Abstract
HISTORIANS, archæologists, and astronomers will hail with delight this work, as it fills a gap which for some time past has been very apparent. At the present day, to take one case only, archæologists are busy in Egypt deciphering and unravelling the legion of myths which are there recorded in the many forms and ways peculiar to that country. Many of these myths are, as has been recently more clearly pointed out, purely astronomical in their nature; and this is perfectly natural when one considers that the Egyptians, or, at any rate, the priests, for these were the chief writers, were astronomers. Archæologists in fathoming these depths are perfectly at home when archaeology is in question, but as soon as the astronomical boundary is reached, and astronomy pure has to be attacked, then perfectly different problems are met with. In like manner, the astronomer himself, going from the astronomical to the archæological side, is also nonplussed, unless he wishes to enter somewhat generally into the study of Egyptology. In the book which we have before us, Dr. Wislicenus gives the historians and archæologists a helping hand, and presents them with the necessary means and ways of solving some of the problems which are generally encountered.
Astronornische Chronologie.
By Walter F. Wislicenus. (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1895.)
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L., W. Astronornische Chronologie. Nature 51, 509 (1895). https://doi.org/10.1038/051509a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/051509a0