Mesqet

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Mesqet in hieroglyphics
F31 s N29 t t
N25

Mesqet
Msqt

Mesqet ( sometimes also Mesket in other publications ) refers to the region of the sky just above the horizon in Egyptian mythology and astronomy and, in contrast to Qenqenet, means the starting areas of the Duat .

background

Mesqet Zone: Sunrise just above the horizon

The Mesqet is the place in which Re , Horus and the Dean stars stay shortly after birth, before they appear completely above the horizon. The mesqet is therefore mythologically “the place after birth, before the final size is reached”.

The location of the mesqet was long controversial among Egyptologists , as this area is also referred to in many texts as "area in the sky and in the duat". The mesqet already plays an important role in the pyramid texts . For example, Kurt Sethe , Arielle Kozloff and Ronald Wells believed that it could be the Milky Way . After further investigations into other texts, this proposal could no longer be shortlisted, since the other documents clearly referred to a “region of passage of the sky and the stars ”.

After extensive work-up by Harco Willems , Rolf Krauss and Arno Egberts , the area could be restricted to the location of the sunrise . With the results of the investigations of the papyrus pBM 47.218.50 and the related topic of the Mesqet sanctuaries, it quickly became clear that the newer assumptions coincide with the mention in the Brooklyn Payprus, which explicitly only mentions the cardinal points east and west. Finally, the reworking of the grooved book confirmed the exact allocation to the areas of the Duat's exit gates, which are just above the horizon.

See also

literature

  • Alexandra von Lieven : Floor plan of the course of the stars - the so-called groove book . The Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Eastern Studies (inter alia), Copenhagen 2007, ISBN 978-87-635-0406-5 , pp. 136-137

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kurt Sethe: The ancient Egyptian pyramid texts. After the paper prints and photographs of the Berlin Museum. Volume 1: Text. - Half 1. Proverbs 1 - 468 (Pyr. 1 - 905). 3. Reprint of the Hinrichs edition, Leipzig 1908; Olms, Hildesheim 2001, ISBN 3-487-02593-0 , p. 315.
  2. ↑ Arielle Kozloff and a .: Egypt's dazzling sun - Amenhotep III and his world. Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, Cleveland 1992, ISBN 0-940717-16-6 , pp. 336-337.
  3. ^ Ronald Wells: The Mythology of Nut and the Birth of Ra. In Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur , No. 19, 1992, pp. 305-321.
  4. ↑ Harco Willems: The coffin of Heqata (Cairo JdE 36418): A case study of Egyptian funerary culture of the Early Middle Kingdom. Peeters, Leuven 1996, ISBN 90-6831-769-5 , pp. 262-270.
  5. ↑ Rolf Krauss: Astronomical Concepts and Concepts of the Beyond in the Pyramid Texts. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 3-447-03979-5 , pp. 254-255.
  6. ↑ Arno Egberts: In quest of meaning: A study of the ancient Egyptian rites of consecrating the meret chests and driving the calves. Nederlands Institut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1995, ISBN 90-6258-208-7 , pp. 292-293.
  7. ^ Jean-Claude Goyon: Confirmation du pouvoir royal au nouvel to: Brooklyn Museum papyrus 47.218.50 (= Bibliothèque d'étude. Volume 52). Institut Francais d'Archéologie Orientale, Cairo 1972, pp. 93-94.