Authors: Robert Bauval
The Egypt Code (12 page)
Anne-Sophie Bomhard, in her book
The Egyptian Calendar: A Work for Eternity
, called the Egyptian calendar ‘the gliding calendar’ because this is precisely what it did: ‘glide’ around the seasons. Simple calculation shows that if left free to glide in this way, the calendar returns to its starting point every 1,506 years and resynchronises itself perfectly with the seasons.
67
This, Bomhard argued, made it needless to add a leap year or any other mathematical adjustments for fine-tuning, because, in her words, this is ‘the most difficult stumbling block for any calendaric construction’. For example, even though we add a leap year to our Gregorian calendar, this will still not perfectly retune with the seasons, because we assume the seasonal year to be 365.25 days whereas it is, in fact, 365.2422 days. So there is still a need to make some extra minuscule adjustments every so often. Yet even with the best of fine-tuning, absolute perfection is still not possible, and it is calculated that our calendar will lose a whole day every 3,000 years or so and, consequently, need another adjustment. On the other hand, as Bomhard correctly argues, by leaving their own 365-day civil calendar to drift through the seasons, the ancient Egyptians achieved a perfect system of long-term time-keeping because their civil calendar naturally resynchronised every 1,506 years, making it a much better calendrical instrument than our Gregorian calendar which requires constant mathematical adjustments to keep it running as close as possible (but never perfectly) to the true solar year.
68
The Egyptian Calendar: A Work for Eternity
, called the Egyptian calendar ‘the gliding calendar’ because this is precisely what it did: ‘glide’ around the seasons. Simple calculation shows that if left free to glide in this way, the calendar returns to its starting point every 1,506 years and resynchronises itself perfectly with the seasons.
67
This, Bomhard argued, made it needless to add a leap year or any other mathematical adjustments for fine-tuning, because, in her words, this is ‘the most difficult stumbling block for any calendaric construction’. For example, even though we add a leap year to our Gregorian calendar, this will still not perfectly retune with the seasons, because we assume the seasonal year to be 365.25 days whereas it is, in fact, 365.2422 days. So there is still a need to make some extra minuscule adjustments every so often. Yet even with the best of fine-tuning, absolute perfection is still not possible, and it is calculated that our calendar will lose a whole day every 3,000 years or so and, consequently, need another adjustment. On the other hand, as Bomhard correctly argues, by leaving their own 365-day civil calendar to drift through the seasons, the ancient Egyptians achieved a perfect system of long-term time-keeping because their civil calendar naturally resynchronised every 1,506 years, making it a much better calendrical instrument than our Gregorian calendar which requires constant mathematical adjustments to keep it running as close as possible (but never perfectly) to the true solar year.
68
The stark reality is that our planet revolves around the sun in an inexact number of days.
69
Counting the days from sunrise on 1 January to the next 1 January, one will have to wait a further six hours (till around noon) for the true solar year to end. But this kind of reckoning goes against the way in which we perceive a ‘day’. In our mind a day is a day, that is from sunrise to sunrise (or sunset to sunset, as the Jews prefer), and our mental perception is hard pressed to envision it being a fraction of this length. The ancient Egyptians were no different from us. Where we do differ, however, is in the way we think of the sun: to the ancients it was the manifestation of the supreme god, who, for reasons known only to him, chose to glide around the seasons in a majestic slow cycle of 1,506 years (which we have termed the Great Solar Cycle). And since the pharaoh was the manifestation of the sun on earth, and that his primary duty was to maintain the cosmic order, he had to resist any attempt to alter this incontrovertible fact. Indeed, as we have already seen, at his coronation the pharaoh had to take a solemn oath not to change the ‘year’. This resulted in an observable phenomenon: starting from New Year’s Day (1 Thoth), the sun would very slowly glide in time along the eastern horizon. From its original place at the summer solstice 28° north of east, the sunrise would glide to the winter solstice at 28°
south
of east, and then slowly back again, the whole process taking 1,506 years. In other words, the place of ‘birth of Ra-Horakhti’ changed from a point in the north to a point in the south and back again in a cycle of 1,506 years, i.e. the Great Solar Cycle. This cycle, as we shall see later, may have been the cause of the curious cyclical migration of the sun-priests from north to south and back again that took place in Egypt’s 3,000-year-long history.
69
Counting the days from sunrise on 1 January to the next 1 January, one will have to wait a further six hours (till around noon) for the true solar year to end. But this kind of reckoning goes against the way in which we perceive a ‘day’. In our mind a day is a day, that is from sunrise to sunrise (or sunset to sunset, as the Jews prefer), and our mental perception is hard pressed to envision it being a fraction of this length. The ancient Egyptians were no different from us. Where we do differ, however, is in the way we think of the sun: to the ancients it was the manifestation of the supreme god, who, for reasons known only to him, chose to glide around the seasons in a majestic slow cycle of 1,506 years (which we have termed the Great Solar Cycle). And since the pharaoh was the manifestation of the sun on earth, and that his primary duty was to maintain the cosmic order, he had to resist any attempt to alter this incontrovertible fact. Indeed, as we have already seen, at his coronation the pharaoh had to take a solemn oath not to change the ‘year’. This resulted in an observable phenomenon: starting from New Year’s Day (1 Thoth), the sun would very slowly glide in time along the eastern horizon. From its original place at the summer solstice 28° north of east, the sunrise would glide to the winter solstice at 28°
south
of east, and then slowly back again, the whole process taking 1,506 years. In other words, the place of ‘birth of Ra-Horakhti’ changed from a point in the north to a point in the south and back again in a cycle of 1,506 years, i.e. the Great Solar Cycle. This cycle, as we shall see later, may have been the cause of the curious cyclical migration of the sun-priests from north to south and back again that took place in Egypt’s 3,000-year-long history.
But more on this later. Meanwhile let us look again at Djoser’s Step Pyramid complex, but this time with these long-term cycles in mind. We have seen how the Step Pyramid is orientated in such a way that it could have served as a time-marker for the rising of Sirius. This feature, as well as its name, ‘Horus is the Star at the Head of the Sky’, certainly suggests, if not confirms, that it was symbolic of Sirius. This conclusion may not be as far-fetched as it first appears, for the principal occupation of its designer, Imhotep (who was the high priest of Heliopolis), was the observation and recording of the cycles of Sirius in connection to the rebirth of the pharaoh and the flooding of the Nile. Heliopolis, after all, was the centre of calendrical studies, and also the place where the phoenix returned every 1,460 years - an event that was probably equated to the return of the Sothic cycle, i.e. the return of the heliacal rising of Sirius to 1 Thoth every 1,460 years.
Could the Step Pyramid complex be an architectural expression of the phoenix?
Since the mid-1980s I have been using the facilities of the library of the Griffith Institute at Oxford (now part of the new Sackler’s Library). The Griffith is conveniently located less than an hour’s drive from my home, and it has the advantage of being part of the Ashmolean Museum which has an excellent collection of Egyptian antiquities. I have known its director, Dr Jaromir Malek, since 1987.
70
The Griffith Institute has a wide range of books, monographs and articles on Egyptology, and there is a large section on pyramid research and exploration that I particularly enjoy. It was during one of my browsing sessions there that I pulled out by chance a book written by a French researcher. As I was about to put it back in its place, fate would have it that it fell from my hands and lay open at a page with the title: ‘Le complexe calendaire de Djeser à Saqqara’ (The calendrical complex of Djoser at Saqqara). I was, of course, immediately intrigued by this title. There was, to my surprise, a diagram of the boundary wall of the complex with the number 1,461 next to it. I immediately made a photocopy of this diagram and took it home with me.
70
The Griffith Institute has a wide range of books, monographs and articles on Egyptology, and there is a large section on pyramid research and exploration that I particularly enjoy. It was during one of my browsing sessions there that I pulled out by chance a book written by a French researcher. As I was about to put it back in its place, fate would have it that it fell from my hands and lay open at a page with the title: ‘Le complexe calendaire de Djeser à Saqqara’ (The calendrical complex of Djoser at Saqqara). I was, of course, immediately intrigued by this title. There was, to my surprise, a diagram of the boundary wall of the complex with the number 1,461 next to it. I immediately made a photocopy of this diagram and took it home with me.
Details of the boundary wall of the Djoser complex
Looking more closely at the curious architectural features of the boundary wall of the complex based on a reconstructed plan by Jean-Philippe Lauer, it could be easily deduced that there was a total of 192 recesses and protrusions, 14 false doors, four corner bastions and one main entrance. Few researchers, however, had paid much attention to the hundreds of slender horizontal panels that were also an integral part of the design. What was most intriguing about these panels was that the west side of the boundary wall contained 1,461 of them, and the east side 1,459. The uncanny similarity of these values to the Sothic cycle of 1,460-1 years was obvious. In my mind this could not be a coincidence, not with the conclusions I had arrived at regarding the connection between the Step Pyramid and Sirius. But what could be the meaning and purpose of it?
On the eastern side of the Step Pyramid complex there are four stone pavilions set in a row which are referred to by Egyptologists as ‘dummy structures’. They are, in fact, models of movable wooden pavilions that were used for the so-called
heb-sed
festivals, or jubilees of the king. According to the consensus these dummy pavilions were intended for the
heb-sed
festivals that the king wished to celebrate in his eternal afterlife. As Egyptologists Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson asserted, ‘. . . the first mortuary complexes were concerned with the king’s enactment of the sed-festival. The eastern side of the step pyramid complex of Djoser at Saqqara incorporates the earliest architectural setting for the festival.’
71
In his description of the Step Pyramid complex, Mark Lehner remarks that the ‘tomb building appears to have been part of a larger ceremonial cycle . . . the fictive architecture served the king’s Ka in the afterlife.’
72
In other words, the Step Pyramid complex, or at least a large part of it, was a jubilee centre for eternity.
heb-sed
festivals, or jubilees of the king. According to the consensus these dummy pavilions were intended for the
heb-sed
festivals that the king wished to celebrate in his eternal afterlife. As Egyptologists Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson asserted, ‘. . . the first mortuary complexes were concerned with the king’s enactment of the sed-festival. The eastern side of the step pyramid complex of Djoser at Saqqara incorporates the earliest architectural setting for the festival.’
71
In his description of the Step Pyramid complex, Mark Lehner remarks that the ‘tomb building appears to have been part of a larger ceremonial cycle . . . the fictive architecture served the king’s Ka in the afterlife.’
72
In other words, the Step Pyramid complex, or at least a large part of it, was a jubilee centre for eternity.
The
heb
-
sed
festival (sometimes called simply
heb-sed
or
sed
-festival) is generally described by Egyptologists as a royal jubilee. In reality, however, it was much more than that. In early times the king’s future reign, and perhaps even his own life, depended on its success. For this festival was a sort of fitness test that the king had to endure from time to time to reassure the people that he still possessed the full faculties and sexual potency required to rule Egypt as a god and, more importantly, to be fit and able to maintain the cosmic order. As Egyptologist G.A. Wainwright explains:
heb
-
sed
festival (sometimes called simply
heb-sed
or
sed
-festival) is generally described by Egyptologists as a royal jubilee. In reality, however, it was much more than that. In early times the king’s future reign, and perhaps even his own life, depended on its success. For this festival was a sort of fitness test that the king had to endure from time to time to reassure the people that he still possessed the full faculties and sexual potency required to rule Egypt as a god and, more importantly, to be fit and able to maintain the cosmic order. As Egyptologist G.A. Wainwright explains:
. . . nothing is more certain than that the pharaoh was divine . . . Kings of this type contained within themselves the power that produced prosperity . . . To do all this, a divine fertility-king must keep himself in good health and live a well-ordered life. For as he functions regularly and in good order, so will the universe remain stable and continue in its allotted course, for he is himself the universe. The service rendered by such kings has always been to ensure the fruitfulness of the earth, and consequent health of the people . . .
73
The first
heb-sed
festival for a king was normally celebrated after the thirtieth year of his reign, but there are many indications that it could take place at shorter intervals. According to Wainwright, originally it took place after seven years.
74
Wainwright was of the opinion that the
heb-sed
festival stemmed from the old sky and fertility religion, in which the fertility of the crops and livestock depended on the ability of the king to control the weather and the Nile - a concept that is known to hark back to very ancient times.
75
At any rate, Egyptologists are in agreement that the
heb-sed
was practised as early as the First Dynasty.
heb-sed
festival for a king was normally celebrated after the thirtieth year of his reign, but there are many indications that it could take place at shorter intervals. According to Wainwright, originally it took place after seven years.
74
Wainwright was of the opinion that the
heb-sed
festival stemmed from the old sky and fertility religion, in which the fertility of the crops and livestock depended on the ability of the king to control the weather and the Nile - a concept that is known to hark back to very ancient times.
75
At any rate, Egyptologists are in agreement that the
heb-sed
was practised as early as the First Dynasty.
There are few inscriptions that give details of what actually took place during this important festival, and interpretations by modern scholars are usually based on pictorials. The earliest of these so-called
heb-sed
scenes is found on an ebony tablet from Abydos attributed to King Den of the First Dynasty (
c.
2900 BC). On the left part of the scene, Den is shown wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt and seated on a throne under a
sed
-pavilion resembling the dummy ones at Saqqara. The right part of the scene shows the king running between two sets of cairns that represent the boundaries of his kingdom. This most important ritual of the
heb-sed
required the king to race around a courtyard or perhaps even the boundary wall of the ceremonial complex. As Wainwright further explains:
heb-sed
scenes is found on an ebony tablet from Abydos attributed to King Den of the First Dynasty (
c.
2900 BC). On the left part of the scene, Den is shown wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt and seated on a throne under a
sed
-pavilion resembling the dummy ones at Saqqara. The right part of the scene shows the king running between two sets of cairns that represent the boundaries of his kingdom. This most important ritual of the
heb-sed
required the king to race around a courtyard or perhaps even the boundary wall of the ceremonial complex. As Wainwright further explains:
(the heb-sed) consisted essentially in a running ceremony, performed in archaic times before the king and from the First Dynasty onwards by the king himself . . . several of the old sky-gods figure in the ceremony . . . The ceremony clearly went back at least into Prehistoric times . . . Physical activity is essential in fertility-rites such as these clearly show. No doubt the king’s agility here brought fertility to the fields, and induced the necessary activities in the skies in providing the water required . . . Thus we find that the Pharaohs were divine; controlled the activities of the sky; kept their people in health; hoed the ground; reaped the harvest; carried out a ceremony for the fertility of the fields, and concerned themselves with the opening of the dykes for the inundation . . . The Pharaohs were in fact fertility-kings, upon whose health and proper observance of the rites the health and wealth of the country depended . . .
76
Further evidence that the Step Pyramid complex was meant to serve as an eternal
heb-sed
centre is provided by the king’s apartments under the pyramid and also by the so-called South Tomb next to the Step Pyramid. Here there are reliefs that show King Djoser performing the ritual race. According to Egyptologist Donald Redford the
heb-sed
‘complex took on the character of a microcosm of Egypt itself . . . the symbolism is clear: the racecourse is Egypt’.
77
Apparently during the race - which was run four times around the open courtyard - the king made various proclamations evoking his connection with the gods of Egypt, one of which was ‘I have passed through the land and touched its four sides’. The ‘four sides’ are, most probably, the four cardinal points of the compass. An inscription also states that the king ‘runs crossing the ocean (the sky) and the four sides of heaven, going as far as the rays of the sun disc, passing over the earth’.
78
The same ‘four sides of heaven’ are also evoked when the king is made to shoot four arrows towards the four cardinal points of the compass.
79
According to Greg Reeder, the editor of
KMT
magazine,
80
heb-sed
centre is provided by the king’s apartments under the pyramid and also by the so-called South Tomb next to the Step Pyramid. Here there are reliefs that show King Djoser performing the ritual race. According to Egyptologist Donald Redford the
heb-sed
‘complex took on the character of a microcosm of Egypt itself . . . the symbolism is clear: the racecourse is Egypt’.
77
Apparently during the race - which was run four times around the open courtyard - the king made various proclamations evoking his connection with the gods of Egypt, one of which was ‘I have passed through the land and touched its four sides’. The ‘four sides’ are, most probably, the four cardinal points of the compass. An inscription also states that the king ‘runs crossing the ocean (the sky) and the four sides of heaven, going as far as the rays of the sun disc, passing over the earth’.
78
The same ‘four sides of heaven’ are also evoked when the king is made to shoot four arrows towards the four cardinal points of the compass.
79
According to Greg Reeder, the editor of
KMT
magazine,
80
Two paired glyphs that look like swinging doors, but are actually the two halves of the sky, are often shown in direct association with the three cairn-shaped glyphs which identify the territorial markers which the king rounded during his run-of-the-field event of the Heb-sed. Thus the celebrant not only traversed the field (i.e. Egypt) in a public ceremony but also traversed the heavens in, understandably, a less public form.
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