THE FIRST GLIMPSES OF EGYPTIAN ASTRONOMY.
[Illustration: THE ROSETTA STONE. (_In the British Museum._)]
In the general survey, which occupied the preceding chapter, of the
records left by the most ancient peoples, it was shown that Egypt, if
we consider her monuments, came first in the order of time. I have
next to show that in the earliest monuments we have evidences of the
existence and utilisation of astronomical knowledge.
It is impossible to approach such a subject as the astronomy of the
ancient Egyptians without being struck with surprise that any knowledge
is available to help us in our inquiries. A century ago, the man to
whom we owe more than to all others in this matter; the man who read
the riddle of those strange hieroglyphs, which, after having been
buried in oblivion for nearly two thousand years, were then again
occupying the learned, was not yet born. I refer to Champollion, who
was born in 1790 and died in the prime of his manhood and in the midst
of his work, in 1832.
Again, a century ago the French scientific expedition, planned by the
great Napoleon, which collected for the use of all the world facts of
importance connected with the sites, the buildings, the inscriptions,
and everything which could be got at relating to the life and language
of the ancient Egyptians, had not even been thought of; indeed, it only
commenced its labours in 1798, and the intellectual world will for ever
be a debtor to the man who planned it.
I know of no more striking proof of the wit of man than the gradual
unravelling of the strange hieroglyphic signs in which the learning
of the ancient Egyptians was enshrined; and there are few things more
remarkable in the history of scientific investigation than the way in
which a literature has been already brought together which is appalling
in its extent; and yet it may well be that, vast as this literature
is at present, it is but the vanguard of a much more stupendous one
to follow; for we are dealing with a nation which we now know existed
completely equipped in many ways at least seven thousand five hundred
years ago.
It forms no part of the present work to give an account of the
unravelling to which I have referred, one which finds a counterpart in
the results achieved by the spectroscope in another scientific field.
But a brief reference to one of the most brilliant achievements
of the century may be permitted, and the more as it will indicate
the importance of one of the most valued treasures in our national
collections. I refer to the Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian Gallery
of the British Museum. It was the finding of this stone in 1799 by
Boussard, a captain of French artillery at Rosetta, which not only
showed the baselessness of the systems of suggested interpretations
of the hieroglyphics which had been in vogue from the time of Kircher
downwards, but by its bilingual record in hieroglyphic, demotic and
Greek characters, paved the way for men of genius like Thomas Young
(1814) and Champollion (1822). The latter must be acknowledged as
the real founder of the system of interpretation which has held its
own against all opposition, and has opened the way to inquiries into
the history of the past undreamt of when the century was young.
Chateaubriand nobly said of him, "Ses admirables travaux auront la
durée des monuments qu'il nous a fait connaître."
The germ of Champollion's discovery consisted in the bringing together
of two sets of characters enclosed in cartouches. One of them is in
the Rosetta inscription itself; the other, on the plinth of an obelisk
in the island of Philæ. The name of Cleopatra was associated with the
one inscription, and that of Ptolemy with the other. It was clear that
if the two names, written [Hieroglyphs] and [Hieroglyphs], were really
Ptolemaios and Cleopatra, they must include several identical signs or
letters; in Ptolemaios the quadrangular figure [Hieroglyphs], being the
first, must stand for _P_, and this in Cleopatra was found to occur in
the right place, standing fifth in order. The third sign [Hieroglyphs]
in Ptolemaios must be an _o_, and the fourth [Hieroglyphs] an _l_. Now
the lion for _l_ occurs second in Cleopatra, and the knotted cord for
_o_ fourth. In this way, proceeding by comparison with other names,
that of Alexander, or Alksantrs, was next discovered, [Hieroglyphs] and
by degrees the whole Egyptian alphabet was recovered.
What had come down the stream of ages and were universally recognised
as unsurpassed memorials of a mysterious past were the famous pyramids,
successively described by Herodotus, Diodorus and Pliny among
classical, and Abd el-Latîf among Arabian, chroniclers.
Although the rifling of the most important of these structures for the
purpose of finding treasure dates at least as far back as 820 A.D., the
Khalîf El-Mamun being the destroyer, the scientific study of their mode
and objects of construction is a work of quite modern times, and may be
said to have been inaugurated by Colonel Howard Vyse in 1839.
Much that has been written has been wild and nonsensical, but from the
exact descriptions and measures now available, it is impossible to
doubt that these structures _were erected by a people possessing much
astronomical knowledge_. The exact orientation of the larger pyramids
in the pyramid-field of Gîzeh has been completely established, and it
is not impossible that some of the mysterious passages to be found in
the pyramid of Cheops may have had an astronomical use.
Let us, to continue the subject-matter of the present chapter, come
to the year 1820. It was about then that were gathered some of the
first-fruits of the investigations carried on by the Commission to
which I have referred; that some translations of the inscriptions had
been attempted, and that, some of the new results were discussed by the
members of the French Academy, while at the same time they astounded
and delighted the outside world.
[Illustration: TEMPLE OF EDFÛ, LOOKING EAST: SHOWING PYLON AND OUTER
COURT.]
From the point of view which now concerns us, it may be said that the
new discoveries might be arranged into three different groups. First of
all, the land had been found full of temples, vast and majestic beyond
imagination; among these the temples at Karnak were supreme, but there
were others on a par with them in points of architectural detail. But
besides these, then as now, above ground and inviting inspection, there
were many others which were then--as undoubtedly many are still--more
or less buried in the sand; some of these have since been unearthed to
reveal the striking features of their structure.
I shall show subsequently that, on the evidence of the ancient
Egyptians themselves, these temples were constructed in strict relation
to stars; they, then, like the pyramids, must be taken as indicating
astronomical knowledge.
If we deal with the general external appearance of the temples, they
may be arranged architecturally into two main groups. Edfû is the most
perfect example of the first group, characterised by having a pylon
consisting of two massive structures right and left of the entrance,
which are somewhat like the two towers that one sometimes sees on the
west front of our English cathedrals.
In Denderah we have an example of the second group, in which the
massive pylon is omitted. In these the front is entirely changed;
instead of the pylon we have now an open front to the temple with
columns--the Greek form of temple is approached.
[Illustration: GREAT COURT OF HEAVEN, AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE HATHOR
TEMPLE AT DENDERAH.]
Associated with many of the temples, frequently but not universally
in close proximity to the propylon, were obelisks, often of gigantic
proportions, exceeding one hundred feet in height and many hundreds of
tons in weight, which it has since been discovered were hewn out of
the syenite quarry at Aswân, and floated down the river to the various
places where they were to be erected.
It is not necessary to go to Egypt to see these wonderful monoliths,
for they have been carried away from their original temple sites at
Thebes and Heliopolis to adorn more modern cities in the Western world.
London, Paris, Rome, and Constantinople are thus embellished. It is
obvious to anyone acquainted with astronomical history and methods,
that some of these structures, at all events, may have served as
gnomons.
[Illustration: TEMPLE GATE WITH PROPYLON AND OBELISKS.]
Sometimes these temples, instead of being entirely constructed of stone
on a level surface, were either entirely or partly rock-hewn. Of the
former class, the temple of Abu Simbel is the most striking example; of
the latter, the temple of Dêr el-Bahari at Thebes.
[Illustration: HATHOR TEMPLE OF DÊR EL-BAHARI. (_As restored by M.
Brune._)]
The second revelation was that the walls of these temples, and of many
funereal buildings, were, for the most part, covered with inscriptions
in the language which was then but gradually emerging from the unknown,
its very alphabet and syllabary being still incomplete. Hence there was
not only a great wealth of temple buildings, but a still more wonderful
wealth of temple inscriptions.
[Illustration: THE CENTRAL PORTION OF THE CIRCULAR ZODIAC OF DENDERAH.]
There was even more than this, and something more germane to
our present purpose. In several temples which were examined,
zodiacs--undoubted zodiacs, representing a third group of finds--were
discovered; these, also, were accompanied by inscriptions of an
obviously astronomical nature.
At the first blush, then, it seemed to be perfectly certain that we had
to deal with a people of an astronomical turn of mind; and here was the
opportunity for the astronomer, which indeed the French astronomers did
not fail to make use of. Where the philologist was for the moment dumb,
it seemed as if the astronomer could be of use, giving explanations,
fixing probable dates on the one hand; while, on the other, he would
certainly be gaining a fresh insight into, and possibly filling a
tremendous gap in, the history of his science.
The figure on the preceding page gives an idea of the method of
presentation generally employed in these zodiacs.
I shall show in the sequel--for I shall have to deal with this part
of my subject at full length in a subsequent chapter--that many of
the animal forms represent at once mythological personages and actual
constellations.