved hieroglyphic transcription together with a French translation of the inscription by Georges Daressy appeared in 1916, an incomplete English translation was presented in 1969 by Otto Neugebauer and Richard Anthony Parker (with the help of H. de Meulenaere) and another French translation in 1984 by F. von Känel. In 1989, Philippe Derchain reworked it , who came to a significantly better understanding of the text, but made some emendations to Daressy's version of the hieroglyphic text without collating the original . A check by Karl Jansen-Winkeln based on the inscription and the impressions available to him led to the result that these changes were unjustified with two exceptions. In 2001 Jean-Luc Fissolo published small-format images of the statue and its inscription, which unfortunately only allow a limited review of the text. In 2003 Jacco Dieleman presented a new English translation, José Lull in 2004 an incomplete Spanish and hieroglyphic transcription and Maxim Panov in 2017 for the first time a transliteration and Russian translation. The text of the inscription reads:

“Hereditary Prince, noble, only friend, skillful and well versed in the sacred texts, who sees everything visible in heaven and on earth; skilful and well-versed in observing the stars, without any mistake, the rising and setting names of their time and of the gods who herald the future. He cleaned to her days at the heliacal rising of Ach [a Dean ] next to Benu [ Venus ] to the country to give peace through his words. He who watches the culmination of every star in the sky, who knows the heliacal rising of every [star] in a good year, and who foretells the heliacal rising of Sothis . He watches her [Sothis] on the day of her shining in order to determine her movement at the time of her feast, he follows what she does daily. She predicted everything through him, he knows the height of the sun in the north and south, names all of its properties and what the day will bring through them. He proclaims what will happen through them in his time, as one who exactly determines the hours by day and by night, never going wrong in the night, knowing of all things that can be seen in the sky (and) on which he is has waited, knowledgeable (in) its lighting up (= lighting up) and its extinction , which reproduces its interpretation without any reserve, raised for the sake of its reports, in which he understands the secret language through his observations, comprehends every outcome completely and based his advice and Denunciations are given to the Lord of both countries. [...] "

From the content of the inscription, Harentbo cannot be held responsible for the tradition of astrology , since this award speech soberly describes the duties and work of an astronomically versed calendar official and meteorologist .

The lunar crater Harkhebi was named after Harentbo (previously known as Harchebi) in 1979 by the IAU . Apparently, no one has noticed that this naming is based on an incorrect reading of the name.

literature

  • Daryn Lehoux: Astronomy, weather, and calendars in the ancient world. Parapegmata and related texts in classical and Near Eastern societies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2007, pp. 120-123.
  • Marshall Clagett: Ancient Egyptian Science: A Source Book. Diane 1989, p. 489 ff.
  • Otto Neugebauer, Richard Anthony Parker: Egyptian astronomical texts. Brown University Press, Providence, RI 1969, Vol. 3, pp. 214-215.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On this conception of the proper name instead of the common Harchebi cf. M. Thirion, Notes d'onomastique. Contribution à une révision du Ranke PN (neuvième série), in: Revue d'Égyptologie 45, 1994, 175–188, esp. 188 and H. Satzinger, The Amon priest "Horus-vom-Busch": a Saïtische stool statue new in Vienna ", in: M. Schade-Busch (ed.), open ways. Festschrift for Rolf Gundlach on his 65th birthday (Egypt and Old Testament 35), Wiesbaden 1996, 258–263, esp. 261 fn. 3 < https: / /homepage.univie.ac.at/helmut.satzinger/Texte/Hockerstatue.PDF >.
  2. ↑ Tell Farun on ancientlocations.net
  3. ↑ WMF Petrie / AS Murray / F. Ll. Griffith, Nebesheh (Am) and Defenneh (Tahpanhes) (MEEF 4,2), London 1888, 36, pl. 10,13a-b.
  4. ↑ The reference to J. Yoyotte, Le nom égyptien du “ministre de I'économie” - de Saïs à Méroé -, in: Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 133, 1989, 73-90 leads in this regard into the void.
  5. ↑ P. Tebt. I 61b, 4 < http://papyri.info/ddbdp/p.tebt;1;61 >.
  6. ^ Lehoux: Astronomy, weather, and calendars. 2007, p. 120.
  7. ↑ AB Kamal, Rapport sur quelques localités de la Basse-Égypte, in: Annales du Service des antiquités de l'Égypte 7, 1906, 232–240, esp. 239f.
  8. ^ G. Daressy, La statue d'un astronome, in: Annales du Service des antiquités de l'Égypte 16, 1916, 1-5.
  9. ^ O. Neugebauer / RA Parker, Egyptian Astronomical Texts III (Brown Egyptological Studies 6), Providence - London 1969, 213–216. A translation of their translation into German is provided by G. Höber-Kamel, in: Kemet 9,4, 2000 (Science in Ancient Egypt), ...
  10. ↑ F. von Känel, Les prêtres-ouâb de Sekhmet et les conjurateurs de Serket (Bibliothèque de l'École des hautes études. Sciences religieuses 87), Paris 1984, 201-203 No. 30.
  11. ↑ Ph. Derchain, Harkhébis, le Psylle-Astrologue, in: Chronique d'Égypte 64, 1989, 74-89.
  12. ↑ K. Jansen-Winkeln, contributions to the private inscriptions of the late period, in: Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 125, 1998, 1–13, esp. 9 fn. 64.
  13. ↑ J.-L. Fissolo, Les astronomes égyptiens, in: Égypte. Afrique & Orient 21, 2001, 15–24, esp. 21, Fig. 7.
  14. ^ J. Dieleman, Claiming the Stars. Egyptian Priests Facing the Sky, in: S. Bickel / A. Loprieno (eds.), Basel Egyptology Prize 1. Junior Research in Egyptian History, Archeology, and Philology (Aegyptiaca Helvetica 17), Basel 2003, 277-289, esp. 280-282, 285f. and J. Dieleman, Stars and the Egyptian Priesthood in the Graeco-Roman Period, in: S. Noegel / J. Walker / B. Wheeler (eds.), Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World , University Park 2003, 137-153, esp. 142-145, 150-152.
  15. ↑ J. Lull, La astronomía en el antiguo Egipto, Valencia 2004, 54–59.
  16. ↑ MV Panov, Историко-биографические и мифологические надписи позднего времени (Египетские тексты 6), Novosibirsk 2017, 197-199 < https://www.academia.edu/34332629/Historical_Biographical_and_Mythological_Inscriptions_of_the_Late_Period_ET_VI_Novosibirsk_2017 >.
  17. ↑ The following incomplete translation is rather free and unreliable except for the bold part. A revision is intended.
  18. ↑ On this passage cf. the correction by Jansen-Winkel, in: ZÄS 125, 1998, 9f.
  19. ↑ Based on the translation by Daryn Lehoux published in 2007 (see Lehoux: Astronomy, weather, and calendars. 2007, pp. 120f.), Whose comments suggest a rather limited knowledge of the Egyptian script and language.
personal data
SURNAME Harchebi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harentbo; Archibios
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Egyptian astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH between 330 BC BC and 100 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH between 330 BC BC and 100 BC Chr.