Ancient Egyptian Diagonal Star Tables: A New Fragment, and Updates for S16C and S1C

Abstract

IntroductionAncient Egyptian coffins may contain astronomical information conveyed through depictions of diagonal star tables (also known as diagonal star 'clocks' or 'calendars') on the underside of the innermost lid. Only a small number (An entire ideal diagonal star table contains 40 columns2 as shown in Table 1. Each of the first 36 columns represents a decade (ten-day period) in the ancient Egyptian civil calendar. Three decades compose one month, and there are 12 months as indicated in the date row.* There are 12 rows in a decade, corresponding to the 12 hours in the night. Each cell in the table contains a decan name (i.e., the name of a star or an asterism) and also, in most cases, a representation of a star. As one advances through the year from one ten-day period to the next, the initial decan from the top of the previous column is removed and a new decan is added to the bottom of the new column, thus producing the diagonal pattern that give these objects their names.Four fist columns are added at the end of the table to the 36 ten-day period columns. The first three fist columns (Cl-3) contain the ordinary decans 1-36, in order, twelve decans to a column. This arrangement also has the property of reproducing the three columns from the main body of the table which each represent the first column of a season: Akhet (i.e., list column Cl is identical to main body column 1), Peret (C2 = column 13), and Shemu (C3 = column 25). The fourth list column (C4) represents the five epagomenal days at the end of the civil year. The epagomenal column lists the 'triangle decans'. These triangle decans are so called because they are gradually introduced, starting in column 26 and continuing through to column 36, to produce a triangular shape in the bottom left portion of the table.Tables are categorized as type T or type K depending on the content of their decans, in particular, the starting decan of each table.3 A concordance of star table designations together with their host coffin sigla is given in Table 2. A list of decans in type T tables is presented in Table 3 and an equivalent list for type K tables in Table 4.Mallawi Monuments Museum's Batten with Diagonal Star Table FragmentUntil August 2013, the Mallawi Monuments Museum, Middle Egypt, publicly displayed three ancient Egyptian coffins in glass cases, visible from all four sides. These included two diagonal star tables: K104 and a newly-identified fragment. The authors recorded the details of this fragment in a visit to the Museum in May 2013.The fragment is located on a cross-bar or batten of a coffin lid assigned to Hnyt or Hnty (female), and dated to the early Middle Kingdom.5 The coffin's museum number is 568.6 Its exact provenance is uncertain, but it probably originates from Asyut or Meir. Its siglum, reflecting this uncertainty, is S?3Mal7 or just S3Mal,8 where 'S' stands for Siut or Asyut, its assumed place of origin, and 'Mal' for Mallawi, its most recent museum location. Although Messiha and Elhitta attribute the coffin to Asyut,9 Lapp instead believes the coffin is from Meir10 on the basis of the exterior decoration's typology and he refers to it as M*26, with 'M' standing for Meir. Zitman agrees12 with Lapp's assessment of the exterior, and notes the similarity with another coffin, X2Y (containing the star table K5),13 which has a Meir-style exterior but an Asyut-style interior. Zitman notes Willems's suggestion14 that X2Y originated in Meir, where its exterior was decorated, but then a visiting artist from Asyut decorated the interior. However, Zitman also proposes that S?3Mal could have been excavated in Asyut because this coffin is associated with SIMal, known with more certainty to have been excavated in Asyut. …