Next let us turn to Esne. The inscriptions here are stated to be based on the Alexandrine year, but we not only find 1st Thoth given as New Year's Day, but 26 Payni given as the beginning of the Nile flood.
Now I have, already stated that the Alexandrine year was practically a fixing of the vague Tunis year—that is, a year beginning on 1st Pachons in 239 B.C.
If we assume the date of the calendar coincidences recorded at Esne to have been 15 B.C. (we know it was after 23 B.C. and at the end of the Roman dominion), we have as before, seeing that, if the vague Tunis year had really continued, it would have swept forward with regard to the Nile flood,
- Pachons 30
- Payni 26
- —
- 56 × 4 = 224 years after 239 B.C.
This double dating, then, proves the continuation of the vague year of Tunis if the date 15 B.C. of the inscription is about right.
Can we go further and find a trace of the old cycle beginning 270 B.C.? In this case we should have the rising of Sirius
- 270
- - 15
- ——
- 4)255 years
- ——
- 64 = say, five Epacts and two months.
This would give us 1 Epiphi. Is this mentioned in the Esne calendar? Yes, it is, "1 Epiphi. To perform the precepts of the book on the second divine birth of the child Kahi."
Now the 26th Payni, the new New Year's Day, is associated with the "revelation of Kahi," so it is not impossible that "the second divine birth" may have some dim reference to the feast.
It is not necessary to pursue this intricate subject further in this place; so intricate is it that, although the suggestions I have ventured to make on astronomical grounds seem consistent with the available facts, they are suggestions only, and a long labour on the part of Egyptologists will be needed before we can be said to be on firm ground.