Star Maps: A Guide to Religious Astronomy in Ancient Egypt
Astronomy in Egypt served the needs of its magical religion. This is the reason its tombs and temples abound in astronomical monuments and observable alignments. The earliest written text in the sacred Egyptian language, is actually a major rite to the star goddess Nwt or Nut, which was referenced and used ever after and still forms part of our contemporary religious liturgy. She is also one of their principle gods of time and space.
Thus for Egypt we can say, in terms of astronomy there are three major periods of development.
The earliest accessible to us in texts starts from the 9th dynasty, which is about 2150bce. This is after the great pyramid age, only because there are very few surviving astronomical texts from then, but we can assume there would have been same. There may be little textual information but there is archaeology and the decoding of the famous monuments. There is also the prehistoric or pre dynastic of which a surprising amount of archaeology survives.
The second age is is found in the famous Ramesside monuments, such as the Osireion and the tombs.
The third is the Ptolemaic period when foreign influence become dominant, the introduction of the famous zodiac we all know and love, and the final assimilation of Egyptian concepts into the mix. Also time when Nubian kings ruled egypt for several centuries and may have reformed the whole system on mystical lines, with decanal rites and mystery cults.
All of this and more is presented here by one of the leading researchers on ancient technology and natural religion.
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