Esna's Triple New Year

Abstract

The sole structure still standing of temple domain dedicated to god Khnum at Esna or Latopolis, a town located about 50 km south of Thebes on west bank of Nile, is a well preserved Roman-period hypostyle hall. Its various parts date roughly to two centuries lasting from about mid-first century C.E. to about mid-third century C.E. Its back wall is preserved facade of a Ptolemaic temple of which little else now remains. Perhaps most informative text inscribed on walls of hypostyle hall is a festal calendar listing religious feasts for many days of calendar year. The calendar's most intriguing feature is that designation wp rnpt opener of year, or New Year's Day, appears next to no less than three calendar dates, namely (1) I iht 1, (2) I iht 9, and (3) II smw 26. The problem of Esna's triple year has been much debated, with widely diverging results. The aim of this paper is to propose a solution. It may be stated here briefly that three new will be identified as follows: (1) I iht 1 as Day 1 of 365-day civil calendar; (2) I iht 9 as prt spdt the coming forth of spdt? that is, rising of star Sirius, which is called Sothis in Greco-Egyptian (from Egyptian spdt); and (3) II smw 26 as birthday of Marcus Aurelius.1 Only one of three new was a New Year's Day in full sense of term, namely one in identification (1). I iht 1 was Day 1 of so-called civil calendar. The civil calendar has 12 months of 30 days plus five extra days, for a total of 365 days. It was dominant calendar of daily life throughout ancient Egyptian history. Due to lack of leap years, civil year shifts slowly in relation to solar year. Esna's other two years were never years in strict, calendrical sense. Neither of two was ever Day 1 of a calendar. Rather, as yearly occurrences, both must have been viewed as symbolizing year as an ever returning cycle. As for identification (2), rising of Sirius can be defined as first rising of Sirius from below eastern horizon just before sunrise after Sirius has been invisible for a couple of months. But there was never such a thing as a Sirius calendar with Sirius years and Sirius months. As for identification (3), celebration of emperor's birthday not only paid homage to emperor but also signified that yet another year had passed.2