Abstract
The serious study of Egyptian antiquities through archeology was professionalized before that of any other area of the world. This means that there are massive numbers of books on most aspects of ancient Egyptian life. General books on the country range from well-documented accounts by professional Egyptologists through good popularized summaries to a large number of wildly inaccurate summations from the crackpot fringe. A useful summary from the 1st dynasty to the 20th century, presented as a series of specialized articles by leading scholars, is Malek (1993). A more unified account to the end of the 18th dynasty is Kemp (1989/1995). For reference, the dictionary of Shaw and Nicholson (1995) is very convenient, and for a straightforward chronology emphasizing the rulers and summarizing the sources, there is Clayton (1994).
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Notes
- 1.
This includes a declination component of proper motion of −0.002″/year for a declination correction Δδ = +9″.2.
- 2.
Details of this myth as summarized here are first reported by Plutarch in De Iside et Osiride, although some aspects can be attested in early Egyptian texts.
- 3.
Censorinus (writing in 238 a.d.) reported that the 1st day of the month Thoth occurred on JDN 1772028 or July 20, 139 (a.d.) in the Julian Calendar and coincided with a heliacal rising of Sirius.
- 4.
365 × 1460 = 532, 900d and 365.2564 × 1460 ≈ 533, 274d, differing by 1y 9d.
- 5.
R.A. Wells (1996/1997) has proposed that the goddess Nut originated as a perception of the Milky Way as it was seen in the skies of ancient Egypt at about 3500 b.c.
- 6.
Hathor of Dendera is equated in her temple with a substantial number of other goddesses, each of whom is assigned to a particular place. Sopdet is called “of Elephantine,” in the far south.
- 7.
Some scholars assert that this occurred in Ramses’s 33rd year, which would bring the dates, discussed in the material below, back to Nov. 4, Nov. 1, and Oct. 29, respectively.
- 8.
Neugebauer suggests “6” to be a scribal error, and that it should read “2.”
- 9.
The maximum separation is actually 11.3 arc-seconds.
- 10.
For a discussion of the significance of the calabash for Polynesian navigation, see §11.3.
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Kelley, D.H., Milone, E.F. (2011). African Cultures. In: Exploring Ancient Skies. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7624-6_8
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