Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)When I first opened this book to read I was immediately struck by the great amount of technical detail. As a person who reads highly technical data on a daily basis, and considering myself a serious aficionado of ancient Egypt, I was still encumbered.
This book is a VERY scholarly work and intended, I'm sure, for the most serious students of Egyptology (since it has been translated into other languages for such purposes). While the title and cover are catchy, this book is written in the format of a high-end college thesis. Unless you are familiar with concepts such as "Sothic Cycle, Heliacal Rise and Epagomenoi," along with an understanding of Egyptian mythology and basic astronomy (concepts such as planetary retrograde movement, angular velocity, etc.), you may find this work difficult. On the other hand, if you want to dive into the expansive detail of real scientific astronomy linked to the Egyptian calander (probably the most serious Egyptophile... with LOTS of time on your hands) this may be for you. The ancient Egyptian calendar is pivotal to the stability of their belief system.
This book brings together some of the most exhaustive research on the subject from THE most prominent Egyptological resources. The basis for much of this volume is the reverse side of the Ebers Papyrus (a beautiful hieratic facsimile of the small section is provided). The previous thoughts of this tiny "list of months" has been minimal. Von Bomhard brings together the structure of the sliding "gliding" year, points of where latitude reference may have been and compared it against other astronomical monuments from Egypt. The end result is an incredibly strong argument that both the fixed and mobile year were used and accounted for displacement of dates and "feast days", so important to the Egyptians. A durable calender meant to last for eternity.
Basis for rating:
1) Scientific content 5-Stars
2) Ease of reading2.5 to 3-Stars
3) Illustrations4-Stars
A technical masterpiece that could have reached a larger audience had it been presented in a clearer fashion. Without question, the best research on the Egyptian calendar to date.
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