Astronomy of Ancient Egypt: A Cultural Perspective

ISBN-13: 9783031118289 / Angielski / Twarda / 2023 / 588 str.

Jose Lull

Opis

This book is a comprehensive reference on ancient Egyptian astronomy, one of the most important topics in historical astronomy. Written by two recognized specialists—one an astronomer trained in Egyptology and the other an Egyptologist trained in astronomy—it synthesizes and analyses the international body of research surrounding this ancient culture.

The chapters in this work address all major topics in the field, including Egyptian cosmogony and worldview, timekeeping devices and calendars, landscapes and skyscapes, astronomy-influenced architecture, chronology and more. Each chapter includes an introduction, an overview of the existing documentation on the subject, a critical discussion of ongoing debates and questions, and a presentation of state-of-the-art research.

Straddling the line between Egyptology and astronomy, this multidisciplinary book will appeal to any scholar or specialist interested in studying ancient Egyptian astronomy.

Spis treści

Chapter 1. Cosmogonies: the formation of the ancient Egyptian universe.- Chapter 2. Egyptian astronomers throughout history.- Chapter 3. Measuring time: ancient Egyptian star, water, and solar clocks.- Chapter 4. Mapping the stars: the skies of ancient Egypt.- Chapter 5. The calendar of ancient Egypt: a gift of the Nile.- Chapter 6. Egyptian land- and skyscapes.- Chapter 7. Astronomy and chronology.

O autorze

Juan Antonio Belmonte Avilés is Research Professor of Astronomy at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (Tenerife, Spain) where he investigates exoplanetsand cultural astronomy. He has published or edited nearly twenty books and authored more than  200 publications on those subjects. He has been the president of the European Society for Astronomy in Culture (SEAC) from 2005 to 2011, and of the International Society for Archaeoastronomy and Astronomy in Culture (ISAAC) from  2017 to 2020, and is the current president of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Commission C4 “World Heritage and Astronomy”. In 2012 he received the "Carlos Jaschek" award of the European Society for Astronomy in Culture for his contributions to the discipline. He has performed extensive research on the astronomical traditions of ancient civilizations, concentrating in the ancient Mediterranean cultures, notably in Egypt.

José Lull García studied Egyptology at the University of Tübingen (Germany). He is a specialist in history and chronology of the Egyptian New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period, as well as in ancient Egyptian astronomy. He is currently a researcher at the Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies (IEPOA) and lecturer at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain). He has written several books on Egyptology and more than one hundred articles published in scientific and outreach journals.

Blurb

This book is a comprehensive reference on ancient Egyptian astronomy. Written by two recognized specialists—one an astronomer trained in Egyptology, and the other an Egyptologist trained in astronomy—it synthesizes and analyses the international body of research surrounding this ancient culture.

The chapters in this work address all major topics in the field, including Egyptian cosmogony and worldview, timekeeping devices and calendars, land- and skyscapes, astronomy-influenced architecture, chronology and more. Each chapter includes an introduction, an overview of the existing documentation on the subject, a critical discussion of ongoing debates and questions, and a presentation of state-of-the-art research.

Straddling the line between Egyptology and astronomy, this multidisciplinary book will appeal to any scholar or specialist interested in studying ancient Egyptian astronomy.