Zodiacs and monuments: An early pictorial "horoscope" from Egypt. (May 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Winkler, Andreas; Zellmann-Rohrer, Michael
• Is Part Of: Journal for the history of astronomy. Volume 54:Number 2(2023)
• Page Start: 125
• Page End: 152
• Publication Date: 2023-05
• Subjects: Afterlife -- coffins -- Dog Star (Sirius, Sothis) -- draft -- funerary monuments -- Graeco-Roman Egypt -- Horoscope -- New Year -- Soter Family; Astronomy -- History -- Periodicals; 520.9005
• DOI: 10.1177/00218286231159361
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-8286

Abstract

A pictorial horoscope in a late Ptolemaic papyrus ( P.Kramer 17) may be assigned more precisely to late 56 or early 55 BC based on the preserved astronomical data, making it the earliest such representation from Egypt. Instead of a copy for presentation to a client, the papyrus is rather a draft for the depiction of a zodiac, probably in a funerary monument, where it would have represented the planetary positions at the time of birth of the person commemorated. The central pictorial element can be identified as a dog, and contextualized in a complex tradition of Egyptian and Greek concepts and iconography related to Sirius-Sothis, and the beginning of the new year.