The Akkadian and Egyptian Empires

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The Akkadian and Egyptian Empires
2350-2150 BC
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The Later Egyptian Empire
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Order and Chaos

• What are the sources for order and chaos?
• Creation, destruction and regeneration myths.
• Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Jews had things in
  common (a) Rivers that flooded,
• (b) Deserts,
• (c) Weather
• (d) Similar latitude.

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Celestial Sphere View from 35 º North

• Stars rise in the east and set in the west.

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Circumpolar Stars

• These stars never set (within a cone defined by
  the latitude angle, e.g. 35 º North).
• They appear to orbit the pole star.

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Terms

• Cosmology The science of the origin and
  development of the universe.
• Cosmogony The origin of the Universe within a
  worldview.

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Egyptian Civilization

• Consistency and Continuity Harmony
• Personify and Visualize forces of change
• Osiris god of regeneration
• Apophis mythical creature (snake-like) of
  destruction
• Maat - goddess of order
• Isfet - god of disorder, chaos

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Egyptian Ritual

• The priestly rituals in the temples were to
  ensure the maintenance of Maat (Order) and keep
  Isfet (Disorder) at bay.
• Apparent success sustained the complex, but
  logical, belief system.
• Long-term order exists Maat seems to
  ultimately win or get the upper hand.

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More Egyptian Deities

• Atum demiurge, creator of the first gods
• Ra god of the Sun
• Nut goddess of the sky
• Shu god of the air
• Tefnut goddess of moisture
• Ptah (or Geb) god of the Earth
• Thoh god of record keeping, calculation,
  calendars

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Genesis The Biblical Story

• Despite similarities between Genesis stories and
  those of the neighboring religions of Babylon and
  Egypt, there are significant differences.
• Creation ex nihilo - or creation out of nothing
  the Demiurge (developed further by Greeks)
  formed the world out of pre-existent matter.
• Monotheistic!

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Babylonian, Egyptian and Ancient Jewish view of
the World

• The world was formed out of water.
• The world was formless and empty, darkness was
  over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of
  God was hovering over the waters. Genesis
  1v2
• World in flat layers Sky, Earth and the
  Underworld.
• Four corners of the Earth held up the Sky

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Ras Voyages

• Ras daily (and nightly) journey
• Mythology linked to
• Astronomical observations
• 36 Gates or portals, and their Decans
• The 36 gates become 24 hours

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Science in Egypt

• Zodiacal Signs form the inner ring. The planets
  are depicted amongst them, as gods holding
  staffs.
• Around the outside (adjacent to the hands of the
  supporting goddesses) are the 36 decans.

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Solar Terms

• Solstice (sun - sol make stand) occurs twice
  a year when the sun reaches the highest and
  lowest points in the sky at noon, resulting in
  the longest and shortest day. (hence summer and
  winter solstice)
• Equinox (equal nights) occurs when days and
  nights are of equal duration (12 hours). 22 Sept
  and 20 March

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Lunar and Solar Calendars.

• Ras annual birth at the Winter Solstice
• Early year was 360 days long
• Later editions had 365 days, the extra 5 days
  have an elaborate mythical birth story.
• Lunar Month has 29.5 days between new moons. 12
  months 354 days ? 1 year
• Devised formulae to link the two.

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Moon Sun Apparent Link

• 235 synodic (each of 29.5 days) months is almost
  exactly equal to 19 years (with an error of only
  two hours.)
• This coincidence, together with the apparent
  similarity in the size of the sun and moon,
  serves to create the illusion that there is some
  fundamental connection between their motions.

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The Zodiac and the Ecliptic
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Flooding of the Nile

• Nile Flooded when sun rose near the star Sirius
  (the Dog star, in the Canis Major
  constellation, is the brightest star in the sky).
• Monitoring this sighting crucial for planting
  season.
• Leap years introduced.
• Eventually formalised in the Julian Calendar ,
  46 BC.

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Gregorian Calendar (1582 AD)

• Introduced by Pope Gregory XIII
• The precession of the equinoxes (due to earths
  wobble on its axis) results in seasons drifting
  over 26,000 year cycle.
• Gregorian Calendar maintains the seasons in the
  proper months of the year

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Gregorian Calendar

• 1 extra day in every 4 years (leap year) is too
  much!
• Leap year at the close of the century omitted,
  unless year a multiple of 400!
• i.e 1600, 2000 leap years
• 1700, 1800, 1900 not leap years

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7 Wanderers 7 Day Week

• Wanderers in the Zodiac
• Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and
  Jupiter
• (Latinised names)
• (Now reflect on the 7 days of Genesis)

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Gods in the Sky