Volume 1

A history of the pharaohs ... / by Arthur Weigall.

  • Arthur Weigall
Date:
[1925-]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of the pharaohs ... / by Arthur Weigall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    do in a.d. 139, when it corresponded to July 17th, a time of year at which the Nile is rapidly rising; and the same thing happened in 1317 b.c., when the time of year was July 6th, at which period the rise is just becoming rapid. Previous to that, risings of Sothis are mentioned, of course, but the corresponding date given for them by the calendar reckoning has no connection with any recognized cycle. In other words, the Sothic rising had nothing whatso¬ ever to do with the New Year’s Day of the calendar, and there is nothing definitely to show when the first observation of Sirius was made. 4241 b.c., or, as it ought to be, 4355 b.c., is the beginning of a cycle, in the sense that it is the date at which the rising of Sirius, then on June 10th, would have corresponded to the 1st day of the 1st month of the calendar year had a calendar been in existence at that time; but, as I shall show, the calendar was not in existence then, and the date thus means absolutely nothing historically. All that we can say is that at some unknown period of the old kingdom the astronomers made the discovery that the rising of Sirius was a good fixed point by which to regulate the year. They realized that the calendar was continually dropping behind the actual solar and Nile year, owing to the loss of one day in every four years; and hence they began to celebrate the rising of Sirius as a New Year’s Day, no matter with what date in the official calendar it happened to coincide. They came to speak of Sothis in such terms as “ Lord of the beginning of the year, who causes the Nile to rise in her season ” (Philae), and so on. They were dealing with two systems of reckoning, the Sothic year and the calendar year; and they certainly noted the date in the calendar year on which the Sothic year happened to begin, but at what date they began to do so is not known, though I think I may now offer a plausible suggestion. I have already stated that the calendar was probably instituted about 3400 b.c., when its New Year’s Day would coincide with October 20th-2ist, immediately after the highest Nile; and I have said that very possibly the festival anciently called “ the Night of the Drop,” and still called “ Lelat el- Nukta,” which has the same meaning, at present celebrated on June I7th-i8th, gives us a point for the beginning of
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