ISSN:
1600-0498
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
Notes:
The well known Egyptian diagonal star tables found in coffins divide the zodiac into 36 regions and deep night into 12 hours of unequal length, changing with the seasons.The later Ramesside star tables from around 1150 BC have been seen before as an imperfect attempt to create a 24 hour system. A reanalysis of data now shows them to describe a division of the sky into 27-29 regions, not 24, and they are therefore seen as listing lunar houses rather than hours. Some aspects of using transit stars are mentioned, and a computed check of Sirius as transit star gives a good fit for a date near 1600 BC. The use of lunar houses seems not to have been firmly dated anywhere at so early an age, and until now it has not been attested in Egypt or Europe at all before c. AD 300.The results are briefly compared to the ancient traditions of lunar houses and star transits in Asia, especially China.A new and more general result about solstice symmetries of decanal-type hours is given, derived from linear equations, not sphaerics.In the German translation of Ptolemy's proof of solstice symmetry there is a confusing error, which is corrected.None of the findings corroborate previous impressions of the low status of Egyptian astronomy.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0498.1992.tb00867.x
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