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* Signs of Stars in Ancient Egypt*

*/The Basics of Old Kingdom Stellar Representations/*

by Anthony Sakovich

I am often at a loss to explain the fascination people have with trying
to make ancient Egyptian pyramids correlate to stars in the sky. In
fact, this behavioural phenomenon is not just restricted to pyramids any
more...it's now extending to pyramid fields, cities, obelisks and just
about any other man-made structure (and sometimes NON-manmade
structures) just so people can say they've "discovered" or "decoded"
something. Of course, what they are actually discovering are merely
coincidences... but they don't seem to care about that detail.

For purposes of this article, it is of primary importance that the
reader understand the difference between a "stellar alignmnet" and a
"stellar correlation". A stellar alignment of a pyramid (or other
structure) is merely the act of aiming two parts of a structure, such as
its cornerstones, at a specific stellar target. According to both New
Kingdom and Old Kingdom references, the Stretching of the Cord Ceremony
was a stellar alignment process, by which the directionality of a
pyramid was fixed via some sort of "line of sight" procedure, with a
star or stars as the targeting focus.

A stellar correlation, however, is where a group of stars is mapped out
-- recreated -- so that it could be recognized as the group of stars in
question. An excellent example of a correlation can be found in the
depiction of the Bull's Thigh star group (roughly corresponding to our
"Big Dipper"), which shows the stars in their actual shape in the sky.
Interestingly enough, there seemed to be absolutely no compulsion on the
part of the ancient Egyptians, however, to depict constellations
accurately, as many examples are "flopped" either vertically or
horizontally, depending upon aesthetic requirements of the particular
relief.

What is lacking from virtually all of the alternative historians'
"discoveries" is a sense of reality with regard to what we /*do know*/
about ancient Egyptian cosmology... how /*they*/ viewed the stars.
Instead, the assumption is quietly and pseudoscientifically made that
they MUST have seen the stars as WE do... as collections or groups in
the night sky, with exact angles and azimuths and the like. Evidence for
this, however, is not only scant...it's actually contrary to the real
evidence from the Old Kingdom.

*Stellar Depictions*

In order to begin to understand what the ancient Egyptians were
visualizing when they thought of the stars in the heavens, we should
probably look at any available depictions of stars, especially if these
depictions can be found in conjunction with pyramids... the favorite
target of alternative historians with their stellar correlations.

The first depiction I can find of stars in relation to a King's pyramid
comes from the first pyramid ever built... by King Djoser, in the Third
Dynasty (approx. 2650BCE). I cannot find a photograph, but what I have
is an artist's drawing, by Segato, when the chamber was initially
explored in 1820-21. (courtesy of Siliotti's "Pyramids of Egypt") I'm
sure the stars are actually more dense than these, but you can a very
clear idea of how "accurate" a depiction the stars are of the various
constellations in the heavens:

These are stars... we know they are stars. However, a pyramid built a
hundred years prior to the construction of the Giza Three could be
irrelevant, if we have any indication of evolution in subsequent years.
A lot can change in a hundred years, and the desire to accurately
portray stars and star groups MAY have occurred in that time. The way to
rule it out is to examine other star drawings that occur either during
or after the building of the Giza monuments, but still within the Old
Kingdom time frame.

Our second depiction of stars occurs in the pyramid of Unas, from
2356BCE... coincidentally, in the same pyramid that contains the first
copies of religious texts ever found on earth. This pyramid is 200 years
after Khufu... and 140 years after Menkaure. In this chamber, we are
able to see how much the "accuracy" of stellar depictions has evolved
since the time of Djoser, in 2650BCE, 300 years earlier:

Or as can be seen in this photo, from Mark Lehner's /The Complete Pyramids/:

It appears that there has been no change whatsoever in the view the
Egyptians had of their sky in 300 years. This king, a king just as
important as Djoser or Khufu or Menkaure, would surely have had the
best, most accurate depictions of stars available at the time, if indeed
accurate depictions of the stars were considered important.

However... we should not take just Unas' word for what stars were
thought to be, so long as other evidence is available. Unas could have
been a classical historian who loved the old ways, and just copied them,
rather than using the new, exact stellar depictions that might have been
available at the time. Since we can, we should look at his successors,
as well. The pyramid of Pepi I shows the same style of star field:

And the same thing holds true for Merenre (2255BCE):

The evidence is quite clear. We have *four hundred years of
uninterrupted depictions of starfields within the tombs of kings*... and
absolutely none of them that convey the slightest indication that the
ancient Egyptians were the least bit interested in creating accurate
maps of stars... anywhere... ever.

Anyone who wants to talk about the depictions of stars in the Old
Kingdom period of ancient Egyptian history must start from this point.
This is the evidence with which you must begin your theoretical constructs.

And based on this... anyone arguing for any plan that "mapped" stars
more accurately than these simple rows is absolutely, 100% arguing
against the evidence.

Let's re-examine what we know:

1. Stars were not mapped accurately 100 years before the building of
the Giza pyramids, as evidenced by the depictions found within the
pyramids of kings.

2. Stars were mapped in exactly the same fashion 300 years later;
140 years after the last pyramid was built at Giza (and less than
100 years after the pyramids at Abusir were begun, for those who are
trying to turn that field into a starmap).

3. The Pyramid Texts, the body of texts from which alternative
historians cherry-pick their stellar references, appear within
pyramids that show stars to be no more accurate than they were 100
years before the construction of the Giza trio.

In order to make any kind of correlation of the Old Kingdom pyramids fit
any accurate stellar mapping, one must argue that the desire for
accuracy suddenly sprang up, becoming the predominant factor in pyramid
construction in Dynasty IV... and then mysteriously de-evolved into
precisely the same kind of depictions that occurred prior to building at
Giza and Abusir.

The level of special pleading involved in this is beyond
comprehension... and more than strains the limit of rational credulity.
It's simply absurd.

*_Bibliography_*

Lehner, Mark; The Complete Pyramids

Siliotti, Alberto; Guide to the Pyramids of Egypt

www-oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IS/SANDERS for the close-up of Unas' ceiling

(c) 2003 Anthony Sakovich