Summary

From ancient Egypt come several recordings of the heliacal rising of the star of Sirius in the reigns of pharaohs Sesostris III, Amenhotep I, Thutmosis III, Ptolemy III, Ptolemy IV, and in Roman times, whose study led the Egyptologists to date, more or less precisely, the beginning of the reign of some pharaoh or other. The recent development of modern atmospherical models today allows to accurately date the occurrence of the heliacal rising of any star visible with the naked eye according to the place chosen for observation. Deducing, from the study of the visibility of Sirius in the twilight Egyptian sky, the beginning of the reign of a given pharaoh, the date of foundation of a given temple, are the main objectives of this dossier. The put at your disposal of the software leading to determine the days of heliacal setting and rising of Sirius will allow you to check by yourself every one of the results obtained.

Author

Karine Gadré, Culture Diff' company-head.
Dates of first publication and successive updates : march 2001 / september 2003
This dossier was published as an article within the egyptological journal Cahiers Caribeens d'Egyptologie n°6, march 2004

Access to the content

This dossier is made up of 26 pages and 21 illustrations. An interactive menu, a chronological space, a search by theme and by keywords are otherwise available. To access its content and check these functionalities, simply click on the upper menu.

Exlusively at Culture Diff'

From now on, each Egyptian term is written in the hieroglyphic and transliterated forms. In order to benefit from this improvement, simply download the related fonts then copy them in your file entitled True Type Fonts.
Put at your disposal of the software leading to determine the days of heliacal setting and rising of Sirius at different Egyptian locations and at the epochs corresponding each with the writings studied. You will thus be able to test by yourself the validity of each one of the historical data deduced from this astronomical study. In order to benefit from this option, please first login.

Further information

(Egyptian Gallery) Sirius "Room"
(AstroEgypto) The round Dendara zodiac. The temples of Hathor and Isis
(AstroLogiciel) Software determining the days of heliacal setting and rising of a star
(AstroEgypto) The sky of ancient Egypt : stellar clocks, water clocks and astronomical ceilings

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