The dawn of astronomy / A study of the temple-worship and mythology of the ancient Egyptians

by Sir Norman Lockyer

It becomes pretty obvious, when we consider the conditions of things in these early times, that the stars would be the objects which would first commend themselves to the attention of temple builders, for the reason that the movements and rising-and setting-places of the various planets by night, and of the sun by day, would appear to be so erratic, so long as the order of their movements was not known.

To go a step further. It is clear in the first place that no one would think of orienting a temple to the moon, as there is so little constancy about its path in the sky, and, therefore, in its place of rising or setting. If the temple caught it each month, the intervals between which this occurrence takes place would vary very considerably, and in early times would have been impossible to predict. Similarly it would not be worth while to orient temples to the planets. But when we come to the stars, the thing is different. A few years' observations would have appeared to demonstrate the absolute changelessness of the places of rising and setting of the same stars. It is true that this result would have been found to be erroneous when a long period of time had elapsed and when observation became more accurate; but for hundreds of years the stars would certainly appear to represent fixity, while the movements of sun, moon and planets would seem to be bound by no law.

Before, then, the yearly apparent movements of the sun had been fully made out, observations of a star rising or setting with the sun at some critical time of the agricultural cycle, say sowing-time or harvest, would be of the highest importance, and would secure the work being done at the right time of the—to the early peoples—still unformulated year.

If a star was chosen in or near the ecliptic, sooner or later the sunlight as well as the starlight would enter the temple, and the use of a solar temple might have thus been suggested even before the solstices or equinoxes had been thoroughly grasped.

There is no doubt that if we are justified in assuming that the stars were first observed, the next thing that would strike the early astronomers would be the regularity of the annual movement of the sun; the critical times of the sun's movements as related either to their agriculture, or their festivals, or to the year; the equinoxes and the solstices, would soon have revealed themselves to these early observers, if for no other reason than that they were connected in some way or other with some of the important conditions of their environment.

After a certain time, solar temples, if built at all, would be oriented either to the sun at some critical time of the agricultural—or religious—year, or to the solstices and equinoxes. But at first, until the fixity of the sun's yearly movements and especially the solstices and equinoxes had been recognised, it would have seemed as useless to direct a temple to the sun as to the moon. After a time, however, when the solstices and equinoxes had been made out, it would soon have been found that a temple once directed to the sun's rising place at harvest or sowing time, or at a solstice or an equinox, would continue for a long period to mark those critical points in the sun's yearly course; and when this yearly course had been finally made out it would soon be observed that the sun at any part of the agricultural year was as constant (indeed, as we now know, more constant) in its rising-and setting-place as a star.

But dealing with sun-worshippers, and endeavouring to think out what the earliest observers probably would try to do in the case of a solar temple, we see that, in all likelihood, they would orient it to observe the sun at one of the chief points in the year which could be best marked. I have said "which could be best marked," but how was this to be done? Evidently, if terrestrial things were to be assisted, the marking must have been by something exterrestrial, otherwise they would have been reasoning in a circle; and moreover we must take for granted that what was wanted was a warning of what was to be done.

Now, in the earliest times, as I have said, the constant movements of the stars would have stood out in strong contrast to the inconstant movements of the sun, and I think that there can be little doubt that the first fixing of any point in the year was by the rising or setting of some star at sunrise—or possibly sunset.

It is obvious that this might have gone on even before the solstices and equinoxes were recognised.

When this came about, then temples might have been directed to the sun at a solstice or an equinox.