Ancient Egyptian temple reveals undiscovered star constellations
The restoration of a soot-filled ancient Egyptian temple has revealed the previously unknown names of ancient Egyptian constellations, according to experts in Germany and Egypt.
The restoration has also uncovered the gorgeous original colors the ancient Egyptians painted the 2,000-year-old temple.
As workers in Egypt remove soot and dirt from the temple, sometimes with a mixture of alcohol and distilled water, the original painted carvings and hieroglyphics beneath are so vibrant, “it looks like it was painted yesterday,” project leader Christian Leitz, a professor of Egyptology at the University of Tübingen in Germany, told Live Science. “But we are not repainting anything, we are just removing the soot.”
During the restoration, researchers cleaned ancient carved scenes depicting the constellations, including the Big Dipper (known as Mesekhtiu) and Orion (known as Sah). They also found inscriptions about previously unknown constellations, including one called “Apedu n Ra,” or “the geese of Ra,” who is the ancient Egyptian sun deity, Leitz said.
However, without an image to accompany these descriptions, there’s no way to know which stars in the night sky they describe, he said.
Sanctuary to storage warehouse
The first modern description of the Greco-Roman temple, known as the Temple of Esna, dates to 1589, when a Venetian trader visited Egypt and described it, according to the UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology. The town of Esna, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of the ancient capital of Luxor, used to have more temples, but two were quarried during the industrialization of Egypt, while the largest one — the Temple of Esna — was used to store cotton during the first half of the 19th century, Leitz said.
This sanctuary-turned-storage facility was likely valued for its location in the city center. People began building houses and shacks directly against some of its walls, and postcards from the 19th and 20th centuries show it surrounded by rubble. Decades of neglect left the temple filthy, covered in soot and bird droppings.
Today, only the vestibule is left. The large sandstone structure is supported by 24 columns and also has 18 free-standing columns decorated with painted carvings of plants. It stands about 120 feet long, 65 feet wide and 50 feet high (37 by 20 by 15 meters). But it would have been dwarfed by the actual temple, built under Roman Emperor Claudius (ruled A.D. 41-54). It’s a mystery what happened to this part of the temple; it was already gone by the time the Venetian trader described it in the 16th century.
The temple’s construction and decoration, which includes astronomical designs on the ceiling, likely took 200 years, Leitz said.
During the latest restoration, researchers discovered new inscriptions, including those of the unknown constellations. Leitz noted that when the ancient Egyptians decorated the temple, they would first draw a design in black ink, then have an artisan carve the relief and then have a painter paint the relief.
On the astronomical ceiling, many of the inscriptions were drawn in ink, but not carved or painted.
“They were previously undetected under the soot and are now being exposed piece by piece,” Leitz said.
The project, which began in 2018, is a collaboration between the Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies (IANES) at the University of Tübingen and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
“Ancient Egyptian Temple” Do we really consider something 2,000 years old to be ancient? The New Testament of the Holy Bible begins about 2000 years ago. The record of human beings referred to in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible begins, some scholars conclude, about 10,000 years ago. And archeologists date the beginning of Stone Henge to maybe 4,000 years ago.
But thank you, Laura Geggel, for bringing our attention to something,, which cannot be questioned that is clearly related to the Egyptian astronomy of only 2,000 years ago.
And for inserting a photograph of the Temple as taken from the East. For there is no question that Stone Henge faces East as this Temple does. And this Temple had columns, just as Stonehenge has standing stones which face east. Now, the strange thing is that I read that recent archeologists still question what a purpose of Stone Henge was.
I will not go into details but I will point out the observed fact that the Sun, Moon, and Stars all rise in an easterly direction.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
Here is a detail I had not noticed when I composed my previous comment. For the eastern front of the Temple clearly does not appear to be symmetrical. The solid right side appears to be clearly broader than that of the left. I have tried to reconcile this with the possibility that the camera was not positioned perfect in front of the temple’s center as definite by the columns. But I cannot to my satisfaction. What do you conclude?
Have a good day, Jerry
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
And now, that I take another look at the photo, I see the spacing between the right and left columns does appear to be the same. Am I seeing an optical illusion?
Have a good day, Jerry
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Jerry Krause
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And I see that I omitted the word–NOT–as I too commonly do. By looking at the photo I believe one can see where this omitted word belongs.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
I am not purposefully doing this. Now, from what I more carefully and completely read I see the reason that I am confused. For my confusion does not seem entirely my fault.
For I read: “while the largest one — the Temple of Esna — was used to store cotton during the first half of the 19th century, Leitz said.” Then I read: “Today, only the vestibule is left. The large sandstone structure is supported by 24 columns and also has 18 free-standing columns decorated with painted carvings of plants. It stands about 120 feet long, 65 feet wide and 50 feet high (37 by 20 by 15 meters). But it would have been dwarfed by the actual temple, built under Roman Emperor Claudius (ruled A.D. 41-54). It’s a mystery what happened to this part of the temple; it was already gone by the time the Venetian trader described it in the 16th century.”
Now, before I submit this comment, I ponder a little more and conclude that I absolutely do not know what “This 2019 photo shows the temple of Esna from the east. (Image credit: Ahmed Amin)” is of. But my bottom line is that the photo could be of the vestibule???? And I believe that this temple actually existed and is, despite the confusion, critically important as to the actual astronomy practice by ‘Ancient’ people in Egypt and the British Isles even another 2,000 years earlier. These ancient peoples were no dummies. And I believe the Egyptian temple was built with slave labor and that Stone Henge was NOT.
Have a good day, Jerry
Have a good day, Jerry
Andy Rowlands
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I see the same slight differences between the two sides of the bulding, perhaps it is an optical illusuion produced by the camera, but it could also be because when it was built the methods of construction were nowhere near as precise as ours. If you look at a plan of the Temple of Karnak, much of it is on slightly different alignments.
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Binra
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Are you at all aware of what may loosely be called a Plasma or electric paradigm that as plasma Cosmology, opens a new light on most everything?
There is no concretised structure for such a recognition, but a growing association and integration of parts that more coherently reflects our appreciation of life as our physical experience of Universe – and of the development of such a mind or modelling through experience that gave us the basis of language – and so we had none to depict actual experience but symbolic significances that have set ‘mythological’ archetypes that are no less uncoverable architecture than old temple ‘art’ as we interpret it through our current lens.
Some aspects are indicated in the Thunderbolts project.
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Zoe Phin
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I really like the youtube channels:
“Mystery History” and “Mystery History II”.
For stuff like this. So awesome!
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
This comment is about the importance of star constellations.
Kurt Sternlog wrote an article 1/10/2000 in the Columbia University News. The article was titled: ‘Science And Folklore Converge in Andean Weather Forecasts Based On The Stars’.
Kurt began: “Toward the end of every June, indigenous farmers in the high Andes of Bolivia and Peru look to the stars for a hint of what the weather holds six months down the road. If the 11-star constellation known as the Pleiades appears bright and clear in the predawn sky, they anticipate early, abundant rains and a bountiful potato crop. If the stars appear dim, however, they expect a smaller harvest and delay planting in order to reduce the adverse impact of late and meager precipitation.
“In a paper published in the Jan 6 issue of ‘Nature’, a team of scientists from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory examine this centuries-old practice to reveal the science behind the folklore. Not only does the technique work reasonably well, it turns out that the farmers have in effect been forecasting El Nino for at least 400 years, a capability modern science achieved less than 20 years ago.”
I guess I have missed reading that modern science is able to predict El Nino events six months before they become an observed fact.
Now the article has a telescopic image of the Pleiades, which the caption states is also called the ‘Seven Sisters’. Now Kurt wrote that 11-stars formed the constellation and the Seven Sisters suggests it is a 7-star constellation and from the image I have to conclude it is a 5-star constellation because there are only 5 stars which have the almost same large magnitude. Now, we (I) cannot forget the image is not a naked-eye image. So I can image how these farmers could see 7 stars, or even 11 stars, with lesser and lesser magnitudes when the sky was the ‘clearest’.
Now, I have had a personal experience which allows me to understand that it has to be high cirrus clouds which ‘dim’ the stars of lesser magnitude so they can no longer be seen with the naked-eye. My experience was I had designed an apparatus to measure the amount of water that could be naturally frozen during a Minnesota night when the air temperature fell below the melting temperature of water as usually happened when there were not discernible cloud. Which I concluded must be when I could see stars. For two nights the air temperature remains nearly a constant 32F. So after mid-night I gave up, put away my apparatus, and when home to sleep.
The local airport was only a few miles away and it happened one of my student was a night-time weather observer. Clearly this was before automated weather systems. So I was consulting with her and learned that she had been observing a 10% overcast. And I never learned exactly how she was doing this. But the second night she observed at about 4am that this 10% overcast disappeared and the air temperature began to steadily decrease until after sunrise. And this was before 2000 so I knew what the influence of a 10% overcast (thin high cirrus) could be relative to the nighttime air temperature near the surface. The constellation known as the Big Dipper has a star, or two, of significantly lower magnitude. So I can imagine that if a weather observer in northern Minnesota could not see the stars of lowest magnitude, they had been trained to report a 10% overcast.
I could go on but if any reader cannot see the practical importance of constellations, I doubt if more could help them see the purpose of this comment.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
This posting is fundamentally important to an understanding of the world’s weather and climate. But as I view the comment I last composed, I see that one might fail to understand the weather and climate of the Andes potato farmers. I can see that one, based upon what I wrote, might consider that the late occurring and minimum precipitation was the ‘normal’ and that the early and sufficient precipitation was a ‘rarity’ For to know that the opposite was the case requires certain BACKGROUND information not commonly known by anyone not commonly informed about the anomalous climate (common weather) of this specific part of this southern hemisphere’s tropical region.
For along the coast of South America where Peru and Chile meet, there is cold desert because of a near perpetual overcast which severely limits the solar radiation needed to warm the ocean’s and ground’s surfaces. However, where this overcast cloud layer meets the uplifted ground of the Andes, the mist of the overcast soaks the sloped mountain sides. And above this overcast cloud layer the weather at the high elevation of the potato farmers land, the weather is normal for such a high tropical elevation during its summer season as solar radiation warms the soil and abundant (sufficient) for good yields regularly occur.
During an El Nino event the overcast cloud layer disappears and the cold desert is warmed by solar radiation and receives abundant precipitation that is commonly observed elsewhere at such a tropical location. And this anomalous ‘typical’ weather of a lowland tropical region only exists for a summer season or two. For many years it was thought that this unique anomaly only existed along this limited region of the west coast of South America. But as modern technology allowed the observation of weather at other parts of the world to become known, it became obvious that anomalous weather was being observed everywhere. And that the occurrence of this anomalous weather (an El Nino event) was not cyclic and therefore not predictable. Except for the fact that the Andes potato farmers had been able to generally predict, for about four centuries, its occurrence six months in advance of its actual observation by observing the Pleiades constellation.
I have capitalized BACKGROUND because it seems to have become a word which I had commonly read several decades ago. For it was a common beginning of scientific articles reporting new observations and/or possible new scientific understanding based upon these new observations.
John O’Sullivan, one of the founders of PSI and the longtime editor of PSI, considers the purpose of PSI is to bring new scientific information to readers who do not have a BACKGROUND in the topics of science but do have an interest in learning about the knowledge of scientists
And that has been my objective as I have written essays and comments.
Have a good a day, Jerry
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