Ancient Egyptian Astronomy:

Ursa MajorSymbol of Rejuvenation

JOAN RELKE AND ALLAN ERNEST

Abstract and southern skies of the Earths Northern Hemi-

The constellation of Ursa Major became a major
metaphor in the religious and agricultural lives of
both Predynastic and Dynastic Egyptians. Evidence
from astronomy, the Pyramid Texts, and tomb and
coffin imagery, plus the ethnographic parallels of-
fered by contemporary Sudanese tribal cultures
demonstrate the complex and multilayered symbolic
meanings that Ursa Major inspired for both priestly
and farming classes. It was related to the concept of
the ka, the Opening of the Mouth ceremony, and the
Nile inundation, and thus was a potent symbol of
rejuvenation, perhaps from as early as the beginning
of the Predynastic, ca. 4000 B.C.E.
This article is a speculative exploration of the
multiple meanings implied by the shape of Ursa
Major, drawing on Egyptian astronomy, ethnogra-
phy from the Sudan, and the agricultural cycle of
ancient Egypt.
The Stars in Ancient Egypt
In many ways, ancient Egyptian religion was a collec-
tion of stellar beliefs incorporating the obvious heav-
enly bodies of the Sun, Moon, the five recognized
planets, and a number of constellations in the northern
sphere as seen from Egypt. In these heavenly bodies,
the Egyptians envisioned many of their spiritual be-
ings, and most of the major Egyptian deities have
some relationship with the sky and the movements of
the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars. It is well estab-
lished that Egyptian eschatology focused on the heav-
ens, particularly on the northern sky and those stars
and constellations that remained above the horizon
during their diurnal rotation around the polar center.
To the Egyptians, these circumpolar stars represented
the souls of dead kings immortalized in the region of
the Imperishable Stars, and many references from the
Pyramid Texts to the king as a star, generally
(Faulkner 1969),1 or as a star among the Imperishable
Stars (Faulkner 1969),2 indicate that this belief was
among the earliest eschatological beliefs of at least
the priestly and royal elites of Dynastic Egypt.
People in the agricultural sector of Egyptian soci-
ety, probably from the earliest Predynastic times, also
looked to the stars for information they needed for
successful planting and harvesting. Unlike their Near
Eastern neighbors from Canaan and Mesopotamia,
they did not experience the storms, thunder, lightning,
and other weather phenomena usually invested with

Joan Relke is currently an Honorary Research Associate with the School of Classics, History and Religion, Division of Studies in Religion,
at the University of New England, Armidale, Australia. Her research focuses on Middle Eastern and South Asian Neolithic and early historic
religious imagery and iconography. Of particular interest are the implications of iconography for domestic and agricultural rituals.

Allan D. Ernest is currently working as a postdoctoral research fellow in science education within the School of Education, Faculty of
Health Education and Professional Studies at the University of New England, Armidale, Australia. He has been associated with the
university for the past 20 years, predominantly undertaking research in the area of atomic and molecular physics. He also has an interest
in astronomical research, particularly the applications of quantum physics to astronomy and cosmology, and teaches astronomy to
students enrolled in the relevant courses within the universitys distance education program.

642003ARCHAEOASTRONOMY
by the University of Texas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819 VOLUME XVII 2002-2003 64
spiritual importance. And the Sun, perhaps suitable
for a symbol of absolute, all-seeing, reliable author-
ity, hardly nourished agricultural life in its annual
cycle, as it brought intense heat and drought just at the
time of year when the Nile was at its lowest, com-
pounding the difficulties of having limited water:
The sun . . . was . . . a destructive force and an enemy
of farmers. Rather it was the Nile that was recognized
as the source of cosmic good will. . . . The sun was
respected for its power, but the Nile was the real ruler
of Egypt (Krupp 1984:187).3
The star we know as Sirius, rather than the Sun,
marked the beginning of the Egyptian lunar calendar
(Depuydt 1997:17) and agricultural year, for its heli-
cal rising in early July heralded the imminent inunda-
tion of the Nile after a three-month period of low
water, blistering summer heat, and accompanying
drought. In addition to Sirius, the constellation of
Ursa Major may have also functioned as an agricul-
tural symbol but had added eschatological signifi-
cance, and the following discussion explores the
possible significance of its observed behavior for both
priest and farmer.
FIGURE 1. Detail from the northern sky, region of the Imper-
ishable Stars. Tomb of Senmut ca. 1473 B.C.E. (adapted from
The Foreleg and the Opening of the Mouth
Neugebauer and Parker 1969b:Plate 1).
That part of Ursa Major, otherwise known to us as the
Big Dipper or the Plow,4 was known to the ancient
Egyptians as the Foreleg, or Meskhetiu (Neugebauer
and Parker 1969a:189; Parker 1974:51, 61). Depicted number of other lesser spiritual beings commonly
on Middle Kingdom coffins as a bulls foreleg, in the depicted in other similar tomb and coffin illustrations
New Kingdom, Meskhetiu appears as a bull, in full or and represented as a lion, a crocodile, and a man.5 In
part, in the tomb and coffin illustrations of the con- the full illustrations of the northern sky, human and
stellations of the northern sky of Earths Northern therianthrophic figures representing the 30 days of the
Hemisphere (Neugebauer and Parker 1969a:183) lunar month (Neugebauer and Parker 1969:34) line
(Figure 1). In the Late and Ptolemaic periods, the up beside the principal deities on the left and right.
shape of Meskhetiu reverts to a bulls leg or a bull- The illustrations of the northern sky accompanied
headed leg (Neugebauer and Parker 1969a:68, 188, several Egyptian kings, nobles, and well-off com-
1969b:Plates 26, 50). moners on the north or west ceilings of their tombs or
Figure 1, a section from the ceiling illustration on the right inside of their coffin lids. They also
from Senmuts tomb (ca. 1473 B.C.E., Dynasty 18), appear on temple ceilings and water clocks (Clagett
depicts the arrangement of deities and constellations 1995:106127).
envisioned by the Dynastic Egyptians to occupy the The central constellations of the northern sky today
northern sky. Meskhetiu is situated at the top. The revolve around the pole star, Polaris, situated at the tip
accompanying deities include Anu, the sacrificer; of the handle of the Little Dipper, or Ursa Minor. At
Hippo, a presiding deity; Isis, standing behind Hippo; the time of the ancient Egyptians, and prior to the
Serket, a goddess standing beside Meskhetiu; and a beginning of the Predynastic period, ca. 4000 B.C.E.,6

VOLUME XVII 2002-2003 65


FIGURE 2. Ursa Major in the Egyptian northern sky. Sunrise
October 28, 2500 B.C.E. (SkyGlobe image).
these constellations revolved around a blank center
circumscribed by Ursa Major (Figure 2). Figure 2
depicts Ursa Major in the northern sky as seen from
Upper Egypt in 2500 B.C.E., early in Egyptian Dynas-
tic history. The illustration comes from a computer
simulation of the northern sky of the Northern Hemi-
sphere and depicts Ursa Major as an enclosed ladle-
shaped constellation.7 The straight line running
through Figure 2 represents the horizon to the north,
and Ursa Major can be seen above the horizon. The
curved line represents the ecliptic, the path the Sun
appears to take across the sky, and along which the
constellations of our zodiac are arranged and the
planets revolve. Other constellations are shown in
outline only. Their names are not included here, as
they would complicate the illustration, detracting
from the major concern here, Ursa Major.
In 2500 B.C.E., and for at least 2,000 years before
and after that, each day Ursa Major revolved around
the blank center, never disappearing below the hori-
zon (Figure 3).8 Of course, the constellation could not
be seen during daylight, but at night it constituted the
central constellation of this part of the sky. Figure 3
shows the pattern made by Ursa Major as it revolved
around the polar center. Once again, the straight line
66 ARCHAEOASTRONOMY
FIGURE 3. Revolution and shape of Ursa Major. Egypt 2500
B.C.E.
represents the northern horizon. Every two hours,
Ursa Major changed direction significantly. This il-
lustration shows Ursa Major at six four-hour intervals
on October 30, 2500 B.C.E. To an earthly observer, it
appeared to remain, more or less, in each position for
about one hour, but of course, in reality, it moved
constantly, revolving once per day.
The other constellations represented by deities in
Figure 1 revolved with Ursa Major. Unfortunately, it
is not possible to determine which actual star forma-
tions gave shape to these deities, for we recognize
only three of Egypts star patterns to this day: the
constellations of Ursa Major and Orion and the star
Sirius.9 Only Ursa Major, Meskhetiu, is located in the
northern sky.
To the ancient Egyptians, the circumpolar stars and
the entities they represented were immortal. In the
Pyramid Texts, one of the several eschatologies de-
scribes the dead king as a star in this region, continu-
ing his existence as an immortal star, as mentioned
above. In other eschatologies, as an immortal spirit,
he accompanies Re, the sun god, in his solar bark;10
becomes an Osiris, the Foremost of Westerners,
below the western horizon;11 or goes to Orion.12 As
the theology of death advances during the Dynastic
period, all these eschatologies become fused together,
and the king becomes Osiris as well as an immortal
spirit traveling with Re along the ecliptic.

ORION/OSIRIS
SOPDET/ISIS
JUPITER
FIGURE 4. Orion as Osiris and Sopdet as Isis on the decanal belt
from the tomb of Pedamenope ca. 560 B.C.E. (adapted from
Neugebauer and Parker 1969b:Plate 18).
Complementary to the northern sky illustrations
are those of the southern sky (Figure 4), which appear
opposite the northern sky on the left inside of coffin
lids or on the opposite side of the ceiling, the south or
east side (Neugebauer and Parker 1969a:15). The
star formations chosen by the Egyptians from the
southern sky compose the decanal belta belt of 36
stars and constellations (Neugebauer and Parker
1969a:2), which lies nearly parallel to and south of the
ecliptic (Neugebauer and Parker 1960:99100;
Parker 1978:712713). Figure 4 comprises the cen-
tral part of the illustrations of the decanal belt, with
a range of deities and planets lined up on both sides,
to the east and west. Although the planets can be
identified (in Figure 4 Jupiter stands behind Isis), only
two of these star patterns can be identified: the con-
stellation of Orion and the star Sirius (Neugebauer
and Parker 1960:97). In these stars, the Egyptians
envisaged Osiris in Orion and Isis in Sirius, known to
them as Sopdet. Rather than in his typical mummy
form, Osiris here appears as a male figure standing in
a bark with legs wide apart and holding a was scepter.
The earliest surviving record of the constellations of
the northern sky and the decans comes from the First
Intermediate Period coffins of Heny, Dynasty 11,
21342199 B.C.E. (Neugebauer and Parker 1969a:8).
However, the characteristic form of Orion as Osiris
can be identified from a fragment from the Old
Kingdom funerary temple of Djedkare-Isei (Eaton-
Krauss 1987:234), suggesting that the myths and
traditions associated with the illustrations of the
northern and southern skies go back at least to the fifth
Dynasty.
The Imperishable Stars of the northern sky and the
decanal belt form the two major astronomical regions
of the Egyptian night sky. The Egyptians recognized
that the Sun and the planets follow a path across the
sky, but they did not recognize any constellations
along the ecliptic, as did the Babylonians and later the
Greeks. As the Greeks increasingly came to influence
Egypt in the later phases of the Dynastic period, these
constellations, familiar to us as the zodiac, became
incorporated into the Egyptian system to form a third
band of constellations in the night sky. The merger of
these two systems can be best observed in the illustra-
tion on the ceiling of the Hathor Temple at Dendera
(Neugebauer and Parker 1969a:7885), although it
also appears inside coffin lids.13
Also depicted in mortuary iconography is the fore-
leg of a sacrificed bull, an important offering made to
the king or Osiris and frequently found in tomb
illustrations either among the many funerary offer-
ings or as a single offering (Figure 5). In Figure 5, the
judgment scene from the Book of the Dead, a single
foreleg is offered to Osiris, who presides over the
ritual. A foreleg is also mentioned in the Pyramid
Texts as a mortuary offering14 or as the desired food in
the afterlife.15 The shape of Ursa Major suggested to
the Egyptians the shape of this foreleg, when depicted
as an offering, and Figure 6 shows how Ursa Major in
a certain position parallels the shape of the foreleg
seen in the offering to Osiris.16 The ladle on the left
and the bends in the handle of the constellation
mirror the form of the foreleg offering. That the
Egyptians thought of Meskhetiu as a foreleg, perhaps
the foreleg of Seth cut off by Horus and placed in the
northern sky where Hippo holds it (Neugebauer and
VOLUME XVII 2002-2003 67
FIGURE 5. Mortuary offering of a single foreleg to Osiris. From
the Book of the Dead of Naun ca. 1000 B.C.E. (adapted from
Westendorf 1968:203).
Parker 1969:190 191), suggests that they saw Ursa
Major a little differently than we do, that is, with a
longer handle to accommodate the lower part of the
leg.17 Our perception of Ursa Major suggests the
foreleg up to the knee. The Egyptians may have
perceived Meskhetiu extended to further stars, per-
haps Lambda Botis and/or Nekkar, which are ideally
situated to complete the foreleg.18
Returning to Figure 1, in the northern sky illustra-
tions, Meskhetiu is sometimes found in the shape of an
abstracted bull with horns, as in Senmuts tomb, but
at other times it appears as a complete bull, as in Setis
tomb (Figure 7). Thus, the offering version (Figure 5)
more closely resembles the actual shape of the con-
stellation (Figure 6). This departure from depicting
Meskhetiu as a foreleg, as in Middle Kingdom stellar
clock illustrations (Parker 1974:54, 1978:712), sug-
gests additional meanings. The abstracted bull or a
fully illustrated bull implies the whole animal along
with meanings, inclusive of, yet wider than, meanings
at first implied by a single leg.
68 ARCHAEOASTRONOMY
FIGURE 6. Comparison of the shape of the foreleg to Ursa
Major, as seen by the ancient Egyptians. Viewing from Qena,
Egypt, October 28, 2500 B.C.E., at 5:30 A.M. (Starry Night
image).
To the Egyptians, the bull had spiritual and politi-
cal meaning transcending its material function as a
food source. The Apis, Mnevis, and Buchis bulls
represented the power of the high gods Ptah, Re, and
Mont, respectively. The bull also represented the
mediated power of the high gods on Earth through the
king, and the iconography on the obverse side of the
Narmer Palette associates the bull with one of the
earliest kings, Narmer. One epithet assigned to Egyp-
tian kings was victorious bull (Gardiner 1957:51,
597).
The Egyptian word for bull was ka. This word
has the same sound as the word used for one of the
three spiritual essences possessed by each human
being, particularly by the king: the ka, the akh, and the
ba. The ka of the king was thought to survive bodily
death but was believed still to require nourishment in
the afterlife. The rituals commemorating the dead
king involved several methods of supplying the ka
with sustenance: rituals performed during the mortu-
ary feast; food inclusions in the tomb; spells and
FIGURE 7. Detail from the northern sky, region of the Imperishable Stars. Tomb of Seti 1 ca. 1300 B.C.E. (adapted from Neugebauer
and Parker 1969b:Plate 3).
sacrifices made during the mortuary ceremony; sacri-
fices and offerings made to a statue of the king (the ka
statue); and the magical ability of written spells and
illustrations lining the walls of the tomb to provide
food eternally.19
The word ka, written as a pair of upheld or out-
stretched arms, forms the basis for a number of words
whose meanings are associated with life and vitality:
food (kaw), vagina (kat), pregnant woman (bkat), new
construction (kat), and bull (ka), as well as the vital,
animating, soul-like force that inhabits the ka statue
(Faulkner 1988:283; Gardiner 1957:597; Gordon
1996:3334). This soul-like force was not re-
stricted to human beings. It was extended to the entire
natural world (Gordon 1996:32), including bulls
perhaps especially bulls, considering their symbolic
relationship to the king. Therefore, the relationship of
the word ka to mean bull and the word ka to mean
soul or spirit (Faulkner 1988:283) may be more
than homonymous, as Gordon (1996) suggests. For
the purposes of this discussion, the possible coinci-
dence of meaning will be explored.
If the sacrificial bull and the ka as a spiritual entity
or quality are related, then it seems that the single
foreleg, as part of the sacrificial bull (ka), came to
represent or condense the spiritual power of the bull
into one significant part of the animals anatomy, as
indicated by its frequent central role in the iconogra-
phy of mortuary offerings.
The question is, Why did the foreleg alone come
to stand for the temporal and spiritual power inherent
or symbolized by the entire beast? Perhaps the shape
of Ursa Major suggested the shape of the foreleg and
hence the entire animal, but very possibly the bulls
foreleg already had special meaning to the Egyptians,
perhaps even prior to the rise of the Dynastic state. For
insight into this possibility, it might be useful to reach
beyond ancient Egypt, for example, into contempo-
rary cultures living a lifestyle similar to that of the
Predynastic Egyptians.
Archaeologists often utilize an ethnographic paral-
lel (ethnoarchaeology) to identify possible meanings
and uses for prehistoric and ancient artifacts where
textual information is limited or absent. This tech-
nique involves identifying one or more suitable con-
temporary cultures that exhibit a significant resem-
blance or connection to the past culture in question.20
The parallel serves as an analogy to help explain
certain past phenomena rather than provides hard
evidence and proof: Useful models developed . . .
from the insights gained from ethnoarchaeology will
likely not be in the form of absolutes, but rather in the
VOLUME XVII 2002-2003 69
form of probabilities. . . . (Atherton 1983:98). To
understand the spiritual or symbolic importance of the
bull in the earliest Egyptian culture, both Pre- and
Early Dynastic, contemporary African tribal cultures,
particularly those from Sudan, have provided useful
parallels recently (Gordon and Schwabe 1995;
Lobban and Sprague 1997; Schwabe and Gordon
1988) and in the past (Baumgartel 1955:81,
1970:493; Frankfort 1948:162168), and are here
utilized again.21
The concentration of the spiritual essence of the
bull into one of its legs is a belief held today by the
Sudanese Nilotic African peoples. Until recently,
these people, specifically the Dinka (Lienhardt 1961)
and Nuer (Evans-Pritchard 1956), inhabited a culture
very similar in many ways to that of the Predynastic
Egyptians. Probably the most startling coincidence
between the ancient Egyptians and the Nuer people is
the institution of the Leopard-Skin priest.22 The indi-
vidual occupying this position in each culture wears a
leopard skin as a garment and acts as a functionary in
the groups rituals.
The Dinka people of Sudan believe in a spiritual
essence similar to the concept of the ka, which is also
expressed through the bull, particularly through its
legs (Lienhardt 1961:24). In Dinka philosophy, the
abstract notion of life as wei is sometimes translated
as soul or spirit (Lienhardt 1961:206207). Wei can ceremony.23 Human witnesses of accidental sudden
be augmented or decreased and is measured by the
strength, health, and vigor expressed by the indi-
vidual. The bull, as a figure of vitality, fertility, and
strength, has more wei than a human does. Through
mortuary rituals, the Dinka strive to preserve the wei
of their chief spiritual leaders, the Masters of the
Fishing Spear, thereby displaying similar beliefs and
rituals to the Egyptians concept of and preservation
of the kings ka. In Dinka sacrifices, the right hind leg
is thought to be the most powerful in wei, and it is
distributed to the sacrificers maternal kin (Lienhardt
1961:24). Despite the patrilineal nature of Dinka
society, Dinka women are regarded as the life bring-
ers, for, through marrying into an unrelated family,
they bring bridewealth to the family they are leaving,
paid by the husband, and new life through their
children (Lienhardt 1961:9, 127129). The remain-
ing legs, as lesser but still powerful possessors of wei,
70 ARCHAEOASTRONOMY
go to the next important members of the clan, and the
rest of the animal and accompanying wei is distrib-
uted to others.
For both Nuer and Dinka people, the bull is meta-
phorically related to their high gods, Kwoth Nhial and
Nhialic aciek, respectively. These high gods are most
eloquently expressed by the majestic and gracefully
upswept horns of the bull, and both Nuer and Dinka
boys dance with their arms raised in the air to repre-
sent the horns of the bull and hence their own relation-
ships, through the bull, with their high gods (Evans-
Pritchard 1956:4, 250251; Lienhardt 1961:1618).
The Egyptian ka, written as a pair of upraised arms,
perhaps signified the upraised horns of a bull as well
(Gordon 1996:33), the animal containing the most
spiritual power, wei, which is most concentrated in its
right hind leg.
Evidence directly from Egyptian culture similarly
demonstrates a profound spiritual significance attrib-
uted to a bulls foreleg. Illustrations depict the sever-
ing of the foreleg even from a live animal, often a calf
(Weigall 1915). The scene from the Opening of the
Mouth ceremony of Henefer shows a distraught cow
following her calf, whose left foreleg has been re-
cently severed, with the stump dripping blood onto
the floor. Immediately in front of the calf and cow,
two attendants rush the freshly severed foreleg to the
dismemberment have reported the short-term invol-
untary spasms of severed limbs, and the foreleg, in
such a spasm, could have indicated to the Egyptians
the presence of the ka force in the limb, thus necessi-
tating the immediate transportation of the twitching
limb to the Opening of the Mouth ritual (Gordon and
Schwabe 1995).
A similar belief and practice exists among the
Dinka. The clan divinity of the Masters of the Fishing
Spear clan is called Ring, which translates as flesh,
and represents the spiritual force in living flesh
(Lienhardt 1961:108). The specialists in their sacri-
fices consume the raw, trembling flesh of the bovine
sacrifice in an attempt to replenish their own Ring
(Gordon and Schwabe 1995:68). This practice must
have been particularly unpleasant for both Dinka and
Egyptian sacrificial animals, as some of the Egyptian
illustrations show the distress of the calfs mother,
bellowing in mourning.24 Anyone who has heard a
cows distressed call to her separated calf will know
this tortured sound. The foreleg must have been a
prized ka offering to elicit such a drastic and extreme
ritual.
The bulls foreleg, as implied in the illustrations
of the northern sky by the complete or partial
animal (Figure 1), is the focus of a scene that
probably represents the sacrifice of a bull at the
mortuary ceremony of the deceased king or noble
contained in the tomb or coffin.25 The immortal
stars occupy the Opfergefilde, or sacrificial
realm, in the northern sky (Krauss 1997:121). The
animal appears attached to a tether, which is in turn
secured to a pole, or here, an elongated pyramid or
obelisk, as mentioned in the passages from the
Pyramid Texts concerning a mooring post.26 The
mooring post, or posts, seems to be the pivot upon
which Ursa Major as a foreleg, here symbolized by
Meskhetiu as an abstracted bull, circles the center
of the region of the Imperishable Stars. This post,
at the very center of the universe, functions as a
kind of axis mundi in the sky, the spiritual center
around which all else revolves. It is the firm, im-
movable point, securing the revolving sky to its
immortal center. Though invisible, nevertheless, it
holds the Meskhetiu in place, preventing its travel
among the gods or sinking upside down into the
Duat (Neugebauer and Parker 1969a:191) while it
moves through its diurnal cycle, appearing to be at
the center of activity enacted in the scene.
Holding on to the mooring post in some illustra-
tions, here Figure 7 from the tomb of Seti I, is a large
hippopotamus deity, who looks very much like the
Egyptian goddess Taweret. In fact, she shares an
identical form with Taweret, being mainly composed
of a female hippopotamus with lion feet and crocodile
teeth, with a crocodile hanging down her back. The
only visual difference between this deity and Taweret
is the mooring post. Taweret holds her hieroglyph of
comfort and protection, while Hippo, as Neugebauer
and Parker (1969a:84) call her, supports the center of
the universe by securing the mooring post, which in
this illustration resembles part of a bulls leg. Up to
four posts are depicted: Senmuts tomb (Figure 1)
displays three; Psusennes tomb seems to contain four
(Neugebauer and Parker 1969a:185, Figure 28).
These various posts take a number of forms: a long
obelisk or spike, a short spike or post, a short peg, and
a vertical crocodile. Hippo often holds the short peg
and crocodile with her front paws.
This presiding deity, however, is not Taweret.
Sometimes she is called Isis, sometimes Ipy, or sim-
ply the Great One or the Great Hippopotamus
(Neugebauer and Parker 1969a:190191). The fact
that Isis, as Sopdet, is in the southern sky indicates the
flexibility with which the Egyptians interpreted the
celestial world, but more important, here, Isis as
presiding deity over the mortuary sacrifice and the
procurement of the foreleg as a ka offering indicates
her principal role as rejuvenator of Osiris and the king
as an Osiris.
The mooring post could represent a tethering peg to
which the sacrificial bull is constrained prior to and
during the sacrifice. Once again, typical contempo-
rary Sudanese Nilotic practice suggests this use. Both
the Nuer and Dinka tribes of southern Sudan conduct
their sacrifices at modest shrines consisting of a raised
mound or a collection of small mounds, supplanted or
accompanied by a forked branch and a tethering peg,
to which the beast is tied while the invocations take
place (Figure 8). Figure 8 is a drawing of the Dinka
spear masters shrine, and the tethering peg appears
central to the shrine, which incorporates small
mounds and a forked stick. In some cases, only a peg
forms the shrine (Lienhardt 1961:259). The forked
branch functions as the axis mundi, connecting
heaven and Earth, and in cases where the branch is
absent, the tethering peg marks the center, connecting
the material and spiritual worlds and opening human-
ity during a sacred time in a sacred space to the often
dangerous spiritual power behind or inherent in the
universe.
As in the Egyptian illustrations, the Dinka moor-
ing posts vary in number and size. In the Senmut
illustration (Figure 1), the sacrificial animal,
Meskhetiu (as an abstracted bull), is tethered to a
mooring post, or obelisk, which resembles more the
large branch marking the Dinka shrines. In the Seti
illustration (Figure 7), the large post is absent, while
Meskhetiu is attached to a mooring post more indica-
tive of a tethering peg.
VOLUME XVII 2002-2003 71

FIGURE 8.Dinka spear masters shrine with spears (adapted
from Lienhardt 1961:Plate VI; illustrated by Carl Merten).
Presiding at the Nuer and Dinka sacrifices,
officiants perform the invocations and conduct the
sacrifices with spears, which, in both Nuer and Dinka
ritual, play a prominent role, and in the officiants
hands, become expressive tools of communication.
The sacrificing officiants are chosen from among the
groups senior men, in the case of the Nuer (Evans-
Pritchard 1956:199), or from the clan of the Masters
of the Fishing Spear, in the case of the Dinka
(Lienhardt 1961:171218).
The Egyptian sacrifice seems to be conducted by a
falcon-headed deity called Anu (Neugebauer and
Parker 1969a:191192), an obscure Egyptian deity
not to be confused with Anu, the Sumerian high god.
In the Senmut illustration (Figure 1), Anu clearly
spears the tethered beast, whereas in other versions,
such as that from Setis tomb (Figure 7), Anu seems
to be holding a rope rather than a spear. Because
Neugebauer and Parker (1969:192) refer to this deity
as the spearing god, Anus role seems to be that of
the main officiant at this sacrifice at the center of the
universe.
72 ARCHAEOASTRONOMY
This scene does not match the standard Egyptian
form of sacrifice, and hence may be archaic, closer to
the typical cattle-cult sacrifice of many contemporary
African tribal societies (Parrinder 1962; Ray 1976),
similar perhaps to sacrifices of Predynastic times.
That such cattle cults existed at the time of the
Predynastic is suggested by recent excavations at
Nabta Playa, revealing cattle burials and related ico-
nography for the period prior to and during the
Predynastic (Wendorf et al. 19921993:12; Wendorf
et al. 1997; Wendorf and Schild 1998:108). Stone
megaliths and circles at this same site indicate the
knowledge and importance of astronomy, including
the north celestial pole, in the agricultural and ritual
lives of the people practicing these cattle rituals
(Malville et al. 1998).
The purpose of the Egyptian sacrifice implied by
the illustrations is to obtain crucial food, namely the
foreleg, for the deceased in the afterlife. This central
offering forms an important constituent of the Open-
ing of the Mouth ceremony, in which the sem, or
Leopard-Skin, priest ritually releases or cuts the con-
straints of the deceaseds mouth, enabling it to ingest
nourishment and speak for the deceased at the judg-
ment. The importance of the foreleg in this ceremony
is stressed in a passage from the Pyramid Texts: O
Osiris the King, I split open your mouth for you / With
the [Hph] of the Eye of Horus1 foreleg.27 In this
passage, the sem priest uses the foreleg as an imple-
ment to open the mouth of the deceased king in his
new role as Osiris, ruler of the underworld. The
foreleg is both the first nourishment taken by the
deceased, enabling the ka to awaken and survive, and
the actual implement used to open the mouth. The
word for the implement in this spell (Hph) is a pun on
the word foreleg (Faulkner 1969:3, Note 1).
The link between the foreleg and the Opening of
the Mouth implement is perhaps no better illustrated
than by the paintings on the walls of the burial
chamber of Tutankhamens tomb (Figure 9). The
vizier Ay, as the sem priest, holds the adze near the
mouth of the deceased king, here in his form as an
Osiris. On the table beside the priest lay three items:
another adze, a single foreleg topped by a feather, and
the feather of Maat. After Tutankhamen/Osiriss
mouth is opened, his ka will receive nourishment in

FIGURE 9. The foreleg offering during the ritual of the
Opening of the Mouth. From the painted burial chamber of
Tutankhamens tomb (adapted from a photograph in
Westendorf 1968:150151).
the form of the foreleg, recalling the implications of
Meskhetiu as a foreleg in the sacrifice in the region of
the Imperishable Stars. The implement and the fore-
leg appear to be connected, and the adze is also
connected to the constellation of Ursa Major.
A comparison of the adze from Tutankhamens
tomb illustration in Figure 9 and the shape of Ursa
Major in the position paralleling the foreleg (Figure 6)
clearly indicates that the shape of the mouth-opening
implement has been patterned on the shape of the
constellation in this position or orientation, which is
also demonstrated by one of five terms used by the
Egyptians for this adze: Meskhetiu (Figure 10).
Figure 11, taken from the computer simulation,
shows the shape of Ursa Major as the Predynastic and
Dynastic Egyptians would have seen it in the northern
sky, and it seems they extended the handle beyond
that of the Big Dipper and eliminated the line
joining the opening of the ladle. The illustration of
the revolution of Ursa Major in the northern sky in
Figure 3 demonstrates Ursa Major in this horizontal
position at the top of the circle of rotation, with the
ladle or hook opening facing down to the Earth, as
Meskhetiu adze used in
Opening of the Mouth28
Meskhetiuconstellation
of the Plough
FIGURE 10. Entries for Meskhetiu in Faulkners Concise
Dictionary of Middle Egyptian (1988:118).
FIGURE 11. Ursa Major in the position of the foreleg and
Meskhetiu adze. Mid-October appearance at dawn, just prior
to planting season (SkyGlobe image).
the adze is depicted in the above hieroglyphs. The
hook could be said to be in the upper left quadrant of
the circle circumscribed by the diurnal rotation of the
constellation, or between 9 and 11 oclock on an
imaginary clock face drawn by the rotation of the
constellation.
The Senmut illustration of the northern sky (Fig-
ure 1) most clearly indicates that Meskhetiu, as teth-
ered to the mooring post, also sits in the upper left
quadrant of the circle circumscribed by its implied
rotation around the tip of the mooring post. Meskhetiu
often appears in this position in the astronomical
VOLUME XVII 2002-2003 73
ceiling or coffin paintings, which could be said to
approximate the 9 or 11 oclock position of an imagi-
nary clock face drawn by its rotation. Although the
various positions assumed by Ursa Major as it re-
volved were observed by the ancient Egyptians
(Neugebauer and Parker 1969a:51, 1969b:Plate 24),29
the illustrations of the northern sky identify the above
position as the most important, perhaps sacred, of
all observed positions in that the adze, the constella-
tion, and the foreleg are simultaneously indicated.
Thus, it seems evident from (1) the tomb illustra-
tions of the northern sky, (2) the shape of Ursa Major,
(3) the shape of the foreleg as an offering, (4) the
shape of the adze, (5) the passage in the Pyramid
Texts, and (6) the name, Meskhetiu, shared by the
foreleg implied in the northern sky and the adze for
Opening of the Mouth that the adze, the constellation,
and the foreleg share a common image and represent
the same power. Surprisingly, Neugebauer and
Parker, in their comprehensive study of Egyptian
astronomy in 1969, seem not to have made the con-
nection between the adze and the constellation. The
number of references since 1969 suggests that the
connection may have become more significant to
Egyptologists after the publication of Neugebauer
and Parkers work.30 Using the illustration from
Tutankhamens tomb, Krupp (1983:211213) of the
Griffith Observatory in California clearly makes the
symbolic, as well as visual, connections between the
constellation of Ursa Major, the celestial bull, that
is, the foreleg, and the Opening of the Mouth adze:
The leg of the slaughtered bull, the dipper-like adze,
and the Big Dipper in the sky all represent the same
thing: the symbolic renewal of life (1983:213). As
implied by Krupps comment, the ka of the bull,
represented by the foreleg and Ursa Major, is commu-
nicated to the deceased king via the Opening of the
Mouth implement. The king becomes immortal
through ingesting the spiritual essence of the bull
sacrificed at the mortuary ceremony, as symbolically
depicted by the ceiling and coffin paintings. After the
necessary rituals, the immortalized king takes his
place as an Imperishable Star in the northern sky,
while his own spiritual essence as a ka continues
to receive offerings on Earth through the continuation
of the mortuary cult that follows and through the
74 ARCHAEOASTRONOMY
eternally conducted sacrifice performed magically
through the illustration on his tomb or coffin ceiling.
The Relationship of the Foreleg to the
Agricultural Cycle of the Nile
The foreleg is a symbol created by a society intimately
connected to cattle, such as todays Sudanese Nilotic
peoples and the Predynastic and Dynastic Egyptians.
But the Egyptians were an agrarian people as well,
and their livelihood depended as much, if not more, on
the seasonal crops they planted in the fertile Nile
basin.
The section of the Nile River extending from the
first cataract to the Delta provided the Egyptians with
the water and soil replenishment necessary for settled
life. Without the annual inundation, the Egyptians
would have remained nomadic pastoralists searching
continually for dry pasture for their livestock. No
notable and reliable rain falls on Egypt, making agri-
culture impossible without the Nile.
From about 6000 B.C.E. until the building of the
Aswan Dam, the upper and lower Egyptian Nile flooded
on an annual basis, setting a seasonal cycle conducive
to settled life and agriculture. Evidence for settled life
along the Nile has survived from at least 5000 B.C.E.
(Midant-Reynes 1992:100166). Prior to 6000 B.C.E.,
the climate was wetter, catching the upper edge of the
monsoon and supporting pastoral and foraging econo-
mies, but the Nile was more erratic, deterring settle-
ments along its banks (Wetterstrom 1993:193197). As
the climate dried and the Nile became tamer, people
were forced to find their livelihood closer to the river
(Close 1992:178; Hassan 1988:144). Outside influ-
ences, perhaps from the Levant, demonstrated the ad-
vantages of planting crops over foraging (Hassan
1988:145; Wetterstrom 1993:198).
From at least 4000 B.C.E., Egyptians depended
predominantly on the annual Nile inundation for
survival. Every year, the flood appeared in July, not
long after the first appearance of Sopdet (Sirius) in the
night sky after its two-month annual absence. About
three months later, the Nile would have receded
enough for planting and the agricultural cycle to
begin.
Figure 12 illustrates the pattern created by the
annual Nile inundation. The graph appears frequently

FIGURE 12. Annual inundation of the Nile, Egyptian agricul-
tural cycle, and the visibility of Meskhetiu (adapted from
Hurst 1952).
in discussions on the Nile and charts the average rise
and fall of the Nile based on observations from 1912
to 1936. From this graph, one can see why the Egyp-
tian new year began in July, when both Sopdet and the
Nile reappeared, for until this point, the Egyptians
would have suffered three months of drought, be-
ginning in April, at the lowest ebb of the Nile.
The ancient Egyptians based their agricultural cal-
endar on the flux of the Nile rather than the annual
cycle of the Sun. Added to the Nile chart (Figure 12)
is the Egyptian agricultural cycle (Krupp 1984:
190). The equivalent of spring planting began as early
as mid-October, and the growing season, or the
equivalent of summer, continued until February. The
harvest, or autumn, followed, and the food was stored
until the next harvest or beyond. Following the har-
vest, the drought set in, and as the Sun grew hotter and
the vegetation more parched and brown as the weeks
progressed, the Egyptians waited in anticipation and
apprehension for the return of the life-giving waters.
Therefore, to the Egyptians, the return of the Sun at
the vernal equinox did not presage life and abun-
dance, so, unlike more northern farmers, the Egyp-
tians did not look to the Sun for signs of imminent
agricultural prosperity (Krupp 1984:187).
Most discussions on the relationship of Egyptian
astronomy and agriculture focus on the reappearance
of Sopdet prior to the annual inundation. Isis, as the
goddess immanent in Sopdet, is credited with the
rejuvenation of life, most significantly in the rejuve-
nation of Osiris, the god of the underworld, also
associated with the inundation of the Nile. The sym-
bolic meanings inherent in the entanglement of Osiris
with the rebirth of the Nile and the birth of the ka, as
discussed previously, demonstrate the importance of
the river as a spiritual metaphor for the life, death, and
rebirth of the human soul as well as the source of
physical life. Sopdet was absent from the night sky for
70 consecutive days (Neugebauer and Parker
1960:97), reappearing in July. The period of drought,
or lowest ebb of the Nile, coincided with the absence
of Sopdet. The corresponding period of drought, or
fallow, in the spiritual life of the human soul follow-
ing death was represented by the 70-day period of
embalming prior to the souls rebirth in the under-
world. Thus, the Egyptian mortuary ritual came to be
intimately bound up with the cycle of the Nile and the
metaphor of life, death, and rebirth it inspired.
Meskhetiu, as a combined symbol of the adze, Ursa
Major, and the foreleg, is also intimately connected to
the agricultural cycle of the Nile, in addition to express-
ing pastoral symbols of life and spiritual power. In
iconography (Figures 1, 9), it is the sign of the rebirth of
the ka and the beginning of immortal life for the
deceased in the underworld, but it is also connected to
the rebirth of vegetation through its annual cycle of
revolution in the northern sky, as explained below.
The Opening of the Mouth adze was usually shown
in the same position, mimicking the shape of Ursa
Major in the position of the foreleg. The constellation
VOLUME XVII 2002-2003 75
Table 1. Annual Progression of Ursa Major in Sacred Position

Mid month Orientation of Ursa Time of Night at Which Horizontal Corresponding Agricultural
Major at Dawn Relative (Sacred) Positioning Is Achieved Significance
to Sacred Position (as a
Fraction of a Semicircle)
July Does not appear in sacred Nile in flood; too early to
August position (dawn arrives before plant crops
September horizontal position is reached)
October Sacred position ~5:30 A.M. Start of planting
November 1/6 ~3:30 A.M. Time to dawn denotes the
December 1/3 ~1:30 A.M. time since the beginning of
January 1/2 ~11:30 P.M. the season
February 2/3 ~9:30 P.M.
March 5/6 ~7:30 P.M. Harvest
April 1 Does not appear in sacred position Signifies end of season and
beginning of drought

reached this position once per day but was visible in this
position (at night) for only a limited period of the year.
Added to the graph illustrated in Figure 12 are the
times of the year that the adze as Ursa Major appeared
to the Predynastic and Dynastic Egyptians in the
sacred position in the night sky described above. In
July/August, the time before planting, Ursa Major
would have been low in the sky at sunset. Through the
night it would circle the North Celestial Pole, but
dawn would arrive, and the constellation would dis-
appear before the sacred or most symbolic (hori-
zontal) orientation was reached.
As October came, Ursa Major more closely ap-
proached to the horizontal each night before it disap-
peared into the dawn, until mid-October, when it finally
achieved this horizontal position, coinciding approxi-
mately with the earliest time for planting and the
beginning of a new cycle of agricultural life. Indeed,
this very fact may have been important in triggering the
persistent depicting of the constellation in the horizon-
tal position in tomb and coffin illustrations and the
shape of the adze in illustrations of the ritual, such as the
painting of Tutankhamens Opening of the Mouth
ceremony. From then on, the constellation reached the
critical horizontal position at successively earlier times
of the night, providing a calendar of the progress
through the seasons, from planting through to harvest,
from mid-October to early April.31
Table 1 summarizes the time of night during the
season that Ursa Major achieved its sacred
position.From April to October, Ursa Major in this
position was absent, or not visible, to the Egyptians,
as it assumed this position during the day. This period
of its absence paralleled the period of drought and
flood, when no food could be grown and the Egyp-
tians had to rely on past stores to see them through to
the next harvest. Ursa Major in the shape of the adze
and in the position of the Meskhetiu in tomb-ceiling
illustrations reappeared at the beginning of the plant-
ing period, when new grain would soon begin to
sprout. The correct timing of planting was essential to
the success of the harvest. Left too late, perhaps until
December, the hot April weather would retard the
crops, reducing yield as much as 50 percent (Hassan
1980:17). Rather than look to the vernal equinox for
the sign of imminent planting, the Egyptians would

76 ARCHAEOASTRONOMY
have had the planting season coincide with the ap-
pearance and duration of the foreleg/adze in the
appropriate position, first appearing in the dawn sky
at the beginning when or shortly before the Nile
receded enough to expose the fertile land in its wake.
Ursa Major in this position at this time presented an
immanent symbol for new life and the rebirth of the
human soul. The reappearance at planting time and
the connection of the adze to the rebirth of the Osiris
mummy in the Opening of the Mouth ritual bring to
mind Osiriss role as a grain god, symbolized by
sprouting barley. This connection also reinforces the
intimate metaphorical relationship between the spiri-
tual and agricultural lives of the Egyptians and the
seamless merger of spiritual and material prosperity.
There seems to be little doubt that the orientation of
Ursa Major had critical, perhaps sacred, significance
to the ancient Egyptians. This is especially evidenced
in the part played by its horizontal positioning in the
Egyptian foreleg as Meskhetiu (Figure 1) and the
ritual of the Opening of the Mouth (Figure 9). It is no
surprise then that this horizontal positioning could
symbolize progress of various phases in the agricul-
tural calendar. Being a circumpolar constellation for
the Egyptians, Ursa Major would always be visible at
any time of year in different orientations throughout
the night. However, what may have been most signifi-
cant to Egyptian agriculture was Ursa Majors orien-
tation at dawn, a celestial combination similar in
pattern to the reappearance of Sopdet with the rising
Sun in July that signified the beginning of the new
year and the return of the Nile.
Conclusion
Although the Sun in Egyptian mythology represented
the supreme authority of the high god, Re, and the
source of light and heat that brought the world back to
life each morning, the farmers looked to the night sky
for the spiritual forces regulating the agricultural
cycle and the source of life, the Nile: Sopdet and Ursa
Major. The role of Sopdet is widely known, but
knowledge of the Opening of the Mouth adze in its
relation to Ursa Major has not been so widely dis-
cussed in Egyptology.
By taking advantage of modern computer-
simulation programs, such as SkyGlobe (Haney
1992), Starry Night (Space Holding Corp. 1999), and
Dance of the Planets (ARC Science 1994), one can
see that the apparent movements of Ursa Major in
combination with the fluctuations of the Nile River
reveal the synchronous appearance of Ursa Major
in the shape of the Opening of the Mouth adze with
the beginning of the planting season after the retreat
of the inundation of the Nile. This combination unites
the priestly ritual of the opening of the deceased
kings (Osiriss) mouth, the birth of the kings ka, and
the rebirth of agricultural fecundity, infusing the
adze in its Meskhetiu form with added meanings and
uniting elite and peasant concerns for spiritual and
material rebirth.
In addition, understanding the symbolic meaning
of the Opening of the Mouth adze in relation to
pastoral rituals, similar to those still practiced by
todays Sudanese tribes, brings additional possible
meanings to the ritual depiction of the mortuary
Sacrifice at the Center of the Universe, the
Opfergefilde, in which a bull is sacrificed for its
foreleg with its magical connection to Ursa Major, the
Opening of the Mouth adze, agricultural fertility, and
the immortality of the kings ka.
Through the blending of multiple meanings given
to Ursa Major by various sectors of Egyptian
societypastoralists, crop farmers, priests, and roy-
altythis constellation assumes a potent role as both
symbol and embodiment of the divine power of reju-
venation, both spiritual and material.
Notes
1. To list a few: the Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts
(hereafter abbreviated to Pyr.) 250, 263, 458, 516, 537, 538,
871, 877, 882, 1038, 1719, 2014.
2. To list a few: Pyr. 141, 380, 733, 749, 782, 818, 940,
1080, 1220, 1926, 2102, 2264.
3. The Sun as the source of heat and light brought the world
back to life every morning and was worshipped for this
reason. However, the agricultural cycle followed the Nile
cycle of inundation and retreat rather than the solar cycle
marked by the solstices and equinoxes.
4. In this discussion, this part of Ursa Major will be
referred to as Ursa Major, as the ancient Egyptians did not see
it as a dipper or a plow; rather, they perceived it as an adze or
a bulls foreleg. They also probably did not see it exactly as
we have defined it, and this will be discussed later in this
article.
VOLUME XVII 2002-2003 77
 5. For a detailed description of these various deities and
entities and for further illustrations of the astronomical Egyp-
tian tomb and coffin ceilings, see Neugebauer and Parker
(1969a, 1969b).
6. Although the Neolithic period in Egypt has been dated
to at least the fifth millennium B.C.E., the origins of the state
that emerged ca. 3000 B.C.E. can be most clearly identified at
the beginning of the Predynastic, ca. 4000 B.C.E., also within
the Neolithic period (Midant-Reynes 1992:101, 169).
7. SkyGlobe, available for downloading from the Internet
at http://www.csulb.edu/~gordon/skyglobe.html. Results
obtained from SkyGlobe were confirmed with two similar
programs called Dance of the Planets and Starry Night,
both designed for professional use in teaching and plan-
etarium applications. Information on these programs can
be obtained from http://www.arcscience.com/dance.htm
and http://www.starrynight.com, respectively. However,
as the name of Dance of the Planets implies, it specializes
in orbital simulations of our solar system, whereas
SkyGlobe and Starry Night feature orbital simulation of
the entire night sky and thus are more suitable for this
application. SkyGlobe produces the least complicated im-
ages and is therefore used here for purposes of illustration.
Any program is only as good as its designer, and Dance was
recommended for its reliability so served as principal confir-
mation.
8. Ursa Major, as the Big Dipper, was a circumpolar
immortal constellation from at least 4500 B.C.E. (the limit
of Starry Night) until ca. 250 C.E., when it began to dip below
the horizon.
9. Neugebauer (1969:89) cautions against trying to iden-
tify empirically any constellation with any particular deity
because of the inconsistencies in the star patterns assigned to
a variety of representations of the same deity. The star
patterns, he suggests, are purely decorative.
10. To list a few: Pyr. 152160, 274, 357, 711, 906907,
1171, 1442, 21222125.
11. To list a few: Pyr. 592, 818, 19091912, 19971999,
21982199.
12. Pyr. 186, 882884.
13. See, for example, Neugebauer and Parker (1969a:93)
and accompanying illustration of the coffin lid of Heter in
Neugebauer and Parker (1969b:Plate 71).
14. Pyr. 12, 79.
15. Pyr. 1936, 1947.
16. The position of Ursa Major at 5:30 A.M., October 30,
2500 B.C.E., a modern date chosen for reasons that are devel-
oped later.
17. Roth (1993:70, Figure10) compares the foreleg to
Ursa Major, positioning the foreleg in an upside-down
position relative to the Osiris offering, avoiding the need to
modify the constellation as we perceive it.
18. Figure 6 shows the handle extended to Botis and
then on to Nekkar. The image is taken from Starry Night and
78 ARCHAEOASTRONOMY
depicts Ursa Major at dawn on October 30, 2500 B.C.E., as
viewed from the Qena bend of the Nile.
19. General information on the ka and ba and their main-
tenance in the afterlife can be found in Spencer (1982:4573)
and Quirke (1992:105171).
20. Discussions of this methodology as one of the many
tools for exploring past behavior can be found in Agorsah
(1990) and Atherton (1983).
21. It is not possible here to provide a detailed explanation
of the reasons the Sudanese tribes should present suitable
ethnographic parallels to the earliest Egyptians. A recent
explanation and lengthy comparison of the cultures can be
found in Relke (2001:159227). The examples provided by
Baumgartel and Frankfort list several similarities, including a
comparison between certain Predynastic Egyptian figurines
and contemporary cow and bull dances performed by these
peoples; the similar ritual deformations of cattle horns; the
symbolic use of raised arms; and the symbolic use of bulls
horns to represent spiritual ideals and high deities. In general,
the cattle cults of the Sudanese tribes display an affinity with
Pre- and Early Dynastic cattle rituals and beliefs, and possibly
some of the earliest Egyptians brought typical African cattle-
cult practices and beliefs with them when they joined other
groups settling in the Nile basin. For a description of the
various peoples who composed the population of Predynastic
Egypt, see Hoffman (1993:78102).
22. See photograph in Evans-Pritchard (1940:Plate 4).
23. See Faulkners (1985) cover illustration of a scene
showing the Opening of the Mouth ceremony carried out on
the mummy of Hunefer, BM 990l/5.
24. The authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewer
who pointed out the significance of the cows bellowing and
made available the abstract (1995) of Gordon and Schwabes
paper presented at the Seventh International Congress of
Egyptologists.
25. The scene is symbolic, mythological, or archaic, as
sacrifices were performed on bound rather than tethered
animals during the Dynastic period.
26. Pyr. 794, 863, 2013, 2232.
27. Pyr. 12.
28. Gardiner (1957:570) dipicts the adze in this Hiero-
glyph without the wooden block or rest. Gardiner also uses
the longer hieroglyph for the constellation, Meskhetiu, defin-
ing it as the Foreleg, i.e. the constellation of the Great Bear,
replacing the earlier conception as Adze (ibid). This
hieroglyph for Meskhetiu includes the foreleg in the offering
position. See also Gardiner's sign list for the foreleg as two
positions, 180 reversed (ibid:464).
29. This example comes from the ceiling of the tomb of
Abu Yasin, 359341 B.C.E., and shows Ursa Major in the form
of a foreleg in 36 different positions of rotation, which
Neugebauer and Parker identify as the constellation in three
nightly positions (beginning and middle of the night, and
dawn) for the 12 months of the year.
 30. Krauss (1997:95) describes the constellation as a Davis, Virginia Lee
Mundffnungsgerte, or a model of a mouth-opening- 1985 Identifying Ancient Egyptian Constellations.
appliance. Davis (1985:S103) describes Ursa Major, vari- Archaeoastronomy 16(9):S102S104.
ously represented as an adze or finger, the foreleg of a bull or Depuydt, Leo
foreleg with bulls head or a complete bull. Roth (1993:70, 1997 Civil Calendar and Lunar Calendar in Ancient
Figures 9, 10) clearly illustrates the visual relationship be- Egypt. Uitgeverij Peeters en Departmement
tween the constellation, the foreleg, and the adze. She also Oosterse Studies, Leuven, Belgium.
makes the points that the tip of meteoritic iron connects the Eaton-Krauss, Marianne
mouth-opening implements to the popular notion of them as 1987 The Earliest Representation of Osiris? Varia
fallen stars (1993:70) and that the adze as a wood-carving Aegyptiaca 3:233236.
tool connects it to the creation of the ka statue (1993:75). Evans-Pritchard, Edward Evan
31. During the length of the growing season, Ursa Major 1940 The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood
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