Speculation on Special Sunlight

And the Origin of the wSAw Hour

by

JOANNE CONMAN

© 2007

This paper appeared originally in Apuntes de Egiptología Volume 3, 2007

In order to understand the link between the wSAw hour and the sunlight of Prt season that appears to have existed in the ancient Egyptian mind, we must first briefly review the cosmology that is implied by the model of the decan stars. The author of the Roman-era Carlsberg papyri tells us that Sirius sets the pattern of behavior for all decan stars by doing four things over the course of a year. A star is "first," then 90 days later, it is Sn dwAt. 70 days after that, it is "born." 80 days after that, a star "works" or "serves." Then, 120 days later, it is back to "first." Because Sirius disappears from the sky for roughly 70 days following its heliacal setting, Otto Neugebauer presumed that the 70-day period that stars are said to be Sn dwAt refers a period of invisibility following heliacal setting. Based on that assumption, Neugebauer further conjectured a model of the decans. While that model sounds convincing, his hypothesis fails when tested because it posits a pattern that no stars fit.

Neugebauer and Richard A. Parker found concordance between the spreadsheet that is part of the New Kingdom Book of Nut (as found in the cenotaph of Seti I and in the tomb of Ramses IV) and the Carlsberg papyri. (1) That spreadsheet indicates that in each 10-day Egyptian week, a different star moves into one of the four phases of a star's life cycle as described in Carlsberg texts. If the concordance found by Neugebauer and Parker is valid, then it should be possible to find stars that were observable at some time and place in Egypt and put them into the Book of Nut spreadsheet. But that is not possible using Neugebauer's model. Stars that are far enough away from the ecliptic so that they disappear for about 70 days after their heliacal setting do not rise and set in the same sequential order, and thus, cannot maintain the necessary sequential order for rising and transiting that Neugebauer hypothesized. (2) That sequential order is required for agreement with the Book of Nut. Neugebauer's hypothesized decanal belt does not and cannot match the pattern required by the spreadsheet in the Nut texts. There are two possible conclusions: either there is no concordance between the two texts (which is unquestionably not the case!) or Neugebauer's model has failed.

The pattern required by the texts is satisfied by a model that I proposed. My approach was to discard Neugebauer's hypothesis altogether and to re-examine the Egyptian material, focusing on the unambiguous information in both the Nut and Carlsberg texts. (3) About 160 days after its heliacal rise, Sirius rises acronychally. Approximately 200 days after its acronychal rise, it rises heliacally again. Obviously, 160 days is the sum of 90 and 70 days and 200 days is the sum of 80 and 120 days. Consequently, I realized I had found a match for "first" as heliacal rise and for "born" as acronychal rise and, furthermore, that the correct meanings of the terms used by the Carlsberg scribe are revealed by the pattern of the stars' behavior. (4)

The Carlsberg scribe tells us that all the decan stars rise in the place where the sun rises, a place he calls the msqt region. It is a region on the eastern horizon (5) bounded by the sun's most northerly point of rising and its most southerly point of rising, reached around the time of summer and winter solstice, respectively. About every ten days, a bright star will rise in the msqt region. Those stars follow Sirius' pattern of approximately 160 days between heliacal and acronychal rise and 200 days between acronychal and heliacal rise. My model works at various times in Egypt's history, as well as at different locations throughout Egypt. While there are some differences in the actual stars that rise at different locations and/ or at different times in history, the pattern itself remains consistent, reconciling what the Carlsberg texts say stars do with what stars in fact do.

I created two lists of stars paired by the dates of their heliacal and acronychal risings that matched two of the columns in the spreadsheet from Seti's tomb. From the pattern in the Nut spreadsheet, we know which star belongs in the Sn dwAt column during each of these 10-day weeks. Whatever that star does during that week is what it means for a star to be Sn dwAt. What the stars in that column have in common is that they rise late at night, apparently coinciding with the wSAw hour, the dark hour of middle night. This is approximately between 4 and 6.5 hours after sunset or 3 and 5.5 hours after dark, depending on the time of year. (6) The rising of the Sn dwAt star for any given decade of days marks the wSAw hour, thereby announcing that the sun is Sn dwAt, i.e., the time each night when the sun regenerates in the presence of Osiris. This new understanding of the decan system provides insight into Egyptian thought, but it also raises questions. How and when did the concept of the wSAw hour arise? What is its link to the dwAt?

The Old Kingdom temple of Neferirkare-Kakai was dedicated to Re, who was worshipped on the roof in the daytime. But priests were on the roof at night as well. One badly damaged text that is part of the duty rosters from the temple mentions the beginning of night, suggesting that the night was divided into parts, consistent with the idea of the wSAw hour. (7) The duty rosters indicate that there were four men at the south end of the roof and three at the north end, three pairs of priests and one extra. Why should seven priests of a sun god watch the night sky unless the idea that Re was rejuvenating in the dwAt existed at that time?

Some scholars have suggested that the "Underworld Books" genre that provides a major source for the idea of the nightly union of Re and Osiris originated in the Middle Kingdom or First Intermediate Period, or even perhaps as far back as the Old Kingdom. (8) That we find this idea repeated in books classified in markedly different categories by Erik Hornung himself (i.e., Books of the Dead, Books of the Netherworld, Books of the Sky) suggests that this idea was very likely in existence for some time before the various books were composed. The Book of Nut, while attested from the New Kingdom, contains information on the decans and decan tables that appears to be far older, well into at least the Middle Kingdom. (9) Terence DuQuesne writes, "[A]s early as the Pyramid Texts, the king as personification of Osiris is described as 'the horizon from which Re ascends' (Axt prrt-Ra im.s ). It is even conceivable that the name Osiris means something like 'womb of the Eye' (= Re)'." (10) He considers Pyramid Texts 585a, 621b, 636c, and 1887 to allude to the mysterious union of Re and Osiris. Additional texts that may also hint at this union from the perspective of Re rejuvenating Osiris are in variations of Utterance 422 (§ 752-57) such as § 721 and § 819. Later reference to the union of these two gods is found in Coffin Text Spell 335 (IV. 190-200) which evolves into Spell 17 in the Book of the Dead.

Noting that the term imy-wnwt is not attested in the Old Kingdom, Paule Posener-Kriéger suggests that the priests (called xntj-S) may have faced off on the roof of the temple of Neferirkare-Kakai in opposing pairs as later priests are imagined to have done. However, the uneven number of priests suggests that this is unlikely. Intriguingly, the number of priests matches the number of the stars that are said to be Sn dwAt at any given time in later texts. Coffin Text Spell 668 (VI. 297) mentions wSAw stars. (11) This may be another name for the Sn dwAt stars. The spell is considered to be a garbled version of Pyramid Text Utterance 320, which refers to the hour or timing stars (wnwt). (12) Neither the number seven nor the 70-day time-period of the Sn dwAt phase of the decan stars' cycle has any astronomical significance. The rise of the Sn dwAt star each night not only announces the wSAw hour, which marks the time when the sun regenerates in the presence of Osiris, but also indicates the time that the sun turns back to its point of origin, i.e., sunrise. There are puns between "seven" and "loosening," both featuring the consonant sequence s-f-x (13) that appear in the Book of Nut (as found in the cenotaph of Seti I), as well as in Carlsberg Papyrus I. G. V. 37-40. (14) A similar pun is found in the earlier Coffin Text Spell 397 (V. 115-6). (15) And in Middle and New Kingdom tombs, the word sfx is used in the sense of loosening bulls to fight one another to win a mate. (16) The loosened bull battles a foe in order to create an offspring, thus re-creating himself. For Re, each night, a battle is waged and won against Apep, and the sun is re-created during the mystical union of Osiris and Re.

At its maximum elongation, Venus may be visible for over three hours after sunset in Egypt. Most often, however, it is seen for less time, and, of course, Mercury is always seen for less time. As stated above, the onset of the wSAw hour, marked by the rise of the Sn dwAt stars, occurs about four to six and a half hours after sunset, depending on the time of year. Given the association of Venus and Mercury with the gods Osiris and Seth, (17) as well as the significant roles those particular gods play in aiding the sun to return each day, (18) it is reasonable to consider that the wSAw hour may have originated from an awareness that there is a time late at night when neither of these two planets can ever be seen. The counted system of decan stars could have been derived from determining the time when the two planets closest to the sun cannot be seen. In other words, the determination by counted place of the Sn dwAt star may have been inspired by the recognition or realization that, in each week, a certain star could not rise until after Venus (at greatest elongation) had set, regardless of the time of year.

The names of the Sn dwAt stars were not spoken when they were in this phase of their existence. (19) They were in a powerful holy state. Texts tell us these decans are entering a state of Hsi. This word can be understood to mean that these stars are favored or praised ones. (20) A similar word means "to turn back to a place" or "to face aggressively; to turn back an enemy." This is appropriate applied to stars who may assist Seth in the defeat of Apep and whose influence is strongest when Re is in communion with Osiris in the dwAt. Originally, the word Hsi, meaning "praise" and "turn back" had (voiced) "z," while Hsi meaning "sing" had (voiceless) "s," but that distinction ceased by the Middle Kingdom. The word Hsi meaning "sing," is consistent with the references to "praising" or "uttering" that are found so often concerning the Sn dwAt stars. The word dwAt can pun with "praises." The word wSAw is itself a pun on "utter," taken as figurative use of wSA, "pour out," used concretely in "pouring out sand" as a ceremony. (21) The Sn dwAt stars were also called "Sheseru," (22) a word that means "arrows," and is yet another word that puns with "utterances." Possibly, the priests recited or sang as they watched for the Sn dwAt star to rise, marking that division of the night when there was no possibility to see Venus or Mercury, when they would know the moment of Re's rejuvenation. Perhaps the first recognition that a decan star's rising could announce the moment of the sun's rejuvenation occurred to someone who was watching stars at night while reciting to keep Re safe.

The Egyptians divided the year into three 120-day seasons that were based on the agricultural cycle: Axt (Inundation), Prt (Planting), and Smw (Harvest). It is Prt that suggests an explanation for the concept of wSAw. The name of the season is linked to the verb pr, which carries a number of meanings that are consistent with creation or recreation of the land, i.e., "burst forth," "emerge," etc. The land emerged after the annual inundation. Then planting was begun, and the crops burst forth from the land. Winter solstice was the mid-point between planting and harvest. The season of Prt began approximately 60 days before and ended about 60 days after winter solstice. Thus, Prt coincided with the time of the longest nights of the year. Unlike Europeans and other northern peoples, the Egyptians would not have associated these long, dark nights with death and deprivation, but instead, would have associated them with the magical creation and regeneration of life.

It is these long, dark nights of the growing season that provide the most likely origin of the concept of wSAw: a good, (i.e., praiseworthy), fattening darkness, linked with gestation and the sacred renewal of life. The understanding that the sun regenerates each night and that this regeneration takes place in the dark hour of middle night suggests a parallel with the sun's yearly regeneration at winter solstice. New Kingdom texts tell us that the sun is briefly stopped as it passes through the dwAt. Only after the serpent Apep is defeated by the god Seth can the sun's passage continue. That brief moment of stopping echoes the solstice itself, suggesting that the sun's passage through the dwAt each night is an allegorical year. Just as the stars that marked the sun's nightly passage through the dwAt were in a holy, praised condition, (23) it may be that the sun itself was understood to be in a holy, praised condition during Prt season.

The Egyptians had two principal events in the civil calendar that were associated with rejuvenation. These were celebrated on 1 Axt 1 (wp rnpt) and on 1 Prt 1, which was a second wp rnpt ceremony, attested at least at Edfu. (24) An identical series of feasts associated with the Kommunien ceremony were celebrated before both 1 Axt 1 and 1 Prt 1, and both dates have also been associated with the feast of NHb-kAw. (25) In addition, 1 Prt 1 was a date of coronation, again paralleling 1 Axt 1. Most significantly perhaps, the date of 1 Prt 1 was associated with the Heb Sed, the quintessential Egyptian festival of renewal of kingship. Was the Sed an earthly parallel of the rejuvenating union of Re and Osiris?

Alexander Badawy and Virginia Trimble first suggested that the shafts in the Great Pyramid at Giza were aligned to stars, specifically Orion's belt and Thuban. (26) Badawy's realization that the shafts were not created for ventilation, but instead, had a religious significance in keeping with changes in tomb architecture is well-reasoned; however, there are problems with the idea of the shafts aligning to particular stars. Robert Chadwick discusses these problems in detail. For one thing, the shafts' exterior openings would align to numerous stars during the course of a year, so that any one of several stars can be argued equally plausibly to be the intended target of a shaft. Also, the shafts have numerous bends within them, and thus, they cannot have been used for sighting stars. (27)

The most difficult part of Badawy's hypothesis is that the two shafts exit the king's chamber in opposite directions. Badawy makes an unconvincing argument that the shafts were intended to allow the king's soul to ascend to heaven in either direction. Thus, the king could pursue a "stellar" destiny in the circumpolar region or a "solar" destiny that convolutedly links some stars in the modern constellation Orion with Osiris and Re. (28) Apparent exits for the soul directed to the north are found in the earliest tombs. (29) The Carlsberg papyrus also tells of the dwAt having an entrance in the north. (30) Badawy notes no examples of exits to the south found in any tombs with northern exits. I.E.S. Edwards also writes how unique the southern exiting shafts in Khufu's tomb are. Nothing like them is found before Khufu's tomb. Shafts that were apparently planned for Khafre's tomb were never built. (31)

I propose that the shafts in Khufu's pyramid are in reality one path that runs from south to north, passing through the king's chamber. There was no intent to align with any stars. Instead, the intent was to align with the sun at a particular time of year in order to aid the king's exit from the tomb. The shafts functioned as a magical irrigation system, paralleling the capture and channeling of the Nile to water the land and generate crops. The upper southern shaft attempted to capture sunlight at its most potent time of year, when it was imbued with the special power of regeneration: high noon at the beginning of Prt season. The northern shaft was not directed to any certain star, but faced the general direction north because the entrance to the dwAt is in the north. North is the presumed location of the sun when it is regenerating, when it is in the dwAt, in the model of cosmology suggested by the Carlsberg papyri. In the day, the visible sun moves from east to south to west. The renewal of the hidden sun in the dark hour of middle night is logically in the north opposite its position at noon. (32)

Sir William Flinders-Petrie writes that the sun shone down the upper southern shaft of the Great Pyramid at noon on November 2, and February 8, 1881. (33) An exact match of the sun's position in 1881 with 2500 BCE (34) cannot occur because of the obliquity of the ecliptic. Using SkyMap Pro software, the closest match I found occurred at noon on November 20, 2500 BCE for November 2, 1881, and at noon on March 1, 2500 BCE for February 8, 1881. In 2500 BCE, the winter solstice was January 9, 50 days after the sun shines down the shaft in November and 50 days before the sun shines down the shaft again in March. Obviously, this is not a perfect 120-day Prt season, but the winter solstice is centered between the two dates when the sun shines down the upper southern shaft.

Badawy is correct in opining that the irregularities in the bends of the shafts and the blocked openings to the shafts would have no effect on the magical function of the shafts. The shafts would have been sealed to the outside elements in any case, so they did not have to let in actual sunlight. Some of the corrections in the angles of the upper southern shaft may be the result of correcting the alignment with the sun at the right moment of the year. When the shafts were unblocked, they did allow air into the chamber. (35) John Legon suggests that the strong air currents that flow through the Bent pyramid may have suggested the idea of north/south opposite outlets for what he sees as ventilation shafts in Khufu's pyramid. (36) However, the previous experience with air currents may well have suggested a way for a god's power to be harnessed to help the deceased king ascend to the sky. Shu is the god of sunlight and of air. The word Sw means "light-filled air" or "sunlight." If air could be felt flowing through the shaft, it would be evident that the god could travel through the shaft. Through the upper southern shaft, Shu, as transfiguring sunlight, was magically directed into the king's chamber where he could connect with the king, lifting him out to the north for resurrection in the dwAt.

Several ways of ascending to the sky are described in the Pyramid Texts. The variety in the methods may be a reflection of various magical methods that the pharaohs prior to the Fifth Dynasty actually used. For example, a step pyramid can be a staircase or ladder that was set up for the king. A wooden coffin can be a tree enabling the king to climb to the sky. The Pyramid Texts, then, may have been a way to incorporate the varied magical methods of all the earlier architectural techniques, symbolically rather than physically. Pyramid Text passages that appear to allude to the method Khufu apparently used are those that involve Shu lifting the king to Nut as in § 275, § 1090, § 1421, and § 1430, or raising the king, delivering him to Nut in § 519. Re and Shu accompany the king to sky in § 313, while Shu opens the celestial doors in § 604. Shu restores the king in § 1872. Faulkner translates § 1151 (literally, "I stand on Sw") as the king declaring, "I stand on air," while Allen renders this "I stand on Shu." (37) Perhaps a better understanding would be "I stand on sunlight," or even "I stand on [Prt season] sunlight." The reference to the stars being shaded by a fan in the text may allude to their invisibility in the presence of the god who personifies light-filled air.

The sun's light also appears to have been directed to coincide with Prt season in another well-known Egyptian monument, one that was constructed in the New Kingdom. According to J. K. Van der Haagen, on October 19, 1959 and February 21, 1960, the sun at its rising illuminated statues in the temple built by Ramses II at Abu Simbel. (38) Van der Haagen's review was conducted before the temple was moved. Maravelia and Shaltout demonstrate that the two illuminations of the statue of Ramses II appear to have been timed with the onset and the end of Prt season. (39) As with the Great Pyramid shafts, the dates of the directed sunlight appear to be timed around the winter solstice, though at Abu Simbel, the entire period between the two dates is more precisely 120 days.

Gerd Gelinsky suggests that the orientation of the large temple at Abu Simbel was to the sun and was intended to correspond with Prt season, while the small temple's orientation was to the heliacal rise of the star Toliman. (40) The justification offered by Gelinsky for his argument is problematic and he errs in claiming Toliman is the star to which the small temple is oriented. Nevertheless, his idea that both the small and large temples at Abu Simbel were designed with an emphasis on Prt season appears to be correct.

Maravelia and Shaltout consider the correct azimuth for the small temple's alignment to be at 138°. They claim that ruling out any alignment with Sirius or the sun proves that the small temple was not oriented astronomically. (41) That is unreasonable and untrue. At the time of the temple's construction, the star Fomalhaut (alpha Piscis Austrini) rose at 138°. There is a good reason to believe that this star would have been associated with Prt season in the New Kingdom. At both the onset and the end of Prt, the sun rose at the same point on the eastern horizon. The entrance and exit of the sun into the Prt season could be additionally confirmed by noting the coinciding heliacal or acronychal rising stars. In the correctly working decan model that I discovered, a star's heliacal rise occurs after its 120-period of work or serving. It is during this time that the star becomes invisible, rising and setting entirely in daylight hours. The heliacal rise of Fomalhaut at the end of Prt season indicates that at the time of the New Kingdom, Prt season was this star's 120-day time of serving. Thus, the small temple's orientation to the heliacal rise of Fomalhaut, established by the measurements of Maravelia and Shaltout (who simply did not recognize the significance of what they found), offers additional confirmation that the emphasis at Abu Simbel was on Prt season.

Maravelia and Shaltout propose that the ancient Egyptians constructed Abu Simbel because they were seeking to time their seasons precisely and that the huge rock-cut temple is an enormous, elaborate clock. (42) Their reasoning is perplexing. Obviously, the ability to tell the time of the onset of Prt season quite precisely had already been mastered by the Egyptians or the temple could not have been built as it was. Furthermore, in ascribing modern, seemingly practical motives to the Egyptians, Maravelia and Shaltout deny the true, religious inspiration for this great monument as well as something of the reality of ancient Egyptian culture. This was a temple dedicated to Ramses II as a god. (43) That is why it was built. Why it was built the way it was is subject to reasonable speculation, but the Weltanschauung of its builders must be kept in mind.

The large temple may well reflect a revival of the Old Kingdom view of the sun at Prt . The fourth son of Ramses II, Prince Khaemwaset, is known to have spent time studying the texts of the Old Kingdom in his various restoration projects. (44) Extensive recycling of materials from Old Kingdom tombs in Saqqara coincides with the prince's term as High Priest of Ptah. (45) There is no reason to think that he would have hesitated to reuse early concepts as easily as he apparently reused materials. Khaemwaset revived some Old Kingdom religious practices, (46) especially the cults of the early kings. (47) Certainly, he may have advised his father concerning the temple at Abu Simbel. If the methods of accessing the sky described in the Pyramid Texts do in fact allude to actual magical methods used by the earlier kings (that is, some spells specifically allude to physical elements in individual earlier tombs), then perhaps Khaemwaset suggested Khufu's Shu-assisted method for his father's temple. The illumination of his own statue seated among the gods, then, would enable Ramses to achieve deification using Khufu's Prt season sunlight.

It is also worth remembering here that Akhenaten's god was sunlight. (48) At one point, Akhenaten may have been inspired by the already existing idea of sacred sunlight during Prt season, as his "New Solar Theology" focused on the sun as the creator of light and time. (49) Ronald Wells has shown that the small sun temple (Hwt-itn) adjacent to the private royal apartments of the palace at Akhet-Aten was oriented to the point of sunrise that marked both the beginning and end of Prt season. (50) As his ideas evolved, however, it seems that Akhenaten may have wanted to remove (or separate?) the divine from the natural principle. (51)

At Abu Simbel, in addition to the deification of Ramses, it may be that there was also a secondary goal, a deliberate attempt to reverse Akhenaten's view. Timing the solar illumination of Ramses' statue with the onset and end of Prt season would then have had a dual purpose: to deify Ramses and to help emphasize once again the sacredness of the sunlight of Prt season. In addition, the orientation of the small temple to the heliacal rise of the star Fomalhaut, whose 120-day period of work coincided with Prt, would have helped to renew the importance of the decan star cult. Based on the evidence from their tombs, the decan cult was extremely significant to the pharaohs Seti I, Ramesses II, and their immediate successors.