Why did Egyptians study astronomy?

Answer 1

The Ancient Egyptians, like many other early civilisations, were very interested in observing the night sky. It is likely that the Egyptians began to study the stars around about 4000BC. Paintings that have been found dating from this time, for example in the tomb of Senenmut in the Valley of Kings, showing stars, some constellations and the planets, represented by the associated Gods.

There were many important reasons that the Ancient Egyptians studied the sky. First of all studying the stars can help to tell the time. It would be very important to ancient peoples to have an accurate calendar so that they would know when to plant and harvest crops to provide food. By observing the rising of certain stars over a long period of time and keeping accurate records the Egyptians discovered that a day has 24 hours. From this they put together a year-long calendar, which originally had 12 months with 30 days in each month and five days left over, which were given over to feasting and celebrating.

The Egyptians noticed that the positions of the stars did not vary but there appeared to be five other objects that moved about at a different speed, sometimes even disappearing for a while. They called these objects 'the stars that know no rest' - we now know them as the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

Astronomy played a part in ancient Egyptian religion, too. The constellation we call Orion was thought to represent Osiris, the god of death and rebirth. The edge of the Milky Way, visible as a faint cloud of stars stretching across the sky, was seen by the Ancient Egyptians as mirroring the River Nile in the heavens. It was also believed to represent the goddess Nut, who stretched all the way across the sky. She was the mother of Ra, the Sun god, who travelled across the sky each day in his solar barge. The Moon was Thoth, god of wisdom and learning.

The centre of Egyptian civilization was the River Nile. The river flooded every year at around midsummer, leaving behind deposits of rich soil on the banks of the Nile, allowing the Egyptians to grow their crops. The Egyptian astronomers recognised that the flooding always occurred at the summer solstice, which also just happened to be when the star Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, rose before the sun. As the appearance of Sirius seemed to signal the flooding of the Nile the Ancient Egyptians thought of the star as the Goddess Isis, who, amongst her other many titles, was the Goddess of Crops.

The Ancient Egyptians also used astronomy to align their buildings. The pyramids and temples are accurately aligned north-south and east-west to a great degree of accuracy. This would have been done by using the rising and setting points of stars and a surveying tool called a merkhet. The merkhet consisted of a stick with a string with a weight on the end to accurately measure a straight vertical line, a bit like a carpenter's plumb bob today. A pair of merkhets were used to establish a North-South line by lining them up with the Pole Star, and from this a string could be stretched out to mark the foundations of the buildings. The Great Pyramid at Giza would have been built using this method. The pyramid is built from over 6.5 million limestone blocks and its four sides face almost directly north, east, south, and west. Each side is almost the same length, with only about 20cm difference between them.

The pyramid also has a very strange feature which archaeologists have argued about for years. There are two shafts built in to the sides which, at the time the pyramids were built, coincided with the passing of two stars, Thuban, which was near the Pole Star, and Alnilon, a star located in Orion's belt. The Egyptians identified Orion with Osiris, who was also the underworld god of rebirth. Temple carvings mention the pharaoh joining Osiris in the sky after his death. It is possible that the shafts were meant to allow passage for the pharaoh's soul on its journey towards the afterlife.

Temples were often built so that sunlight entered a room at certain times of the year. At Abu Simbel, a temple built by the pharaoh Ramesses the Second over 3300 years ago, the main corridor was positioned in such a way that when the Sun rises on October 20th and February 20th it shines directly down it, lighting up the statues at the end. It is believed that these dates relate to Ramesses birthday and the day was crowned ruler of Egypt. Abu Simbel was dedicated to Ra, the Egyptian Sun god.

The Egyptians believed that the gods lived in a place called the Duat, which was in the sky between the constellation of Orion and the star Sirius. Some Egyptologists believe that the monuments at Giza, which includes the three large pyramids, the Sphinx and the River Nile, are meant to represent the Duat. The three pyramids represent the three stars in the belt of Orion. The Sphinx is supposed to be the constellation of Leo the Lion. The River Nile is the Milky Way. This is called a Sacred Landscape and it is thought that the Egyptians build these monuments here as a way of making their Gods presence felt on Earth.

Answer 2

Ancient Egyptians studied astronomy to track time, seasons, and the movement of stars for religious rituals, agriculture, and navigation. They also believed that the stars and planets held significance and influence over human lives.

Answer 3

Astronomy, the study of the stars, has been around since the first cavemen looked up at night. We know more about what the Greeks did because they wrote about it, and their books survived.

Before the Greeks, we know that the Sumerians, the Babylonians and the Egyptians all studied astronomy, but relatively few of their writings survived the thousands of years since.

Answer 4

This was to help their agriculture and irrigation abilities, see the pyramids were lined up with Orion's belt one of the stars was Sirius, when Sirius rose it mean the Nile would flood, they would have to properly irrigate the Nile water the crops and protect homes. The Egyptians had this practice and later so would the Mayans. Temples were both observatories, and places of worship and sacrifice for the Mayan people, the Egyptians merely used it as a way to coordinate the star movements and protect their journeying dead to the lands of the Two fields.

Answer 5

The purpose of Mesopotamians recording astronomy was that they made advances in the primitive, at that time, field of science, and that they were realizing the world around them. They wanted to make themselves superior in the World.

Answer 6

In Egyptian society, priests served as astronomers. They were able to recognize that recognized that flooding always occurred at the summer solstice, so they were able to predict the annual flooding, which made them quite powerful.

Answer 7

the chinese rely heavily on the zodiac. the zodiac is based on Astrology.

Answer 8

No, the Babylonians and Assyrians were earlier than the Egyptians. There may have been other civilizations that pre-date Babylon, but history does not record their names.

Answer 9

The Egyptian timed their crop planting by the rising of the star Sirius, which they called Sothis.

Answer 10

So they could possibly calculate what time it was using the stars.