DOI Artikel:
Griffith, Francis Ll.: Progress of Egyptology: archaeology, hieroglyphic studies, etc
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12055#0055
Archaeology, Hieroglyphic Studies, Etc.
43
the garrison of Elephantine that would escape in that direction. A revised
copy of the inscription of Eshor is given. Beitrage z. alt. Qesch. iv. 152.
Chronology.
Pro!'. Ed. Meyer has written a treatise of over 200 pages on Egyptian
Chronology (Aegjiptisehe Clironologie in the Abhandlungen of the Berlin
Academy). He deals at great length with the calendars. The heliacal
rising of Sothis varies one day with each degree of latitude ; there is thus
a variation of seven days between Alexandria and Syene. In the latitude
of Memphis and Heliopolis it fell on July 19th in the Julian calendar,
from the earliest historic times to shortly before the Christian era; and
this date is shown to have been the normal day for late times and there-
fore for early times also. The fixed year supposed by some to have
existed in practical use by the side of the Sothic year is very doubtful.
The Egyptian calendar must have been established originally at a time
when the seasonal names of the months fitted their actual positions in the
seasons of the year, and it would likewise have taken place at the begin-
ning of a Sothic period.
But the heliacal rising of Sothis is not a perfectly fixed point in the
seasons of the year. A Sothic period began in 2781 b.c., when the Julian
19th July fell on the Gregorian 26th June, some time after the beginning
of the Nile rise. On the previous occasion, in 4241 b.c., the Julian 19th
July fell on the Gregorian loth June, only three days before the present
festival of the Night of the Drop which fecundates the Nile. The conclusion
is that 4241 b.c. is the date of the establishment of the Egyptian calendar.
This fixed point having been attained, the calendar of the Ebers
Papyrus (temp. Amenhotep I) with its strange error (?) is discussed, the
Sothic date of Elephantine (Thutmosis III) and the Sothic date of
Kahun (Sesostris III). The last seems to crowd the kings of Dynasties
XIII—XVII into 210 years. (It is important that an authoritative
historian like Prof. Meyer should agree to this crowding.) A detailed
discussion of dynasties and kings occupies the rest of the book.
In A, Z. xli. 93 the same writer corrects an error into which lie had
fallen in translating the Julian date into a Gregorian date for the Nile
flood under Shabatok.
Beix endeavours to show that it is not reasonable as yet to fix the
Kahun Sothis date more closely than about 1875 b.c., witli an allowance
for error of ten or twenty years on either side. A. Z. xli. 20. Two
articles, by Borchardt (ib. 34) and Brix (ib. 36), indicate that the dates
43
the garrison of Elephantine that would escape in that direction. A revised
copy of the inscription of Eshor is given. Beitrage z. alt. Qesch. iv. 152.
Chronology.
Pro!'. Ed. Meyer has written a treatise of over 200 pages on Egyptian
Chronology (Aegjiptisehe Clironologie in the Abhandlungen of the Berlin
Academy). He deals at great length with the calendars. The heliacal
rising of Sothis varies one day with each degree of latitude ; there is thus
a variation of seven days between Alexandria and Syene. In the latitude
of Memphis and Heliopolis it fell on July 19th in the Julian calendar,
from the earliest historic times to shortly before the Christian era; and
this date is shown to have been the normal day for late times and there-
fore for early times also. The fixed year supposed by some to have
existed in practical use by the side of the Sothic year is very doubtful.
The Egyptian calendar must have been established originally at a time
when the seasonal names of the months fitted their actual positions in the
seasons of the year, and it would likewise have taken place at the begin-
ning of a Sothic period.
But the heliacal rising of Sothis is not a perfectly fixed point in the
seasons of the year. A Sothic period began in 2781 b.c., when the Julian
19th July fell on the Gregorian 26th June, some time after the beginning
of the Nile rise. On the previous occasion, in 4241 b.c., the Julian 19th
July fell on the Gregorian loth June, only three days before the present
festival of the Night of the Drop which fecundates the Nile. The conclusion
is that 4241 b.c. is the date of the establishment of the Egyptian calendar.
This fixed point having been attained, the calendar of the Ebers
Papyrus (temp. Amenhotep I) with its strange error (?) is discussed, the
Sothic date of Elephantine (Thutmosis III) and the Sothic date of
Kahun (Sesostris III). The last seems to crowd the kings of Dynasties
XIII—XVII into 210 years. (It is important that an authoritative
historian like Prof. Meyer should agree to this crowding.) A detailed
discussion of dynasties and kings occupies the rest of the book.
In A, Z. xli. 93 the same writer corrects an error into which lie had
fallen in translating the Julian date into a Gregorian date for the Nile
flood under Shabatok.
Beix endeavours to show that it is not reasonable as yet to fix the
Kahun Sothis date more closely than about 1875 b.c., witli an allowance
for error of ten or twenty years on either side. A. Z. xli. 20. Two
articles, by Borchardt (ib. 34) and Brix (ib. 36), indicate that the dates