DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4372#0227
211
of Leo ascertained the position of the sun at the time of the
summer solstice: but Visconti rejects this supposition, on the
ground that Libra, which, he says, must be the symbol of the
equinox, would in that case be misplaced, there being only one sign
between it and Leo. He then concludes that this solstice must
have been in the sign preceding Leo, i. e. in Cancer; and he re-
marks, as a proof of this opinion, that in the zodiacal line between
Gemini and Leo, there is the figure of Isis in a boat pouring
water from two jars, emblematical of the inundation of the Nile,
a phenomenon always cotemporary with the beginning of the
summer.
He then makes some other observations on the points of resem-
blance between this zodiac and those of the Greeks, all tending
to prove a communication of the elements of astronomy between
the two nations before the period of this monument, and that
we ought not to attribute to it an antiquity equal to the earlier
periods of this science even among the Greeks.
He is inclined to believe that it was erected during that period
when the Thoth Vague, or the beginning of the vague Egyptian
year, which Avas likewise the sacerdotal year, corresponded to the
sign of Leo; which was the case between the twelfth and hun-
dred and thirty-second years of the Christian rera. But Sign or
Visconti withholds his final opinion on the subject until the in-
scription on the cornice shall be deciphered.
I have given this abstract of Visconti's opinion on this subject
with peculiar pleasure, as it is the very same which I had formed
upon the spot, on the inspection of the original monument, and
with the advantage of the two very desiderata which he has so
intuitively pointed out as still wanting for the final decision of
this question. The one is the inscription I have given, in which
the reign of Tiberius is fixed, as the period to which may be as
2e 2
signed
of Leo ascertained the position of the sun at the time of the
summer solstice: but Visconti rejects this supposition, on the
ground that Libra, which, he says, must be the symbol of the
equinox, would in that case be misplaced, there being only one sign
between it and Leo. He then concludes that this solstice must
have been in the sign preceding Leo, i. e. in Cancer; and he re-
marks, as a proof of this opinion, that in the zodiacal line between
Gemini and Leo, there is the figure of Isis in a boat pouring
water from two jars, emblematical of the inundation of the Nile,
a phenomenon always cotemporary with the beginning of the
summer.
He then makes some other observations on the points of resem-
blance between this zodiac and those of the Greeks, all tending
to prove a communication of the elements of astronomy between
the two nations before the period of this monument, and that
we ought not to attribute to it an antiquity equal to the earlier
periods of this science even among the Greeks.
He is inclined to believe that it was erected during that period
when the Thoth Vague, or the beginning of the vague Egyptian
year, which Avas likewise the sacerdotal year, corresponded to the
sign of Leo; which was the case between the twelfth and hun-
dred and thirty-second years of the Christian rera. But Sign or
Visconti withholds his final opinion on the subject until the in-
scription on the cornice shall be deciphered.
I have given this abstract of Visconti's opinion on this subject
with peculiar pleasure, as it is the very same which I had formed
upon the spot, on the inspection of the original monument, and
with the advantage of the two very desiderata which he has so
intuitively pointed out as still wanting for the final decision of
this question. The one is the inscription I have given, in which
the reign of Tiberius is fixed, as the period to which may be as
2e 2
signed