This posting presents a detailed analysis of the Lower Egypt Nomes and their relation to Astronomy on the basis of the Hieroglyphs. Since Old Kingdom sources - as reflected in Hannig's Egyptian Dictionary I (ED1) - do not contain all of the Nomes of Lower Egypt, I refer to the Digital Egypt site (in English) and to the Meritneith site (in German) by Nadja Türk-Gothe for a representation of all the Nomes of Egypt, including those not found in Hannig's Dictionary of the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period.
NOMES OF LOWER EGYPT and their HIEROGLYPHS EXPLAINED
1. nu-Hydrae (below Leo), Jnbw-hd, "the white wall". The "white wall" and the "gnomon" mark the Summer Solstice.
Update, June 5, 2004
The capital of the 1st lower nome was Memphis. That a gnomon is intended by the nome hieroglyph can be seen from the variant hieroglyph of Memphis as the "king's castle" where the man is clearly holding a gnomon
.See Hannig, ED1, p. 1547.
A gnomon at Memphis is also marked on the Turin Canon.
The goddess Hathor at Memphis, the "eye" of Ra (the sun - related to Indo-European, e.g. Latvian Re!, Redz! "sight, light") and goddess of the sky, had the epithet "of the southern sycamore", which might have referred to the stars of Crater below Leo. Crater is marked as a tree on the megaliths of Ancient Britain at Trethevy Quoit.
The Chinese sieu (lunar mansion, moon station) in Hydra called Lieu was seen as a "willow branch" in this part of the heavens, governing the planets and being "worshipped at festivals of the summer solstice as an emblem of immortality". RHA, p. 248.
2. Crater, Hm, something like "front side cut" and perhaps related to the later Arabic Al Hayyah "snake". The shape of the hieroglyph might mark the head of Hydra and that same constellation to its left including Sextans.
Update, June 14
The main city in the second lower nome of Egypt was Khem (Greek Letopolis, Arabic Ausim) viz. KhentyKhem. Khem will mark the lucida (brightest star) in Hydra, Alphard, at the neck of the water serpent, known as Suhel al Fard in Arabic but also as Suhel al Sham (RHA p. 249)- Sham (Ausim) will be Khem.
The hieroglyph used for this nome, according to Hannig, marks the innards, which in Latvian are the word ikris and this corresponds to the 7th Vedic nakshatra Acresha at Hydra (RHA p. 248).
Hence, the first lower nome marks the Summer Solstice and the second lower nome marks the front of Hydra from head to Crater.
3. Corvus, jmntt, the Raven, read as the "West nome" by mainstream Egyptology.
Update, June 14
Corvus is known as the Raven in ancient astronomy and the Pharaonic hieroglyph is indeed a bird.
The main city in the 3rd lower nome of Egypt was Imu (Arabic Kom el-Hisn)
and its deity was noted as Hepy of Hut-Ihyt. These terms correspond to the early Arabic titles for Crater, with Imu = (?) Al Ajmal "the Camel" and Hepy = Al Hiba "the Tent". Corvus was known as Emansor (=Imu?) in early days (RHA p. 181). The Arabic name Kom el-Hisn for the main city Imu indicates a possible relation to the 11th Vedic nakshatra, Hasta (=Hisn?), marking the star Algorab. The Chinese 11th sieu - a lunar mansion - is similarly named as Kusam. (Yes, we think the systems are related in origin).
4. Spica in Virgo, nt, read by Egyptologists as "Southern shield", it is also possible that this is a reference to Centaurus and/or the Southern Cross, Crux, below Virgo. Centaurus was pictured with a shield in later eras. See Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names, p. 151.
Update, June 16
Nomes 4 and 5 of Lower Egypt are the southern and northern parts of the "province" of Neit, divided after the Old Kingdom, and this large size makes it look as if Centaurus is intended rather than Spica and Virgo, Virgo being almost directly on the ecliptic, although the Arabic name for Virgo, Al Adhra al Nathifah (the innocent - or pure - maiden), may through Nath-ifah have given the name Neith to these two nomes, assigned to it by the Egyptologists.
The main city in Nome 4 is Tanta, which might be a variant of Kenta-urus, but this is speculation as there is no other evidence to support this conclusion as yet.
The idea of a "Southern Shield" has its comparable in Chinese astronomy where Nan Mun marked the lucida of the Centaur and was called the "South Gate".
RHA writes that alpha-Centauri was known as Serk-t in Egypt, but this seems not to explain the Sobek applied to it on the White Chapel (see Digital Egypt).
5. V-stars of Centaurus, Nt, "Northern shield", the stars which at theta-Centauri (Menkent) form the shape of a flower above the centaur.
Update, June 17
The major city of Nome 5 (and perhaps also 4) was Sau (Zau), in Greek Sais and in Arabic Sa al-Hagar. Zau and Hagar might be remnants of the names Wazn and Hadar, "Ground and Weight" applied to the stars alpha and beta-Centauri.
6. V of Horns of Lupus, H3sww, "mountain bull".
Update, June 4, 2004:
This is the area of sky where the stars of Lupus (Indo-European, e.g. Latvian lops, lopis (luopis) "animal, beast, cattle, livestock") and Centaurus meet. The Centaur was the ancient Minoan bull, the Minotaur, and also "on the Euphrates it was considered a complete Bull", see Richard Hinckley Allen (RHA), Star Names, pp. 150-151 (Lupus made up the head and horns). The capital city of the sixth lower nome is Buto [Buto (de)] (Tell el-Fara'in viz. Farain), also called Uto, Edjo, Wadjet (Per-Wadjet) or Wadjit - cobra goddess of ancient Egypt twined around a papyrus stem. See Encyclopaedia Britannica under "Buto". As RHA points out, the area of connection of Lupus and Centaurus was known to the Arabs as Al Kadb al Karm, "the Vine Branch", i.e. the twine around a papyrus stem. RHA notes that this stellar area was also called Al Wazn "weight" in Arabic, surely related to the "ground and weight" (Hadar and Wazn) of ancient stars in this region, showing these to be stars arranged in the form of the net of the fisherman at Lupus and Centaurus according to my decipherment of the megaliths of Scotland, the net explaining the use of "ground and weight", as used in net construction. These are Pe and Dep, the semi-mythical Predynastic capitals of Lower Egypt at Buto, which we now can see marked the stars above and below the ecliptic. The Pyramid Texts state that Pe marks kings of "Lower Egypt" whereas Dep marks the serpent.
The use of the serpent rather than the bull came from using Serpens Caput above the ecliptic rather than Lupus and Centaur below it. The Muu dancers show Dep as wearing a crown (above the ecliptic) and Pe as wearing none. DEP will be Indo-European, e.g. Latvian DEB-ess "heaven". We now know from the above analysis that not only the nomes but also the capital city of each nome were hermetic, with the capital astronomically marking the lucida - the brightest star in each stellar region.
This area of the heavens marked the Autumn Equinox in ca. 3000 BC, where the ecliptic and the celestial equator met. Buto has three mounds, but I do not know their shape, by which one should be able determine the astronomical location in the stars exactly in the predynastic megalithic period. Perhaps these oldest mounds marked the three front prominent stars of Scorpio, as at other megalithic sites.
7. West Harpoon of Scorpio, Hwj-gs-jmntj or W'm hww gs jmntj, "West harpoon nome".
8. Middle of Scorpio, Hwj or W'm hww j³btj, "East harpoon nome", this is Arabic Jabhat and stars in Scorpio are known as al Jabhah in Arabic (see Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names, p. 3719.
9. Staff (Stinger) of Scorpio, 'ndtj, "Andjeti".
10. Corona Australis - Sagittarius, Km-wr, "Kem-wer", "black bull". The bull or ox is assigned to the area of Sagittarius and Capricorn in Chinese astronomy (see Richard Hinckley Allen, p. 139) and the area of Capricorn was known as Mriga, Makara viz. Makra "antelope, goat."
11. Start of Capricorn, Hsbw, "Hesbu", "counting of the bulls".
12. End of Capricorn, Tb-ntrt, "calf and cow". This marks the Winter Solstice at Algedi.
13. Aquarius. Hannig writes J3btj, "Jabet".
14. Front of Cetus - Diphda, Hntj-j3btj, "front Eastern nome".
15. Achernar - Phoenix, Dhwtj, "Djehuti".
16. Menkar in Cetus, H3t-mhjt, "First of the Fish"
17. Taurus - Aldebaran, Zm³-bhdt, "united Behedet". The united element refers to the crossing of the ecliptic and the celestial equator.
18. Front of Orion, Jmt, "Prince of the South".
19. Back of Orion - Sirius, Jmt-ph, "Prince of the North".
20. Puppis - Sirius, Pr-Spdw, "feather-crowned falcon of Sopdu". Sopdu here will be the same as Sopdet, Sirius, as the feather above Puppis.
21. No Nome - Break in the Milky Way
22. No Nome - Break in the Milky Way
Note that the presence of an Arabic term does not mean the hieroglyphs were originally read or pronounced that way for the mentioned astronomical terms, but it does mean that the Egyptologists are using later sources to derive the names of the hieroglpyhs.
Note that the scaffolding in the Nome hieroglyphs (the scaffolding has been removed in the graphics used here) marks something high up, i.e. the heavens. The hieroglyphs which define the stellar area described are then found inscribed on top of this scaffolding. We have such a scaffold pedestal on the Narmer Palette, for example, marking the Vernal Equinox in the figure of Anubis (my discovery).
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