THE DECANS AND THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SKYLORE: AN ASTRONOMERS APPROACH

JUAN ANTONIO BELMONTE Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain, jba@ll.iac.es

ABSTRACT.

In this work, a hypothetical identification of the ancient Egyptian decan stars or, simply, decans is presented. This is based on an astronomical analysis of the original 36 decans of the diagonal clocks located inside the coffin lids of the 1 st Intermediate Period (Dyn. IX to XI; c. 2100 BC). Besides, we also present sensible translation for most of the terms according to their identification. The results are compared with later representations of the decans in the New Kingdom and Greco-Roman times. Previous proposals are also reviewed.

1. Introduction

To attempt to go further in the determination of the decans is not only of very little interest but would necessarily imply ascribing to our texts an astronomical accuracy which they never intended to have O. Neugebauer (1957) This extremely pessimistic sentence was written more than four decades ago by one of the most important historians of astronomy so far (Neugebauer, 1969). Despite his merits in the field (his Egyptian astronomical texts, edited with Richard Parker in the 1960s, hereafter referenced as N&P, are a real masterpiece), statements like this have severely handicapped any advance in ancient Egyptian skylore, specially when focussed on an actual astronomical point of view. However, it is worth mentioning that some effort have been devoted to other areas of ancient Egyptian astronomy. General reviews can be found in Gallo (1998) and the excellent compilation by Clagett (1995). Discussions on the calendar, after the classical work of Parker (1950), can be found in Roy (1982), Wells (1994) and, most recently, in the interesting work of von Bomhard (1999). Since the pioneering, and contested, book of Lockyer (1894), Hawkins (1973, 1975), Krupp (1977, 1984, 1991), Haack (1984), Leitz (1991), Belmonte (1999, 2000) or Spence (2000) have discussed on archaeoastronomy and the problem of astronomical orientation.

Regarding the skies themselves (see Figure 1), after the early proposals of Petrie (1940), where we already have the equations Sah (sAH) equal to Orion and Sepedet (spdt) equal to Sirius, only in the last two decades some few attempts have been made to identify ancient Egyptian constellations.

Figure. 1: The ancient Egyptian view of the skies at the beginning of the New Kingdom, represented on the ceiling of the tomb of queen Hatshepsuts favourite Senmwt. This is the earliest complete representation of the Egyptian Heaven that we know (dated c. 1500 BC). The lower part represents the northern sky constellations in the centre of the panel (we will deal with them in future works, see e.g. Belmonte, 2001), surrounded by the 12 monthly festivals and 15 or 16 of the gods of the moon cycle. The upper part includes the decans, starting by tpya knmt and finishing with Ast spdt (represented as the goddess Isis-Sothis), 4 planets, with the Horus name of the queen, and the so-called triangular decans. Notice also the southern constellations of Sah (represented by a man standing on a boat), the Circle ( kd) the Sheep (srt) and the Boat (wiA). Table 4 offers the complete list of the corresponding decans.

On the one hand, we have interesting approaches to the problem using the mythological information contained in different sources, specially the Pyramid Texts of the 5th and 6th Dynasties (Faulkner, 1969). The works of Davis (1985), Sellers (1992) or Krauss (1997) are worth mentioning. On the other hand, amongst the decan star (see Tables 1 to 5), N&P only identified spd (or later spdt) with Sirius and located the decans of the Sah group somewhere in the constellation of Orion, proposing that the rest of the decan stars should be roughly located in the so-called decanal belt, located to the south of the Ecliptic. One property of these stars (and asterisms), inferred from their interpretation of the Book of Nut, was that they must have been suffered a period of invisibility of 70 days between the dates of their heliacal setting and rising. It is not until two decades later that we have the work of Bker (1984) who, using a philological and mythological approach, do not consider the former ideas of N&P and proposes a whole identification of the decans using stars and asterisms

scattered all around the sky. Some of his identifications are very interesting: xAw with the Pleiades, art with Taurus or the Hyades, kdty with Corona Australis (but also with Corona Borealis), xntt with Scorpio (including Antares like Tms n xntt, the Red on the Front) or spd, which he translates as the Triangle, with Sirius. Others, however, are non-sense either from a philological or an astronomical point of view. Examples are: hAt xAw with shooting stars, srt, translated as the Highest and then identified with a star in the zenith, kd (translated as the Bed) with Ursa Minor, which is a circumpolar star and can not be a decan star in any sense since they were clearly chosen to mark the beginning of an Egyptian 10 day weeks (decades) through their heliacal rising, etc. Most interesting are the proposals of Locher (1981, 1985, 2001; reviewed by von Bomhard, 2000) who, using N&P ideas and considering differences in ecliptic longitude between different stars and asterisms, has produced quite sensible identifications for some decans or, better, for their associated constellations (see Figure 1): i.e. the Circle with the head of Cetus, the Sheep with our Capricornus or the Boat (including xntt considered as its prow) like parts of Sagittarius and Scorpio (with Antares as the Red of the Prow). However, the most important would be the identification of the sAH [ ] hieroglyphic with the asterism formed by the Belt and the Sword of Orion (see Figure 2 and 3) and, consequently, ending the equation Sah equal to (all) Orion. We will further mention these proposals in the discussion.

Figure 2: Image of a part of the inner face of the coffin lid of Idy (c. 2150 BC, 1 st Intermediate Period). There are four astronomical representations to the right: Nut, perhaps the Milky Way (Wells 1994), mSxtyw (the Plough), sAH (part of Orion) and spd (part of Canis Major, including Sirius). The last two have their hieroglyphic signs over their head. Part of the corresponding diagonal decan star clock is seen to the left of the image, starting by Xry-ib wi3, the Heart of the Boat.

hghj

A Fig. 3: Identification of the decan star in the area of sAH and spd , represented on the lower right corner with their hieroglyphic crowns over their head. Following Locher (2001), the sAH sign would be the belt and sword of Orion. We also propose that the crown of spd can be identified with 5 stars of CMa, including Sirius (Sepedet). After that, the rest of the decans are easily identified. Specially suggestive would be the identity of xAw, the Myriad or the Flock, with the Pleiades cluster (see Table 3). In later sources, abwt was transformed into the decan sAH per excellence.

2. Discussion and conclusions This was the situation when we decided to study the problem of the decans not from later sources, but from the primary sources that we know, the diagonal clocks painted in the interior of nearly a dozen of coffin lids of the 1 st Intermediate Period, dated between 2150 and 2050 BC. N&P had studied in details those materials and had proposed a comprehensive list of 36 original decans (with later variants, see Table 3) that would have been used to mark the last hour of the night (dawn) of the 36 Egyptian decades through their heliacal rising. This phenomenon was known in later sources as prt, going forth, or ms, birth (Clagett 1995). This is the list that we analyse in this work, imposing a series of premises which can be ascertained from the original sources. These are that the decans should belong to the Southern Sky (they are called southerners), they should rise in the Southeast or near there (together with the sun in the land of Punt) and they should stay in the Duat for 70 days. This last premise probably meant that they were lost in the sun glare for that period and, in my opinion, it should not be interpreted in a very restrictive way (as N&P did); the theoretical period being originated for the period of invisibility of Sirius, the head of the decans, in Middle Egypt in the second half of the 3 rd Millennium BC. Finally, we believe that the decans should have been, predominantly, prominent

stars or asterisms. Taking all these facts into account, we have made the following approach to the problem: First, we tried to produce a series of stars separated by approximately 10 of ecliptic longitude starting by Sirius, which normally had been interpreted as the decan star spd. However, this idea did not work properly in our opinion since, among other examples, the constellations Sah would have extended then as far as the Pleiades. We then used the Gotto Planetarium of the Museo de la Ciencia y el Cosmos de Tenerife to observe which prominent stars and asterisms would have been rising in the SE in 10 day intervals for various latitudes and epochs, allowing an average error of one day. We started again with Sirius. The results are summarised in Table 1 where we present the results for the latitudes of Memphis, Thebes and Asswan for 2200 BC and, for checking, for Middle Egypt in 2800 BC. At this moment, we realised that the decan spd (Triangle) could also be found in the sky (see Figures 2 & 3) in the same way as the decan sAH had been suggested by Locher (2001). We then will continue using that idea in all the following arguments, considering that Sirius (Sepedet) was just one star more of the asterism of the Triangle. This situation might have changed in later sources, specially when the system was converted in a transit device, and when this decan was normally written [ ] (i.e Sepedet or Sirius). Then we proceed to calculate the dates of the heliacal rising of all these stars trying to fit then in a 10 day interval scheme, for 2200 BC and different latitudes, starting not by the heliacal rising of Sirius but of all the Triangle (spd), represented by the fainter star CMa. The results are summarised now in Table 2 and , from my point of view, they offer extremely suggestive possibilities, specially for the area between Sirius (or better the Triangle) and the Pleiades (see Figure 3). To further identify the rests of the decan stars, we had to impose a new criterion to answer the question: what is the frontier between the Egyptian southern and northern skies? According to Krauss (1997 and private communications), the frontier could be the Ecliptic, interpreted by him as the winding water way (this is much surer for the frontier between the Filed of reeds and the Field of Offerings of the Pyramid Texts). However, Davis (1985) has suggested that the frontier might also be the Milky Way, identified by Wells (1994) with goddess Nut whom, in several ceilings is represented in the middle of the sky. Considering that later possibility, we have proposed our list of decans presented in Table 3 and illustrated in Fig. 3 and 4. One result of our proposal is the impossibility of following several of Lochers identification of the ancient Egyptian constellations. Although the Circle ( kd) would be effectively the Head of Cetus, for us the Sheep ( srt) should be located in Grus (or Piscis Austrinus) and the Boat ( wiA) should be identified with Capricornus (constellation which, in fact, resembles the form of an ancient Egyptian boat). The Front (xntt) is still in Scorpio but we are not sure of its

identification with the Prow of the boat. We specially regret the apparent impossibility of identification of Antares with the Red of the Front ( Tms n xntt). In order to text our ideas, we also tried to fit the pattern with the later representations of the decans of the New Kingdom, taking the ceiling of Senmwt tomb as an example where the system is, apparently, a heliacal rising device yet. Here we have considered Ast spdt as Sirius and not as all the Triangle. The results are summarised in Table 4 and we can see that the system still adjusts reasonably but not in every feauture. The analysis of the Book of Nut, where, almost surely, we are dealing with a meridian transit system based upon the decans, developed perhaps in the Middle Kingdom (c. 1850 BC) when the heliacal rising system started to give problems (see N&P or Clagett, 1995), will be left for future works. This is because we believe that it deserves a longer discussion, in connection to the Ramesside star clocks (Clagett, 1995; Belmonte, 2001). Finally, our proposal was tested with the decans represented in the ceiling of the Hipostyle Hall of the Temple of Hathor in Denderah (c. 50 BC). In this epoch, the decans were almost surely areas of 10 along the Ecliptic, associated to the zodiacal signs, and there should be few connections with the original decan stars selected for the diagonal clocks more than 2000 years earlier. As demonstrated in Table 5, this seems to be the case since several proposals are problematic but still some previous identifications would be operative (see, for example, the Pleiades and the Hyades like xAw and art, respectively). These would be the last signatures of a former glorious past. One final hypothesis, resulting from the analysis, would be that ancient Egyptian skylore, referenced for the first time in written sources in the Pyramid Textxs (c. 2350 BC), would have inspired the creation of the decanal system somewhere in the Middle Egypt around 2200 BC, perhaps during the poorly known period of rule of the Hereacleopolitan dynasties.

Figure 4: The southern sky with the approximate locations proposed for the rest of the 36 decans of the coffin lids (see Table 3) and the most important constellations, the Circle (head of Cetus) the Sheep (area of Grus and Piscis Austrinus), the Boat (Capricornus) and the Front (area of Scorpius). This figure complements Figure 3. In our proposal, the decan wS3t bk3ti (i.e. the Sothern Cross) was later divided into two, the Twins (wsAti, & Cru) and the Two Pregnants (bkAti, & Cru).

Table 1: The decans identified by numbers (see Table 3) and the stars rising on intervals of decades for 2800 BC at Middle Egypt and for 2200 BC at Memphis, Thebes and Asswan.
N 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 26N 2800 BC
Phact or Adhara CMa or Columba Doves leg or Pup Velae or ..... Canopus or Alsuhail Velae (1 False Cross) or.... False Cross (Car,Vel, Car) Cen or Gacrux Crux or Cen Cen & Cen? Cen & Antares Sco, Sco, Sco or ... Sco, Ara or Tri Sag or Sag or ... Corona Australis Some of Pavo Pav or some of Cap Cap, Ind or Mic or Mic Gru or PsA Gru (h & X Per) Fomalhaut or & Gru
1 2

30N 2200 BC
Phact or Adhara CMa or Columba Doves leg or Pup Velae or Alsuhail (Car) Vel & Car Canopus Vel & Car Cen or Gacrux Crux or Cen Cen Cen & Antares Sco, Sco, Sco or ... Sco, Ara or Tri Sag or ... Cor Aus or Sag & Sag Some of Pavo or Sag Pav or some of Cap Mic or Mic Gru 1& 2 Gru (h & X Per) Gru & Fomalhaut 1 & 2 Gru Gru Pho or a faint of Sculptor Diphda (Deneb Kaitos) Cet or & Cet Cet (Pentagon) Menkar (Penta) Pleiades Tau & Tau & or

23N 2200 BC
Phact or Adhara CMa or Columba Doves leg or Pup Alsuhail Canopus or Regor False Cross: Vel, Car,Vel False Cross (Car), Car Cen Crux Cen Cen Sco, Sco & Antares or ... Sco or Tri Sag & Sag or ... Sag & Sag or Cor Aus Sag & Sag Pav or some of Cap Mic or Mic Gru or PsA Gru (h & X Per) Fomalhaut or & Gru
1 2

25N 2200 BC
Adhara or Columba Cma or Columba Doves leg or Pup Canopus or Alsuhail Velae or 1st False Crux False Cross Some of Argo or Cen Cen & Gacrux Crux Cen & Cen Antares or ... (Lup, Cen) Sco, Sco, Sco or ... Sco, Ara or Tri Sag or Sag or ... Cor Aus or Sag & Sag Pavo Pav or some of Cap PsA & Psa (Sheep) Gru or oPsA Gru (h & X Per) Fomalhaut or 1 & 2 Gru Gru Pho, Cet or Gru & Gru Diphda (Deneb Kaitos) Cet or & Cet Point of Pentagon Mira or Point of Pentagon Menkar & Pleiades Tau & Tau (Hyades) or ... Aldebaran & Hyades Arch of Ori Bellatrix & base of the arch Belt, Ori, Rigel Saiph Between Lep & CMa Sirius or Phact

Gru Pho or Cet (south of Psc) Diphda (Deneb Kaitos) or ... Diphda or ... Cet or & Cet Cet or Mira? Mira, Pleiades, Pentagon Menkar (Pentagon) Aldebaran & Hyades Arch of Ori Bellatrix & base of the arch Alnitak, Mintaka, Ori, Eri Alnilam, Rigel, M42, M44 Saiph or Lep Sirius

Gru Gru or .... Pho or a faint of Sculptor Diphda (Deneb Kaitos) Cet or & Cet Cet (Pentagon) Menkar (Penta) & Pleiades Tau or .... Aldebaran & Hyades Arch of Ori Bellatrix & base of the arch Alnitak, Mintaka, Ori, Eri Alhilam, Rigel, M42, Saiph Lep or Cma Sirius

Aldebaran & rest of Hyades Arch of Ori Bellatrix & base of the arch Alnitak, Mintaka, Ori, Eri Alnilam, Rigel, M42, M44 Saiph or Lep Sirius

Table 2: The 36 decans of the diagonal star clocks: probable identification by places (c. 2200 BC).
N 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Coffins (D. IX to XI) knmt s3wy knmt Xry xpd knmt h3t x3w phwy x3w Tm3t Hrt Tm3t Xrt wS3t bk3Ti ipDs (sSpt) sbSsn (tpya xntt) xntt Hrt xntt Xrt Tms n xntt kdty (s3pti xnwy) xnwy Xry-ib wi3 --4 persons-- (Ssmw) knmw (tpya smd) smd srt srt s3wy srt Xry xpd srt tpya 3xwy 3xwy imi xt 3xwy b3wy (or xntw) kd x3w ar(y)t Xry ar(y)t rmn Hry s3H rmn Xry s3H abwt Xrt wart tpya spd Date 16/07 27/07 06/08 16/08 26/08 05/09 15/09 25/09 06/10 16/10 26/10 05/11 15/11 25/11 05/12 16/12 26/12 05/01 15/01 25/01 04/02 14/02 25/02 07/03 17/03 27/03 06/04 16/04 26/04 07/05 17/05 27/05 06/06 16/06 26/06 Middle Egypt ( 27) (124/7) CMa (1.5) (284/7) Pup (2.7) (45/8) Pup (2.2) (145/8) Vel (1.8) (*) (275/8) Vel (2.0) (75/9) Car (2.2) (125/9) Car (.?) (234/9) Cru (1.6) (44/10) Cen (0.6) & Crux (133/10) Cen (0.0) (281/10) Sco (2.3) (61/10) Sco (1.6) (151/11) Sag (3.0) M8 (241/11) Sag (2.0) (52/12) y Sag (4.0) (161/12) /Cap (3.6/3.1) ? (254/12) Ind (3.1) ? (71/1) /Cap (3.7/2.9) ? (164/1) Gru (3.0) (2910/1) Gru (1.7) (45/2) PsA (1.2) (1612/2) Gru (2.1) (238/2) Scr (4.5) (1818/3) Scr (4.5) (145/3) Cet (2.0) (225/3) Cet (3.4) (83/4) Cet (4.3) (162/4) Pleiades (2.9) (304/4) Tau (0.8) Hyades (62/5) Tau (3.4) Hyades (143/5) 88/90Tau (4.2/4.3) (283/5) 6Ori (4.5) (**) (45/6) Ori (0.1) Belt (134/6) Ori (2.1) or Lepus (264/6) CMa (2.0) Date 21/07 02/08 12/08 22/08 01/09 11/09 22/09 02/10 12/10 22/10 01/11 11/11 21/11 01/12 11/12 21/12 31/12 10/01 20/01 31/01 10/02 20/02 02/03 12/03 22/03 01/04 11/04 21/04 02/05 12/05 22/05 01/06 11/06 21/06 01/07 Memphis 30 (16/7) CMa (1.5) (1/8) Pup (2.7) (9/8) Pup (2.2) (19/8) Vel (1.8) (1/9) Vel (2.0) [Car (29/8)] (12/9) Car (2.2) (16 a 24/9) Car (1 a 5) (2/10) Cru (1.6) All Crux (8/10) Cen (0.6) (21/10) Sco (1.0) Cen (16) (1/11) Sco (3.1) (7/11) Sco (1.6) (18/11) Sag (1.8) M8 (2/12) CrA (4.0) (7/12) y Sag (4.0) (16/12) /Cap (3.6/3.1) (27/12) Cap (4.1) Ind (29) (9/1) Cap (2.9) (20/1) Gru (3.0) ? (9/2) PsA (1.2) Gru (8) (18 to 21/2) 1/2 Gru (4/4.1) (1-4/3) Gru-Scr (2.1-4.3) ? (20/3) Cet (2.0) (27/3) Cet (3.4) (11/4) Cet (4.3) (18/4) Pleiades (2.9) (4/5) Tau (0.8) Hyades (9/5) Tau (3.4) Hyades (22/5) Ori (3.2) (1/6) Ori (0.5) & 6Ori (4.5) (9/6) Ori (0.1) Belt (17/6) Ori (2.1) or Lepus (1/7) CMa (2.0) Date 13/07 23/07 02/08 12/08 22/08 01/09 11/09 22/09 02/10 12/10 22/10 01/11 11/11 21/11 02/12 12/12 22/12 01/01 11/01 21/01 31/01 11/02 21/02 03/03 13/03 23/03 02/04 12/04 23/04 03/05 13/05 23/05 02/06 12/06 22/06 Aswan 23 (8/7) CMa (1.5) (23/7) Pup (2.7) (31/7) Pup (2.2) (9/8) Vel (1.8) Car (4) (22/8) Vel (2.0) (1/9) Car (2.2) (7 a 14/9) Car (1 a 5) (22/9) Cru (1.2) Top of Crux (1/10) Cen (0.6) (10/10) Cen (0.0) (19/10) Sco (1.0) (1/11) Sco (3.6) (14/11) Sag (3.0) ? M8 (18/11) Sag (2.7) (30/11) CrA (4.0) ? (21/12) Ind (3.1) ? ? (12/1) Gru (3.0) (19/1) Gru (1.7) (29/1) Gru/PsA (2.8/1.2) ? (15-21/2) Scr-Gru (4.5-4.3) (28/2) Scr (4.5) (9/3) Cet (2.0) (17/3) Cet (3.4) (5/4) Cet (4.3) ? (12/4) cet (3.5) Tau (15) (26/5) Tau (0.8) Hyades (4/5) Tau (3.4) Hyades (11/5) 88/90Tau (4.2/4.3) (21-23/5) Ori-6Ori (0.5-4.5) (31/5) Ori (0.1) Belt (9/6) Ori (2.1) or Lepus (22/6) CMa (2.0)

36

spd (tpya knmt)

06/07

(53/7) CMa (4.1)

11/07

(9/7) CMa (4.1)

02/07

(2/7) CMa (4.1)

spdt

(226/6) Sirius (-1.5) (*): (1612/8) Car (-0.7) (**): (264/5) Ori (0.5)

Sirius (26/6)

Sirius (19/6)

Table 3: Identification of the Decans of the Star Clocks. The table presents, for each decan, a number, its hieroglyphic name and transliteration, our proposed translation and suggested identification (with average magnitude mv and declination for 2200 BC), the number of days of invisibility (time in the Duat) and, finally, the degree of confidence that we have in the proposed identification.
N 1 knmt 2 s3wy knmt 3 Xry xpd knmt 4 h3t x3w 5 phwy x3w 6 Tm3t Hrt 7 Tm3t Xrt 8 wS3t bk3ti 9 ipDs 10 sbSsn 10 tpya xntt 11 xntt Hrt 12 xntt Xrt 13 Tms n xntt 14 kdty 14 s3pti xnwy 15 xnwy 16 Xry-ib wi3 17 -4 persons(Ssmw) Heart of the Boat Crew? (Winepress?) 2 Khanuy Fishes Sag & Sag Cap & Cap Cap & .... Khanuys Net CrA with Sag & Sag 2 Circles Red of the Front (of Prow or South) Lower of the front (or Prow or South) Sco Sag & ... (with M8) Sag with CrA Upper of the Front (or Prow or South) Head of the Front (or Prow or South) Sco (or Cen) Sco or ..... Sages Star (sSpt) Its own count (Luminous) The Twins & the 2 Pregnants Southern Cross (, , & Cru) Cen or Part of Crux Cen (or Cen) Lower Zmat (Wing) Car Upper Zmat (Wing) Back of Myriad Vel Car Front of Myriad Under the Tail of the Cow Pup Vel [or Car (-0.7)] Cow Twins Cow CMa and back of CMa Pup & .... DECANS Coffins (D. IX-XI) Translation Star/Asterism mv 1.5 -28 2.7 -36 2.2 -34 1.8 -41 2.0 -44 2.2 -46 1.5 -44 1.6 -37 0.6 -37 0.0 -39 1.0 -08 2.3 -20 1.6 -22 3.0 -13 2.0 -30 4.0 -30 4.0 -34 3.6 -17 4.0 -30 1157 11610 1018 9810 978 989 464 614 584 553 473 756 766 381 584 3 2 2 5 877 4 Days

1007 988 10710

4 4 3

4 4 3 3 1

3 3

3 3 3

1: Speculative sure

2: Likely

3: Probable

4: Highly probable

5:

Almost

N 18

DECANS

Coffins (D. IX-XI) knmw

Translation

Star/Asterism

mv 2.9

Days

3 2 2 3 3

Secret Stars ? Head of Horn Horn of the Sheep Sheep or Goat Star Sheep Twins

Cap & ..... PsA Gru Gru 1/2Gru or PsA (1.2/7210) Gru Scr Scr Cet Cet or ... Cet or ... Cet & the Pentagon of Cetus Pleiades

18 tpya smd 19 smd srt 20 srt 21 s3wy srt 22 Xry xpd srt 23 tpya 3xwy 24 3xwy 25 imi xt 3xwy 26 b3wy 26 xntw 27 kd 28 x3w 29 ar(y)t 30 Xry ar(y)t 31 rmn Hry s3H 32 rmn Xry s3H 33 abwt 34 Xrt wart 35 tpya spd 36 spd (tpya knmt) Triangle (Cow Head) Before the Triangle Lower Leg (sAH) Trident or Sceptres (Sah) Lower arm of Sah Upper Arm of Sah Lower Jaw Jaw (or Rising Stars) Myriad or Flock Circle or Sheepfold Khentu The Two Souls Favourite of the Two Spirits The Two Spirits Head of the Two Spirits Under the Tail of the Sheep

-26 4.3 -41 3.0 -46 1.7 -55 2.8 -44 2.1 -53 4.5 -44 4.5 -46 2.0 -31 3.4 -26 3.4 -26 4.3 -15 2.9 04 0.8

452 7810 849 12420 12210

12020 10015 12214 857 726 726 603 422 435 542 634 733

2 1 1 2 1 1 4

5 5 5

Tau & Hyades Tau (Lower Hyades) Between 88/90Tau & 3Ori 6Ori or Ori (0.5/537) Ori and the Belt Ori (or Lep) CMa CMa & the [Sirius (-1.5/666)]

00 3.4 00 3.2 -03 4.5 -06 0.1 -17 2.1 -20 2.0 -25 4.1 -20

756 766 817 827

5 3 5 5

Table 4: Heliacal risings in the New Kingdom and the decans in the ceiling of the tomb of Senmwt. The table presents the 36 original decans that we have used in the analysis and compares them with those found in the ceiling. 5th and 6th columns propose heliacal rising dates and possible identification for those later decans, respectively. It is obvious that the system was not working properly already for this epoch. N 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9/10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29/30 31 32 33 34 35 36 36 original decans knmt s3wy knmt Xry xpd knmt h3t x3w phwy x3w Tm3t Hrt Tm3t Xrt wS3t bk3ti Senmwt tpya knmt (0) knmt (I) Xry xpd knmt (I) h3t D3t (II) phwy D3t (II) Tm3t Hrt (III) Tm3t Xrt (III) wS3ti (IV) bk3ti (IV) ipDs & sbSsn (1) tpya xntt (V) xntt Hrt xntt Hrt (V) xntt Xrt xntt Xrt (wi3) Tms n xntt Tms n xntt (wi3) kdty s3pti xnwy (wi3) xnwy (2) Xry-ib wi3 Xry-ib wi3 (wi3) 4 Persons Ssmw (wi3) knmw knmw (wi3) smd srt tpya smd / smd (srt) (3) srt sit (3-nwt Xt) (srt) s3wy srt s3wy sit (srt) Xry xpd srt Xry xpd srt tpya 3xwy tpya 3xwy 3xwy 3xwy imi xt 3xwy b3wy (Xt 4-nwt) b3wy or xntw xntw Hrw & xntw Xrw (VI) kd kd & s3wy kd (VII) x3w x3w (Xt 5-nwt) ar(y)t & Xry art (4) ar(y)t rmn Hry s3H rmn Hry s3H rmn Xry s3H rmn Xry s3H abwt s3H ( Xt 6-nwt) Xrt wart ah s3h tpya spd spd 3st spdt N 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Date 18/07 29/07 08/08 18/08 28/08 07/09 17/09 27/09 08/10 18/10 28/10 07/11 17/11 27/11 07/12 18/12 28/12 07/01 17/01 27/01 06/02 16/02 27/02 09/03 19/03 29/03 08/04 18/04 28/04 09/05 19/05 29/05 08/06 18/06 Heliacal rising 1500 BC 25 (16/7) CMa ? (30/7) Pup ? (8/8) Pup (16/8) Vel (11/8) Car (30/8) Vel (3/9) Car (17/9) Car (26/9) Cen (1/10) Cru (6/10) Cru (Crux) (14 & 22/10) & Cen (29/10) Sco (7/11) Sco (16/11) Sco (25/11) Sag ? (3 & 7/12) Sag & Sag ? (16/12) & Sag (24 & 25/12) & Cap (6/1) Ind (5/1) Cap ? (18/1) & Cap ? (25/1) PsA / (29/1) Gru ? (11/2) Gru ? (14/2) PsA (20 a 22/2) 1 & 2 Gru ? (5/3) Scr ? (22/3) Scr ? (29/3) Cet ? (16/4) Cet (25/4) Pleiades (6/5) Tau (Hyades) (20/5) 90Tau (28/5) Ori / (31/5) Ori (9/6) Ori (Belt) (17/6) Ori

35 28/06 (28/6) Sirius 36 08/07 (10/7) CMa (11/7) Col ? (0). Some misplacings might have been produced. These decans, (I) to (VII), are found in pairs in the same column. (1): sSpt (Cen?) & sbSsn (Cen?) are found among the triangular decans. (2): Between s3pti xnwy & smd there are loses and changes of several stars and decans. (3): Together in the same box.

(4) The position of the following 5 decans has been altered.

Table 5: Transit Decans of the ceiling at the Hipostyle Hall in Denderah, dating c. 50 BC. The table presents the
36 original decans that we have used in the analysis and compares them with those found in the Denderah ceiling. 5 th and 6th columns propose the expected right ascension (error of 0.2 hours) and hypothetical identification for those later decans, respectively. At this time, the decans have been already converted in 10 sectors of the zodiacal signs (column 77h) with little connection to the original decan stars. Notice the possibility of identification of Tms n xnt with Antares which did not work for earlier times when the decans were part of a heliacal rising device. N 36 decans Hipostyle Hall N 50 BC at 26 Sign (h) knmt St 1 2 6.6 Pup (6.8) ? s3wy knmt knm 2 3 7.2 Vel (7.1) Xry xpd xnt Xry 3 4 7.9 Vel (7.9) or Vel (7.8) knmt 4 h3t x3w h3t D3t 5 8.6 ? 5 phwy x3w phwy D3t 6 9.2 ? 6 Tm3t Hrt tm3t 7 9.9 Car (9.5) ? 7 Tm3t Xrt wS3t bk3ti wS3tbkti 8 8 10.6 Cru/Cru (10.5/10.6) ipDs 9 ipts (Its own count, 9 11.2 Cru (11.0) Harem?) sbSsn 10 sbhs (Faint Star) (1) 10 11.9 Cen (12.0) tpya xntt 11 12.6 Cen (12.5 ) ? xntt Hrt xnt Hrt 11 12 13.2 ? xntt Xrt xnt Xrt 12 13 13.9 Sco (14.2) ? Tms n xntt Tms n xnt 13 14 14.6 Sco (14.5) ? kdty 14 15 xnwy spti xnwy 15 15.2 Sco (15.3) ? 16 hry-ib wi3 Xry-ib wi3 16 15.9 Sag (15.9) ? 17 4 Persons Ssm 17 16.6 Sag (16.8) ? 18 knmw knm 18 17.3 Sag/CrA (17.0/17.1) ? tpya smd 19 17.9 Ind (17.9) 19 smd srt smd 20 18.6 Cap (18.6) 20 srt srt 21 19.2 Gru (19.4) or some in Cap 21 s3wy srt s3 srt (Little sheep) 22 19.9 Cap (19.9) - 1/2Gru (20.2) 22 Xry xpd srt Xry xpd srt 23 20.6 Gru (20.4) ? 23 tpya 3xwy tpya 3xw 24 21.2 PsA/Gru (20.9) Scr (21.3) 24 3xwy 3xw 25 21.9 Scr (21.5) 25 imi xt 3xwy tpya b3wy 26 22.6 Pho (22.6) ? b3wy b3w 26 27 23.2 Cet (23.4) ? xnt Hr 28 23.9 Cet (0.1) ? xnt Xr 29 0.6 Cet (0.6) kd 27 s3 kd 30 1.2 Cet (1.2) 28 x3w x3w 31 1.9 Pleiades (1.9) 29/3 ar(y)t & Xry art 32 2.6 Tau & Hyades (2.4/ 2.7) 0 ar(y)t 31 rmn Hry rmn Hry 33 3.2 6Ori (3.3) s3H rmn Xry 32 s3H 33 abwt Ts ark (Bow) 34 3.9 Ori & Belt (3.9)

Col (4.4) Sirius (5.2) or CMa (4.9) CMa () (5.5) or CMa (6.0) (1): There is also a a3 phty rhn pt t3 (Bridge between Heaven and Earth). 34 35 36 Xrt wart tpya spd spd wart (Leg) tpya spdt spdt 35 36 1 4.6 5.2 5.9

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