The celestial vault is the apparent surface of the sky – both the night sky against which the stars appear to be placed and the blue expanse of the daytime sky.
The idea that the celestial vault, and particularly the daytime sky, is a physical cover of some kind is found in the cosmologies and myths of many cultures. Ethnic groups in northern Eurasia, for example, thought of the sky as a roof to protect the earth and life, and often described it as resting on a central pillar. In the hero tales of the Yakuts, the sky was said to be hemispherical, resting on the outer edge of the world. In the mythologies of Finland, Lapland and neighbouring regions, the celestial pole or the pole star was described as the “nail of the sky” which supports the celestial vault and around which it revolves. The Lapps, Finns, Yakuts, Japanese and Hebrews sometimes described the sky more specifically as a tent roof. The most popular conception of the sky in ancient Egypt was that of a blue water surface, a...
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Plug, C. (2008). Celestial Vault and Sphere. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_8490
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