A great cosmic phenomenon in the heritage | ||||
| Beni-Suef University International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences | ||||
| Article 2, Volume 3, Issue 2, December 2021, Page 9-30 PDF (873.05 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Conference papers | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/buijhs.2021.168405 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Author | ||||
Mona Zoheir El-Shaieb 
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| Department of Egyptology - Faculty of Archaeology - Cairo University | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| Despite the important role that the Sun played in the daily life and religion of the ancient Egyptians, direct references to solar eclipse were not mentioned in an early era. It seems uncertain, to some scholars, how did the Egyptians describe a solar eclipse since their astronomical records written on papyrus have not survived, however, external sources confirmed the Egyptians' possession of an accurate knowledge of solar and lunar eclipses. (Brewer, 1991 ; McMurray, 2003) In the history of cultural astronomy, virtually every ancient civilisation viewed the sudden chewing-up of the Sun as a bad omen."Eclipse" itself is derived from the Greek word ekleipsis "abandoned". (Park, www.academia.edu) It is clear that the Egyptians, like most ancient cultures, also associated the observation of this solar phenomenon with the occurrence of misfortunes; since they used to cloudless, clear skies, the sudden appearance of stars during the daytime would have been terrifying. Perhaps, at the base of their fear is the fact that the eclipse seems to break, to some extent, the order of the celestial vault, or of mAat, which could be threatened by strange events such as eclipses. (Lull, Arqueoastronomia). | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| History of solar eclipse; Solar eclipse in the ancient world; Egyptian astronomy | ||||
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