DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12654#0075
Sect. IV.]
BY MONUMENTAL EVIDENCE.
47
respecting which the learned have been at variance
from the times of the Greeks and Romans to the pre-
sent day, is at length identified, and that the period ol
its appearance is ascertained, so that it can be no longer
said that the most interesting of the Egyptian cycles
is only explained by conjecture. Its importance to
chronology and history is very great : from it we
find who was the Sesostris of the Phoenix, and obtain
another date, besides that of the commencement of
the Tropical Cycle, in the remote age of the Twelfth
Dynasty.
It would be interesting could we ascertain what is
the star with the manifestation of which the Phoenix
Cycles commenced; but it is to be feared that this can-
not as yet be satisfactorily ascertained. I speak of the
manifestation of the star for brevity's sake in this
place, meaning, as must be evident from what I have
already said, either the manifestation or the celebration
of that phenomenon. When I first published on
Egyptian chronology, I concluded that the commence-
ment of the Phoenix Cycle was marked by " the rising
of a Aqiiilae at the time of the first clear indi-
cation of the morning-light on th(? first day of the
vague Thoth." I was, however, in errour as to the time
before sunrise at which a Aquiloe rose at the commence-
ment of the first Phoenix Cycle; for one of the calcu-
lations made for me at the Royal Observatory, through
Mr. Airy's kindness, and verified by him, gives the
rising of a Aquilse on January 2nd, B.C. 1985, as two
hours, seventeen minutes, forty-five seconds, before the
sun, at Thebes. This calculation was made for the first
date that I assigned to the commencement of the first
Phoenix Cycle. I now have ascertained the date to
be one year earlier; but the difference in this case is
BY MONUMENTAL EVIDENCE.
47
respecting which the learned have been at variance
from the times of the Greeks and Romans to the pre-
sent day, is at length identified, and that the period ol
its appearance is ascertained, so that it can be no longer
said that the most interesting of the Egyptian cycles
is only explained by conjecture. Its importance to
chronology and history is very great : from it we
find who was the Sesostris of the Phoenix, and obtain
another date, besides that of the commencement of
the Tropical Cycle, in the remote age of the Twelfth
Dynasty.
It would be interesting could we ascertain what is
the star with the manifestation of which the Phoenix
Cycles commenced; but it is to be feared that this can-
not as yet be satisfactorily ascertained. I speak of the
manifestation of the star for brevity's sake in this
place, meaning, as must be evident from what I have
already said, either the manifestation or the celebration
of that phenomenon. When I first published on
Egyptian chronology, I concluded that the commence-
ment of the Phoenix Cycle was marked by " the rising
of a Aqiiilae at the time of the first clear indi-
cation of the morning-light on th(? first day of the
vague Thoth." I was, however, in errour as to the time
before sunrise at which a Aquiloe rose at the commence-
ment of the first Phoenix Cycle; for one of the calcu-
lations made for me at the Royal Observatory, through
Mr. Airy's kindness, and verified by him, gives the
rising of a Aquilse on January 2nd, B.C. 1985, as two
hours, seventeen minutes, forty-five seconds, before the
sun, at Thebes. This calculation was made for the first
date that I assigned to the commencement of the first
Phoenix Cycle. I now have ascertained the date to
be one year earlier; but the difference in this case is