Creation Records discovered in Egypt

Abstract

THE idea that the religious observances of the Egyptians were founded upon facts of astronomy deduced by them is very old, and almost every text of any length which is published affords additional proof of the substantial correctness of the idea; it could, in fact, hardly be otherwise. Since the visible emblem of the great god of the early Egyptians was the sun, and since the representatives of the lesser gods were the moon and stars, it follows that every religious ceremony which was celebrated publicly in Egypt must have had reference to the conditions and movements of the celestial bodies. It is quite easy to recognise certain evident proofs of this fact, such as the drawing along of a model of the boat of the sun in a procession to typify the sun's course in heaven, or the drawing of the boat of the god Seker round the sanctuary at dawn in imitation of the sun's motion, but many other equally evident proofs are not so easily explained. We know tolerably well what ceremonies were performed, but we know not the why and the wherefore. In making inquiries into such difficult matters it is important to remember that the knowledge of astronomy possessed by the Egyptians has been greatly overrated, just as their knowledge of mathematics has been, from time immemorial, over-estimated; they probably knew more of both subjects than the rest of the world in the early period of their history, but the limits of their exact knowledge were reached tolerably soon.

Creation Records discovered in Egypt.

By G. St. Clair. Pp. xii + 492. (London: Nutt, 1898.)