The Circumpolar Constellations in Ancient Egypt

When Andrew Collins asked me to do a critical appendix to his theory that there is a correlation between the constellation of Cygnus and Giza as proposed in his most recent book 'The Cygnus Mystery', I naturally hesitated. This article is to address Andrew's 'full response' released at his own website, and following recent and ongoing discussions between our goodselves over at the Graham Hancock Mysteries Message Board. Readers may recall that I am the instigator of The Orion Correlation Theory ('The Orion Mystery', Heinemann 1994) and, therefore, may also feel that my view on any rival theory may be, to say the least, somewhat biased. I have, therefore, ensured as much as I can that bias does not influence my objective appraisal here. I propose to deal with only one issue that, as I see it, is pivotal to Andy's theory. This is the identification of the mythological figure of Anu, a falcon-headed man that is shown in the lower register of the many so-called 'astronomical ceilings' dated from the New Kingdom and the Ptolemaic Period. Andy has rested his whole case on the assumption, derived from G.A. Wainwright (1932) and Zbynek Zaba (1953), that Anu represents the constellation Cygnus. It was a very bold, yet very dangerous position to take; for if Wainwright and Zaba be proved wrong, Andy's theory collapses. Andy is well aware that several experts in the study of ancient Egyptian astronomy have long contradicted this claim, not least the heavyweights of this field Otto Neugebauer and Richard

Parker (1969) and, more recently, Kurt Locher (1985) and Juan A. Belmonte (2003). So who was this mysterious Anu and, more importantly, did the ancient Egyptians identify him to Cygnus? Stellar Destiny As is well-known, there is a patent lack of contemporary inscriptions to be found on the 4th Dynasty pyramids at Giza.[1] In contrast, the last pyramid of the 5th Dynasty and most pyramids of the 6th Dynasty have their inner walls filled with religious texts which, collectively, are known as the Pyramid Texts. Today most Egyptologists, except perhaps the very inflexible, agree that the ideologies expressed Pyramid Texts can be project, albeit with some degree of caution, back to the 4th Dynasty. The main thrust of the Pyramid Texts is the afterlife of the dead king. There are many passages that tell how the king unites with the sun-god Re in the eastern horizon at dawn and, seemingly coming from an earlier doctrine, where we are unequivocally informed that his afterlife destiny is among the stars. Two stellar destinations are mentioned, one in the north and the other in the south:

The northern stars which the dead king is said to join were called Ikhemu-sek, the 'Imperishable', which Egyptologists have long identified to the circumpolar stars. The stars, as seen from latitude of Giza (30° N), are contained inside an imaginary circle having a radius of 30°, with the north celestial pole as its focal point and with its circumference skimming the north horizon. Today the centre of this centre i.e. the north celestial pole, is marked by the bright star Polaris but, in c. 2500 BC when the Giza pyramids were being built, it was

Image 1: Circumpolar region in 2500 BC as seen from Giza.

the star Thuban (Alpha Draconis) that marked this spot. The ancient Egyptians would have noted three distinct constellations within the circumpolar region, namely the Big Dipper (Ursae Major); the Small Dipper (Ursae Minor) and Draco.

The southern group of stars included mainly: The constellation Orion, the stellar form of the god Osiris (and with whom the dead king was identified) and: The constellation Canis Major with its bright star Sirius, the latter identified to Isis, wife of Osiris (PT 632; 802; 820). Image 2 (Left): Orion and Sirius near the south meridian as they would have been seen in 2500 BC from Giza.

Archaeological evidence provided by the four protracted shafts in the Great Pyramid, two of which were aimed at the circumpolar stars in the north, and two others that were aligned towards Orion and Sirius in the south, shows evidence of the stellar destiny of the king.[2]

Image 3: The 'stellar' shafts of the Great Pyramid in c. 2500 BC. As the astronomer E.C. Krupp explained: "The Pyramid Texts describe the ascent of the departed king to the sky. He joins Orion (Osiris), and Sirius is his guide. They continue together as participants in the cosmic cycle. A similar wish is expressed in other texts. The spirits of the dead hoped to join the never-setting, never-dying, circumpolar stars. These two possible transfigurations, in which the dead pharaoh joins Osiris or the Circumpolar stars, may explain the orientation of the so-called 'air shafts' from the King's Chamber in the Great Pyramid. They may be ramps by which the dead king makes his way to heaven." [3] Also the eminent British Egyptologist Sir I.E.S. Edwards wrote that: "The Pyramid Texts frequently allude to the king's association in his afterlife with the stars and, in particular, with the circumpolar stars and with Orion and Sothis (Sirius)... Once every 24 hours the three stars in Orion's belt passed at culmination over the shaft. We learn from the Pyramid Texts that Orion and Sirius occupied almost as important positions in the king's plans for his after-life as the circumpolar stars...The Great Pyramid was unique in making provision for the king to associate himself with both the circumpolar stars and the constellation of Orion and Sirius." [4]

The Great Ennead and other gods in the Pyramid Texts The design of the Giza Pyramids and the composition of the Pyramid Texts were, almost certainly, the product of astronomer-priests based at the holy city of Heliopolis. The pantheon of Heliopolis was the so-called Great Ennead of nine gods often mentioned in the Pyramid Texts: Atum-Re, Tefnet and Shu, Geb and Nut, Osiris and Isis, and Seth and Nephtys. Also linked to the Great Ennead, but not a member of it, was the god Horus, son of Osiris and Isis.

Image 4: (below) The Great Ennead of Heliopolis Other important gods mentioned in the Pyramid Texts are Ptah, Min, Thoth, Sokar and Anubis. Among the many lesser deities mentioned in the Pyramid Texts are Seshat, Wepwawet and Dw-nwy. It is this last, Dw-nwy, that we will now focus on.

Dw-nwy Here is what British Egyptologist Richard H. Wilkinson says about Dw-nwy in the Pyramid Texts: "In the Pyramid Texts Dunanwi Dw-nwy appears in several contexts, including that of the purification ritual in which the god represents the east in accompanying Thoth, Horus and Seth who together personify the four cardinal points (PT 27, etc.). From the end of the Old Kingdom, however, Duwanwi (Dwn'nwy) seems to have been assimilated with the falconiform god Nemty and is known only in that form thereafter." [5] The philologist Raymond O. Faulkner, acclaimed translator of the Pyramid Texts in 1969, also confirms that Dwn-nwy was one of the four gods of the cardinal directions, the other three being Horus, Seth and Thoth. [6] In a similar vein, professor Wolfhart Westendorf, in his entry on (Dw-nwy) in the authoritive Lexikon der Ägyptologie (1975-1986) Writes that (Dw-nwy) "(is) mentioned in the purification ritual in the pyramid texts besides Thoth and in parallel to Horus and Seth, representing the East in this group of four gods" [7] Let us also note that in the Pyramid Texts (Dw-nwy) is mentioned only eight times compared, for example, to the 200 plus times for Osiris. Here are all the relevant passages concerning (Dw-nwy): "Someone has gone with his double, Horus has gone with his double, Seth has gone with his double, Thoth has gone to his double, Dw-nwy has gone with his double..." (PT 17) "Your purification is the purification of Horus. Your purification is the purification of Seth. Your purification is the purification of Thoth. Your purification is the purification of Dwn-nwy..." (PT 27 and 28) "O Dwn-nwy, go and proclaim to the Eastern Souls and their spirits: this king comes indeed, an imperishable spirit. Whom he wishes to live will live; whom he wishes to die will die...." (PT 159) "His messengers go, his couriers run, they bear tidings to Him whose arm is raised in the East of the goings of this one in you, of whom Dwn-nwy says: 'He shall give orders to the fathers of the gods'..." (PT 254) "I am a she-jackal, I am jackal-like, I am Hapy, I am Duamutef, I am Imsety, I am Kebhsenuf, I am Dwn-nwy; I am these great gods who preside over the Lake; I am a

living soul with bearded face..." (PT 1098) "Horus has adorned himself with his szmt-apron, which has travelled over his land completely; Seth has adorned himself with his szmt-apron which has travelled over his land completely; Thoth has adorned himself with his szmt-apron which has travelled over his land completely; Dwn-nwy has adorned himself with his szmt-apron which has travelled over his land completely ..." (PT 1613) "The firmament and the Castle of the God grant [...] wash your face, O Osiris. Your second is Dwn-nwy, your third is Wd-mrwt..." (PT 2237) As far as I can make out there is nothing in the above passages that could associate Dwn-nwy with the circumpolar stars or the northern stars, let alone identifying him to a specific constellation. Dwn-nwy in the Pyramid Texts, and therefore the Pyramid Age, is clearly linked to cardinal east and, in the rebirth rituals, to the 'purification' of the dead king. There are no depictions of Dwn-nwy in the Pyramid Texts but the hieroglyphic ideograms that is generally used to represent him is a falcon perched on a standard: (Gardiner list G7)

Anu, the Falcon-headed Man with the Spear

About 1000 years after the construction of the Giza Pyramids, a very similar deity called Anu, whom some Egyptologists readily identify to Dw-nwy, is depicted on the various astronomical ceilings of royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes. [8] Anu is generally shown as a falcon-headed man with arms outstretched and holding a spear or rod, amongst the circumpolar constellations of the Thigh (Big

Dipper) and the Hippopotamus (Draco). Image 5 (Right): Ramses VII ceiling. Anu is at the bottom centre of the image holding a spear The Big Dipper is depicted as a complete bull.

No one paid much attention to Anu (indeed Egyptologists rarely refer to this figure today [9]) until 1932 when British Egyptologist Gerald A. Wainwright postulated that Anu might represent Cygnus, the constellation of the Swan in Greek mythology [10]. In 1953 the Czech Egyptologist Zbynek Zaba took Wainwright's idea a step further and proposed that the spear/rod held by Anu represented the north meridian in the north sky [11]. Even then, few Egyptologists paid much attention to Zaba's hypothesis with the exception of French Egyptologist Jean-Philippe Lauer who, in 1960, wrote a review on Zaba's article. Anu appears in all of the lower registers (north sky) of the various astronomical ceilings that are found in the tombs of New Kingdom kings (c. 1550 – 1100 BC), including the tomb of Senmut, the latter being the earliest known astronomical ceiling in Egypt. Anu also appears in several 'zodiacs' of the Ptolemaic and Greco-Roman Periods (332 BC to 100 AD).

More astronomical ceiling pictures showing Anu

Images 6: Senmut ceiling (c.1475 BC).

Image 7: Ramses IX ceiling (c.1120 BC)

Image 8: Ramses VII ceiling (c. 1140 BC)

'Horus who fights rebels' (Anu ?)

Image 9: 'Horus who fights

Image 8: 'Horus who fights

rebels' (Anu?) in the Roman Period.

rebels' (Anu?) in the rectangular zodiac of Dendera (c. 51 BC)

In 1964 Otto Neugebauer and Richard Parker, then the supreme authorities on all matter related to ancient Egyptian astronomy, rejected the proposal that Anu represented Cygnus. They argued that Cygnus was not a circumpolar constellation and was too far from the Big Dipper (the Thigh) as that in any case it did not match the position of Anu in the ancient drawings [12].

Image 10: The sky in 1400 BC as seen from Luxor. The figure of Anu (as seen on the astronomical ceilings of the New Kingdom) should be at the bottom centre, thus a long way from Cygnus that is on the far left.

Image 11: The sky in c. 51 BC as as seen from Dendera. The figure of Anu (as seen on rectangular zodiac) should be on the right of the Big Dipper, thus a long way from Cygnus that is on the far left.

In 1985 the Swiss archaeoastronomer Kurt Locher noted than in nearly all the astronomical ceilings the figure of Anu was always at right angles to the so-called 'Mooring Post' often held by the Hippoptamus. According to Locher the 'Mooring Post', called Menit or Menit wert ('Great Mooring Post') in the Pyramid Texts, most probably represented the Small Dipper and also denoted the north celestial pole. In conformity with the position of Anu in the ancient drawings, Locher placed this figure near the Big Dipper within a asterism that was formed by eight stars from Ursa Major and two others from of Draco. [13]

Image 12: From Kurt Locher. Circumpolar stars

Nearly two decades later, in 2003, the Spanish astrophysicist Juan A. Belmonte, a new authority on ancient Egyptian astronomy, undertook a study of the various ancient Egyptian astronomical drawings and the so-called Ramesside Star Clocks. His conclusion was that Anu probably represented a much larger stellar asterism near the Big Dipper made up from several stars of Ursa Major, Leo Minor, Canes Venatici and Lynx.[14]

Image 13: From J. Belmonte.

Moving now to the Ptolemaic Period and the temple of Dendera, there are to be found two 'zodiacs': the rectangular zodiac and the round zodiac (the latter sometimes called the planisphere of Dendera). It is only on the rectangular zodiac that we find a figure that very much resembles Anu, that is a falcon-headed man with arms outstretched and poking a spear at the Thigh (Big Dipper). Although this figure is labelled 'Horus who fights rebels', nonetheless some Egyptologists refer to it as Anu or Dwn-nwy in view of the obvious resemblance. The fact that this figure does not appear on the round zodiac (planisphere) suggests that it may, after all, not be a constellation as such but some sort of rebus for 'Horus who fights rebels'. In 1997 the American scientist Donald V. Etz, writing in the prestigious Journal of the American Research Centre in Egypt, commented on this figure as follows: "A hippo holds a chain attached to a bull-headed leg (or a one-legged bull) which is being stabbed by a falcon headed figure labelled Horus...The bull-headed leg is surrounded by seven stars, suggesting identification with Ursa Major. Assuming that the leg and hippo match the planisphere (round Zodaic) leg and hippo, and are circumpolar, one might expect the falcon-headed figure to be circumpolar or near

circumpolar, even though he is not represented on the planisphere (round zodiac)....[15]

Image 14: 'Horus who fights rebels' (Anu?) in Ptolemaic and Roman Period.

Donald Etz also points out that in the rectangular zodiac (as well as other 'zodiacs' of that same period) the position of 'Horus who fights rebels' is on the right side of the Thigh, such that the sequence is: Hippopotamus (Draco) à Thigh (Big Dipper) à 'Horus who fights rebels' (?). In the actual sky, however, the sequence is Cygnus à Draco à Big Dipper.

The conclusion is inevitable: 'Horus who fights rebels' cannot be Cygnus. Indeed, if this figure was a constellation at all then, as Etz correctly pointed out, it should also have been shown on the round zodiac and placed somewhere to the right of the Thigh. The fact that no such figure exists on the round zodiac

indicates that it may not be an actual constellation but a rebus for 'Horus who fights rebels' and, earlier, for Anu.

Image 15: ‘Horus who fights rebels’ - the figure with the spear - on the Rectangular Zodiac of Dendera

Image 16: The round Zodiac of Dendera

Man on the goose/duck However on the round zodiac, somewhere behind the hippopotamus, is a figure of a man standing above a goose or duck that needs explaining. The position of the goose/duck, as it stands relative to the Hippopotamus (Draco or part of Draco), allows a possible identification with the small constellation of Aquila, the Eagle, a correlation that has been often suggested in the past and, more recently, in 1997 by the French astronomer Eric Aubourg. As for the man stading above the goose/duck, Aubourg proposed that this figure could represent Cygnus and or Lyra. [16] This 'man on goose/duck' is also found in the rectangular, and although here he has a falcon-head, there is little doubt that both figures are the same.

Image 17a: 'Man on goose/duck' on the rectangular zodiac of Dendera

Image 17b: 'Man on goose/duck' on the round zodiac of Dendera

Andy Collins, however, offers another explanation: he argues that 'man on goose/duck' on the round zodiac is 'Horus who fights rebels' in the rectangular zodiac. According to Collins, the ancient astronomer-priests who created the zodiacs were using 'conflicting source maps' which explains why there is no 'Horus who fights rebels' figure on the round zodiac and why the 'man on goose/duck' (he calls this figure 'Mace Man') on the round zodiac was erroneously 'duplicated' on the rectangular zodiac as 'man with falcon-head on goose/duck' as well as 'Horus who fights rebels', and also furthermore placed the latter on the right of the Thigh instead of on the left of the hippopotamus. Collins points out that on the rectangular zodiac 'Horus who fights rebels' (aka Anu/Dwn-nwy?) is bracketed by the zodiacal constellation of Sagittarius and Capricorn, which is also (roughly) the case for 'man on goose/duck' in the round zodiac and which, according to Collins, demonstrates that the ancient astronomer-priests (while presumably at the same time using 'conflicting source maps') really intended that 'man on goose/duck' be the same as 'Horus who fights rebels'. Notwithstanding the mental gymnastics required to follow Collins's argument here, we need only look at the real sky to see that Cygnus is quite a long way from the zodiacal belt and therefore can hardly be said bracketed by Sagittarius and Capricorn.

Image 18: Cygnus (top) and Ecliptic (bottom) showing Capricorn and Sagittarius. Although I concur with Eric Aubourg's conclusions that, on the round zodiac, the 'man on goose/duck' could be Cygnus and/or Lyra, and that the goose/duck could be Aquila, it nonetheless is clear to me, as it must have been to Auboug as well, that that 'man on goose/duck' cannot be the same as 'Horus who fights rebels' on the rectangular zodiac as offered by Andy Collins. Blaming the ancient astronomer-priests in order to make a theory fit is very unconvincing, to say the least.

Conclusion: A theory, of course, must not be judged on the authority of this or that expert. The identification of Anu rest on a proper comparison of the real constellations in the northern sky with that the mythical constellations and figures in the Egyptian astronomical charts. And although we should not regard these charts as exact representations of the real sky, we nonetheless should expect at least an approximate visual representation. Even if we allow a fair leeway of artistic licence for the ancient artirsts, I have to conclude (indeed as did Neugebauer, Parker, Locher, Etz, Belmonte and Maravelia before me) that the spatial position of Anu in the drawings does not match the position of Cygnus in the real sky, not even remotely. To put it in other words, if Anu does represents a constellation in the northern sky, then it cannot be Cygnus. In my view, and considering all the evidence that is available, it is Donald Etz who may have come closest to the truth when he wrote that: "perhaps Anu is not a constellation but a deity with astronomical associations." [17]

References:

Save the very crude so-called workers’ graffiti found in some of the relief chambers of the Great Pyramid. There is also some graffiti on the entrance of the Great Pyramid and also on the north face of the Third Pyramid.

The star-shaft theory is generally well accepted in Egyptology. There are some researchers, however, who insist that these shafts are simply geometrical features in the overall design of the pyramid. This hypothesis was first proposed by John Legon in 1994 who wrote that "....the design of these shafts was determined by considerations of geometry, symmetry, and the desire for a coherent dimensional design, and had nothing to do with the conjectured astronomical alignments." Legon and others like him also point out that the northern shafts are not straight but deviate sharply westward and then back again northwards, and that the two shafts from the Queen’s Chamber were blocked at both ends. They also point out that the inclination of the shafts changes along their route. All these features, they claim, invalidates the star-shaft theory (see J.A.R. Legon, The Air-Shafts in

the Great Pyramid, DE 27, 1993, pp. 35-44; and Air-Shaft Alignments in the Great Pyramid, DE 28,1994, pp. 29-34; The Orion Correlation and Air-Shaft Theories, DE 33, 1995, 45-56). In my opinion, however, such Cartesian and purely mathematical thinking fails to relate the meaning of the shafts to the intense religious ideologies that the pyramid builders expressed in their design. The astronomer-priests of Heliopolis, who almost certainly were behind the conception and planning of the Giza pyramid, were primarily concerned with the astral rebirth of the king and, consequently, the funerary structures that they designed were entirely subjugated to this primordial motivation. The fact that the four shafts pointed towards specific star systems that are directly linked to the astral rebirth of the king surely is unlikely to be the work of coincidence.

E.C. Krupp, In Search of Ancient Astronomies, 1979

I.E.S. Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt, 1981 ed. 1985 ed.

R. H. Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddess of Ancient Egypt, p. 200.

R.O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid texts, 1969, Utt. 25; 27.

In LAe I, 1152-1153

According to Andrew Collins, there exists an earlier depiction of Dwn-nwy/Anu dating from c. 2100 BC on a coffin lid of Asyut, published in a paper by G.A. Wainwright. But I have not seen this figure myself so I cannot comment on it.

In his recent book The Complete Pyramids, American Egyptologist Mark Lehner does not mention this god at all. R.H. Wilkinson, in his book The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, only devotes a short paragraph to Dwn-nwy.

G. A. Wainwright, A Pair of Constellations, in Studies Presented to F. L. Griffith, 1932, p. 373.

Z. Zaba, L'orientation astronomique dans l'ancienne Égypte et la précession del l'axe du monde, Prague 1953. In 1960 Jen-Philippe Lauer reviewed Zaba’s article in the Bulletin de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale, BIFAO 60, pp. 171-183. Also the Italian mathematician Livio Stecchini further proposed that the spear/ rod of Anu/Dwn-nwy represented a line passing through the pole of the ecliptic and the celestial pole.

O. Neugebauer and R. Parker, Ancient Egyptian Astronomical Texts, EAT III, 183 n. 2

K. Locher, Probable Identification of the Ancient Egyptian Circumpolar Constellations, Archaeoastronomy No. 9, JHA, xvi, 1985, p. S152. Another view was expressed by Egyptologist Virginia L. Davis, an authority on ancient Egyptian constellations, who wrote: “I think that the falcon-headed human in the ‘northern’ sky can be identified to Ursa Minor.”( V. L. Davis, Yale University, Identifying Ancient Egyptian Constellations, Archaeoastronomy no. 9, JHA xvi, 1985, p. S102).

J.A. Belmonte, Map of the Ancient Egyptian Firmament, BAR, 2003; J.A. Belmonte, The Ramesside Star Clocks and the Ancient Egyptian Constellations, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias IAC 2003. Belmonte makes no mention of Cygnus in his study. In this respect it is interesting to note that Andrew Collins makes the following comment on Belmonte work:“Belmonte is one of the world's foremost authorities on AE astronomy, I am sure you would not deny this. He made mincemeat of Kate Spence's work, and justifiably so. His ideas on the Stretching of the Cord ceremony are nothing less than brilliant, and I would choose to go with his ideas before those of many others. We all have to chose our sources, and he is one of mine.” In spite of this staunch position taken by Andrew Collins, he nonetheless rejects Belmonte’s conclusion on Dwn-nwy, yet he readily embraces Belmonte’s other views that are supportive of the Cygnus Mystery.

Donald V. Etz, A New Look at Constellation Figures in the Celestial Diagram, Journal of the American Research Centre in Egypt (JARCE) volume XXXIV, 1997. In 2000 the French Egyptologist Amanda-Alice Maravelia of the University of Limoges also rejected the identification of Anu/Dwn-nwy with Cygnus: “…there were some major errors in the important work of Žába… of the modern constellations of Cygnus, which was not identical to the ancient asterism Dwn-nwy, as erroneously proposed by the late scholar…Zaba’s interpretation of Pl.IV of the lance held by the Falcon-headed Dwn-nwy as the meridian is arbitrary, as well as his erroneous identification of this ancient asterism to Cygnus constellation…We think that neither Zaba nor Lauer were correct in considering that Dwn-nwy was identical to Cygnus.”( A-A Maravelia, The Stellar Horizon of Khufu: Archaeoastronomy, Egyptology … and Some Imaginary Scenaria, Basel Egyptology Prize 1: Junior Research in Egyptian History, Archaeology, and Philology (Bickel, S. & Loprieno, A., eds), Basel (Schwabe & Co - Verlag /

AH, 17) 2003, 55-74).

S. Cauville and Eric Aubourg, Le Zodiaque D’Osiris, 1997.

Etz, op. cit.