Der Stern Sirius im Alten Ägypten

Recorded dates of heliacal risings of the star Sirius as reported from ancient Egypt have been used for chronological purposes for more than 100 years. This paper presents new calculations of heliacal risings and settings of Sirius for different places in Egypt and discusses the influences of variou...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gautschy, Rita (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:German
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2011
In: Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde
Year: 2011, Volume: 138, Issue: 2, Pages: 116-131
Further subjects:B Chronology
B Sothis date
B Sothis
B Astronomy
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:Recorded dates of heliacal risings of the star Sirius as reported from ancient Egypt have been used for chronological purposes for more than 100 years. This paper presents new calculations of heliacal risings and settings of Sirius for different places in Egypt and discusses the influences of various parameters and their uncertainties on the results. Comparison with ancient Egyptian observations gives a mean value for the arcus visionis of Sirius of about 10°, with plausible values between 9° and 11° depending on the transparency of the atmosphere. This means that a date of a heliacal rising or setting of Sirius, which was recorded in the Egyptian calendar, can pin down the absolute dating of the observation to 12 years, if one assumes that the place of observation is known and if no further information, e.g. lunar data, is available. All results of the calculations are accessible online.
ISSN:2196-713X
Contains:Enthalten in: Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1524/zaes.2011.0010