6 Kemp and Garfi, op. cit., Map Sheets 4 and 5.
7 Aldred, Akhenaten, op. cit., p. 15.
8 Ibid., p. 47.
9 Redford, Akhenaten, op. cit., pp. 172-3.
10 Ibid., p. 180. Apparently the king also bore that title, David, op cit., p. 187. Also Moret, op. cit., p. 52.
11 Arthur Weigall, Life and Times of Akhenaton, Pharoah of Egpyt, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1923, p. 63.
12 It may be worth perhaps mentioning that also in the year 1360 BC, when Akhenaten moved the court to Tell el Amarna, Halley’s Comet was making its reappearance in the eastern sky at dawn - perhaps seen as the cosmic phoenix returning to Heliopolis?
13 Redford, op. cit., p. 139.
14 Very rarely a small cobra was also included, (the so-called uraeus) at the bottom of the solar disc.
15 Wilkinson, op. cit., p. 212.
16 Redford, op. cit., p. 139. Redford translates zep tepi as ‘First Occasion, i.e. the first moment of creation’.
17 Jocelyn Gohary, Akhenaten’s Sed-Festival at Karnak, Kegan Paul International, London, 1992, pp. 29-30.
18 Gohary, op. cit., p. 29.
19 It means ‘three’ in Arabic, but could also be from the Italian word tagliati (cuttings), which makes more sense.
20 Francis Llewellyn Griffith, ‘The Jubilee of Akhenaten’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 5, 1918, p. 62.
21 Gohary, Akenaten’s Sed-Festival at Karnak, op. cit., p. 32.
22 See note 1 above.
23 Inscription on the First Boundary Stone, 13th Day, 4th Month, 2nd Season, 6th Year.
24 Griffith, op. cit., p. 62.
25 Hart, op. cit., p. 44.
26 Quirke, op. cit., p. 154.
27 Gohary, op. cit., pp. 2-3.
28 Redford, op. cit., p. 146.
29 Gohary, op. cit., p. 4.
30 Ibid.
31 This was during the Stars & Signs II Egypt Tour, which I organise with Quest Travel every year.
32 The Sphinx measures 15 metres in height. Another of Rameses’ statues which lies on its back at Mit’Rahin (Memphis) would have been 18 metres high when upright.
33 The statue is also said to be a cryptograph of Rameses II’s ‘coronation name’ User-maat-re.
34 Baines and Malek, op. cit., p. 184.
35 Hart, op. cit., p. 82.
36 H. te Velde, ‘Some Remarks on the Mysterious Language of the Baboons’, Essays Dedicated to Prof. M.S.H.G. Heerma van Voss, University of Amsterdam, Kampen 1988, p. 129.
37 J.M.A. Janssen, Hieogliefen, E.J. Brill Leiden, 1952, p. 7.
38 Jeane-Claude Goyon ‘Textes Mythologiques II’, Bulletin de L’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale (BIFAO), Vol. 75, 1975, p. 376.
39 Jan K. van der Haagen, ‘Au Grand Temple D’ Abou Simbel: Le Secret des Pretres et des Astronomes’, Courier de l’Unesco, October 1962.
40 Haagen, op. cit. It is interesting to note that an inscription carved on the cliff near the Abu Simbel temple reads Rameses-ashahebsed, which translates as ‘Rameses-Rich-in-Jubilees’. Egyptologists attribute this to an official of the king’s inner circle also called Rameses who was in charge of the construction of the temple (See T.G.H. James, Ramesses the Great, The American University Press in Cairo, 2002, p. 177).
41 There was something else worth mentioning in the astronomical alignment of the temple that caught the attention of the Belgian astronomer Professor M. Bonneval, a colleague of Haagen. The latter discovered that in c. 1260 BC, when construction work on the temple was probably started, another more frequent celestial spectacle would have been seen at night from late May to early December: the three bright stars of Orion’s belt rising over the eastern cliffs in direct alignment with the axis of the temple. Haagen thus wrote: ‘We know that Orion, or more precisely the three belt stars, played an important role for the Egyptians . . . And it also is known from various texts that Orion (Sah in ancient Egyptian) was assimilated to Osiris, god of resurrection.’ (Haagen, op. cit.)
42 Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), however, was so convinced of Haagen’s conclusions that when the Abu Simbel temple was moved to a higher location in the mid-1960s it was aligned to the 22 October sunrise, the so-called ‘Festival of the Sun’.
43 We have seen how the ancient Egyptians were particularly taken by the belief that there had been a ‘First Time’ from which the perpetual cycle of the sun-god had begun and which they calculated returned to its point of origin every 1,460 years. But in actual fact it takes 1,506 years for the civil calendar to re-coincide exactly. We have also seen how the point of origin was fixed at the summer solstice, which today falls on 21 June. It is my contention, therefore, that a ‘super’ jubilee was celebrated at those points of return, one of which would have been in c. 1275 BC. In that year, the ‘jubilee date’ of 1 Tybi would fall 120 days after the summer solstice, which is 19 October. The Great Temple of Rameses II at Abu Simbel may, indeed, be a memorial to such an event. Supporting this hypothesis is the name that was occasionally given to the jubilees, such as the zep tepi heb-sed and also the zep tepi whmw heb-sed, which respectively translate as ‘the First Time Jubilee’, and ‘the First Time Return Jubilee’. (See Flinders Petrie, op. cit., p. 180. See also Patrick F. O’Mara, ‘Was the Sed Festival Periodic in Early Egyptian History?’, Discussions in Egyptology, Vol. 12, 1988, p. 55).
44 At this latitude the shift over 5,000 years would be practically unnoticeable to a naked-eye observer.
45 The Sphinx faces due east, but the causeway is oriented some 13 to 14° south-of-east. Calculations show that the sunrise would be at 13° south-of-east on 21 February and also on 19 October.
46 Colin Reader, ‘Giza Before the Fourth Dynasty’, Journal of the Ancient Chronology Forum, Vol. 9, pp. 5-21.
47 Malek and Baines, op. cit., p. 36.
48 Mark Lehner, ‘Giza: A Contextual Approach to the Pyramids’, Archiv. Für Orientforschung, Vol. 32, 1985, pp. 136-159.
49 Ibid.
50 Jeremy Naydler, Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts, Inner Traditions Publishing, Rochester, Vermont, 2005, pp. 71-122.
51 Ibid., p. 99, Fig. 4.11.
52 Ibid., p. 103, Fig. 4.15.
53 Wilkinson, op. cit., p. 239.
54 Kemp and Garfi, op. cit., Map Sheets 4 and 5.
55 Roel Oostra’s TV documentary is being made for the Dutch channel AVRO and the Italian channel RAI II.
Conclusion
1 Pyramid Texts, Utterance 600.
2 Due to precession, a star will also rise at a different position on the eastern horizon over a long period of time, and will return back to the original position every 26,000 years (but allowing a small difference due to the proper motion of the star).
3 Wilkinson, op cit., pp. 77-9.
4 E.A. Wallis Budge, The Egyptian Heaven and Hell: The Book of What Is in the Duat, Vol.1, Martin Hopkinson & Co., London, 1925, pp. 240, 258.
Appendix 1: Running the Heb Sed
1 G. Wainwright, The Sky Religion in Egypt (Cambridge, 1938), pp. 16-17.
2 Ibid., p. 4.
3 Jocelyn Gohary, Akhenaten’s Sed-Festival at Karnak (London, 1992), p. 2. This is an excellent survey of the different theories about the Sed-festival, with a very complete biography on the subject.
4 The major works on the Heb-Sed are essential references to understanding its complexities. They are: C.M. Firth and J.E. Quibell, The Step Pyramid (2 vols.) (Cairo 1935); F.W. von Bissing and H. Kees, Das Re-Heiligtum des Konigs Newoser-Re II and III (Leipzig, 1923 and 1928); and E. Naville, The Festival Hall of Osorkon II in the Great Temple of Bubastis (London, 1892).
5 H. Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods (Chicago, 1948), p. 80.
6 Ibid., p. 84.
7 Ibid., p. 85.
8 Firth and Quibell, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 11. Frankfort, op. cit., p. 80, states just the reverse.
9 Alan Gardiner, ‘Horus the Behdetite’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 30, 1944, p. 27.
10 Ibid., p.
28, note 1.
11 Firth and Quibell, op. cit., Vol. I, p. iii.
12 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 23.
13 Barry J. Kemp, Ancient Egypt, Anatomy of a Civilization (London, 1991), p. 100. This is an excellent dicussion of the ideal type in Egyptian architecture.
14 E. Uphill, ‘The Egyptian Sed-festival Rites’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 24, 1965.
15 J. Wilson, ‘Illuminating the Thrones at the Egyptian Jubilee’, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 56, 1936, pp. 293 ff.
16 Kemp, op. cit., p. 97.
17 Firth and Quibell, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 69.
18 Ibid., Vol. II, pl. 15.
19 Wilson, op. cit., p. 378.
20 Ibid., p. 377.
21 Ibid., p. 379.
22 Frankfort, op. cit., p. 92.
23 Ibid, pp. 364-5, n. 49.
24 A.M. Roth, ‘The Pss-Kf and the “Opening of the Mouth” Ceremony: A Ritual of Birth and Rebirth’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 78, 1992, pp. 113-47.
25 Ibid., p. 124.
26 W.J. Murnane, ‘Servant, Seer, Saint, Son of Hapu; Amenhotep, Called Huy’, KTM, Vol. 2:2, Summer 1991, p. 11.
27 Ibid., p. 13.
28 W.R. Johnson, ‘The Dazzling Sun Disk: Iconography Evidence that Amenhotep III reigned as the Aten Personified’, KMT, Vol. 2:2, Summer 1991, p. 22.
29 Ibid., p. 60.
30 W.E.A. Budge, The Book of Opening the Mouth, London, 1909, p. 31.
31 Firth and Quibell, Vol. I, p. 58.
32 A.J. Spencer, ‘Two Enigmatic Hieroglyphs and Their Relation to the Sedfestival’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 64, 1978, p. 55.
33 Raymond O. Faulkner, ‘The King and the Star-Religion in the Pyramid Texts’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 25, 1966, p. 160.
34 Alan Gardiner, ‘Review of J. Fraser’s The Golden Bough’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 2, 1915, pp. 121-6.
35 Frankfort, op. cit., p. 86.
36 A. Piankoff, The Pyramid of Unas (Princeton, 1969), pp. 4-5.
Appendix 4: The Cosmic Order, the Egyptian Calendar and Christianity
1 Ahmed Osman, Moses and Akhenaten, Bear Publications Inc. New York, 2004. See also Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, The Laughing Jesus, Harmony Books Inc, New York, 2005.
2 Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, The Jesus Mysteries: Was the original Jesus a pagan god?, Harmony Books Inc., New York, 1999.
3 Richard A. Parker, The Calendar of Ancient Egypt, Chicago, 1950, p. 56.
4 Belmonte, op. cit., p. 9.
5 Duncan, op. cit., 1999.
6 Calculations for the Gregorian calendar were based on the assumption that the year was 365.2425 days, which is the same as 365 97/400. The rule is that 1 day is added every 4 years as in the Julian calendar, but that leap years are omitted in years that are divisible by 100 but not by 400. In fact, however, the exact solar/tropical year has 365.2422 days, a little less than the assumed value for the Gregorian calendar. This means that every 3,300 years the Gregorian calendar will shift one day in relation to the true solar/tropical year.
7 Anthony J. Spalinger, Revolutions in Time: Studies in Ancient Egyptian Calendrics, Van Siclen Books, 1994, p. 51
8 Robert Bauval and Graham Hancock, Talisman, Penguin, 2005, p. 119.
Appendix 5: The Death of the Living God
1 This term means the ritual killing of a king. (Margaret Murray, The Splendour that was Egypt, Sidgwick and Jackson, 1954, pp. 164-5. See also G.A. Wainwright, The Sky-Religion in Egypt, op. cit.).
2 Timothy Freke and Peter Gandi, The Jesus Mysteries, Harmony Books Inc., New York, 1999.
3 Sir James Fraser. The Golden Bough, 1922, Chapter 24, ‘The Killing of the Divine King’, pp. 264-82.
4 Ibid., pp. 266-75.
5 Ibid., p. 266.
6 Ibid., p. 274.
7 Ibid., p. 279.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid., p. 280.
10 Wainwright, op. cit., pp. 14-18.
11 G.A. Wainwright, ‘Seshat and the Pharaohs’, op. cit., pp. 30-40.
12 Ibid., pp. 21-3.
13 E. Uphill, ‘The Egyptian Sed Festival Rites’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 24, 1965, pp. 365-83. For illustrations see Mirolav Verner, Abusir, The Realm of Osiris, The American University in Cairo Press, New York, 2002, p. 83.
14 Wainwright, The Sky Religion, op. cit., pp. 24-5.
15 The so-called Sun-King of France Louis XIV apparently at least during one stage of his life was woken up at sunrise.
16 Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, Vol. I, pp. 70, 71. Wainwright, op. cit., pp. 25-6.
17 Wainwright, op. cit., p. 26.
18 Joseph Campbell, Primitive Mythology, Penguin, 1959, pp. 151-66. Diodorus, Biblioteca Historica, Vol. 3, pp. 5-6.
19 Wainwright, ‘Seshat and the Pharaohs’, op. cit., p. 31.
20 George Hart, A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1986, p. 214.
21 Jane B. Sellers, The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt, Penguin, 1992, pp. 285-6.
22 Krupp, op. cit., pp. 25-6.
23 Ibid., p. 6.
24 Hart, op. cit., p. 28.
25 Ibid., pp. 29-30.
26 Herodotus, Histories Vol. III, p. 28.
27 Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, Chapter 43.
28 Quoted in Lewis Spence, Myths & Legends: Egypt, Dover Publications, New York, 1990, p. 285.
29 Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. II, Dover Publications, New York 1969, p. 350.
30 Ibid., p. 29.
31 Sellers, op. cit. p. 292. Many of the sarcophagi of early royal tombs were found ‘empty’ viz. those of Djoser, Hetepheres I and other Old Kingdom royals. Also early rulers were ‘buried’ in two places, one being Abydos in the south, and the other being Saqqara in the north, one of the tombs being a ‘cenotaph’ or symbolic tomb.
32 Wallis Budge, op. cit., p. 349.
33 Ibid., p. 347.
34 Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol. I, University of California Press, 1975, p. 53.
35 Wilkinson, op. cit., p. 120-1.
36 Ibid., p. 121.
37 Hart, op. cit., p. 29.
38 Wainwright, op. cit., pp. 30-40.
39 Pyramid Texts, 616.
40 Pyramid Texts, 615-21.
41 E.A. Wallis Budge, Egyptian Religion, Barnes and Noble Books, New York, 1994, pp. 101-2.
42 Murray, op. cit.
43 Ibid., p. 164.
44 Ibid. pp. 168-9.
45 Ibid., p. 171, 173. Murray spells Seth as ‘Setekh’.
46 A well-preserved scene showing Seshat and Thoth recording the life period in the Tree of Life can be seen at the Temple of Edfu on the upper part of the ceiling of one of the rooms in the north-east part of the temple.
47 Murray, op. cit., p. 179.
48 Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. II, op. cit., p. 250.
49 Wainwright, The Sky Religion, op. cit., p. 4.
50 Ibid., p. 9.
51 Pyramid Texts, 1,453-6.
52 Pyramid Texts, 1,464-5.
53 Pyramid Texts, 1,472-7.
54 Pyramid Texts, 1,480-2.
55 Henri Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, University of Chicago Press, 1978, ed., p. 79.
Appendix 6: The Cattle People and the Stars
1 “The word Hwt (‘Hat’)… was used in the New Kingdom with the meaning ‘Temple’” Jaroslav Cerny, ‘The Temple as an abtriviated name for the Temple of Medinet Habu’ in JEA 26, 1940, p. 127.
2 Krupp Echoes of Ancient Skies, op. cit. p. 258.
3 Baines & Malek, Atlas of Ancient Egypt, op. cit. p. 112.
4 For a full discussion on the ‘Followers of Horus’ see Bauval & Hancock, The Message of the Sphinx, Three Rivers Press, 1996.
5 H. Brugsch, Egypt, 1891 ed. p.189 quoted by Lockyer, The Dawn of Astronomy, op. cit. pp. 204-5.
6 A. Mariette, Denderah vol. I, p. 142 & p. 263.
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