Naos of the decades
The Naos of the Decades (also Naos made from juice el-Henna, Naos of Nectanebos ) is an ancient Egyptian shrine that Pharaoh Nectanebos I (379 to 360 BC) had made during his reign. The shrine made of diorite , a dark hard rock , contains astrological predictions and references to the Egyptian calendar for each of the 37 decades of a year . The Naos of the Decades is the oldest surviving evidence of an astrological forecast calendar. Older evidence for astrological records and forecasts, such as the Enuma Anu Enlil , do not have a calendar form.
background
The shrine made during the reign of Nectanebo I was initially in juice el-henna . In the Roman period occurred between the first and third century. Chr. Relocation from its original location after Kanopus to there as part of the Serapis to be used -Kultes. During the Christianization followers destroyed the Christianity the Naos of the Decades , as they it as an "object of pagan idol worship" looked. The individual fragments of the shrine were later moved to different places. Archaeological campaigns were able to recover various fragments in some cases.
In 1777 Sonnini excavated the pyramidion belonging to the shrine in Abukir . The Naos of the Decades originally stood in a sanctuary . A naos of the goddess Tefnut designed with similar motifs has been lost to this day. He was in another room of the same sanctuary. In 1817 the Pyramidion des Naos of the Decades came to the Louvre in Paris . The other larger piece of the lower part, which was recovered in the Bay of Abukir in 1940 , is currently in the Greco-Roman Museum of Alexandria .
By 2001, Franck Goddio's team lifted further sections from the sea. Christian Leitz published a revision of the shrine's inscriptions in 1995 . Two thirds of the reconstruction of the ancient Egyptian astrology and forecast texts made possible, provides valuable information about the events associated with the Egyptian calendar.
Decade list
The list of decades of the Naos begins with the dean of the Sopdet , who consisted of three stars. The seven decades difference between entering the Duat (transformation into a Chatiu demon ) and rebirth with leaving the Duat (transformation into a Baktiu ) can also include 75 days instead of 70 if the New Years day falls into the Duat phase .
For the astronomical observation, the respective dean as a whole is decisive, but not an individual star of the dean. For example , the heliacal rise from the constellation Sopdet through Sirius , the star of the goddess Sopdet, symbolizes the birth of the dean. The previous invisibility period of Sirius, i.e. the lingering in the Duat as a Chatiu demon, was about 63 days in the Old Kingdom . Including the other two stars of the constellation Sopdet, however, the result was 75 days, which in turn correspond to the time difference in the dean system.
The dean system of the Naos of the Decades has a special feature compared to the dean system of the Nutbuch . From the Old Kingdom up to the New Kingdom, the dean system was used as a time system , which was also used in the coffin texts of the Middle Kingdom on the diagonal star clocks . In the astrological dean system of the Naos, however, the focus is on the Omina dates, which begin with sunrise and are therefore based on the culmination in the twelfth hour of the night .
| Naos of the Decades (idealized calendar around 377 BC) | ||||||
| decade | dean |
Heliac culmination ( 12th night hour ) |
Acronymic doom ( 1st night hour ) |
Heliac rise ( 12th night hour ) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beginning of the year |
21. Achet III (October 1st) |
26. Schemu II (May 4th) |
1. Achet I (July 13th) |
||
| 4th |
21. Achet IV (October 31) |
26. Schemu III (June 3) |
1. Achet II (August 12) |
|||
| 7th |
21. Peret I (November 30th) |
26. Schemu IV (July 3) |
1. Achet III (September 11th) |
|||
| 10 |
21. Peret II (December 30th) |
21. Achet I (August 2nd) |
1. Achet IV (October 11th) |
|||
| 13 |
21. Peret III (January 29) |
21. Achet II (September 1st) |
1. Peret I (November 10th) |
|||
| 16 |
21. Peret IV (February 28) |
21. Achet III (October 1st) |
1. Peret II (December 10th) |
|||
| 19th |
21. Schemu I (March 30th) |
21. Achet IV (October 31) |
1. Peret III (January 9th) |
|||
| 20th | Resetyu winch |
1. Schemu II (April 9) |
1. Peret I (November 10th) |
11. Peret III (January 19) |
||
| 22nd |
21. Schemu II (April 29) |
21. Peret I (November 30th) |
1. Peret IV (February 8th) |
|||
| 25th |
21. Schemu III (May 29) |
21. Peret II (December 30th) |
1. Schemu I (March 10th) |
|||
| 26th | Sebiu wall |
21. Schemu III (June 8th) |
1. Peret III (January 9th) |
11. Schemu I (March 20) |
||
| 28 | Nile flood |
21. Schemu IV (June 28) |
21. Peret III (January 29) |
1. Schemu II (April 9) |
||
| 31 | Wehau disease |
16. Achet I (July 28th) |
21. Peret IV (February 28) |
1. Schemu III (May 10) |
||
| 34 |
16. Achet II (August 27) |
21. Schemu I (March 30th) |
1. Schemu IV (June 8th) |
|||
| 35 | Fall of the Nile inundation |
26. Achet II (September 6th) |
1. Schemu II (April 9) |
11. Schemu IV (June 18) |
||
| 36 |
6. Achet III (September 16) |
11. Schemu II (April 19) |
21. Schemu IV (June 28) |
|||
| 37 |
16. Achet III (September 26th) |
21. Schemu II (April 29) |
1. Heriu-renpet (July 8th) |
|||
See also
literature
- Franck Goddio , Christoph Gerigk: Egypt's Sunken Treasures : Special edition for the exhibition "Egypt's Sunken Treasures" by the Institut Européen d'Archéologie Sous-Marine (IEASM), May 13th to September 4th, 2006, Berlin. Prestel, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-7913-3544-8 .
- Labib Habachi , Banoub Habachi: The Naos with the Decades (Louvre D 37) and the Discovery of another fragment. In: Journal of Near Eastern Studies 11.4, October 1952, pp. 251-263, doi: 10.1086 / 371100 .
- Daryn Lehoux: Egyptian Astrometeorology. In: Astronomy, Weather and Calendars in the ancient World: Parapegmata and related Texts in classical and Near-Eastern societies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2007, ISBN 978-0-521-85181-7 , pp. 116-135.
- Christian Leitz : Ancient Egyptian star clocks. Peeters, Leuven 1995, ISBN 90-6831-669-9 .
- Anne-Sophie von Bomhard: The Naos of the Decades: From the observation of the Sky to Mythology and Astrology. Institute of Archeology, Oxford 2008, ISBN 978-1-905905-04-1 .
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ Calendar dates according to the Gregorian calendar .