mysteries of egyptian zodiacs - HiddenMysteries Information Central

Figure 2.9: Photograph of a fragment of the Long Denderah
zodiac. (Taken from [10], page 37)
them. Several famous mathematicians and astronomers of the
19th century, such as Ch. Dupuis, P. Laplace, J. Fourier, A.
Letronne, K. Helm, J. Biot, etc., attempted to decode the
horoscopes shown in these zodiacs and tried to date them astronomically.
They made calculations for the possible dates
from very ancient times to the year 300 A.D. but could not
find any satisfactory solution. In spite of the fact that the
horoscopes had all the attributes of a genuine astronomical
picture, they stopped the calculations and reluctantly made a
conclusion that these two horoscopes are not depicting a real
astronomical data from any time and are the product of pure
fantasy. This was a gross mistake, because in fact, if they
had continued their efforts they would have obtained some
satisfactory solutions for both zodiacs. In fact several reasonable
solutions were found in the 20th century by N.A. Morozov
2 , N.S. Kellin and D.V. Denisenko 3 , and T.N. Fomenko 4 .
Strangely, all these solutions refer to the medieval dates which
were not earlier than sixth century A.D. We will argue that
there is more astronomical information contained in the Denderah
zodiacs which was not recognized by the previous investigators.
With the use of the full astronomical information
the solution turns out to be unique (see Chapter 7).
One can ask the question, ‘what was the reason for these
astronomers to halt all further computations after reaching
the year 300 A.D.?” This is an interesting story. The first
Egyptologist who analyzed the archaeological site of the temple,
dated its approximate construction to be 15 000 B.C.
However, later, during the eighteenth century this date was
changed to 3 000 B.C. and finally to the first century A.D.
In such circumstances the astronomers did not see the reason
to look for the date after third century A.D. As we have
already mentioned, at that time, when everything had to be
done by hand, these calculations were extremely long and tedious.
We must say that the dating of the Denderah temple
was a questionable process from its beginning to the end. An
2 See [4], Vol. 6, p.655-672.
3 See [15].
4 See [1].
2.1 Egyptian Zodiacs 35
inscription inside the temple indicated that this temple was
built by the famous pharaoh Khufu himself from the 6th dynasty
(according to Egyptologists, he reigned around the year
3000 B.C.), who was the same pharaoh who constructed the
great pyramid. However, from the style of the sculptures and
some inscriptions in the temple it was clear that this temple
could not have been built before the time of Sulla or Julius
Caesar. If we believe Scaliger’s chronology of ancient Egypt,
these two sets of evidence contradict each other — the difference
between them of about 3,000 years. Without revising
the chronology, Egyptologists assumed that all the Egyptian
temples which were built and decorated by Romans in the beginning
of the Christian era, were constructed on the sites of
more ancient Egyptian temples. They suggested that Romans
copied with great care, but without understanding, some of
the old inscriptions they had found on the walls of the remains
of the ancient temples. This was the only way that allowed
them to explain these contradictions without modifying the
whole ancient Egyptian chronology. Of course discovering the
horoscopes was a crucial shift to solve this controversy. That’s
why there were so many attempts made to find an astronomical
solution that could be acceptable to Egyptologists. The
fact that two different but clear horoscopes were found in the
same temple was extremely promising for determining their
correct astronomical solutions. In the case a decoding mistake
was made, or if these two horoscopes were simply the products
of sculptor’s fantasy, the probability of finding two close
one to another astronomical solutions, in a reasonable historical
time interval, is practically zero. Unfortunately, the whole
excitement and fascination with ancient Egyptian horoscopes
was slowly forgotten and the opinion that there was no real
astronomical meaning hidden in these horoscopes prevailed
among historians and all the other attempts to date these
horoscopes were abandoned.
A recent picture showing the entrance to the famous Denderah
temple is shown on Figure 2.11.
A recently taken photograph of the full view of the Denderah
temple is shown on Figure 2.12.
Another example of an Egyptian zodiac, which was
painted on the interior of the cover of a wooden sarcophagus,
is presented on Figure 2.13. It was discovered during one
of his expeditions to Egypt, by famous 19th century German
Egyptologist Henry Brugsch. The picture shown on Figure
2.13 comes form his published work [14].
On this zodiac the figure of the “Goddess Nut” is in the
center of the picture and the zodiac constellations, which are
again very easy to identify, are painted on her both sides. On
the left, under her arm, we see the symbols of Cancer, Leo,
Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius, and symmetrically on
the right, are placed the symbols of Capricorn (with head
painted in black), Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus (painted
black) and Gemini. The order of these constellations is correct,
exactly like it appears on the real sky. Brugsch noticed
some ancient Demotic writings near the constellation symbols
on the left. He translated all of them and found out that they