Title : "The old Egyptian decanal stars : mythical stars"
Summary : The ancient Egyptians believed in life after death. They thought that the time the deceased needed to be born again in the Beyond was about 70 days. Several funerary texts compare this rebirth with the heliacal rising of a star whose yearly period of invisibility was then close to 70 days. Ninety stars are mentioned on the interior lid of wooden sarcophagi, on the ceiling of temples and tombs dating from 2200 BC to 50 AD. The archaeological, philological and astronomical study of the content of these one hundred vestiges leads to define the space, time and optical constraints of a model which combines Celestial Mechanics algorithms and visibility criteria of a star in the night or twilight sky of ancient Egypt. This model leads to identify everyone of the 90 stars with stars of the Hipparcos catalogue - in other words, to draw a map of the ancient Egyptian sky. The applying of this model to the astronomical orientation of the pyramids of Egypt will be examined, as well as long-term research works.

Title : "The old Egyptian decanal stars : mythical stars"
Summary : The ancient Egyptians believed in life after death. They thought that the time the deceased needed to be born again in the Beyond was about 70 days. Several funerary texts compare this rebirth with the heliacal rising of a star whose yearly period of invisibility was then close to 70 days. Ninety stars are mentioned on the interior lid of wooden sarcophagi, on the ceiling of temples and tombs dating from 2200 BC to 50 AD. The archaeological, philological and astronomical study of the content of these one hundred vestiges leads to define the space, time and optical constraints of a model which combines Celestial Mechanics algorithms and visibility criteria of a star in the night or twilight sky of ancient Egypt. This model leads to identify everyone of the 90 stars with stars of the Hipparcos catalogue - in other words, to draw a map of the ancient Egyptian sky. The applying of this model to the astronomical orientation of the pyramids of Egypt will be examined, as well as long-term research works.

Collaboration in the writing of the scenario of a sight entitled "The stars of Pharaoh" entirely dedicated to Ancient Egyptian Astronomy. This show, of 30 minutes length, introduces the spectator to the knowledge which the ancient Egyptians had of their sky in relationship with several myths, with the help of virtual images : the Giza pyramids, the temple of Hathor at Dendara, the Ramasseum at Western Thebes, the temple of Abu Simbel, etc. This sight can be seen all along the year 2007 at the Cité de l'Espace, Toulouse, France.

This lecture was the occasion to promote the 2006 Calendar entitled De Atoum à Hubble : voyage dans le cosmos entre passé et présent. Each page of this calendar now is available within the dossier entitled Making up an Astro-Egyptology related database, which details the astronomical orientation or content of several types of ancient Egyptian vestiges : the Nabta megaliths, the Old Kingdom pyramids, the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts, the sarcophagus of Idy, the southern ceiling of the tomb of Senenmut at Deir el-Bahari, the Karnak water clock, the northern ceiling of the tomb of Seti I at Western Thebes, the el-Lahun papyrus and the Ebers calendar, the Book of Nut, the temple of Isis at Dendara and the round Dendara zodiac. This dossier furthermore reveals the results obtained by applying modern methods (conceiving of numerical models, probabilistic approach) to ancient Egyptian problematics.

The inauguration of the INDETEC-Aegyptus, i.e., the International Institute for the Study of Law, Technology and Science in ancient Egypt, will be the opportunity to give a lecture entitled "Identification of the old Egyptian decanal stars : a research work requiring the knowledge and abilities of both Astronomers and Egyptologists". My doctoral dissertation, prepared at the Midi-Pyrenees Observatory, Toulouse, France, and which aims at identifying the Egyptian decans, will thus be considered as the result of numerous collaborations between worldwide Astronomers and Egyptologists since last century. In that way, it can be seen as the possible illustration of the principle on which the AstroEgypto team could work. Details relating to the AstroEgypto team were explained on the occasion of the 56th ARCE meeting and published as an article in the Cahiers Caribeens d'Egyptologie n°7-8. Francesco Raffaele, well-known for its work in the field of Predynastic Egypt ; Salima Ikram, for her abilities in Egyptian archaeology ; finally, Teresa Sorya Trastoy, as the President of the INDETEC-Aegyptus, will be the three other lecturers.

At the very beginning there was the myth, and more particularly the myth of the creation of the world. Because of their big analogy with funerary conceptions, several extracts of the cosmogonic myths were integrated within the Pyramid Texts, the Coffin Texts, the Book of the Dead, ... Through these stories, the ancient Egyptians attempted to explain at best the observed reality : the world made up of the sky and the earth, populated by gods, humans, animals, plants, ... For this reason, certain aspects of the cosmogonic myth evolved with time, whereas others were enriched with many versions..."

This lecture was made on the basis of the dossier entitled The creation of the world : ancient Egyptian myths and scientific reality

"The publication of articles dealing with ancient Egyptian Astronomy within Egyptological journals like the Cahiers Caribeens d'Egyptologie, my participation as an Astrophysicist in the 2004 and 2005 ARCE meetings, the mixed composition of my PH.D. examining board, can be seen as many steps towards the forthcoming forming of a team made up of both Astronomers and Egyptologists from the whole world, willing to build an astro-egyptology related database, willing to study together the astronomical orientation of such monument, the astronomical content of some painting or writing dating from ancient Egypt ; finally, willing to publish the results of their interdisciplinary research work on the World Wide Web and within already existing egyptological and astronomical journals. "

The American Research Center in Egypt yearly organizes a meeting in Egyptology. This 56th edition was the occasion to introduce world-wide Egyptologists to the idea of forming an international team of researchers into Astro-Egyptology. The related article was published within the 7th edition of the French Egyptological journal Cahiers Caribeens d'Egyptologie.

On the last 16th October, the Bibliothèque Intercommunale Muroise, a reference library located at Saint Laurent de Mure, east of Lyon, France, organized an event relating to ancient Egypt. A storyteller named Anne Marchand first related a few of the ancient Egyptian myths. Then followed a lecture entitled The creation of the world : ancient Egyptian myths and scientific reality whose content is from now on available on the Culture Diff' website.

The American Research Center in Egypt yearly organizes a meeting in Egyptology. This 55th edition was the occasion to introduce Egyptologists from the whole world to the latest results of research work into Astro-Egyptology and to a new way of collaborating. The whole content of this lecture entitled Astro-Egyptology : a new research area involving both Astronomers and Egyptologists is available on the Culture Diff' website.

"From ancient Egypt come several recordings of the heliacal rising of Sirius in the reigns of pharaohs Sesostris ?, Amenhotep I, Thutmosis III, Ptolemy III, Ptolemy IV, and in Roman times, whose astronomical study leads to better know the visual acuity of the ancient Egyptian priests-astronomers - a parameter needed to identify the old Egyptian decanal stars -, then to sharpen the epoch of their reign according to the place chosen for observation.".

The results of this research work published in the form of an article within the 6th edition of the Cahiers Caribeens d'Egyptologie are also available within the dossier entitled The heliacal rising of Sirius in ancient Egypt : a source of historical dating.

In July 2003 was published, within the 398th edition of the French magazine "Ciel & Espace", a dossier devoted to ancient Egyptian Astronomy. Several theories relating to the astronomical orientation of the pyramids of Egypt were detailed ; the principle on which the stellar clocks dating from the Middle and New Kingdoms worked as well ; finally, the dating of the round Dendara zodiac. These are a few of the themes developed, in great details, within the astro-egyptology related dossiers of the Culture Diff' website. Their content besides was an important source of information for the journalist Leila Haddad, as the following quoting testifies : "www.culturediff.org (...) Unique source of information so rich, solid and well-researched about ancient Egyptian Astronomy".

Within the third edition of "Toutankhamon Magazine", the unique French magazine devoted to Egyptology, was published an article entitled "Evolution of the ancient Egyptian celestial imagery during the Dynastic Period". This article was enriched with the most recent results of research works into Astro-Egyptology and gave rise to the writing of a new dossier available on the Culture Diff' website under the title Making up of an Astro-Egyptology related database.

This lecture aimed at introducing to ancient Egyptian Astronomy the amateur Astronomers belonging to the Adagio association. During three hours were tackled several topics : the egyptian calendars, the measurement of nighttime, the astronomical orientation of the pyramids of Egypt, the temple of Dendara and its zodiac.

This meeting held at Toulouse, France, was the opportunity of introducing Astronomers from the whole world to ancient Egyptian Astronomy. The article entitled The sky of ancient Egypt focused on the North-South differentiation deduced from the study of the stellar clocks dating from the First Intermediate Period, the Middle and the New Kingdoms. This theme now is tackled within the dossier entitled The sky of ancient Egypt : stellar clocks, water clocks and astronomical ceilings.