Shifting Milestones of Natural Sciences: The Ancient Egyptian Discovery of Algol's Period Confirmed.

ABSTRACT: The Ancient Egyptians wrote Calendars of Lucky and Unlucky Days that assigned astronomically influenced prognoses for each day of the year. The best preserved of these calendars is the Cairo Calendar (hereafter CC) dated to 1244-1163 B.C. We have presented evidence that the 2.85 days period in the lucky prognoses of CC is equal to that of the eclipsing binary Algol during this historical era. We wanted to find out the vocabulary that represents Algol in the mythological texts of CC. Here we show that Algol was represented as Horus and thus signified both divinity and kingship. The texts describing the actions of Horus are consistent with the course of events witnessed by any naked eye observer of Algol. These descriptions support our claim that CC is the oldest preserved historical documen

SUBMITTER: Jetsu L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4683080 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature