New Evidence of Solar Calendar in Ancient Egypt

Excavations at Tel El-Faraeen 2024

According to an Ahram Online report, a team of Egyptian archaeologists unearthed an astronomical observatory dated to the sixth century BC at the

Tel El-Faraeen archaeological site in the Nile Delta of lower Egypt.

Mohamed Ismail Khaled of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said the large mudbrick building featured an L-shaped central hall, several storage rooms, and a slanted stone sundial.

A surveying and timekeeping tool known as a merkhet, pottery, religious items, and a statue dated to the 26th Dynasty (664–526 BC) were also recovered.

The discovery confirms the astronomical knowledge of the ancient Egyptians, including their ability to determine the solar calendar and significant religious and agricultural dates.

The solar calendar is, of course, a massive point of contention for the ancient Egyptians. The Canopus Decree, issued in 237 BC, included the regulation that a sixth day should be added to the season of Heriu-renpet every four years to prevent the shifting of the seasons in the Egyptian administrative calendar, which had been fixed at 365 days since at least the beginning of the Old Kingdom.

This inscription has sparked many controversial discussions about the rising of the star Sothis, the marker of the beginning of the year which shifts forward by one day every four years". Ludwig Borchardt dismissed the inscription as "inaccurate" but Eduard Meyer, on the other hand, interpreted the statements in the decree as evidence of an existing schematized Sothis calendar, and so Sothic Dating was born along with the so-called Great Year of 1,460 years.

Astronomer Richard Anthony Parker, among others, spoke out against a schematic Sothis calendar, citing the astronomical records that indicate an advance of Sothis only in 236 BC. Parker interpreted this circumstance as evidence that Sothis risings were recorded by observation and that an astronomical Sothis calendar was used.

However, the incredible thing about this decree is that it was ignored. This Ptolemaic calendar reform was never implemented while the Egptianified Greeks ruled Egypt. The all-conquering and victorious Augustus Caesar finally implemented it in 26 or 25 BC. Known as the Alexandrian calendar, its inaugural epagomenal day occurred for the first time on 29 August 22 BC. Julius Caesar had earlier implemented a 365+1⁄4 day year in Rome in 45 BC as part of the Julian calendar.

I’ll be revealing why the ancient Egyptians could not bring themselves to implement this decree for paid subscribers at the end of January 2025.

News source: https://archaeology.org/news/2024/08/28/2500-year-old-astronomical-observatory-discovered-in-egypt/