Date: September 29, 2010
Title: Mark and Marv’s Excellent Egyptian Adventure
Organization: Adler Planetarium
Links: www.adlerplanetarium.org and www.adlerplanetarium.org/podcasts
Description: Dr. Marvin Bolt and Mark Webb were in Egypt to attend the International Planetarium Society Conference during the summer of 2010. Through contacts at the University of Chicago and within Egypt they were able to get permission to make a detailed examination of the best examples of Egyptian antiquities related to Astronomy and skylore, many of which are not on public display. This trip serves as the foundation for creating new avenues for communicating this fascinating history to the public. They would like to personally thank the Egyptian Ministry of Culture (especially the Department of Antiquities), The Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the University of Chicago, and the wonderful people of Egypt for allowing them this opportunity.
Bio: The Adler Planetarium — America’s First Planetarium — was founded in 1930 by Chicago business leader Max Adler. The museum is home to three full-size theaters, including the all-digital projection Definiti® Space Theater, the Sky Theater which utilizes a Zeiss optical projector, and the Universe 3D Theater. It is also home to one of the world’s most important antique instrument collections. The Adler is a recognized leader in science education, with a focus on inspiring young people, particularly women and minorities, to pursue careers in science.
Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by Wayne Robertson and is dedicated to “Tori on her 17th birthday. Keep reaching for the stars. We love you! Mom and Wayne.
Transcript:
Mark
Welcome to a special edition of the Adler Planetarium’s bi-weekly podcast, Adler Night and Day. The Adler Night and Day podcast provides listeners with a glimpse of what you can see in the night sky, as well as updates on recent solar weather and riveting conversation. For the 365 Days of Astronomy we’ll be concentrating on the riveting conversation. Without further ado, I’m your host Mark and today I’m joined by Dr. Marvin Bolt of the Adler Planetarium. And recently, Marv and I had the pleasure to spend several days exploring the astronomical aspects of the ancient Egyptian world. Welcome Marv!
Marv
Thanks Mark, It’s great to join you here just like I did in Egypt.
Mark
So, start a little bit with the geography and how that affects the belief system of the ancient Egyptians, and what does that have to do with astronomy?
Marv
So, the geography, as you probably know, is one of contrasts. The day is really hot, the night can be really cold in the desert. And, this sort of contrast shows up every day. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west and it’s a very, very powerful object in the sky. In fact, it not only gives life in the day but it can be so oppressive that can knock you out and even kill you if you aren’t careful. And, that connection between night and day, between light and dark, and life and death, is something you see everywhere in Egypt. The sand, is right next to some greenery and only a few inches apart, and so that contrast show up in the geography everywhere you look.
Mark
That really struck me, I mean you could be in verdant farmland and cross the street and there would be nothing. I mean it was really, life and death was delineated so clearly. You know, and that kind, that whole theme just seems to be repeated over and over again. And, uh, through architecture, through art and so forth. One of the first things that we did was to go to see the pyramids. And, there’s life and death and astronomical aspects to that. Why don’t you talk about, uh, our adventure going inside the pyramids?
Marv
So, the pyramids, we often think of as a way of showing how the Egyptians were just fascinating, even obsessed with death. And, in fact, it’s just the opposite. They were obsessed with life! And, so the pyramids were aren’t really a monument to the dead, they’re a monument to the living. And here’s an example from the great pyramid at Giza. If you go to the very center as we did, you travel down this passageway…
Mark
Very long, very uh, yah, not very tall passageway.
Marv
Not very tall, especially for westerners who have a good diet. Uh, this involves bending over and sore legs at the end of the trip. But if you climb down into this passageway to the center of the of the pyramid you have this chamber that has two openings. One opening goes to the south, one opening goes to the north. The opening to the south actually points to the belt of Orion which is connected to Osiris and the idea of resurrection. So the pharaoh would have this connection with resurrection, pointing out the south end. But there’s also a shaft pointing out the north end to the North Star. And that shows a connection to the the stars that go around the pole star. Stars that don’t rise or set. The circumpolar stars. And that shows that this area is associated with immortality. Stars don’t set, they don’t die and therefore the pharaoh doesn’t die, he enjoys eternal life.
Mark
Cool. Yah, and these openings, they’re not like, yah know, sightings . They’re not to line up with these stars visually, cause they actually twist and turn inside. But the pharaoh, they’re really sort of passageways for the pharaoh’s soul… it’s thought? Um, to travel out into the sky to those locations and to be able to get back to the bodies as well.
Marv
It’s certainly not big enough for a body of any size. If you were a kleenex box with a little motor on it you might be able to go through these passageways. But, for the soul of course that’s not a problem.
Mark
Not a problem. We’ll after that we down to Luxor and had the wonderful experience to go to exploring some of the sights at the Valley of the Kings. What’s astronomical about some of that?
Marv
We’ll let me point out, for those who haven’t visited, the Valley of the Kings is where King Tut’s tomb was found nearly a century ago. And we know a lot about what those tombs are all about because of the contents of King Tut’s tomb. All of the other tombs have been raided, looted, and plundered. But Tut’s had it’s contents. But what’s surprising about King Tut’s tomb and the contents, which are on display in the museum in Cairo. Is that it’s full of ordinary things. It has hunting spears, it has a bed, it has pillows, it has cooking utensils. Everything that the pharaoh would need in life, is in that tomb for use in the afterlife. Which is a continuity, it’s a continuation of the present life. So there’s not this big contrast. The afterlife is just a followthrough of the ordinary sorts of events of regular life.
Mark
So, life and death there is a transition there. But… there’s also a connection. Many of these tombs are decorated with hieroglyphics that have a basis in astronomy. Um, can you speak a little bit to that and the story of the journey through the underworld?
Marv
Sure, so there’s one in particular that we found really fascinating and fortunately we were able to get into one of the tombs that has been closed to the public for now, twenty years and that’s the tomb of King Seti I, of the 19th dynasty. And in that tomb, you have these incredibly vibrant blue colors that show the night sky and one of the highlights is the circumpolar stars. So, what we would call the Big Dipper and stars in that area, and these images, of that part of the night sky are in this tomb to highlight the notion that Seti I is going to enjoy an eternal, immortal afterlife. That’s shown and demonstrated by these stars on the ceiling of his tomb.
Mark
Yah, it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in person. It was something I’ll always remember. Well, now what about some of the other tombs? Say, Ramses IX?
Marv
Ramses IX is probably my favorite tomb. It’s ah, twentieth dynasty, so twelfth century B.C. So this is three thousand years ago. And the colors seem as vibrant as they probably were three thousand years ago. It’s absolutely amazing how these have been preserved. And what’s on the ceiling of Ramses IX is Nut the sky goddess. And in fact she’s represented there in two versions. And what we see on the ceiling there is Nut swallowing the Sun at sunset. The Sun then passes through her body and then she gives birth to the Sun again in the morning. It’s a fantastic illustration of this idea that each night the Sun dies and is reborn in the morning. That is the whole world dies and is reborn in the morning.
Mark
Yah, and that whole concept is really at the heart of the ancient Egyptian religion and it’s manifested throughout almost all of their architecture, art, everything they did.
Marv
Each of the tombs and pyramids has this idea that continuity of life and the afterlife.
Mark
Alright, so let’s really briefly touch on another site that’s across the Nile from the Valley of the Kings. The Temple of Dendara.
Marv
So, they temples are typically on the east side, the life side. And then some of the tombs on the west side, the death side. And the Temple of Dendara is much later, it’s about forth, third century B.C. So it’s the Roman period. They late Greek, early Roman period, the Ptolemaic period. And the temple there is dedicated to the goddess Hathor who was represented as a cow with these massive horns. In the middle of which there is the Sun disc.
Mark
Ah,ha! And there’s an artifact that was originally at Dendara, there’s a replica there now. Would you like to describe that a little bit?
Marv
So this plate, is the oldest known sky map anywhere in the world and it dates to probably to about 50 B.C. And it has the twelve signs of the zodiac, but it also has the 36 decans, or ten day segments of the Egyptian sky. So it’s this combination of Egyptian and Babylonian astronomy. It’s the oldest skymap in the whole world. Unfortunately…
Mark
It’s almost like a Rosetta Stone for Egyptian astronomy.
Marv
It is a Rosetta Stone for Egyptian astronomy. Unfortunately it was removed about 200 years ago and was taken to the Louve in Paris and a copy is now at the temple in Dendara. But it’s still absolutely spectacular to see this icon of the ancient world.
Mark
Yah, it was really special to be there. Marv, thank you for joining us today and I hope that we’re able to have another exciting trip so that we can come back and talk about it in the future.
Marv
You’re welcome and thanks for inviting me and I look forward to my next trip wherever that might be!
Mark
And I’d also like to thank the listeners of the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast. To listen to full episodes of Adler Night and Day please visit www.adlerplanetarium.org/podcasts.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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