mysteries of egyptian zodiacs - HiddenMysteries Information Central

It is commonly believed that 3000 years 

of Ancient Egyptian history ended around 

the year 500 A.D. leaving behind 

phenomenal monuments, temples and 

tombs. But, can we trust Egyptian 

chronology? 

“Mysteries of Egyptian Zodiacs” will undermine 

your beliefs in the conventional history of 

Egypt, by providing you with strong 

scientific proof that ancient Egyptian 

temples and tombs were created after the year 1000 A.D. This 

book is not based on historical speculations, but it is a 

comprehensive scientific analysis of the Egyptian zodiacs — the 

astronomical calendars holding the real dates of Ancient Egypt. 

Authors of this book are mathematicians who scrupulously 

investigated the existing astronomical evidence and used 

special computer programs to calculate the dates encoded 

in the Egyptian zodiacs. The book explains in every detail how to 

read the astronomical data shown on the Egyptian zodiacs, and 

provides the reader with all the necessary tools to conduct 

independent research into this area of astronomical dating. 

It was always extremely hard to introduce principally new ideas 

in any field of knowledge. The authors of this book show that there 

are serious problems in a very foundation of the conventional 

chronology. This exciting topic will make readers shake and crave 

for more 

Tatiana N. Fomenko 

Gleb V. Nosovsky 

Anatoly Anatoly T. Fomenko Fomenko 

Wieslaw Wieslaw Z. Krawcewicz 

MYSTERIES OF OF EGYPTIAN ZODIACS MYSTERIES OF EGYPTIAN ZODIACS 

And Other Riddles of Ancient History 

A GUIDE TO DATING ANCIENT ASTRONOMICAL DATA 

Anatoly T. Fomenko Tatiana N. Fomenko 

Wieslaw Z. Krawcewicz Gleb V. Nosovsky

Mysteries of 

Egyptian Zodiacs 

and 

Other Riddles of Ancient 

History 

A Guide to Dating 

Ancient Astronomical Data 

Anatoly T. Fomenko 

Tatiana N. Fomenko 

Wieslaw Z. Krawcewicz 

Gleb V. Nosovskij 

New Chronology Publications 

January 3, 2004

Preface 

We are all aware that history can not be considered as an 

area of knowledge where the portrayed facts are scientifically 

supported. It was always an arena for political or nationalistic 

manipulations and smaller or larger falsification. Ancient 

history is not an exception and in fact its problems are more 

serious than one could suspect. 

All the authors of this book are mathematicians and we 

would like to illustrate how modern applied mathematics can 

be used to investigate the chronology of ancient events. Our 

results challenge the correctness of the ancient chronology 

supported by the overwhelming opinion of reputable experts 

in history. It is not our intention to create a sensation or to 

discredit anybody. Our objective is to attract more attention 

to a serious scientific problem. 

We are aware that it was always extremely hard to introduce 

principally new ideas in any field of knowledge. 

There are numerous examples in physics, mathematics, biology, 

medicine and other sciences, when the new theories 

were only accepted after long years of absolute rejection by 

almost all experts. Nevertheless, every area of science had 

its turning points when, with hesitation and lots of pain, old 

and well established knowledge was rejected to accept new 

concepts. Such reversals happened before in astronomy, mechanics, 

chemistry, physics and even in mathematics. There 

were also reversals in economics and psychology as well. Surprisingly, 

the historical chronology throughout the last four 

centuries remains intact. There was no significant improvement 

of the chronology in spite of the computer technology 

and modern methods of data analysis. 

Nowadays, more and more mathematics is used in the social 

sciences. During the last century, economics owes its development 

to mathematics. There is a growing need for mathematics 

in psychology, sociology, demography, social epidemiology 

and criminology. Not surprisingly, mathematics is also 

trying to make its contribution in areas that seem to be quite 

distant from it. 

Historical chronology, when it was created in the 17th 

century was considered as a part of mathematics (even J. 

Scaliger, who is know as the creator of the presently accepted 

version of the chronology, considered himself as a mathematician). 

Later, it was incorporated as a part of history, which is a 

pure social science not relying on the natural sciences methodology. 

Without solid scientific tools, historians are not able to 

solve principal problems existing in the chronology (clearly, 

problems exist in any area of knowledge). In our book, we will 

iii 

show that there are serious problems in a very foundation of 

the conventional chronology. 

How anybody can be sure that historical events we learned 

about in school, from books or even movies, really took place? 

Maybe some of them are simply fairy tales or fantasies that 

are considered now to be historical facts. However, a prevailing 

opinion is that there is no reason to worry about 

the accuracy of the conventional chronology. Historians claim 

that their work provides us with clear and comprehensive 

explanations of every historical epoch and that strictly scientific 

methods, for example the carbon-14 dating and dendrochronology 

support it. However, there are serious problems 

with usage of physical methods for supporting the conventional 

chronology. We do not want to discuss this problem 

here and we refer the interested reader to the books [103] and 

[115]. 

The astronomical dating, using contemporary scientific 

theories, remains in fact the only method that can produce reliable 

precise dates for ancient events. In particular, remains 

of old Egyptian zodiacs containing horoscopes are important 

material for such dating. Analysis of some of these horoscopes 

was already attempted in the 18th and 19th centuries but did 

not lead to any solid date. 

Recently it was discovered (see [114]) that Egyptian zodiacs 

contain much more astronomical information that it was 

previously believed. This gave us an opportunity to establish 

dozens of unique dates from the ancient Egyptian history. It 

appears that it is possible to determine with very high 

confidence the exact dates represented on the Egyptian 

zodiacs. 

In this book we have collected many accessible to us old 

Egyptian zodiacs containing valid astronomical data (horoscopes), 

which were created in form of reliefs, carvings in 

stone or paintings. The purpose of this book is to analyze and 

astronomically date all those zodiacs. The obtained dates appear 

to be much later than it is suggested in the conventional 

chronology of Egypt. 

We are not going to discuss in this book how serious are 

the implications of these new dates on ancient history. Our 

only objective is to present a serious scientific evidence without 

making any a priori assumption of its correctness or incorrectness. 

Our research is independent of the restrictions 

imposed by the conventional chronology. Being mathematicians, 

we simply solve the puzzle of ancient Egypt zodiacs,

where the hidden dates were encoded inside the horoscopes. 

We find these dates and let them speak for themselves. 

We are using here the results that were obtained by A.T. 

Fomenko and G.V. Nosovsky, and were published in Russia 

in 2001 (see [114]). However, it is not a translation of the 

original Russian book, but it is a different presentation of 

the same material with many new illustrations and some new 

results obtained recently. We do not require from the reader 

any mathematical background or astronomical knowledge. All 

the information necessary for a complete understanding of the 

problem and the methods presented in this book is included 

and carefully explained. We also provide our readers with 

the tools to conduct their further independent research. The 

special software used for the computations of the dates on the 

Egyptian zodiacs and high resolution images of the Egyptian 

zodiacs, are available form the web sites listed in this book. 

All the technicalities are separated from the main text and 

placed in Appendixes. 

Acknowledgments 

The authors would like to express their gratitude to Professor 

Y.V. Tatarinov from Moscow State University for his help 

in collecting material about the Egyptian zodiacs. Special 

thanks go to Mane Leung, who created the Windows interface 

for the program HOROS, which was used for the dating 

of the zodiacs presented in this book. We are also thankful 

to our colleagues from the Department of Mathematical and 

Statistical Sciences at the University of Alberta, for their interest 

and support, in particular: Jack Macki, John Bowman, 

Jacques Carrière and Oksana Kotovych. We would like to 

thank Florin Diacu from Vicoria Unversity for his sugestons 

and comments. Special thanks go to Veronica and Karma 

Krawcewicz and Maria Marsh for their help with the proofreading 

of the manuscript. In addition, we would like to express 

our gratitude to all the people who were helping and 

supporting us during the work on this book, including Alexander 

Orlov, Grazyna Krawcewicz, Jules de Tibeiro, Dragos 

Hrimiuc, Timothy Taylor, and many others.

Contents 

1 The Problems of Historical Chronology 1 

1.1 Creation of the Contemporary Chronology of the Ancient Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 

1.2 Who were the Critics of Scaliger’s Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 

1.3 Questionable Authenticity of the Fundamental “Ancient” Manuscripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 

1.4 Medieval Anachronisms and Measuring Time in the Middle Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 

1.5 The Chronology of the Biblical Manuscripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 

1.6 Vowels in Ancient Manuscripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

1.7 Controversy over the Ptolemy’s Almagest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 

1.7.1 Coordinate System used in the Almagest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 

1.7.2 North Star as the First Star of the Catalogue Almagest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 

1.7.3 Statistical Analysis of the Star Catalogue Almagest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 

1.8 Peculiarities in Development of Ancient Astronomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 

1.9 Mathematical and Statistical Methods for Dating Events of Ancient History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 

2 Ancient Egyptian Zodiacs 29 

2.1 Egyptian Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 

2.2 Problem of Astronomical Dating of Egyptian Zodiacs. Why Egyptologists Avoid Astronomical Dating of 

Egyptian Zodiacs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 

2.3 Our New Approach to Dating Egyptian Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 

2.4 Pictures of Egyptian Zodiacs used for Dating in this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 

2.5 Our Abbreviations for Egyptian Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 

3 Previous Attempts of Astronomical Dating of Egyptian Zodiacs 53 

3.1 History of Dating of the Denderah Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 

3.2 Two Esna Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 

3.3 Athribis Zodiacs Discovered by Flinders Petrie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 

3.4 Brugsch’s Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 

3.5 Astronomical Dating of Zodiacs by Egyptologists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 

4 New Approach to Decoding of Egyptian Zodiacs 67 

4.1 New Approach to Decoding of Egyptian Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 

4.2 Equinox and Solstice Points on Egyptian Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 

4.3 Egyptian Zodiacs as Astronomical Pictures of the Whole Year Containing the Main Date . . . . . . . . . . . 73 

4.4 Dating of Egyptian Zodiacs with Equal Treatment of all Admissible Decodings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 

5 Symbolism on Egyptian Zodiacs and New Complete Decoding 75 

5.1 Symbols of Constellations on Egyptian Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 

5.1.1 Aries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 

5.1.2 Taurus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 

5.1.3 Gemini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 

5.1.4 Cancer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 

5.1.5 Leo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 

5.1.6 Virgo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 

5.1.7 Libra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 

5.1.8 Scorpio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 

5.1.9 Sagittarius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 

v

vi CONTENTS 

5.1.10 Capricorn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 

5.1.11 Aquarius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 

5.1.12 Pisces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 

5.2 Symbols of Decans and Principal Scale on Egyptian Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 

5.2.1 Decans on the Long Denderah Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 

5.2.2 Principal Scale on Egyptian Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 

5.3 Male and Female Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 

5.4 Planetary Symbols of the Main Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 

5.4.1 Planetary Walking Stick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 

5.4.2 Saturn in the Main Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 

5.4.3 Seth, Anubis and Thoth as Egyptian Symbols of Saturn and Mercury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 

5.4.4 Jupiter in the Main Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 

5.4.5 Mars in the Main Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 

5.4.6 Venus in the Main Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 

5.4.7 Mercury in the Main Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 

5.4.8 Additional Symbols associated with Mercury on Egyptian Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 

5.4.9 Representation of Mercury in two locations on one Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 

5.4.10 Relation between Mercury and the Roman god Janus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 

5.4.11 The Sun in the Main Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 

5.4.12 The Astronomical Meaning of the Egyptian Eye Symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 

5.4.13 Moon in the Main Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 

5.5 Planetary Symbols in the Partial Horoscopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 

5.5.1 First Example: Partial Horoscope of Autumn Equinox on the Long zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 

5.5.2 Second Example: Partial Horoscope of Winter Solstice on the Round zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 

5.5.3 Third Example: Partial Horoscope of Summer Solstice on the Lower Athribis zodiac . . . . . . . . . . 115 

5.6 Boats, Snakes, and Other Objects under the Feet of Figures as Pull-Out Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 

5.7 Signs of Visibility of Planets in the Main Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 

5.8 Symbols of Equinoxes and Solstices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 

5.8.1 Symbols of the Autumn Equinox in Virgo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 

5.8.2 Symbols of the Winter Solstice in Sagittarius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 

5.8.3 Symbols of the Spring Equinox in Pisces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 

5.8.4 Symbols of the Summer Solstice in Gemini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 

5.9 Supplementary Astronomical Symbols on Egyptian Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 

5.9.1 Paschal Moon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 

5.9.2 Bird-Sun on the Long Denderah Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 

5.9.3 Symbol of the Twilights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 

5.9.4 Beheading Scenes near Aquarius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 

5.9.5 Meeting of Saturn and Mars on the Long Denderah Zodiac. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 

5.9.6 Stabbing of a Bull (Bullfighting) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 

5.9.7 Wolf on a Scythe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 

5.10 The Places of Astronomical Observations: Cairo and Luxor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 

5.11 Beginning of the Year on the Egyptian Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 

6 Method of Astronomical Determination of the Dates Encoded in Egyptian Zodiacs 131 

6.1 Seven Planets of Ancient Astronomy: Zodiacs and Horoscopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 

6.2 Calculated Horoscopes on the Egyptian Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 

6.3 Movement of Planets Among Zodiac Constellations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 

6.4 Partition of the Zodiac Belt into Zodiac Constellations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 

6.5 “Celestial Calendar” and Its Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 

6.6 Principal Accuracy of the Computations of the Past Planetary Positions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 

6.7 Dating of Egyptian Zodiacs Based on Contents of the Main and Partial Horoscopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 

6.7.1 Step 1: Identification of the Planets in the Main Horoscope with All Possible Variants Considered. . . 140 

6.7.2 Step 2: Computation of the Dates for All Variants of Decoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 

6.7.3 Step 3: Validation of Dates Based on the Precise Planetary Positions, Visibility Attributes, and Partial 

Horoscopes. Rejection of Incomplete Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 

6.8 Color-Annotated Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 

6.9 Conclusive Determination of the Main Date. Final (Complete) Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 

6.10 Constellation-Sized Scale of The Zodiacal Belt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

CONTENTS vii 

6.11 Best Points for the Planets and the Planetary Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 

6.12 Mean Discrepancy from the Best Points as an Indicator of the Accuracy of the Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 

6.13 Example of the Input Data for the Program Horos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 

6.14 Check-up List for an Astronomical Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 

7 The Dates Shown on the Monumental Zodiacs in the Denderah and Esna Temples 149 

7.1 Denderah and Esna Zodiacs as Parts of the Gigantic Burial Complex in the Great Bend of Nile . . . . . . . . 150 

7.2 sec:0.9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 

7.3 Decoding the Date from the Long Denderah Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 

7.3.1 Constellations Figures on the Long Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 

7.3.2 Planets in the Main Horoscope on the Long Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 

7.3.3 Partial Horoscopes on the Long Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 

7.3.4 Final Solution for the Long Zodiac: April 22-26, 1168 AD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 

7.3.5 Check-up list for the Long Zodiac Final Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 

7.4 Decoding the Date from the Round Denderah Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 

7.4.1 Constellations Figures on the Round Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 

7.4.2 Planets in the Main Horoscope on the Round Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 

7.4.3 Partial Horoscopes on the Round Zodiac. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 

7.4.4 Final Solution for the Round Zodiac: Morning of March 20, 1185 A.D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 

7.4.5 Checkup List for the Round Zodiac Final Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 

7.5 Decoding the Date from the Big Esna Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 

7.5.1 Constellations and “Constellation Brackets” on the Big Esna Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 

7.5.2 Planetary Figures in the Main Horoscope on the Big Esna Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 

7.5.3 Main Horoscope and “Double” Planetary Symbols on the Big Esna Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 

7.5.4 Invisibility Attributes on the Big Esna Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 

7.5.5 Partial Horoscopes on the Big Esna Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 

7.5.6 Final Solution for the Big Esna Zodiac: March 31 — April 3, 1394 AD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 

7.5.7 Checkup list for the Big Esna Zodiac Final Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 

7.6 Decoding the Date from the Small Esna Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 

7.6.1 Color-Annotated Small Esna Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 

7.6.2 “Constellations Brackets” in the Planetary Row on the Small Esna Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 

7.6.3 Planetary Figures in the Main Horoscope on the Small Esna Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 

7.6.4 Partial Horoscopes and Supplementary Scenes on the Small Esna Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 

7.6.5 Final Solution for the Small Esna Zodiac: May 6—8, 1404 AD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 

7.6.6 Checkup list for the Small Esna Zodiac Final Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 

8 The Dates Shown on the Zodiacs form Ancient Egyptian Tombs and Sarcophagi 211 

8.1 The Athribis Zodiacs of Flinders Petrie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 

8.1.1 Decoding of the Main Horoscopes: Six Variants for Identification of Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 

8.1.2 Partial Horoscopes and Supplementary Scenes on the Athribis Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 

8.1.3 Results of Computations for the Six Variants of Decoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 

8.1.4 Results of Computations for the Six Variants of Decoding with Arbitrary Order of Invisible Planets . 219 

8.1.5 Final Solutions for the Athribis Zodiacs: the Lower Zodiac — May 15-16, 1230 AD, the Upper Zodiac 

— February 9-10, 1268 AD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 

8.1.6 Validation of the Solutions with Respect to the Planetary Positions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 

8.1.7 Validation of the Solutions According to the Partial Horoscope of the Summer Solstice . . . . . . . . . 223 

8.1.8 Verification of the “Meeting Scene above the Lion” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 

8.1.9 Archaic Beginning of the Year in June on the Athribis Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 

8.1.10 Final Identification of the Last Three Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 

8.1.11 Stability of the Obtained Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 

8.1.12 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 

8.2 Brugsch’s Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 

8.2.1 Annotated Demotic Horoscope on the Brugsch’s Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 

8.2.2 Horoscope “Without Walking Sticks” on Brugsch’s Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 

8.2.3 Horoscope in “Boats” on Brugsch’s Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 

8.2.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 

8.3 Zodiac of Ramses VII —“Color Thebes Zodiac” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 

8.3.1 Constellation Figures on the Thebes Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

viii CONTENTS 

8.3.2 Planetary Figures on the Thebes Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 

8.3.3 The Main Horoscope and Additional Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 

8.3.4 Preliminary Solutions for the Main Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 

8.3.5 Checking the Supplementary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 

8.3.6 Conclusion: the Date Encoded in the Color Zodiac was September 5–8, 1182 AD . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 

8.4 Two Zodiacs from the Petosiris Tomb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 

8.4.1 Story of the Discovery and Analysis of the Petosiris Zodiacs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 

8.4.2 General Description of the Petosiris Tomb and Its Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 

8.4.3 Planetary Symbols on the Petosiris Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 

8.4.4 Constellations Symbols. Equinoctial Break on the Zodiac (P2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 

8.4.5 Constellations Figures on the Inner Petosiris Zodiac P2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 

8.4.6 The Main Horoscope on the Inner Zodiac (P2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 

8.4.7 Symbols of Equinoxes, Solstices, Partial Horoscopes and Supplementary Scenes on the Petosiris Zodiac 

(P2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 

8.4.8 Astronomical Solutions for the Inner Petosiris Zodiac P2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 

8.4.9 Constellations and Planetary Figures on the Outer Petosiris Zodiac P1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 

8.4.10 The Main Horoscope and the Supplementary Scenes on the Outer Zodiac P1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 

8.4.11 Astronomically Possible Dates for the Zodiac P1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 

8.4.12 Astronomical Dating of the Pair of the Zodiacs (P1) and (P2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 

8.4.13 Dating of the Petosiris Zodiac Under Weaker Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 

8.4.14 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 

8.5 Dating of the Zodiac from the Tomb of Ramses VI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 

8.5.1 The Tomb of Ramses VI and Its Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 

8.5.2 Zodiacal Constellations Symbols on the Zodiac (RS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 

8.5.3 Planets in the Main Horoscope on the Ramses VI Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 

8.5.4 Main Horoscope on the Ramses VI Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 

8.5.5 Final Solution for the Ramses VI Zodiac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 

9 Summary of the Astronomical Dating of the Egyptian Zodiacs 273 

9.1 General Picture of the Dates on the Egyptian Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 

9.2 Stability of the Obtained Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 

9.3 Unsolved Problems Related to the Dating of the Egyptian Zodiacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 

9.4 Astronomical Dating of the Sumerian Tablets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Chapter 1 

The Problems of Historical Chronology

1.1 Creation of the Contemporary 

Chronology of the Ancient 

Times 

Let us discuss briefly the current state of the presently accepted 

chronology of the ancient and medieval history. The 

chronology is simply an order of historical events in a certain 

region arranged on the time line. It indicates the time interval 

between a particular historical even and the present era. 

Almost all the most fundamental historical conclusions and 

interpretations depend on the dating of the related events, 

which makes the chronology the core of the historical knowledge. 

The most of modern dating methods are based on the 

comparison of data in a document with those whose datings 

had been established earlier and are regarded as known and 

fixed. The dating of ancient events is predominately based on 

the Roman chronology, which is the “spinal column” of the 

whole global chronology and history. As a matter of fact, “all 

the remaining dates in ancient chronology were determined by 

means of direct or indirect synchronizations with the Romans 

ones 1 .” 

Figure 1.1: Iosephus Iustus 

Scaliger (1540–1609) 

Chronology, as we know it 

today, has been basically established 

in the 16th and 17th 

centuries. It was initiated by 

the fundamental works of Joseph 

Scaliger (1540–1609) (Iosephus 

Iustus Scaliger), whom the contemporary 

chronologist E. Bickerman 

considers as the “founder 

of the modern chronology as 

a science.” In his fundamental 

works Opus novum de emendatione 

temporum, published in 

1583 by Lutetiac in Paris, 

and Thesaurum temporum, published 

in 1606, Scaliger laid the 

foundations for the chronological 

science. His work on establishing 

chronology was concluded by 

Dionisyus Petavius (1583–1652), 

who in 1627 published in Paris 

his famous book De doctrina temporum. Later, in the 

18th century, Gerhard Frideric Miller (1705-1783), applied 

Scaliger’s schema to “revise” Russian history. We should also 

mention the chronological works of the 18th-19th century, 

which are interesting because they reveal how the original 

chronological research was conducted. 

However, the chronologist E. Bickerman points out that 

“there is no adequate, full-scale treatment of ancient chronology 

2 .” Indeed, in spite of the fact that the chronology is far 

from being complete, there is a clear lack of a modern study, 

based on strict scientific methods, that could be considered 

1 See [67], page 77 

2 See [67], p. 96, Note 1. 

as a substantiation of the correctness of the global chronology 

of ancient times and the Middle Ages. All kinds of difficulties 

in processing various original historical material necessitate 

further such a scientific substantiation of the chronology. 

It is appropriate to call the accepted today chronology of 

the ancient times and the Middle Ages the Scaliger-Petavius 

(or simply the Scaliger) version of chronology. This was not 

the only version of chronology that was considered by the 

17th and 18th centuries scientists. 

In the 16th and 17th century works by Scaliger and 

Petavius the ancient chronology was presented in form of 

tables containing the dates. For many centuries history was 

dominated by the church tradition, so there was no justification 

given for these dates. This is not surprising, since “for 

many centuries, history has predominantly been a “church science,” 

and was written, as a rule, by the clergy . . . 3 .” 

It is assumed today that the foundations of the chronology 

were established by Eusebius Pamphili and St. Jerome (Hieronymous), 

presumably in the 4th century A.D. Although, 

according to Scaliger’s history, Eusebius lived around the 

years 240–340 A.D., his work “History form the Creation 

until the Oecumenical Council of Nicaea” (Eusebii Pamphili 

Chronicorum) was discovered only in the late Middle Ages. 

Moreover, only fragments of the Greek original of the Eusebius’ 

work survived, — they were completed by the free 

Latin translation made by St. Jerome. It is also interesting 

that Nicephorus Callistus made an attempt in the 14th century 

to write a new history of the first three centuries, but he 

“could do noting more than repeat what Eusebius had already 

said 4 .”. Nevertheless, the Eusebius’ work was published only 

in 1544, which was much later than that of Nicephorus. In 

these circumstances it is possible that, in fact, it was Eusebius 

who based his work on Nichephorus Callistus. Beginning 

with Eusebius and Jerome almost all the chronologists until 

the 16th-17th century belonged to the high ranked clergy 

(archbishop Jerome, bishop Theophilus, archbishop J. Ussher, 

etc.) or were closely associated with the Catholic Church (theologian 

J. Scaliger, Jesuit Dionysus Petavius). They had absolute 

trust in the infallibility of the ecclesial chronology and 

excluded the very possibility of criticizing its foundations. For 

example, J. Scaliger did not even hide that running a check on 

chronological materials of the holy fathers would be considered 

as heresy. These were the main reasons why their chronological 

approach was based on the data contained in the Bible 

and depended on the Catholic Church authorities. As a result 

of these cabalistic speculations, the “basic dates” were established 

for the entire ancient chronology. One of these “basic 

dates” was the date of the creation of the world. According 

to the chronolog J. Ussher (Usserius), the world was created 

early in the morning of October 23, 4004 B.C. 5 The “secular 

chronology,” which appeared later, was also completely based 

on the church dogma: 

3 See [128], p. 105. 

4 See [127], p. xi. 

5 See [129].

”... the Christian chronographers put secular chronography 

into the service of sacred history ... Jerome’s compilation 

became the standard of chronological knowledge in the West 

...” 

“J. Scaliger, the founder of modern chronological science, 

aimed at reconstructing the work of Eusebius ... The dating 

of Eusebius, often transmitted incorrectly in manuscripts, are 

of little use to us today ...” 6 

Ambiguities and speculative character of these cabalistic 

calculations of the “date of the creation of the world” resulted 

in a wide range of postulated dates. Let us list some of them 7 

as an example: 

5969 B.C. — the Antiochian dating according to Theophilus; 

5872 B.C. — Septuagint date also called the 

“dating of the seventy interpreters” 

5551 B.C. — St. Augustine’s date 

5515 B.C. — the Theophilus’ date, also 5507 B.C. 

5508 B.C. — the Byzantine date also known as 

“the Constantinopol version” 

5500 B.C. — according to Hippolytus and 

Sextus Julius Africanus 

5493 B.C. — the Alexandrian date, the Annian era, 

also 5472 B.C or 5624 B.C. 

5199 B.C. — according to Eusebius of Caesarea 

4700 B.C. — the Samaritan date 

4004 B.C. — according to Ussher, the Hebrew date 

3941 B.C. — according to Hieronymus 

3761 B.C. — Jewish date 

The above examples are just a small fraction of all the existing 

dates of the “creation of the world,”or the so-called “Genesis 

date.” There are about 200 such dates. Notice the substantial 

differences between these dates reaching up to 2200 years 

(2208 years to be more precise). In fact, the choice of the 

correct “date of Genesis” was not at all artificial. It was crucial 

for the dating of the majority of documents in which the 

dates of the described events were indicated in years since the 

“creation of the world” without indicating, however, which 

“creation” they actually mean. Since there are many possible 

variants to choose from, the resulting from it discrepancies 

in dating of these documents could reach up to 2200 years. 

The Catholic and Protestant Church sanctioned approval of 

the “date of creation” prevented up to the 18th century any 

critical revision or analysis of the ancient chronology. 

J. Scaliger and D. Petavius were the first to use the astronomical 

methods for the confirmation of the late medieval version 

of the chronology. However, these methods were not applied 

for its critical analysis or verifications. Nevertheless, for 

many contemporary commentators this gives sufficient reasons 

to consider the Scaliger version of chronology as built 

on a “scientific” basis. In this way the chronology of the 

Catholic Church suddenly became “scientific.” There are not 

many people who know that Scaliger and Petavius achieved 

6 See [67], pp. 87-88. 

7 See [69], p. 73 for more examples. 

1.1 Creation of the Contemporary Chronology of the Ancient Times 3 

the highest levels of “perfection” in their “absolutely precise” 

dating of all the principal historical events: they quoted 

the year, month, day, and even the time of day for these 

events. Strangely, the modern textbooks usually quote the 

years according to Scaliger-Petavius, conveniently omitting 

the month, day and hour. 

This shade of “scientific approach,” which was supported 

strongly by the Church and political authorities, gave to the 

17th- and 18th-century chronologists sufficient pretext to regard 

this version of chronology as completely reliable. The 

chronological dates were further rigidified and supported by 

unquestioning belief in their correctness. By the 19th century, 

the chronological data had expanded so much that it 

caused a priori respect by its very existence only. Chronologists, 

didn’t perceive any need for its revision and were only 

able to make small insignificant changes into the chronology of 

ancient times. In the 20th century, the problem of establishing 

the chronology was basically regarded as solved. Chronology 

has been portrayed to be unchanged in its form that surfaced 

from the “scriptures” of Eusebius, Jerome, Theophilus, Augustine, 

Hippolytus, Clement of Alexandria, Ussher, Scaliger, 

and Petavius. For a historian of the 20th century, the very 

thought that there could be a chronological mistake seemed to 

be a complete absurd. Such an idea would contradict the accepted 

“tradition” and the cultural knowledge absorbed since 

childhood. 

Nevertheless, in the 17th–19th centuries it was discovered 

that there exist serious contradictions between various 

chronological data sources and the established traditional 

chronology. For example, it was discovered that Jerome had 

made an error of one hundred years 8 . 

There are essential discrepancies between the chronological 

data of ancient sources and the global chronology, 

which were discovered in Egyptian chronology, where a number 

of documents contradicted each other chronologically. 

For example Herodotus names Cheops as a successor of the 

Pharaoh Rhampsinitus, what implies that he places them 

chronologically next to each other. Contemporary commentators 

“correct” Herodotus explaining that he mixed up Egyptian 

chronology. According to this explanation Rhampsinitus 

(Ramses II) was Pharaoh of the 19th dynasty (1345–1200 

B.C.) while Cheops was from the 4th dynasty (2600-2480 

B.C.). That means Herodotus made a mistake of 1200 years. 

There is another example of a “mistake” made by Herodotus: 

immediately after a pharaoh of the 4th dynasty (ca. 2480 

B.C.) he placed a pharaoh of the Ethiopian rule in Egypt (ca. 

715 B.C.). In this case the gap is 1 800 years. 

Let us point out that the choice of a particular chronological 

version is not always obvious, which can be illustrated 

by the rivalry between the supporters of the so-called shorter 

and longer chronology of Egypt. Opinions among Egyptologists 

can be very divided. For example, according to Champollion, 

the coronation of Menes took place in 5867 B.C.; according 

to Le Sueur – in 5770 B.C.; according to A. Mariette 

8 See [67], p. 89.

4 1 The Problems of Historical Chronology 

— in 5004 B.C; according to Brugsh — in 4455; according 

to F. Chabas — in 4000 B.C.; according to E. Mayer — in 

3180 B.C.; according to T. Andrzejewski — in 2850 B.C.; 

according to J. Wilkonson — in 2320 B.C.; and according 

to E. Palmer — in 2224 B.C., and so on. The difference between 

the dating of Champollion and that of Palmer is 3 643 

years. At the present, a shorter version of Egyptian chronology 

has been adopted, but it is extremely self-contradictory 

and it still contains many unsolved problems. It turns out that 

the dynastic sequences were set arbitrarily and the very ancient 

age ascribed to these lists contradicts the archaeological 

data. In fact the basic Egyptian chronology was also based 

on Christian sources. For example, the list kings compiled 

by Manethon only survived as quotations made by Christian 

authors. 

Let us point out that the Orthodox Church avoided using 

the birth of Christ as a chronological reference point, which 

was one of the reasons of the East-West schism. 

1.2 Who were the Critics of 

Scaliger’s Chronology 

Questions and doubts regarding the correctness of the 

presently accepted chronology aren’t a recent phenomenon. 

They were raised as soon as it was first published. 

In fact, there were also other competing hypothesis 

indicating a “young age” of the “written his- 

tory.” Let us cite from the Morozov’s book [4] 9 : 

“Professor de Arcilla of Salamanca 

University published two 

of his works Programma Historiae 

Universalis and Divinae 

Florae Historicae in the 16th 

century, where he stated that 

the whole of ancient history 

had been forged in the Middle 

Ages; the same conclusions 

were reached by the Jesuit 

historian and archeologist J. 

Hardouin (1646-1729), who regarded 

the classical literate as 

written by the monks of the 

preening, 16th century A.D. (see 

his books Consiliorum Collectio 

regia maxima, Chronologiae 

ex nummis antiquis prolusio de 

mummis Herodiadum, Prolegomena 

ad censuram vertum scriptorum). 

The German Privatdozent 

Robart Baldauf wrote his book 

Historie und Kritik in 1902- 

Figure 1.2: John Hardouin 

(1646–1729), French scolar, 

linguist, historian, 

philosopher, and theologian. 

1903, where he asserted on the basis of purely philological argument 

that not only ancient, but even medieval history was a 

falsification of the Renaissance and subsequent centuries 10 .” 

9 Translation by O. Efimov taken from [103]. 

10 See [4], Vol. 7, p. vii-viii, Introduction. 

Figure 1.3: Sir Isaac Newton 

(1642–1727) 

The famous English 

mathematician, astronom, 

physicist and scientist, Sir 

Isaac Newton (1642–1727) 

holds a special place among 

the critics of the Scaliger– 

Petavius chronology. He 

is considered to be the 

culminating figure of the 

scientific revolution of the 

17th century, who discovered 

a composition of white light, 

laid foundation of physical 

optics, established principles 

of mechanics, formulated the 

law of universal gravity, and 

discovered (independently of 

G. Leibnitz) differential and 

integral calculus. What is less known about Newton that he 

was also an author of serious works devoted to chronology 

problem, which led him to a conclusion that several main 

sections of the Scaliger version of chronology are erroneous. 

His main contributions to this area were A Short Chronicle 

from the First Memory of Things in Europe, to the Conquest 

of Persia by Alexander the Great and The Chronology of Ancient 

Kingdoms Amended. By applying scientific approach, 

I. Newton radically rearranged the ancient chronology. In 

general, the Newton’s chronology was significantly shorter 

than the Scaliger version, which is commonly accepted today. 

For example, Newton shifted most of the historical events 

preceding the epoch of Alexander of Macedonia closer to 

our times. Nevertheless his revisions the chronology were 

much less radical than the changes proposed by Nikolai A. 

Morozov, for whom Scaliger’s chronology was sufficiently 

reliable only from the 6th century A.D. Let us point out 

that Newton’s chronological research was not at all dealing 

with the Christian era. Basically, he analyzed Egyptian and 

ancient Greek chronology and probably didn’t have enough 

time to investigate the later epochs. 

Unfortunately the enormous work performed by Newton 

was taken skeptically by his contemporaries. Newton’s 

chronological research is not getting a better treatment from 

the present-day historians. By comparing his work with 

Scaliger’s chronology they are convinced that Newton was 

mistaken. They claim that without knowledge of the hieroglyphic 

or cuneiform writing, or the immense archaeological 

data (which clearly were not yet available at that time), Newton 

made large errors in his dating, ranging up to a thousand 

years. 

Let us indicate briefly what were those Newton’s 

“mistakes.” For example, according to the presently accepted 

Egyptian chronology, the coronation of Pharaoh 

Menes took place in the year 3000 B.C., while Newton 

estimated that this event happened in the year 

946 B.C. — a discrepancy of about 2000 years.

Figure 1.4: Newton’s “The 

Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms 

Amended.” 

According to Scaliger the famous 

Trojan war took place 

in the year 1225 B.C., but 

Newton’s dating of this event 

was the year 904 B.C — a 

difference of about 330 years. 

There are many more similar 

examples. In resume, Newton 

claimed that the dates related 

to the events of Greek 

history should be shifted forwards 

by 300 years in average, 

while the 1000 years period 

of the Egyptian history, 

which according to Scaliger, 

began around the year 3000 

B.C., should be squeezed between 

the year 946 B.C and 

617 B.C — an epoch of 

only 330 years. Some of the 

ancient Egyptian dates he 

shifted forward by 1800 years, 

but his revisions stopped at 

the year 200 B.C. However, a 

closer look at Newton’s work reveals that he did not completely 

realized a global nature of the errors in the Scaliger 

version of chronology. His apparently chaotic observations referred 

to shifting forward in time of several small historical 

blocks, but they could not be arranged in a systematic chronological 

system. In fact, Newton was aware that his chronological 

work was far from being complete. The first edition of 

his book The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended appeared 

in 1725 under the title Abregé de Chronologie de M. Le 

Chevalier Newton (translated to French by M. Feret), but the 

publication was carried on without Newton’s consent. Newton 

announced that he was preparing a more detailed book on 

the ancient chronology, but his death in 1727 interrupted his 

work on that project. One year after his death, the manuscript 

of Short Chronicle, which still remained unfinished, and his 

book The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended were 

published in one volume by J. Tonson. 11 

English scientist Edwin Johnson (1842–1901) presented 

very interesting critical analysis of the ancient and medieval 

history, which was published in his books. His main conclusion 

can be stated as: we are much closer in time to the epoch of 

the ancient Greeks and Romans than its written in the chronological 

tables (see [174]). He also called for a total revision of 

the whole antique and medieval chronology. 

Nikolai A. Morozov (1854–1946) was a famous Russian 

scientist, encyclopedist and revolutionary. His investigation 

of the chronology was based on solid scientific methods, some 

of them were completely new and innovative. Practically, he 

restored the scientific character of the chronological reseach. 

It is not possible to ignore his arguments against Scaliger’s 

chronology. 

11 See [?]. 

1.2 Who were the Critics of Scaliger’s Chronology 5 

Figure 1.5: Nikolai A. Morozov 

(1854–1946) 

Morozov’s father – Peter 

Alekseevich Shepochkin — was 

a reach Russian nobel belonging 

to an old aristrocratic family 

whose relatives were the decendants 

of Peter the Great. His 

mother — Anna Vasilevna Morozova 

— was a simple peasant. 

They were married before 

the civil authority but not in the 

Church, so their children carried 

the mother’s name instead of the 

father’s. At the age of twenty, 

N.A. Morozov joined the revolutionary 

movment, what in 1881 

led to his imprisonment in the 

infamous Schlisselburg fortress. 

During his incarceration he studied 

chemistry, physics, astron- 

omy, mathematics and history. In 1905 he finally regained 

his freedom. He spent 25 years in prison. After his release, 

he devoted himself to scientific research and educational activities. 

During the years following the Russian Revolution, 

he became the director of the PF. Lesgaft Institute for Natural 

Sciences, where he acomplished the most important part 

of his cientific research on the chronology. His results were 

first presented to a small group of enthusiastic workers in the 

Lesgaft Institute. In 1922, he was nominated a member of 

the Russian Academy of Science, and in 1925 he received the 

highest Soviet decorations. 

Figure 1.6: Morozov’s family house in 

the town Borke Yaroslavskoi. Presently 

it is a museum dedicated to Morozov. 

His first publication 

related 

to the chronology 

problem was his 

book Revelations 

in Storm and 

Thunders, where 

he analyzed the 

dating of the Book 

of Apocalypse 

from the New 

Testament. His 

conclusions contradicted 

Scaliger’s 

chronology. In 1914 

appeared his book 

Prophets, in which 

he used the astronomical 

methods 

to revise the Scaliger dating of the biblical prophecies. 

Between the years 1924 and 1932, N.A. Morozov published 

his fundamental seven volume works entitled Christ: the 

History of Human Culture from the Standpoint of the Natural 

Sciences 12 — an elaborated and detailed presentation of 

his critical analysis of Scaliger’s chronology. He arrived to 

12 See [1].


the conclusion that the conceptual framework of Scaliger’s 

chronology is completely groudless. 

Figure 1.7: Morozov’s 

monument. 

After analyzing a immense 

amount of historical material, 

Morozov formulated his primary 

hypothesis that Scaliger’s ancient 

chronology was artificially 

expanded in time and made 

much longer than it was in reality. 

This claim was made based 

on discovered by him “repetitions,” 

i.e. the historical texts, 

which most probably describe 

the same sequences of events, 

but are dated differently and are 

considered to be unrelated. The 

publication of Morozov’s works 

created vivid discussion in press, 

repercussions of which are still 

noticable in the contemporary 

literature. There were some reasonable 

responses to Morozov’s 

arguments, but they were not sufficient to dismiss the entire 

critical content of his books. 

Figure 1.8: Morozov’s parents 

It looks as if N.A. Morozov was completely unaware of 

the chronological research published by I. Newton and E. 

Jonhson, which at that time were practically forgoten. Surprisingly, 

many of the obtained by Morozov’s conclusions coincide 

with the claims made by Newton and Jonhson. However, 

his investigations the problem of chronology were definitely 

on the larger scale and more profound that those of 

Newton. He extended his analyzis over the period of history 

up to the 6th century A.D. and included in it the redating 

of all the cornerstone historical events. Dispite the extensive 

nature of his work, N.A. Morozov, likewise Newton, was not 

able to establish any kind of systematic method for the seemingly 

chotic redating process. However, his work was done 

on much higher level than Newton’s research. He also clearly 

understood the need for radical revision not only of the “an- 

cient” but also medieval history. Nevertheless, in his research, 

Morozov did not move further than the 6th century A.D., believing 

that the presently accepted chronology of the period 

from the 6th to 13tyh centuries is more or less true. Later, we 

will explain that this was a big mistake. 

Figure 1.9: First Edition of the Morozov’s book “Christ: the 

History of Human Culture from the Standpoint of the Natural 

Sciences.” 

The chronology issues appear unwilling to go away, returning 

persistently and repeatidly, each time with a stronger 

critical proclamation that there is indeed a problem. The fact 

that the independent research of such scientists as I. Newton, 

E. Jonhson and N.A. Morozov had strong similarities in their 

conclusions indicate that this could be the right direction to 

look for a solution to the chronology problem. 

After the publication of the works by A.T. Fomenko and 

G.V. Nosovski, dealing with the chronology problem, in 1996 

in Germany there appeared several books written by German 

scientists; Uwe Topper, Heribert Illig, Christian Blöss, 

and Hans-Ulrich Niemitz. Their authors critically analyzed 

Scaliger’s chronology. For example, the Heribert Illig’s book 

questions the real existence of Charles the Great and presents 

proofs of an ultimate historical forgery. He claims that the medieval 

history should be shorten by 300 years by “removing” 

from it the Charles the Great epoch. Let us point out that the 

revisions suggested by Illig are of local character only, which 

could be done within the frames of Scaliger’s chronology. In 

another book by Gunnar Heinsohn in Heribert Illig When 

the Pharaohs lived? (see [176]) the authors question the correctness 

of Scaliger’s chronology of the ancient Egypt. Apparently, 

the authors are not aware of the Morozov’s research (see 

[4]) on the Egyptian chronology, in which he indicated several 

“glued up” dynastical sequences of Egyptian kings. The Morozov’s 

arguments, which were published in years 1924–1932, 

supporting drastical shortening of the Egyptian chronology, 

were never translated to English or German (except for the 

book Revelations in Storm and Thunders).

We would like to point out a very interesting book by 

Christian Blöss and Hans-Ulrich Niemitz with an intriguing 

title C14-Crash, in which the authors present numerous 

testimonies putting in doubt the very possibility of using 

the carbon-14 method for dating of historical objects. This 

method, which was discovered by Willard Libby, is based on 

the measurement of the radiocarbon level in organic samples. 

The authors also questioned the effectivness of the method 

of dendrochronology for the purpose of historical dating (see 

[177]). 

1.3 Questionable Authenticity of 

the Fundamental “Ancient” 

Manuscripts 

In modern historiography there is an astonishing lack of 

information describing the circumstances in which the ancient 

manuscripts were discovered. The overwhelming majority 

of these documents appeared only after the “dark 

ages,” in the epoch of the Renaissance, in an environment 

that wasn’t hepful to a critical analysis of their 

datings. Let us mention two 19th century renowned historians 

P. Hochart and J. Ross who published, in the 

years 1882–1885 and 1878 respectively, their findings about 

the “ancient” manuscript History of Tacitus Cornelius. 

Figure 1.10: Poggio 

Bracciolioni (1380– 

1459) 

They demonstrated the evidence that 

this manuscript was actually written by 

the well-known Italian humanist Poggio 

Bracciolini 13 . Without entering into a 

discussion about the authenticity of the 

History, in our opinion, it describes real 

events that took place not in ancient 

but in medieval times. This document 

was most probably a clever fabrication 

made by Braccioloni. Let us point 

out that Poggio Bracciolioni had also 

“discovered” and published the works 

of Quintilian, Valerius Flaccus, Marcellus, 

Probus, certain treatises of Cicero, 

Lucretius, Petronius, Plautus, Tertullian, 

St. Marcellinus, Calpurnius Siculus, 

and so forth. His dealings in ancient 

manuscripts allowed him to accumulate an enormous fortune. 

The circumstances of his findings and the details related to 

dating of the manuscripts’ have never been made clear. 

In the 15th century the famous humanists Manuel 

Chrysolora, Georgius Gemistos Pletho, Bessarion of Nicae, 

and others arrived to Italy. They were the first to introduce 

the achievements of the allegedly “ancient” Greeks to the 

European thought. Almost all the preserved ancient Greek 

manuscripts came from the Byzantine Empire. Otto Neugebauer 

writes: 

13 See [144] and [145]. 

1.3 Questionable Authenticity of the Fundamental “Ancient” Manuscripts 7 

“The majority of manuscripts on which our knowledge of 

Greek science is hued are Byzantine codices, written between 

500 and 1500 years after the lifetime of their authors 14 .” 

According to the conventional history, the all classical “ancient” 

literature became known only during the time of Renaissance. 

Unclear origin of these documents and complete 

lack of any information describing their whereabouts during 

the preceding epochs, in particular during the so-called “dark 

ages,” make us believe that these texts had been previously 

nonexistent. Let us give an example. The oldest manuscripts 

of Cicero’s texts, which are also called incomplete recension, 

are those of the 9th and 10th century. However, the archetype 

of the incomplete recension is assumed to be “lost long ago” 15 . 

In the 14th and 15th century, Cicero’s works attracted more 

and more attention, and as it is explained in the 

“... it came to the Milan Professor Gasparine Barzizza ... 

having undertaken in ca. 1420 A.D. the risky business of filling 

by himself gaps in the ‘incomplete recension’ to make it 

consistent. No sooner had he finished the job than a miracle 

occurred: in the sleepy Italian town of Lodi, a lost manuscript 

with the complete text of all of Cicero’s rhetorical works was 

found ... Barzizza and his disciples rushed onto the new find, 

deciphered its ancient script (probably of the 13th century 

A.D.), and, finally, made a copy which could be read easily. 

The transcripts were made from this one, and they are the one 

which make up the ‘complete recension.’ ... Meanwhile, the incorrigible 

took place: the archetype of the recension. i.e. the 

Lodi manuscript, turned out to be neglected; nobody wanted 

to rack his brains over its difficult text; it was sent back to 

Lodi and lost there forever; since A.D. 1428, nothing be been 

known about its fate. The European philologists deplore the 

loss even today 16 .” 

Coincidently, the name “Cicero” (or “Zizzero”) seems to 

be an anagram of “Barzizza.” 

Another example is that of Suetonius’ De vita Caesarum 

(Lives of the Caesars), which is only available in much later 

transcripts. The original of the only “antique manuscript” 

was allegedly possessed by the Frankish historian Einhard, 

who is also known as the author of Vita Karoli Magni (Life 

of Charles the Great). It is believed that Ernhard in ca. A.D. 

818 carefully reproduced the assumingly biographical stories 

of Suetonius 17 . This oldest manuscript of Suetonius, which is 

supposed to be that of the 9th century, became known only in 

the 16th century, while the other copies are dated not earlier 

than the 11th century. 

The basis for dating of the “ancient” manuscripts, which 

was accomplished during the 14th–16th century, remains till 

this day a mystery. For instance, the book of the Roman architect 

and engineer Marcus Vitruvius’ — De architectura, 

was discovered only in 1497. It is amazing that in the as- 

14 See [143], p. 57. 

15 See [148]. 

16 See [148], pp. 387-388. 

17 See [149].


tronomical part of his book, Vitruvius lists the precise sidereal 

periods of the major planets 18 . It seems that Vitruvius, 

who allegedly lived in the 1st–2nd century A.D., had a better 

knowledge of astronomy than Copernicus. His period of 

Saturn differs from the today’s known value by only 0.0007, 

for Mars the error is only 0.006, while for Jupiter his error 

is 0.003 19 . Let us point out that there are strong parallels 

connecting Vitruvius’ book to Leon Battista Alberti (1404– 

1472) — Italian Humanist, architect, and principal initiator 

of Renaissance art theory 20 . By the way, since the letters “v” 

and “b” were frequently assimilated, there is even connetion 

between the names: Alb(v)erti– Vitruvius.) Like Vitruvius, 

Alberti became famous as the greatest Italian architect of his 

time. He is also the author of an architectural theory which is 

comparable, in smallest details, to a similar theory of Vitruvius 

21 . Just like Vitruvius he was also educated in mathematics, 

optics, and mechanics. For a long time it is well known 

to specialists that some pasages of Alberti’s and Vitruvius’ 

works coincide verbatim!). This strange coincidence is explain 

today by the assumption that Alberti modelled his own treatise 

on Vitruvius’ work 22 . 

Thus, we can state with confidence that the book of Vitruvius 

(as well as that of Alberti) fit perfectly the ideological 

atmosphere the 15th century. In fact the overwhelming majority 

of the designed Alberti buildings were in “antique style.” 

So, it appears that the leading architect of the Italian Renaissance 

fills the cities with antique buildings. Nowadays, they 

are regarded as “imitations of antiquity,” but they could be 

not at all seen such that in the 15th century. It is possible 

that the architects of the 14th–15th century did not consider 

their work as an “imitation of antiquity,” but simply created 

it. 

Let us discuss the case of the ancient Greek philosopher 

Plato, who is assumed to be the founder of the philosophical 

system — platonism. His teachings, initially forgotten, 

were revived by famous neoplatonist Plotin, allegedly living in 

205–270 A.D. As we can expect, the similarities between the 

names Plato and Plotin are purely coincidental. Then neoplatonism 

vanishes for many centuries, just to be revived again 

in the 15th century by another famous platonist — Gemisto 

Plethon. In this case, the fact that Plethon’s name is almost 

identical to his precursor, is again a sheer coincidence. It was 

exactly the epoch of Plethon when the manuscripts of Platon 

were unearthed and it turned out that Gemisto Plathon 

became an avid advocate of the “ancient” Plato. He founded 

“Plethon’s Academy” in Florence in the image of the “ancient” 

Plato’s Academy, writes his own Utopia and a treatise 

on the Laws, which he was unable to complete. So many coincidences 

in this story give us reasons to question the real 

identity of Plato. 

18 See [4], Vol. 4, p. 624. 

19 See [4], Vol. 4, pp. 625-626 

20 See [149]. 

21 See [149]. 

22 See [149]. 

The oldest biography of Aristotle — “ancient” Greek 

philosopher and scientist, is dated 1300 A.D., while presubably, 

“the best Greek codices of Aristotle’s works belong to 

the 10–12 centuries.” It is interesting that the “ancient” argument 

between Plato and Aristotle was “reenacted” in the 

15th century, when Plethon and Scholarius — a devoted follower 

of Aristotle, engaged in a very similar debate. It seems 

that ancient events were duplicated in the medieval times. 

Figure 1.11: The first edition of Euclid’s Elements from the 

year 1533. 

There are more examples of this kind. For instant, the 

most ancient manuscript of the Elements by Euclid is a copy 

believed to be made in A.D. 888. All the modern editions 

of Archimedes works are based on a lost manuscript of the 

15th century and the so-called Constantinople palimpsest 

found only in 1907. It is assumed that the mauscripts with 

Archimedes workes appeared in Europe after 1204. The Conics 

of Apollonius were published only in 1537, after the death 

of Johann Kepler who discovered the importance of these 

curves. The algebraic methods of Diophantus were used by 

European scientists long before the publication of these works. 

1.4 Medieval Anachronisms and 

Measuring Time in the Middle 

Ages 

In the Middle Ages recording dates and keeping truck of the 

time was different than tody. E. Bickerman deplors “the chaos 

of medieval datings. 23 ” The analysis of ancient documents 

also shows that the medieval ideas of time were different than 

we have today. In the epochs preceding the invention of the 

clock, time was regarded as “anthropomorphic” and the passing 

of time was believed to depend on the character of the 

events. For example, 

23 See [67], p. 78

“... the same time intervals which are used for measuring 

earth ... time acquire quite a different duration. ... When used 

to measure biblical events ... Augustine equalized each day of 

the Creation to a millenium and attempted to determine the 

duration of the history of mankind. ... 24 .” 

In the 13th and 14th centuries, devices for measuring time 

were very rare and expensive. 25 

“The sundial ... sandpiece and clepsydra were common in 

medieval Europe, with the sundial being suitable only when it 

is fine, and the clepsydra remaining a rarity 26 .” 

In the 9th century candles were commonly used to measure 

the time. For instance, the king Alfred of England used 

candles of equal length when travelling 27 . The same methods 

were still employed even in the 13th and 14th century, for 

example, during the reign of Charles V. 

It is generally known that a devise for a precise time 

measuring is required for astronomical observations and it 

is clearly not sufficient to read psalms or sacred books (like 

it is claimed in [128] p. 94) in order to determine the elapsed 

time. In fact a clock with the second hand was required for exact 

astronomical observations. The mechanical clocks which 

were used widely in Europe did not have minute hand for a 

very long time. Otto Spengler in his The Decline of the West 

claimed that the mechanical clock was invented around the 

year 1000 by A. Gerbert. However, this assertion was questioned 

by A.Ya. Gurevich who maintained that Gerbert only 

constructed an improved clepsydra. Gurevich also writes 

“... the mechanical clock was invented at the end of the 

13th century A.D. 28 .” 

By the way, it is commonly believed that the Chinese astronomy 

achieved very high levels of sophistication thousand 

years B.C., while there is no evidence that time measuring 

devises were usedf for these purposes. In fact, there are some 

records showing that the Chinese rulers were not interested 

in such European inventions, like mechanical clocks, which 

were considered just as funny toys rather than a precise time 

piece! 29 

Anachronisms appearing in the medieval historiography 

provide us with very interesting information. For example, 

A.Y. Gurevich writes that 30 “The past is represented in terms 

of the same categories as in modern times. . . . The biblical 

and ancient historical figures are wearing medieval costumes. 

. . . Depicting kings and patriarchs of the Old Testament 

with ancient sages and evangelical personages side by 

side on cathedral portals discloses the anahronistic attitude 

toward history best of all. . . . The crusaders were convinced 

at the end of the 11th century that they castigated not the de- 

24 See [128], pp. 109-110 

25 See [154]. 

26 See [128], p. 94. 

27 See [128], p. 95. 

28 See [128], pp. 134-135. 

29 See [155], pp. 80-87. 

30 See [128], pp. 117-118. 

1.5 The Chronology of the Biblical Manuscripts 9 

scendants of the Saviour’s murderes, but the murderers themselves 

. . . ” 

These anachronisms are explained by the modern historians 

that in the Middle Ages “epochs and notions were mixed 

up” on a very large scale, and that the medieval authors 

identified ancient biblical times with the Middle Ages only 

because of their “ignorance.” Let us stress out that this allegedly 

inexplicable “love for anachronisms” can be explained 

from another point of view. It is possible that all these statements 

of medieval authors, which seem strange now, are authentic 

and are regarded as “anachronisms” only because we 

follow another chronology. 

The Scaliger version of chronology was not unique. In fact 

it is only one of many other medieval chronological concepts. 

Along with the traditional chronology adopted today, there 

were other chronlogical versions as well. For instant, the Holy 

Roman Empire of the l0th–l3th centuries was considered as 

the immediate successor of the Roman Empire, which, according 

to Scaliger’s chronology occurred in the 6th century 

A.D. 31 . There are also some traces of a very strange medieval 

controversy (from the modern point of view): Petrarch, assumingly 

basing his claims on a series of philological and 

psychological observations, questioned the authenticity of the 

privileges given by Caesar and Nero to the Austrian duchy (in 

the 13th century). 32 . For a modern historian, the very idea 

that Caesar and Nero were contemporaries of the Austrian 

duchy who began ruling only in A.D. 1273, i.e., 1200 years 

later, is absurd. But in the 14th century, Petrarch’s opponents 

were not so sure about it and thought that a “proper 

proof” was needed. 33 .”) Another example is the famous gladiator 

fights that supposedly took place only in “the ancient 

past.” But this is not so obvious. According to V.I. Klassovsky 

they also occurred in the 14th-century 34 — in Naples, in the 

year 1344. 35 . As in antiquity, thee medieval fights ended in 

the death of a fighter 36 . 

1.5 The Chronology of the Biblical 

Manuscripts 

The chronology the biblical books and their process of dating 

are difficult to be determined and we are supposed to rely in 

this respect on the authority of the Christian theologians of 

the late Middle Ages. 

The contemporary researcher of Christianity — I.A. 

Kryvelev 37 writes the following: “The real story behind the 

origins of the books of New Testament is not exactly as it is 

proclaimed by the Church. . . . The presently accepted order of 

some New Testament books is contrary to the order established 

31 See [156], Vol. 1, p. 16 

32 See [156], Vol. 1, p. 32 

33 See [156]. 

34 See [159]. 

35 See [158], p. 212.. 

36 See [158]. 

37 See [159], pp. 267-268


by the Church tradition. . . . The real names of authors of the 

New Testament books remain unknown.” The introduced by 

Anatoly T. Fomenko, 38 modern mathematical and statistical 

methods of dating, undermine the accepted today view 

that the Old Testament books precede those of the New Testament. 

Consequently, these revelations renew interests in a 

discussion of the ancient orgins of the surviving to our times 

biblical manuscripts. 

“The most ancient of more or less complete surviving 

copies of the Bible are the Codex Alexandrines, Codex Vaticanus, 

Codex Sinaiticus. ... All three manuscripts ... are 

dated (paleographically, i.e., on the basis of comparing the 

‘handwriting style’ of the manuscript with that of other 

manuscripts whose dating is taken as known — Authors) 

. . . by the second half of the 4th century A.D. The language of 

the Codices is Greek. . . . The lesser known is the Codex Vaticanus; 

in particular, it is not clear how and when this source 

appeared in the Vatican around the year 1475. . . . It is known 

about the Codex Alexandrinus that . . . the patriarch Cyrilles 

Lucaris presented it as a gift to the king of Great Britain and 

Ireland, Charles I, in 1628.” 39 . The Codex Sinaiticus was discovered 

only in the 19th century by L. Tischendorf 40 . Codex 

Bezae and Codex Ephraemi Syri Rescriptus are of the same 

sources. 

Thus, all these three most ancient codices were actually 

discovered only after the 15th century and their reputation 

as being ancient was established on Tischendorf’s authority 

based on his judgment of the “handwriting style.” Let us point 

out, that the idea of paleographic dating assumes that the 

age of other documents is known a priori; hence, this dating 

method is not independent. 

Among the individual biblical manuscripts, the most ancient 

is the Book of the Prophet Zechariah and that of 

Malachi, which was paleographically dated to the 15th century 

A.D. 41 . Although in many national libraries one can find 

numerous copies of Jewish manuscript of the Bible, there is 

no such manuscript that is dated earlier than the 9th century 

A.D. However, on the original manuscript the inscripted 

date is the year 1228. Based on the so-called babilonian punctuation 

of letters in this manuscript, it is associated with an 

epoch that supposedly allows to translate this as the year 916 

A.D. But there are no serious arguments in support of this 

claim. That means this manuscript could be from the 13th 

century instead of the 9th. 

The most ancient Jewish manuscript of the complete text 

of the Old Testament is referred only to the year 1008 A.D. 42 . 

It is assumed that the biblical Canon was established by 

the synod at Laodicea in A.D. 363, but no acts of this and 

earlier synods survived 43 . In reality, the Canon was officially 

38 See [103]. 

39 See [159], p. 270 

40 See [159], pp. 268-270. 

41 See [?] 

42 See [159], p. 270 

43 See [159]. 

established only since the new Council of Trent had assembled 

in 1545 and lasted, with intervals, until 1563 (during the 

Reformation). By the order of the Council, many books were 

regarded apocryphal, in particular, the Book of the Kings of 

Judah and Israel 44 . 

By the decree of the Council of Trent a large number of 

books, considered uncanonical, were distroyed. Among them 

was the “Chronicle of the Jewish and Israeli Kings.” These 

books and their contents are lost forever. Let us point out 

that there were more apocryphal books than those consider 

as canonical. 

The most dating of biblical manuscripts are based on paleography, 

which depends completely on Scaliger’s chronology 

assumed to be known a priori. In the case another version of 

chronology is adopted, all the “paleographic datings” would 

be automatically changed. 

Let us present few examples. “In 1902, the Englishman 

Nash bought in Egypt a fragment of a Jewish manuscript written 

on a papyrus, the dating of which the scientists cannot 

agree upon until today 45 .” Finally, it was agreed that the text 

referred to the turn of our millennium. “. . . after the Qumran 

manuscripts had been discovered, the comparison of the 

‘handwriting’ on the Nash papyrus and the Qumran scrolls 

made it possible to establish at once that the latter were quite 

old 46 .” In is way, one scrap of the papyrus, whose dating we 

not “agreed upon by everyone,” influenced the dating of all 

the other documents. Nevertheless, 

“... dating the manuscripts (of Qumran–Authors) led to 

much controversy among the scientists (namely, from the 2nd 

century B.C. to the time of the crusaders 47 .” For example, 

the American historian S. Zeitlin insists that these texts are 

of the medieval origin 48 . Let us point out that it is assumed 

today that the original dating of the Qumran scrolls to the beginning 

of the millennium was confirmed by the radiocarbon 

dating method. However, this method is extremely unstable 

for comparatively small time intervals. 

1.6 Vowels in Ancient Manuscripts 

There are other basic problems related to reading and dating 

of the ancient, medieval, biblical, ancient Egyptian, and 

other manuscripts. J. Sunderland, who investigated the original 

language of the Old Testament, wrote: “The thing is that 

the Jewish written language originally had neither vowels nor 

signs replacing them. The books of the Old Testament were 

written only with consonants 49 .” 

Old Egyptian texts were also written in consonants only. 

E. Bickerman writes that “. . . the names of Egyptian kings 

44 See [160], p. 76. 

45 See [159], p. 273. 

46 See [159], pp. 272-273. 

47 See [160], p. 47. 

48 See [160], p. 27. 

49 See [161], p. 155.

are given in contemporary literature schematically, in a quite 

arbitrary, so-called scholastic manner adopted in school textbooks. 

These forms are often, greatly different from each 

other; it is impossible to order them somehow, due to their 

arbitrary reading which became traditional 50 .” 

Probably, the high cost of writing materials in ancient 

times was the reason for omitting the vowels in the manuscript 

and thereby essentially shortening the text. Writing the words 

without intervals between them was possibly another way of 

saving the space for the same purpose. 

However, if we take a today’s Jewish Bible, we shall find 

there all the missing vowels. These signs did not belong to the 

old Jewish Bible. The original text was read by consonants, 

and the intervals were filled with vowels according to one’s 

skill and the apparent requirements of the context. 51 . Notice 

that the exact meaning of a word written in consonants 

only was extremely ambiguous. For example, CLN could mean 

clean, clan, colon, and so forth! 

According to T. Curtis, even for the priests, the old 

manuscripts remained extremely unclear and were understood 

only with based on the authority of the legend 52 . It 

is assumed that this serious shortcoming of the Jewish Bible 

had been eliminated not earlier than the 7th or 8th century 

A.D., when the Massoretes revised the Bible and added signs 

replacing the vowels. It was done with no rules or a specific 

system, except their own reason, and a very imperfect legendary 

tradition 53 . S. Driver points out that, since the times 

of the Massoretes in the 7th-8th century A.D., the Jews have 

taken great care in keeping their sacred books, but then it was 

too late to repair the damage already done. Consequently, the 

distortions were placed on exactly the same level of authority 

as the original text 54 . 

It was commonly believed in the earlier epochs that the 

vowels had been introduced into the Jewish text by Ezra in 

the 5th century B.C. However, in the 16th and 17th century, 

E. Levita and J. Capellus proved that the vowels had been 

introduced only by the Massoretes, what created at that time 

a sensation in the whole of Protestant Europe. Many people 

expected that, since the vowels were not coming from Divine 

Revelation, but were results of human intervention, the new 

theory would lead to disproving the religion completely. Moreover, 

because of these much later alternations, how one could 

rely on the text of the Scripture? This discussion was one of 

the passionate in the history of the new biblical criticism and 

continued for more than a century. It stopped only when the 

validity of the new pespective was acknowledged by common 

acceptance 55 . 

50 See [67], p. 176. 

51 See [161], p. 155. 

52 See [161], p. 155. 

53 See [161], pp. 156-157. 

54 See [161], p. 157. 

55 See [161] , pp. 157-158. 

1.7 Controversy over the Ptolemy’s Almagest 11 

1.7 Controversy over the Ptolemy’s 

Almagest 

The details related to the astronomical and mathematical 

analysis of the Almagest were published in the book by A.T. 

Fomenko, V.V. Kalashnikov and G.V. Nosovsky “Geometrical 

and Statistical Methods of Analysis of Star configurations. 

Dating Ptolemy’s Almagest” 56 

Figure 1.12: Ptolemy’s 

“Almagest” 

It is traditionally assumed 

that Claudius Ptolemy was an 

Egyptian astronomer, mathematician, 

and geographer of 

Greek descent who worked in 

Alexandria during the 2nd century 

AD. His major astronomical 

work, the star catalogue — the 

Almagest contains the records of 

Ptolemy’s astronomical observations. 

The Almagest was supposedly 

completed around the 

year 150 A.D. Ptolemy and Hipparchus 

(living presumably in 

the 2nd century A.D.) are considered 

to be the founders of 

the astronomical science. The 

Almagest, whose original name 

was Mathematike Syntaxis (“The 

Mathematical Arrangement — 

Almagest is an Arabic corruption 

of the Greek word megiste for 

greatest), is regarded as the most precious and immortal treasure 

of the ancient sciences. It contains observational data of 

more than 1000 stars, elabortated numerical tables that could 

be used for calculations of the planetary positions on arbitrary 

dates, and it describes a unified geocentric cosmological 

system that is assumed to have a profound influence on the 

medieval astronomy. 

1.7.1 Coordinate System used in the Almagest 

The state of preservation of the Almagest is extraordinary, 

and it seems that in spite that it had been rewritten many 

times since the 2nd century, its observational data shows inexplicable 

accuracy. Notice that it is natural to expect that numerous 

typographical errors must have been made when the 

catalogue was copied. It is also strange that the star catalogue 

uses the spring equinox as the reference point for the measurements 

of the longitudes, which involved additional difficulties 

that were sorted out only during the period from the 10th 

to 16th century. In addition, Ptolemy chose the North Star 

as the first star of the catalogue, what was not substantiated 

by the astronomical observations in the 2nd century. At that 

time there was another star near the north galactic pole, but 

this choice is consistent with the observations that could be 

made in the 11th–16th century. 

56 See [106].


Let us point out that Ptolemy adopted in the Almagest the 

so-called ecliptical coordinate system, which was believed by 

the medieval astronomers to be perpetual, i.e. it was assumed 

that the ecliptical latitudes of stars were not subjected to any 

change in time, while the longitudes were increasing steadily, 

what was caused by the cyclic precession of the Earth’s axis 

of rotation. However, the systematic and considerable latitudinal 

shift was discovered by the astronomer J. Bode (1747- 

1826), which puts the Almagest’s traditional dating in doubt. 

Let us point out that in the Middle Ages two star coordinate 

systems were known, namely, the ecliptical and equatorial 

systems. Beginning in the 17th century, only the equatorial 

coordinates have been used in astronomical catalogues. 

Ecliptical coordinates can only be found in the Almagest and 

it the 16th century catalogues, for example the star catalogue 

of Tycho Brahe (1546–1601). The reason for this is very simple 

— the equatorial coordinates are much easier to measure than 

the ecliptacal ones. At the time of Ptolemy and in the 15th– 

17th century period, astronomers believed that the ecliptical 

coordinates are “eternal,” what turned out to be wrong. 

Ptolemy also believed that stars do not posssess their own 

movements and that their configurations on the sky are invariable. 

But this claim also was not correct. In the mid-18th 

century it was discovered that the star Arcturus changes its 

position by 1 o each 100 years (this value was later corrected 

to 1.4 o ). 

Ptolemy declared in the Almagest that he had directly 

measured the ecliptical coordinates of all stars (more than 

1000 of them) using an astrolabe, which is rather complicated 

procedure. He also described the magnitude of stars using 

the integer scale from one (for the brightest stars) to six (for 

the faintest ones). If we compare the magnitudes 1 to 2 of 

Ptolemy’s stars with bthe modern ones, we shall conclude 

that they were always determined correctly, while he often 

made mistakes in the interval of the magnitudes 3 to 6. 

Figure 1.13: Ptolemy’s tables and computations in “Almagest” 

Figure 1.14: Precession of the Earth’s North Pole 

There are dozens of contemporary works devoted to dating 

of the Almagest. N.A. Morozov, for example, used the following 

simple method to determine the date of complilation of 

the Almagest star catalogue. Since we know that the stars’ 

longitudes possess an annual precession of 50.2 ′′ , therefore, if 

we divide the difference between today’s longitudes and those 

listed by Ptolemy in the Almagest, we will be able to derive 

the date when the catalogue was compiled. The obtained 

by Morozov results were shocking: all the longutues given 

in the first Latin edition indicated the 16th century, i.e. the 

time when this “ancient” book was published. We would like 

also to mention a very interesting book by Eglish astronomer 

Robert Newton “The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy” 57 , in which 

57 See [178].

he conducted a mathematical and statistical analysis of the 

astronomical data contained in the Almagest. The results of 

his research were unexpected. He arrived to the conclusion 

that the astronomical observations of the Almagest were falsified. 

These serious accusations put in doubt the validity of 

the Almagest’s astronomical data for the history of science. 

By the way, R. Newton was not aware of the results obtained 

by Morozov and fully trusted Scaliger’s chronology. 

Figure 1.15: Locations of Alpha Ursae Minoris and Beta Ursae 

Minoris in the 2nd century A.D. (based on J.E. Bode’s 

drawing). 

1.7.2 North Star as the First Star of the 

Catalogue Almagest 

According to Scaliger’s chronology, the Almagest was compiled 

in the 2nd century A.D. or even a little earlier than the 

2nd century. It is possible to verify that since the last two 

and half thousand years the closest star constellation to the 

north galactic pole was Ursa Minor. Then, we can also compute 

which of the stars in the Ursa Minor constellation was 

the closest to the north pole in the beginning of the Christian 

era about two thousand years ago, that means at the time 

traditionally associated with the creation of the Almagest. It 

turns out, that it was Beta Ursae Minoris — the star that is 

listed in the Almagest as a star of second magnitude, while the 

North Star (Alpha Ursae Minoris or Polaris) is indicated there 

as a star of the 3-rd magnitude. Let us explain that of course 

it the Almagest the modern of Alpha and Beta-convention 

was not used, and the stars were indicated according to their 

position in the constellation and the coordinates. In fact, the 


brightness of the both Alpha and Beta stars in the Ursa Minor 

constellation are almost identical. Based on the present 

day measurments, the brightness of Alpha is M = +2.1 and 

of Beta is M = +2.2 (see section 6.8 for more information 

about the brightness scale), which means that Alpha is just 

slightly brighter than Beta. Nevertheless, Ptolemy mistakenly 

thought opposite. 

Figure 1.16: Locations of Alpha Ursae Minoris and Beta Ursae 

Minoris with respect to the North Pole. 

Moreover, the computations show that in the 2nd century 

A.D. the distance between Beta Ursae Minoris and the 

north pole was exactly 8 o , which is exactly the same as the 

distance between Alpha Ursae Minoris (North Star) and the 

north pole today. In the 2nd century Alpha was located 12 o 

from the north pole. That means that it could be clearly noticed 

that in the 2nd century North Star was significantly 

further from the north pole than Beta Ursae Minoris. The 

actual configuration of the these stars, as it was observed in 

the 2nd century, is shown on Figure 1.15 which is based on a 

chart made by German astronomer Johann E. Bode according 

to the Almagest. As Bode was not concerned with the 

actual dating of the Almagest, his drawing indicates the actual 

locations the stars in the 2nd century. Notice that, Beta 

is indicated in the center of Ursa Minor, while Alpha is placed 

at the very end of the tail of this constellation. This is exactly 

how the positions of these two stars were described in the Almagest: 

Alpha as “the star at the end of the tail,” and Beta 

as “the most northen star in the back of the constellation.” 

In our opinion, it would be the most reasonable to start 

the 2nd century star catalogue with the star Beta rather than 

Alpha. N.A. Morozov wrote in this respect: 

““Who possible could have an idea to present a description of 

constellations in the northen hemisphere beginning with the 

most distant from the north pole star of the Ursa Minor, which 

was not even in the center of this constellation but at its very 

end of the tail.”


Figure 1.17: An astronomical chart by A. Durer that was published in the first edition of the Almagest

However, all these pecularities disappear when we renounce 

the hypothesis claiming that the Almagest was compiled 

in the beginning of the Christian era. Let us find out 

what would be the best epoch in which Northen Star would be 

the most natural choice for the first star in the catalogue. On 

Figure 1.16 we show the trajectory of the north pole around 

the ecliptic pole P , and the locations of the stars Alpha and 

Beta. It is clear that with the time the astronomical situation 

was changing: Beta was gradually moving away from the 

north pole, while Alpha was directly approaching the north 

pole. We have indicated on Figure 1.16 the initial position N 

of the north pole in the 2nd century A.D. The angular velocity 

of the north pole moving around the ecliptic is about 

1 o per 100 years. Now we are in the position to find out the 

epoch when North Star became closer to the northy pole than 

the star Beta. Since an argument of this type can hardly be 

considered as reliable for the dating purposes, we are satified 

with a rough estimate indicating the period from the 9th 

to 11th century A.D. At that time Alpha was closer to the 

north pole than Beta and Alpha was also the brightest star 

of Ursa Minor (M = +2.1 for Alpha, while for Beta it was 

M = +2.2). It is also obvious that at that time an observer 

compiling a star catalogue, would choose the star Alpha as 

the first star in the Northen Hemisphere. Notice that it is 

exactly, how the creator of the Almagest listed the stars. In 

addition, during the 15th and 16th centuries, when the publications 

of the Almagest took place, North Star was the closest 

star to the north pole — its distance was only 4 o from the 

north pole. Consequently, by chosing North Star as the first 

star in the catalogue, the creator of the Almagest revealed the 

real time of its observations — the epoch that was not earlier 

than the 9th or 10th century. 

1.7.3 Statistical Analysis of the Star Catalogue 

Almagest 

Let us return to the investigation of the Almagest conducted 

by astronomer R. Newton’s. It is important to emphesize that 

Newton never, at any moment, doubted the correctness of 

Scaliger’s chronology. His conclusions can be summarized as 

follows: 

1. The astronomical stitation on the real sky in the beginning 

of the Christian era does not match the astronomical 

data contained in the Almagest; 

2. The presently availabe version of the star catalogue Almagest 

does not contain descriptions of direct astronomical 

observations, but the results of computations, based 

on the theoretical models. These theoretical computations 

were later inserted into the Almagest seemingly to falsely 

assume the real astronomical observations, i.e. they were 

(according to Newton) fabricated; 

3. The Almagest couldn’t be compiled around the year 150 

A.D., as it is claimed by Scaliger’s chronology; 

4. Consequently, the Almagest was created during another 

epoch and its dating should be revised accordingly. 

R. Newton points out the passages in the Almagest indicating 

that the astronomical observations were conducted during the 


reign of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius, who according 

to Scaliger’s chronology ruled from 138 to 161 AD. Therefore, 

R. Newton concludes, that whoever was the author of 

the Almagest, he was a liar. There is no way his “personnally 

made observations” could ever represent a real astronomical 

situation from the 2nd century. In the introduction to 

his book, Robert Newton stated that it was a story about a 

crime comitted by a scientist against the ethics in his profession. 

He claimed that Ptolemy’s star catalogue was “corrected” 

according to the precession used by Hipparchus. For 

example, he shows that the equinoxes and other observations 

allegedly made by Ptolemy to determine the ecliptic’s slop 

and Alexandria’s latitude, were fabricated. There were also 

four fabricated lunar eclipse “triads,” falsifications of calculations 

and falsification of data (for example related to Venus 

and the exterior planet data). Newton completes his thought 

with a statement that Ptolemy was not an outstanding astronomer 

of antiquity but rather a most successful swindler 

in the history of science 58 . 

However, a perception of the Ptolemy’s work may become 

quite different if it turns out that it was a text written in the 

10-16th century. In the book [106], the authors, V.V. Kalashnikov, 

G.B. Nosovsky and A.T. Fomenko, verified the correctness 

of R. Newton’s calculations and confirmed his findings. In 

contrast to R. Newton, their goal was to achieve an independent 

dating of the Almagest based on the mathematical and 

statistical analysis of the individual stars’ proper motion. This 

is not an easy problem, which required a careful analysis of 

the accuracy of the Almagest’s star coordinates. Let us recall 

that every star in the catalogue was identified by two ecliptic 

coordinates: longitude and latitude. It was discovered that 

the accuracy of the longitudes was much worse than that of 

the latitudes, leading to a suspission that they were obtained 

by a method quite usual in the Middle Ages: by measuring 

equatorial coordinates and subsequently recarculating them 

into ecliptical ones. Since the calculations of the ecliptic longitudes 

were much more complicated, larger errors arose and 

the accuracy failed, making them useless for the purpose of 

dating the Almagest. In addition, the longitudal precessions 

were already well known in the Middle Ages, what could have 

been tempting to manipulate this data. The method used in 

[106] was applied to latitudes only. Its effectivness was tested 

on the several star cataloges whose dates are well known (for 

example the star cataloge of Tycho Brahe, Bonner Durchmusterung, 

etc.). It involved extensive computations which 

were done using specially writen for this purpose computer 

programs. 

For the purpose of computations, a list of 80 relatively 

fast moving stars was compiled, based on the modern star 

catalogue by D. Hofflit (The Bright Star Catalogue). Based 

on this list about 35 stars were identified in the Almagest, 

from which three had to be rejected because their identity 

couldn’t be indisputably established. Let us point out that it 

was not a trivial question to identify some of the stars in the 

Almagest. Basically, the star identifications in [106] confirm 

58 See [178].







the identifications made by F. Peters and E. Knobel. The 

idea was to consider, instead of individual stars, the whole 

collection of the moving stars in order to calculate the date 

when they were observed on the sky. In this approach the 

whole collection was considered as a single body moving on 

the celestial sphere. Let us mention, without entering into 

the mathematical formalizm behind this computations, that 

the obtained in [106] results do not confirm the traditional of 

the Almagest but shift its dating to the epoch from 600 to 

1300 A.D. This confidence interval coresponds to probability 

p = 99.8% 

1.8 Peculiarities in Development of 

Ancient Astronomy 

According to Scaliger’s chronology, the “ancient” astronomy 

achieved an incredible level of development. It is considered 

that its peak was reached in the Almagest by the last greatest 

astronome of the antiquity – Claudius Ptolemy. After 

that, in Scaliger’s chronology, the period of profound silence 

takes place. Arthur Berry, in his Short History of Astronomy 

states thatthe last important name associated with the ancient 

Greek astronomy was that of Ptolemy. 

Figure 1.21: Medieval representation of the Universe. 

The heights of the “ancient” astronomical knowledge were 

allegedly attained again only by astronomers in the Middle 

Ages during the epoch of Renaissance. In fact, it is portrayed 

that in the “antique” world the level of astronomical knowledge 

was so widespread and of such unbelievable stature that 

it was demonstrated in quite unscientific ways. For example, 

a certain “ancient” consul in the Roman army was able 

to present to his regular soldiers a lecture on the scientific 

theory of lunar eclipses. In respect to this, that’s what Titus 

Livy writes in his famous History of Rome: “Sulpicius Gallus, 

a military tribune attached to the second legion, who had been 

1.8 Peculiarities in Development of Ancient Astronomy 19 

a praetor the year before, obtained the consul’s permission to 

call the soldiers on parade. He then explained that on the following 

night the moon would lose her light from the second 

hour to the fourth, and no one must regard this as a portent, 

because this happened in the natural order of things at stated 

intervals, and could be known beforehand and predicted. Just 

in the same way, then, as they did not regard the regular rising 

and setting of the sun and moon or the changes in the light 

of the moon from full circle to a thin and waning crescent as 

a marvel, so they ought not to take its obscuration when it is 

hidden in the shadow of the earth for a supernatural portent. 

On the next night - September 4 - the eclipse took place at 

the stated hour, and the Roman soldiers thought that Gallus 

possessed almost divine wisdom.” We are told today, that this 

detailed explanation about eclipses was given to the soldiers 

of the Legion of the “ancient” Rome about 2000 years before. 

For a person familiar with the history of science, this “ancient 

soldiery lecture” makes a real strong impression. This impression 

can be even stronger if we take a look at the stage of the 

astronomical knowledge during the period from the 2nd to 

10th century A.D. 

After having witnessed the pronouncement of the Roman 

consul in front of the soldiers of the Legion, let us move forward 

to the 6th century A.D. and find out what tells us the 

renowed specialist in the medieval cosmography — Kosma 

Indikoplevst. What was at that time the knowledge about 

the Universe, stars and Sun? In his opinion, the Universe was 

believed to be a “basket” (see a copy of a medieval picture 

representing the Universe on Figure 1.21). Inside this “basket, 

from the flat Earth surrounded by the ocean, there was 

a huge mountain rising up. The Sun and Moon were hiding 

behind this mountain for a fixed time. The firmament, filled 

with small nails-stars, was supported by four vertical walls. 

This “highly competent” perspective of the Universe, quite 

well illustrates the initial stage, which is clearly very primitive, 

of knowledge at this epoch. Historians of science following 

Scaliger’s chronology, are forced to call this situation 

as a “relapse of childhood,” explaining that the ideas of the 

flat Earth, which are usually concieved during the childhood, 

found thier way to dominate peoples minds. 

What’s happened? From where did this cave-man like understanding 

of astronomy come from? Acording to Klimishin, 

what is a typical for historian explanation, it was a decline of 

the antique culture that took place: 

“After a marvelous blossoming of the ancient culture on the 

European continent, there came a long period of stagnation 

and regress — lasting for more than 1000 years, which we call 

today the Middle Ages. . . . During these 1000 years, not even 

one significan astronomical discovery was made.” Basically, 

the traditional explanation of this phenomena can be simply 

summarized as: Christianity is not compatible with science. 

According to A. Berri, “history of the Greek astronomy 

essentially ends with Ptolemy. The art of astronomical observation 

collapsed to such a degree that during the eight centuries, 

separating Ptolemy from Al-Baghdadi, there wasn’t al-


most any astronomical observation made of scientific nature. 

” Historians of science, following Scaliger’s chronology, are 

forced to call this situation a “relapse of childhood,” explaining 

that the ideas of the flat Earth, which are usually concieved 

during the childhood, found thier way to dominate 

people’s minds. But these arguments are not convincing. We 

have seen how Greek scientists and philosophers were able 

to effectively prove that the Earth is spherical, determine its 

dimensions, and even, alghough it was not very precise, to 

compute the distance from the Earth to the Sun and Moon. 

It can hardly be considered as an explanation that new generations 

obsessed by religious fanatism attempted to distroy 

the rising up knowledge of science because of their relapsing 

childhood ideas. 

Figure 1.22: Medieval drawing 

of Ptolemy 

A. Berri provides the following 

comments regarding 

Scaliger’s history of the astronomical 

development: 

“About fourteen centuries 

elapsed from the proclamation 

of the Almagest to the 

death of Copernicus (1543) 

. . . During that time . . . not 

even one astronomical discovery 

of primary importance 

was made. . . . Theoretical 

astronomy barley made some 

progress and in some sense 

cases suffered retrogression. 

In fact, the astronomical 

doctrines that were followed 

during this epoch are clearly 

inferior to the Ptolemy’s 

ideas and demonstrate significantly 

lower level of 

understanding than the astronomical theories used in the 

ancient times. As we have seen, in the Western European 

astronomy nothing substantial took place during the five 

centuries after the death of Ptolemy. After that there was 

a rather steady period, and many centuries passed before 

we could see a more or less significant revival of interests 

in astronomy.” Finally, he concludes that “Regarding the 

Europe, the gloomy period following the collapse of the 

Roman Empire (apparently in the 6th. century A.D. — 

Authors) . . . constitutes constitutes not only a disruption of 

history, but also disruption of every branch of science.” 

In our opinion these “disruptions,” “periods od silence,” 

“dark ages” etc. exist only because historians are using the 

incorrect Scaliger version of chronology. 

On Figure 1.22 we show a medieval drawing of Ptolemy 

who clearly wearing medieval cloths. 

1.9 Mathematical and Statistical 

Methods for Dating Events of 

Ancient History. 

There is clearly a need for new and independent scientific 

methods to investigate the correctness of Scaliger’s chronology. 

In this section we would like to mention some of those 

new mathematical and statistical methods that were developed 

by A.T. Fomenko with the purpose of examining dependences 

between historical texts. Due to its complexity and 

large amount of material that was analyzed, it is not possible 

here to discuss this topic in details. We will only present a 

brief discussion of these methods and describe the most significant 

results that were obtained by A.T. Fomenko and G.V. 

Nosovsky. We refer all the interested readers to the Fomenko’s 

monograph [103] for more details and more information. 

Let us point out that the problem of recognizing dependences 

and dependent texts (for example the texts with the 

same primary source) arise in many branches of applied statistics, 

linguistics, physics, genetics, forensics, etc. There are 

many various methods used for finding dependences of this 

sort. In particular, they are useful in criminal investigations 

where they can provide tangible proofs based on the collected 

physical evidence that an event occurred. Identifying fingerprints, 

bloodstains, fibers, the marks on a bullet, footprints, 

various marks on the body and all kinds of even microscopic 

traces, require more than just an impression that two patterns 

are similar. To determine with high confidence a match 

between two patterns is a serious mathematical problem requiring 

precise calculations of probabilities. 

The existence of strange “repetitions” in chronology was 

already known for a long time, since N.A. Morozov identified 

several similarities between the so-called dynasty functions. 

In order to be able to present a solid proof that these similarities 

are not coincidental and that they in fact indicate a 

historical “mistake” of misinterpretation of historical documents, 

it is necessary to analyze them statistically exactly in 

the same way as it is done regarding the physical evidence 

in a criminal investigation. The method suggested by A.T. 

Fomenko is based on empirico-statistical procedures that can 

extremely useful not only in analyzing narrative texts such as 

historical chronicles, but in other areas of sciences, for example 

in studying biological codes. 

Let us explain more clearly how the historical material, 

such as chronicles, can be analyzed using mathematical methods? 

For example, it is possible to extract all kinds of numerical 

information from these documents. Suppose we are 

analyzing a text X — a historical chronicle. We can create a 

sequence of integers representing the number of words used in 

the chronicle to describe events in subsequent years. If T denotes 

the year T , then the value X(T )) would be the number 

of words in the chapter describing the year T , which would 

be here the volume of a fragment corresponding to the year

VOLUME 

Maximum 1 

1584 

1585 

1586 

Maximum 2 

1587 

1.9 Mathematical and Statistical Methods for Dating Events of Ancient History. 21 

1588 

1589 

1590 

Maximum 3 

1591 

1592 

1593 

1594 

1595 

1596 

1597 

Maximum 4 

Historical Text 1 

1598 





Figure 1.23: Comparison of the volume functions of dependent historical texts: 1) Vremennik Timofeeva, 2) Piskarevskiy 

letopisets, 3) Skazaniye o Fyodore, 4) Novyi letopisets, 5) The 1617 Chronograph


T . Such a function X(T ) is called by Fomenko the volume 

function for X. Of course, it is easy to define many other 

similar numerical functions that could be used as an “identificator” 

of the text X. For instance, the frequency the year T 

is mentioned in the subsequent chapters of X, the number of 

all the names of historical persons listed in the text, or how 

many times these names were mentioned in the whole text. In 

his monograph [103], A.T. Fomenko used several such functions 

to analyze similarities and differences between various 

historical documents, for which carried appropriate statistical 

calculations and precise evaluations of probabilities. The 

main problem was to identify which of the considered documents 

referred to the same epoch or two different epochs. 

In the case of two volume functions, this could be done as 

follows: It is clear that for two different documents X and Y 

their volume functions X(T ) and Y (T ) can be completely different 

even if they refer to the same epoch. However, if X and 

Y describe the same sequence of events, then it is most probable 

that they will have the same distribution of local maxima. 

It is quite obvious, that important events in both documents 

would be presented in a more elaborated form. That means 

for those “important years” T the volume functions X(T ) 

and Y (T ) would have local maxima. Consequiently, the both 

functions X(T ) and Y (T ) would have similar distribution of 

their maxima or the “important years.” A question arises how 

to determine the probability that two volume functions with 

similar maxima distribution are referreing to the same sequence 

of events. A.T. Fomenko did the probability calculation 

and verify their accuracy on the chronicles related to the 

well documented epochs. On Figure 1.23 we show the distribution 

of local maxima for five different chronicles describing 

the same sequence of events. It is clear that, indeed, their 

maxima are located almost in the same positions. 

On the other hand, the coincidence of local maxima of two 

volume functions can be used to identify, with very high probability, 

that two hisorical texts describe the same epoch and 

the same sequence of events, even if they were mistakenly 

associated with different epochs. This method of matching 

dependent texts is called by A.T. Fomenko the principle of 

maximal correlation. This principle was empirically checked 

using the reliable historical data of 16th – 19th centuries, and 

its correctness was confirmed. Therefore, the locations of the 

maxima constitute the numerical data that can be associated 

with the text X in order to characterize the epoch it is referring 

to. 

An example of a simple scalar function, which can be easily 

extracted from the historical database, is the functions 

of the time-span of the reign of subsequent rulers belonging 

to a certain specific dynasty. Such a dynasty function can be 

illustrated by its graph, which is shown on Figure 1.24. On 

the horizontal axis are placed the subsequent numbers of the 

consecutive rulers (or names of kings, emperors, etc.) and on 

the vertical axis is marked the length of the reign of the corresponding 

ruler. Fomenko calls such a sequence of rulers a 

numerical dynasty or simply a dynasty. The dynasty in the 

above example consists of 12 rulers. Again, it is clear that two 

Length of Reign (in years) 

25 

20 

15 

10 

5 

¡ 

¡ 

¡ 

¡ 

¡ 

¡ 

¡ 

¡ 

¡ 

Dynasty Function 

¡ 

¡ 

¡ ¡ 

¡ 

¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ 

¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 

Consecutive Rulers 

Figure 1.24: Example of a dynasty function 

chronicles (even if they have some discrepancies and are written 

in different languages with different calendar conventions) 

describing the same portion of history, would produce similar 

dynasty functions. It is possible to determine the confidence 

interval corresponding to a very high probability, that allows 

us to identify such dependent dynasty functions, in which case 

we can determine that the similarities are not coincidental and 

in fact, they indicate that they represent the same sequence 

of historical events. 

The Roman coronation 

of the Holy Roman 

emperors in 10-13 

Centuries 

41 

38 

¢ 

¢ 

32 

¢ 

24 

21 22 

1 

23 

¢ 

21 

¢ 

18 

¢ 

¢ 

13 

¢ 

11 

9 

¢ 

8 

¢ 

¢ 

¢ 

3 

¢ 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

¢ 

2 

¢ 

Biblical Israeli rulers 

from 922 BC 

Figure 1.26: Parallel between the Roman coronation of the 

Holy Roman emperors and the biblical Israeli rulers 

It may sounds strange that mathematical methods can be 

effectively used to investigate correctness of historical dating, 

but it is exactly what is the case here. The methods of 

Fomenko, which are based on theoretical and empirical analy- 

¢ 

¢ 

¢ 

¢ 

8 

12 

14 

12 

10 

¢ 

¢ 

¢ 

20 

¢ 

22 

24 

¢ 

¢ 

30 

33 

¢ 

¡ 

41 

¡ 

¡

The Holy Roman-German 

Empire (911-1307) 

Henry I (919-936) 

Lothar (947-950) 

Otto I (936-973) 

Otto II (960-983) 

54 

53 

£ 

£ 

37 

Otto III (983-996) 

king in 983 until becoming Roman emperor 

Otto III (996-1002) 

from becoming the emperor of Rome 

Henry II (1002-1024) 

+Conrad II (1024-1039) 

Henry III (1028-1056) 

Henry IV 

(1053-1106) 

Lothair II (1125-1138) 

Conrad III (1138-1152) 

Henry VI (1189-1197) 

Fredrick II 

(1196-1250) 

Conrad IV (1250-1254) 

Charles of Anjou 

(1254-1285) 

Time interval 1285-1307 

Adolf (1291-1298) 

Albert I (1298-1304) 

37 

70 £ 

Period of the Avignon papacy 

(1305-1376) 

£ 

£ 


31 

28 

28 

£ 

£ 

£ 

23 

22 

£ 

£ 

17 17 

£ £ £ 

1 

13 

13 

14 

£ 

10 

£ 

£ 

4 

7 

6 

£ 

3 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

3 

Jewish Kingdom According to 

the Bible 

2 

£ 

6 

£ 

£ 

9 

11 

11 

£ 

£ 

16 

16 

£ 

£ 

24 

24 

£ 

£ 

£ 

29 

29 

31 

£ 

35 

£ 

38 

£ 

52 

Rehoboam (0-17) 

55 

Abia (17-20) 

Asa (20-55) 

Jehoshaphat (55-79) 

Jehoram+Ahaziah (86-94) 

Athaliah (95-101) 

Joash(92-130) 

Amaziah (130-159) 

Uzziah 

(159-211) 

Jotham (211-227) 

Ahaz (227-243) 

Hazekiah(256-286) 

Manasseh 

(285-340) 

Amon (340-342) 

Josiah (342-373) 

Jehoiakim+Zedekiah 

(377-397) 

Johoiachin (374-385) 

Zedekiah (386-397) 

70 £ 

Period of the Babilonian Exile 

(397-467) 

Figure 1.25: Parallel between the Holy Roman-German Empire and Jewish Kingdom


sis of numerical functions associated with historical data provided 

a very effective tool to identify multiple duplicates in 

history. 

First Period of the 

Roman Episcopate in 

141-314 A.D. 

St. Pius (16) 

(141-157) 

St. Anicetus (11) 

(157-168) 

¤ 

¤ 

St. Soter (168-177) (9) 

(168-177) 

St. Eleutherius (15) 

(177-192) 

St. Victor (9) 

(192-201) 

Zephyrinus (18) 

(201-219) 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

Calixtus (5) 

(219-224) 

Urban I (7) 

(224-321) 

Pontianus (5) 

(231-236) 

Fabian (15) 

(236-251) 

Confusion (8) 

(251-259) 

¤ 

Dionysius (12) 

(259-271) 

Eutychianus (?) 

Felix I (9) ¤ 

(275-284) 

Felix I (?) 

Eutychianus (4) 

(271-275) 

Gaius (13) 

(283-296) 

Marcellinus (8) 

(296-304) 

¤ 

Marcellus (5) 

(304-309) 

Eusebius (3) 

(309-312) 

Meltiades (3) 

(311-314) 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

Second Period of the Roman 

Episcopate in 314-532 A.D. 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

¥ ¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

¤ 

(22) Silvester 

(314-336) 

(17) Julius I 

(336-353) 

(15) Liberius 

(352-367) 

(18) Damasus 

(367-385) 

(13) Siricius 

(385-398) 

¤ 

(19/14) Anastasius 

and Innocent 

(398-412-417) 

¥ ¤ 

¥ 

(5) Boniface I 

(418-423) 

(9) Celestine 

(423-432) 

(8) Sixtus 

(432-440) 

¤ (21) St. Leo 

Confusion 

Leo I 

(440-461) 

(8) Hilarius 

(461-467) 

¤ 

(16) Simplicius 

(467-483) 

(9) Felix II 

(483-492) 

(4) Gelasius 

(492-496) 

(16) Symmachus 

(498-514) 

(9) Hormisdas 

(514-523) 

(3) John I 

(523-526) 

(4) Felix III 

(526-530) 

(2) Boniface III 

(530-532) 

Figure 1.27: Parallel between first and second periods of the 

Roman Episcopate 

In order to give to “similarity” a more precise meaning, 

Fomenko’s introduced a routine for distinguishing functions 

referring to different dynasties and defined a certain measure 

of distinctiveness between them (or rather a probability measure 

for distinctiveness). In simple words, he found a way to 

measure a ‘distance’ between the above numerical functions 

(like for example dynasty functions) as we measure a distance 

between two different locations. Mathematicians say that in 

such a case that they are dealing with a metric space. The 

geometry of a metric spaces is definitely different from the 

geometry we learn in school, but the usual properties related 

to the measurement of distances are still valid there. Now we 

can apply the idea, that if a distance, let’s say, between two 

towns A and B is less than few hundreds meters, then we are 

justified to think that in fact A and B represent practically 

the same town. Similarly, if a distance between two dynasty 

functions is sufficiently small we may think that indeed they 

¤ 

represent the same dynasty. These methods were extensively 

tested on the data referring to well documented epochs. It 

was proved that if two dynasty functions (for 15 rulers) or 

volume functions were not related, the measure of distinctiveness 

between numerical functions associated with these 

dynasties was between 1 and 10 −4 . However, in the case of 

related events from the same epoch, the measure of distinctiveness 

was never larger than 10 −8 . 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

 

 

 

 

 

Jet A 

Jet B 

 

¦§¦¨¦§¦¨¦§¦§¦©¦§¦¨¦©¦©¦§¦©¦§¦ 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 

 

 

 

 

 

© © 

Figure 1.28: Parallel between the Holy Roman Empire in the 

10-13th cc. A.D. and the Second Roman Empire in the 1st 

c. B.C.-3rd c. A.D. Two graphs combined. Rigid 1053-year 

shift. 

It is difficult to imagine that two different dynasties could 

have identical or almost identical dynasty functions. The 

probability of such a coincidence is extremely small already 

for dynasties composed of 10 rulers. Nevertheless, the number 

of such coincidences, for even longer dynasties of 15 rulers, 

turns out to be unexpectedly large. N.A. Morozov, who noticed 

the coincidence between the ancient Rome and the ancient 

Jewish state, discovered the first examples of surprisingly 

identical pairs of dynasty graphs. A formal method to 

study such similarities was introduced by A.T. Fomenko. 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jet A 

Jet B 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 

Jet A: the Holy Roman Empire in the 10-13th cc. A.D. 

Jet B: the Roman Empire in the 4-6th cc. A.D. Two graphs combined. 


10-13th cc. A.D. and the Roman Empire in the 4-6th cc. A.D. 

Two graphs combined.

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 

Jet A: the Second Roman Empire in the 1st c. B.C.-3rd c. A.D 

Jet B: the Third Roman Empire in the 3rd-6th cc. A.D. 

Jet A 

Jet B 

Figure 1.30: Parallel between the Second Roman Empire in the 1st c. B.C.-3rd c. A.D, and the Third Roman Empire in the 

3rd-6th cc. A.D. Two graphs combined. Approximately 333-year shift. 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

 

 

 

 

Jet A 

Jet B 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

©©§©§©¨¨©§©§© 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 

Jet A: the Holy Roman Empire in the 10-13th cc. A.D. 

Jet B: the Hapsburg’s Empire in the 13-17th cc. A.D. 


10-13th cc. A.D. and the Hapsburg’s Empire in the 13-17th 

cc. A.D. Two graphs combined. Rigid 362 year shift. 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 

 

 

Jet A 

Jet B 

Jet A: the Carolingians in the 7-9th cc. A.D. (Charles’ Empire) 

Jet B: the Third Roman Empire in the 3-6th cc. A.D. 

Figure 1.32: Parallel between the Carolingians in the 7-9th cc. 

A.D. (Charles’ Empire) and the Third Roman Empire in the 

3-6th cc. A.D. (basically in the East). Two graphs combined. 

Rigid 360 year shift. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

90 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jet A 

Jet B 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

§§¨§©§©©©§©¨©§©© 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 

Jet A: the Eastern Roman Empire in 306-700 A.D. 

Jet B: the biblical Kingdom of Judah in them 10-6th cc. B.C. 

Figure 1.33: Parallel between the Eastern Roman Empire in 

306-700 A.D. and the biblical Kingdom of Judah in the 10-6th 

cc. B.C. Two graphs combined. 

There is another surprise, besides coincidence of the dynasty 

functions, the other numerical functions confirm with 

very high probability that these dynasties are indeed the 

same. It brings us to a suspicion that in fact we are dealing 

with repetitions in the conventional version of the history. 

Fomenko discovered dozens of strong coincidences, sometimes 

between three and more dynasties. But, there are no more 

such coincidences in the history of the better-documented 

epochs, for example starting from the 16th century. 

Using empirico-statistical analysis A.T. Fomenko and his 

collaborators discovered dozens of historical repetitions which 

most probably were mistakenly organized as unrelated sequences 

of historical events. Extremely high probability for 

these identifications exclude any possibility for an accidental 

coincidence. Let us illustrate several such historical duplicates 

based on selected from the book [103]. We begin with 

an example showing similarities between two dynasties, one 

the dynasty of the Holy Roman-German Empire (10th – 13th


△ = 720 

260 280 300 320 340 360 380 400 420 440 460 480 500 520 540 560 

©©©§©§©¨¨©§©§©©§©¨§©§¨¨§¨©¨ 

Arcadius 

Otto III 

Diocletian 

Constantinius 

I Chlorus 

Henry II 

Licinius 

Conrad II 

Constantine I 

Henry III 

the Black 

Basil the Great 

Henry IV 

The Holy Roman Empire in the 10-13th cc. A.D. 

Theodosius I 

Henry V 

Honorius 

Lothair 

Theodosius II 

980 1020 1040 1080 1100 1120 1140 1160 1180 1200 1220 1240 1260 1280 

©©©§©§©¨¨©§©§©©§©¨§©§¨¨§¨©¨ 

Conrad III 

Valentinian 

Frederick I 

Barbarossa 

The Third Roman Empire in the 4-6th cc. A.D. 

Anarchy and 

Ricimer 

Henry VI 

Anarchy and 

Philip Ghibelline 

Odoacer 

and anarchy 

Otto IV 

and anarchy 

Odoacer and Theodoric 

Frederick II 

(since coronation) 

Figure 1.34: Parallel between the Holy Roman Empire in the 10-13th cc. A.D. and the Third Roman Empire in the 4-6th cc. 

A.D. The 720-year rigid shift. 

△ = 362 

900 920 940 960 980 1000 1020 1040 1060 1080 1100 1120 1140 1160 1180 1200 1220 1240 1260 

 

 

Conrad IV 

Conrad I 

Henry I 

Fowler 

Rudolf 

Habsburg 

Adolph of Nassau 

Otto I the Great 

Henry VII Louis V 

Otto II Otto III 

Henry II 

the Saint 

Charles IV 

The Holy Roman Empire in the 10-13th cc. 

Conrad II 

from the 

coronation 

in Rome 

Wenceslas 

Henry III 

Rupert 

Palatinate 

Sigismund 

Henry IV 

1260 1280 1300 1320 1340 1360 1380 1400 1420 1440 1460 1480 1500 1520 1540 1560 1580 1600 1620 

 

The Hapsburg Empire in the 13th cc. A.D. 

Henry V 

Frederick III 

Lothair II 

Maximilian I 

Frederick I Barbarossa 

Henry VI 

Frederick II 

Theodoric 

Philip 

Charles V (and 

Frederick the Sage) 

and the war with Barbarossa 

Ferdinand I 

Goth’s 

dynasty 

Conrad IV 

Frederick II 

Maximilian II 

Rudolph II 

Manfred 

Totila 

Conradin 

William 

Teias 

Matthias 

Ferdinand II 

Figure 1.35: Parallel between the Holy Roman Empire in the 10-13th cc. A.D. and the Hapsburg Empire in the 13th cc. A.D. 

The 362-year rigid shift.

−1700 


−100 100 1700 

 

Old and New 

Testament 

S3 

Europe 

K N 

K N K K 

P 

N 

R 

K 

R 

N 

S 

K N R S 

△ = 1778 years 

S2 

K 

R 

K N R S 

△ = 1053 years 

S1 

P P 

K N 

S R 

R 

K P R S 

△ = 333 years 

S0 

K 

R 

R Sα 

R S 

S 

P 

N R S 

Figure 1.36: The Global Chronological Diagram and the three main chronological shifts S3, S2, S1.


AD) and another one of the Jewish kings according the Bible 

(9th – 5th BC). On Figure 1.25 we show the vertical time line 

with two graphs of reign durations on its opposite sides for 

comparison. On this chart, we start the dates for the dynasty 

of Jewish kings in the year zero, which is not a date according 

to some era but simply indicates the starting “zero” point 

for this dynasty. According to Scaliger’s chronology the beginning 

of this dynasty is around 922 B.C. Figure 1.25 was 

taken from the monograph [103] by A.T. Fomenko. 

There are many more examples of similar dynasty pairs 

in the conventional chronology. For instance, the parallel between 

the first period of the Roman episcopate in 141-314 

A.D. and the second period of the Roman episcopate in 314- 

532 A.D. is shown in Figure 1.27. On Figure 1.26, we present 

another pair of graphs, this time without annotations. All 

the graphs were also taken from the monograph [103]. The 

parallel between the Roman coronations of the Holy Roman 

emperors and the biblical Israeli rulers shown in Figure 1.26. 

Another historical duplicate, or parallel is illustrated on 

Figure 1.27, where we show a repetition in the chronology 

line of the Roman Episcopate. In the example on Figure 1.29, 

we show strong similarities between the Holy Roman Empire 

of the 10th–13th centuries A.D. and the Roman Empire in 

the 4th–6th centuries A.D. Then, on Figure 1.30 we show 

the repetition of the dynasty functions for the Second Roman 

Empire in the 1st century B.C. – 3rd century A.D. and the 

Third Roman Empire in the 3rd–6th centuries A.D. 

In Figure 1.31 we show a parallel between the Roman Empire 

in the 10th–13th century A.D. and the Hapsburg’s Empire 

in the 13th–17th century A.D. Next, on Figure 1.32 there 

is another parallel between the Caroligians in the 7th–9th 

centuries A.D. and the Third Roman Empire in the 3rd–6th 

century A.D. Finally, on Figure 1.33 we illustrate the repetitions 

between the Eastern Roman Empire in 3006–700 A.D. 

and the Biblical Kingdom of Judah in the 10th–6th centuries 

B.C. 

Another type of graphs was used in Figure 1.34 to show 

the parallel between the Holy Roman Empire in the 10th–13th 

centuries A.D. and the Third Roman Empire in the 4th–6th 

centuries A.D., and in Figure 1.35 between the Holy Roman 

Empire in the 10th–13th centuries A.D. and the Hapsburg’s 

Empire in the 13th-15th century A.D. 

These parallels suggest that the traditional history of ancient 

times consist of multiple recounts of the same events 

scattered in many locations at various times. The first scientist 

who realized it was N.A. Morozov (see [4]). A.T. Fomenko 

found several new parallels, some of them between more than 

two dynasties, and was able to decipher the principle structure 

of these duplicates in European and Biblical history (see 

[103]). He discover that the existence of duplicates of dynasty 

functions resulted from three main historical shifts, which can 

be seen as historical repetitions. On Figure 1.36, we show 

a graphical representation of the duplicates and the main 

historical shifts (discovered by A.T. Fomenko) that are re- 

lated to the Roman and European history. On the graph the 

chronological blocks annotated by the same letters (what we 

also emphasized by adding colors) represent duplicates in the 

conventional chronology. The main shifts are denoted by the 

symbols S3, S2 and S1.. 

The work of Fomenko and his collaborators proves that 

the statistical analysis can be successfully applied to analyze 

the numerical data contained in historical documents. A.T. 

Fomenko and G.V. Nosovsky also developed several other 

statistical criteria for distinguishing or recognizing identical 

sequences of historical events. We should mention for example 

the method of detecting chronological shifts based on the 

names distribution in chronicles and the method of relation 

matrices used to recognize duplicates and decompose chronicles 

into its source fragments (see [103]).

Chapter 2 

Ancient Egyptian Zodiacs

2.1 Egyptian Zodiacs 

Egyptian zodiacs are nothing other than symbolic maps representing, 

in a specific “ancient” Egyptian style, astronomical 

objects on the sky. If we look upward at the sky on a clear 

night we will have an impression that the sky is a great hollow 

spherical shell with the Earth at the center, which is sometimes 

called celestial sphere. This celestial sphere is gradually 

and continuously changing its orientation, which is caused by 

the rotation of the Earth. However, a careful observer can 

notice that some stars do not rise or set. There seems to be 

a point in the sky about which the whole celestial sphere appears 

to turn. A star at this point would appear motionless 

in the sky. The North Star is within 1o of this pivot point. An 

observer at the North Pole of the Earth would see the stars 

appear to circle about the sky parallel to the horizon. It was 

already known to ancient Babylonians, Egyptians and Greeks 

that the Sun changes its position on the celestial sphere. Of 

course it is impossible to see the position of the Sun with 

respect to the stars in the daylight but nevertheless it is possible 

to observe the exact position of the Sun among the stars 

twice per day. The first time, just before the sunrise when 

the stars are still visible, we can determine the position on 

the celestial sphere of the point on the horizon where the 

Sun will appear (expecting that the Sun will rise in the same 

point as yesterday). Similarly, we can observe the position of 

the Sun just after the sunset. In the course of one year, the 

Sun completes a circuit of the celestial sphere. This apparent 

path of the Sun is called ecliptic (because eclipses can occur 

only when the Moon is on or near it). Of course, the sun’s 

motion on the ecliptic is an illusion produced by the Earth’s 

annual revolution about the Sun. It was noted by the ancients 

that the ecliptic does not lie in a plane perpendicular 

to the line between the celestial poles, but is inclined at an 

angle of about 23 1 o 

to that plane. This angle is called the 

2 

obliquity of the ecliptic. The individual paths of the Moon 

and planets in the sky all lie close to the ecliptic, although 

not exactly on it. The planets and Moon are always found in 

the sky within a narrow belt 18o wide centered on the ecliptic, 

called the zodiac. This zodiac belt is a celestial highway 

where the motion of all the planets as well as of Sun and 

the Moon take place when observed from the Earth. Twelve 

zodiac constellations are placed along the ecliptic filling the 

zodiac belt. Their names are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, 

Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, 

and Pisces. Each of the twelve zodiac constellations is located 

in a sector 30o long on average. In modern astrology, instead 

of zodiac constellations, there is usually used an equal partition 

of the zodiac belt into regions of exactly 30o long, called 

zodiac houses and named after constellations, with the starting 

point being the spring equinox of the date, i.e. the position 

of the Sun on the ecliptic when day and night become equal 

in the spring, which nowadays happens approximately around 

March 21. Since the spring equinox is moving along the ecliptic 

with the speed around 1o in 70 years, the zodiac houses 

do not coincide exactly with the corresponding zodiac constellations 

and, in fact, after about 2100 years their positions 

shift. 

The key concept in astrology is a horoscope, which is 

a chart that shows the positions of the planets in the sky 

with respect to zodiac constellations. The ancient Egyptians 

knew about the planets moving within the zodiac belt and 

attributed great importance to their positions with respect 

to the zodiac constellations and, unknowingly, were able to 

encode in the horoscopes specific dates which with today’s 

technology can be easily deciphered, however not necessarily 

with a unique result. Contemporary astrology constructs 

horoscopes based on the position of the planets with respect 

to the zodiac houses which are calculated, but in ancient times 

the horoscopes were made according to the actual view of the 

constellations in the sky. The visual positions of the planets 

are determined by the light rays from Earth passing through 

the planets. As was mentioned above, all these rays lie approximately 

in the same plane, which is the common plane 

for all planets’ orbits in the solar system. In fact there are 

some slight differences in planes of orbital movements but 

they are very close to each other. This means that all the 

rays from the Earth to the planets and the Sun and Moon 

meet the celestial sphere somewhere inside the zodiac belt. 

An Egyptian horoscope is nothing else than the position of 

the planets (including Sun and the Moon) with respect to 

the zodiac constellations. In ancient times the Sun and Moon 

were also included in the list of planets because they change 

their visual positions on the celestial sphere, contrary to the 

stars. Therefore, the ancient horoscopes contained the total 

number of seven planets: the Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, 

Mars, Venus and Mercury. 

At any time there are 12 possible zodiac constellations 

where each of the seven planets may appear. Positions of the 

Moon, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are independent 

of each other. However, due to the inner orbits with respect 

to the Earth’s orbit, the visual angle distance from Mercury 

and the Sun cannot be larger than 28 o and the angle distance 

from Venus to the Sun must be smaller than 48 o . This means 

that for each fixed position of the Sun in the zodiac there are 

only 3 possible positions for Mercury and 5 possible positions 

for Venus. It is not difficult to compute that there are exactly 

12 × 12 × 12 × 12 × 12 × 3 × 5 = 3, 732, 480 

different horoscopes. Since an average horoscope remains on 

the sky for about 24 hours, there are about 365 different horoscopes 

every year. Therefore, a specific horoscope reappears 

only after 10 thousand years in average. However, in reality 

some horoscopes may reappear two or three times after 8 or 

9 hundred years and later disappear for more than several 

dozens thousands of years. One can easily perceive that from 

the point of view of its universality and accuracy, a horoscope 

is a perfect tool to record dates, with a precision of one or 

two days on average, which is independent of any particular 

dating system. Therefore, if a symbolic representation of the 

zodiac constellations contains symbols or names of the planets, 

we have reason to believe that it is not only an artistic 

object (painting or sculpture) but it should be considered to 

be a horoscope that can be dated.

The Egyptian zodiacs contained specific ancient symbols 

to illustrate astronomical objects, which today can be analyzed 

in order to answer the most intriguing question: When 

exactly did the ancient Egyptian live and when were 

the famous ancient Egyptian temples constructed? In 

other words, the dating of the horoscopes shown on ancient 

Egyptian zodiacs provides a suitable, according to the present 

scientific standards, method for establishing milestone dates 

for the chronology of the Ancient Egypt. We can reveal that 

the analysis of all the ancient Egyptian zodiacs leads only 

to medieval dates with the majority of them located after 

the twelve century and even later. These results match very 

well with the New Chronology (see [103],[105],[106],[117]), according 

to which the most ancient events of the documented 

history took place not earlier than in the eleventh century 

A.D. (see 1.9). 

We would like to observe that commemoration of certain 

dates by horoscopes was very widespread in the ancient 

Egypt. Even today, imitations of ancient horoscopes are popular 

in Egypt where tourists can find them without trouble, 

among other “ancient” Egyptian artifacts, in almost every 

souvenir store. One of these papyrus drawings, that was purchased 

in year 2000 in Luksor is illustrated on Figure 2.1. 

Figure 2.1: Modern Egyptian papyrus with a picture of an old 

zodiac. 

In many such stores, a tourist can even order his or her 

“ancient” Egyptian zodiac with a horoscope to be drawn on 

a papyrus. Nowadays there is no need to observe the locations 

of the planets but it is sufficient to have a computer 

and an astronomical software that can be easily downloaded 

from the Internet, and the whole task of making an “ancient” 

Egyptian zodiac is reduced to arranging appropriately into it 

the “ancient” Egyptian symbols. Therefore, any of would-be 

ancient Egyptian zodiacs should be studied with great caution 

because it could be a forgery or simply a zodiac that was 

2.1 Egyptian Zodiacs 31 

made in eighteenth or nineteenth century when this ancient 

tradition was still alive in Egypt. It will be explained later, 

with more details, that the zodiacs in Egypt were connected 

to burial rituals. These burial traditions could be cultivated 

by Egyptians much longer than usually assumed. Moreover, 

many fake horoscopes could also be fabricated in nineteenth 

century when the ancient Egypt became fashionable among 

reach Europeans. Therefore, when working on dating of an 

ancient horoscope, we should be prepared for a possibility 

that the obtained date could be much later than expected. 

For example, it is quite possible that the date of an “ancient” 

Egyptian zodiac could indicate the nineteenth century 

even if it was discovered in a very “ancient Egyptian tomb.” 

There is a problem that the present dating methods of archaeological 

findings from ancient Egypt are very imprecise, 

erroneous, and often leading to the wrong conclusions. For 

example, using these methods a tomb dated as a very ancient 

burial place could turn out, as it sometimes really happens, 

to be constructed in the nineteenth century. 

Very often, the fact that an Egyptian picture represents a 

zodiac may not be evident at the first glance. However, there 

are some definite features which can be used to recognize 

easily such pictures as zodiacs. For example, on almost every 

Egyptian zodiac there is a dominating female figure with 

raised hands, and her body usually shaped in form of an arc 

symbolizing the sky. This figure is commonly recognized as 

the “Egyptian goddess Nut” (see Figure 2.2). One can easily 

identify this symbol on Figure 2.1. 

Figure 2.2: “Ancient Egyptian goddess 

Nut.” (Taken from [7], p.10) 

Let us present several 

examples of Egyptian 

zodiacs. All these 

zodiacs will be discussed 

in details later 

in this book, but for 

now we would like only 

to give an idea about 

possible different appearances 

of Egyptian 

zodiacs. On Figure 2.3 

we show an ancient 

Egyptian zodiac that 

was found in the Kings 

Valley near Thebes. 

This picture was made 

during the Egyptian 

expedition of Napoleon and published in the Napoleonic edition 

of the album La Description de l’Egypte. 

On Figure 1.4 we show a part of the low relief depicting a 

zodiac which was found on the ceiling in an ancient Egyptian 

temple in Denderah. It is big relief of dimensions 2.55 × 2.53 

meters, that is considered to be the most famous Egyptian 

zodiac. It is called “Round Denderah Zodiac” (because of it’s 

round form) in order to distinguish it from the “Long” or 

“Rectangular Denderah Zodiac” which was discovered in the 

same temple in Denderah. The Round Denderah zodiac was

32 2 Ancient Egyptian Zodiacs 

Figure 2.3: Zodiac found in the Kings Valley near Thebes. 

(Taken from [2] – “Tableau Astronomique peint au plafond 

du premier tombeau des Rois à l’Ouest”, plate 82) 

found by Europeans in 1799 during the Napoleonic invasion of 

Egypt and later removed and taken to Paris. Today the original 

Round Denderah zodiac is displayed in Louvre museum 

in Paris while a copy decorates the ceiling of the Denderah 

temple. 

The central part of the Round zodiac is shown on Figure 

2.5, where it is possible to see better some of the figures representing 

zodiac constellations and planets. We will discuss 

in detail all these symbols later in Chapter 5. 

Figure 2.4: Round Denderah Zodiac. (Taken from [120], p.115) 

Figure 2.5: Central part of the Round Denderah Zodiac. Taken 

from [13], p.255) 

A drawing of the complete Round zodiac is presented on 

Figure 2.7 and the drawing of the Round zodiac taken from 

the Napoleonic Album “La Description de l’Egypte” is shown 

on Figure 2.6. 

This picture looks very nice and it is clear that the artist 

tried to be accurate in the smallest detail. However, in the 

same time, it is easy to notice that its style was modified following 

eighteenth century fashion — the original is much more 

primitive. It is not hard to recognize on the Round zodiac 

symbols of all twelve zodiac constellations which are placed 

inside the central circle of the zodiac. It is strange that these 

symbols appear exactly in the same way as in the European 

medieval astronomical books. Leo is represented by a figure 

of lion, Sagittarius is a centaur shooting an arrow, Capricorn 

is a fantastic creature with a fish tail and goat head, etc.


Figure 2.6: Drawing of the whole Round Denderah Zodiac with two Nut Goddesses on its side. (Taken from [10], p.71)


Figure 2.7: Round Denderah Zodiac from the Napoleonic Album. 

(Taken from [2], A. Vol. IV, Plate 21) 

Nikolai A. Morozov, who throughly studied the Round zodiac 

at the beginning of the twentieth century, wrote: “Look at 

... the symbols of zodiac constellations ... They are drawn in a 

fine and clear manner outlining the zodiac belt, in exactly the 

same way it is placed in the real sky. It is not concentric with 

... the celestial equator but it is raised noticeable around the 

area of the summer constellations of Cancer and Gemini and 

lowered on the opposite side near the winter constellations of 

Sagittarius and Capricorn. These symbols are not much different 

from those we can find on Bayer’s astronomical charts 

or even in nineteenth century astronomical books.” 1 So, it is 

evident that the author of the Round zodiac was quite competent 

in astronomy. 

We will explain later that practically every symbol in the 

Round zodiac has definite astronomical meaning. As we mentioned 

earlier, in the same temple in Denderah, beside the 

Round zodiac, there was also found another zodiac, called 

the Long or Rectangular Denderah zodiac. It was a low relief 

on a ceiling of much larger size than the Round zodiac. The 

Long zodiac consists of two rectangular parts, each of them 

about 25 m long. The Long zodiac is illustrated on Figure 2.8 

These two parts of the Long zodiac are placed on the opposite 

sides of a large rectangular ceiling of the main hall 

in the Denderah Temple. All the space between these parts 

is covered by pictures with astronomical meaning. The size 

of this impressive ceiling is 25 m ×42.5 m. The view of the 

1 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 658. 

Figure 2.8: Long Denderah Zodiac from the Napoleonic Album. 

(Taken from [2], A. Vol. IV, Plate 20.) 

whole ceiling is presented on Figure 2.10. The Long zodiac 

depicts all twelve zodiac constellations in their correct order 

as they appear on the sky. Among the symbols of the constellations 

there are also shown other symbols. We will prove 

in the subsequent chapters that all these symbols have a precise 

astronomical meaning associated with the definite and 

unique date. Some details of the Long zodiac are illustrated 

on Figure 2.9. 

The two Denderah zodiacs were objects of interest for 

many scientists who were trying to to interpret and date

Figure 2.9: Photograph of a fragment of the Long Denderah 

zodiac. (Taken from [10], page 37) 

them. Several famous mathematicians and astronomers of the 

19th century, such as Ch. Dupuis, P. Laplace, J. Fourier, A. 

Letronne, K. Helm, J. Biot, etc., attempted to decode the 

horoscopes shown in these zodiacs and tried to date them astronomically. 

They made calculations for the possible dates 

from very ancient times to the year 300 A.D. but could not 

find any satisfactory solution. In spite of the fact that the 

horoscopes had all the attributes of a genuine astronomical 

picture, they stopped the calculations and reluctantly made a 

conclusion that these two horoscopes are not depicting a real 

astronomical data from any time and are the product of pure 

fantasy. This was a gross mistake, because in fact, if they 

had continued their efforts they would have obtained some 

satisfactory solutions for both zodiacs. In fact several reasonable 

solutions were found in the 20th century by N.A. Morozov 

2 , N.S. Kellin and D.V. Denisenko 3 , and T.N. Fomenko 4 . 

Strangely, all these solutions refer to the medieval dates which 

were not earlier than sixth century A.D. We will argue that 

there is more astronomical information contained in the Denderah 

zodiacs which was not recognized by the previous investigators. 

With the use of the full astronomical information 

the solution turns out to be unique (see Chapter 7). 

One can ask the question, ‘what was the reason for these 

astronomers to halt all further computations after reaching 

the year 300 A.D.?” This is an interesting story. The first 

Egyptologist who analyzed the archaeological site of the temple, 

dated its approximate construction to be 15 000 B.C. 

However, later, during the eighteenth century this date was 

changed to 3 000 B.C. and finally to the first century A.D. 

In such circumstances the astronomers did not see the reason 

to look for the date after third century A.D. As we have 

already mentioned, at that time, when everything had to be 

done by hand, these calculations were extremely long and tedious. 

We must say that the dating of the Denderah temple 

was a questionable process from its beginning to the end. An 

2 See [4], Vol. 6, p.655-672. 

3 See [15]. 

4 See [1]. 


inscription inside the temple indicated that this temple was 

built by the famous pharaoh Khufu himself from the 6th dynasty 

(according to Egyptologists, he reigned around the year 

3000 B.C.), who was the same pharaoh who constructed the 

great pyramid. However, from the style of the sculptures and 

some inscriptions in the temple it was clear that this temple 

could not have been built before the time of Sulla or Julius 

Caesar. If we believe Scaliger’s chronology of ancient Egypt, 

these two sets of evidence contradict each other — the difference 

between them of about 3,000 years. Without revising 

the chronology, Egyptologists assumed that all the Egyptian 

temples which were built and decorated by Romans in the beginning 

of the Christian era, were constructed on the sites of 

more ancient Egyptian temples. They suggested that Romans 

copied with great care, but without understanding, some of 

the old inscriptions they had found on the walls of the remains 

of the ancient temples. This was the only way that allowed 

them to explain these contradictions without modifying the 

whole ancient Egyptian chronology. Of course discovering the 

horoscopes was a crucial shift to solve this controversy. That’s 

why there were so many attempts made to find an astronomical 

solution that could be acceptable to Egyptologists. The 

fact that two different but clear horoscopes were found in the 

same temple was extremely promising for determining their 

correct astronomical solutions. In the case a decoding mistake 

was made, or if these two horoscopes were simply the products 

of sculptor’s fantasy, the probability of finding two close 

one to another astronomical solutions, in a reasonable historical 

time interval, is practically zero. Unfortunately, the whole 

excitement and fascination with ancient Egyptian horoscopes 

was slowly forgotten and the opinion that there was no real 

astronomical meaning hidden in these horoscopes prevailed 

among historians and all the other attempts to date these 

horoscopes were abandoned. 

A recent picture showing the entrance to the famous Denderah 

temple is shown on Figure 2.11. 

A recently taken photograph of the full view of the Denderah 

temple is shown on Figure 2.12. 

Another example of an Egyptian zodiac, which was 

painted on the interior of the cover of a wooden sarcophagus, 

is presented on Figure 2.13. It was discovered during one 

of his expeditions to Egypt, by famous 19th century German 

Egyptologist Henry Brugsch. The picture shown on Figure 

2.13 comes form his published work [14]. 

On this zodiac the figure of the “Goddess Nut” is in the 

center of the picture and the zodiac constellations, which are 

again very easy to identify, are painted on her both sides. On 

the left, under her arm, we see the symbols of Cancer, Leo, 

Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius, and symmetrically on 

the right, are placed the symbols of Capricorn (with head 

painted in black), Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus (painted 

black) and Gemini. The order of these constellations is correct, 

exactly like it appears on the real sky. Brugsch noticed 

some ancient Demotic writings near the constellation symbols 

on the left. He translated all of them and found out that they


Figure 2.10: The view of the whole ceiling with the Long Denderah Zodiac. (Taken from [2], A. Vol. IV, Plate 18.)

Figure 2.11: Entrance to the Denderah Temple. 

Figure 2.12: The Denderah Temple. 

were the names of planets, so a complete horoscope could be 

identified. As on this horoscope all the planets are marked 

by annotations, which appear clearly to be made later, we 

will call it Annotated Horoscope. Careful study of this zodiac 

(see section 8.2) will show that it contains other original horoscopes, 

which were not noticed by either Brugsch or Morozov. 

The first dating of the Annotated Horoscope was done by 

N.A. Morozov, who obtained a very unexpected result indicating 

that the horoscope’s date was the year 1682. In fact 

Morozov proved that there are only two possible solutions for 

this horoscope — the other one was October 18, 1861, but 

he rejected it as an impossible solution. Indeed, since the pic- 


Figure 2.13: Zodiac painted on wooden cover of an Egyptian 

sarcophagus discovered by Brugsch in 1857 and published in 

1862. (Taken from [14]) 

Figure 2.14: The main hall in the Big Esna Temple. (Taken 

from [2], A. Vol. I, Plate 83)


ture with the zodiac was already published in 1862, so it made 

no sense for him to assume that the date of the Annotated 

Horoscope was 1861. 

Our next example of an Egyptian zodiac is from the 

Napoleonic Album. This zodiac was found in a huge temple 

during the Napoleonic expedition, in an ancient city of Esna 

located on a bank of the river Nile not far from Denderah. 

A drawing of the main hall in this Esna temple, which was 

made by Napoleonic artists, is presented on Figure 2.14. On 

this picture one can clearly distinguish this zodiac on front 

part of the ceiling. The detailed drawing (made by Napoleonic 

artists) of the Esna temple’s main hall is shown on Figure 

2.15. d 

Again, the zodiac constellations are clearly indicated and 

can be easily recognized. Not surprisingly, the Big Esna zodiac 

also contains a horoscope as well as some additional astronomical 

information, which can be interpreted and used to find 

the precise date depicted on it. We will discuss in detail all 

the symbols on the Big Esna zodiac later, but right now, we 

would like to indicate that their meaning appear to be purely 

astronomical. Of course, at first glance one can have an impression 

that there could be a mystical denotation behind this 

picture. Actually, it is a common belief among Egyptologists 

that Egyptian zodiacs have mostly religious meaning inspired 

by astronomical phenomena. We will argue that it is not true. 

In the same city Esna, there was found by the Napoleonic 

army another temple with a zodiac (see Figure 2.16). The size 

of this temple was much smaller and it was badly damaged. 

Fortunately the condition of the zodiac was rather good except 

for a missing part around the constellations of Scorpio 

and Virgo. In order to avoid misunderstandings related to the 

fact that there are two Esna zodiacs, we will call the second 

one the Small Esna zodiac but this name has nothing to do 

with its real size. 

The intriguing features of the Small zodiac will be discussed 

later in this book (see section 7.6), but we can reveal 

now that its symbols also express the real astronomical events 

and their unique purpose was to record a certain date. A view 

of the Small Zodiac is presented on Figure 2.17 and Figure 

2.18. 

On Figure 2.19, we present a drawing of two zodiacs, 

which were discovered in 1901 in the city Athribis in Upper 

Egypt near Sohag, by the well-known Egyptologist W. 

Flinders Petrie. The zodiacs were located on a ceiling of an 

ancient Egyptian burial cave and probably indicated the dates 

related to this interment. These Athribis zodiacs were analyzed 

for the purpose of astronomical dating by the renown 

English astronomer A.B. Khnobel, and later by M.A. Vil’ev 

and N.A. Morozov (see [4], Vol. 6, p. 728-752). However, their 

decodings of the zodiacs appear to be wrong, which we will 

prove later. We will also explain the probably reasons of their 

misinterpretations of the symbols on zodiacs, that led them 

to the wrong dates. Our computations show that there exists 

an excellent solution for this pair of zodiacs which perfectly 

agree with all the symbols, so a unique and definite dating 

can be achieved. 

Figure 2.15: Drawing from the Napoleonic Album showing the 

zodiac from the Big Esna Temple. (Taken from [2], A. Vol. I, 

Plate 79)

Figure 2.16: The “Small Esna Temple”. (Taken from [2]) 

Figure 2.17: Drawing of the Small Esna zodiac. (Taken from 

[2], A. Vol. I, Plate 85.) 

Up to the recent times, the computations related to the 

dating of the Athribis zodiacs were practically beyond human 

capacity. Only with the use of computers it is possible to 

carry on the calculations for all possible variants of decodings. 

The previous researchers, who worked during the first half 

of the twentieth century, were forced to introduce additional 

assumptions in order to reduce the amount of computations 

(which were done by hand). Nowadays, we realize that these 

additional restrictions were incorrect and consequently the 

solutions obtained by Khnobel and Morozov were wrong. The 

reader will find an extended discussion of the symbols of the 

Athribis zodiacs and their correct dating in the subsequent 

chapters (see chapter 5 and section 8.1). 


Figure 2.18: Another drawing of the Small Esna zodiac from 

the Napoleonic Album (Taken from [2], A. Vol. I, Plate 87.)


Figure 2.19: Drawing of the Athribis zodiacs (Taken from [24]) 

Two more examples of Egyptian zodiacs are presented 

on Figures 2.20 and 2.21. Notice that the constellations are 

shown there using typical symbols, similar as on other Egyptian 

zodiacs. However, the planets are symbolized by bust 

portraits (what is quite unusual for Egyptian zodiacs in general). 

These zodiacs were discovered in the middle of the 

20th century in a supposedly ancient Egyptian sepulchre in 

Petosiris. They were painted on the ceilings of the inner and 

outer rooms of the tomb. 

The dimensions of the whole picture with the zodiac located 

in the inner room are, 2.12 m ×2.62 m. 

Both of the Petosiris zodiacs were studied in the paper by 

O. Neugebauer, R.A. Parker and D. Pingree, in which the authors 

do not even make any attempt to understand the data 

as an astronomical record, but assume that the only meaning 

of these zodiacs is related to Mithraism — an ancient religion. 

They indicate that the symbols of the zodiacs represent natural 

forces, physical desire, rationality, intelligence and other 

metaphysical concepts. The positions of the planets, according 

to these authors, are determined by some symbolic meaning 

of planets and constellations in Mithraism without any 

connection to astronomy. We will dispute this point of view 

and argue that there is a precise astronomical meaning in both 

zodiacs. Each of them indicates a certain date. The complete 

Figure 2.20: Photograph of the zodiac from the inner room of 

the Petosiris tomb. (Taken from [5], Tafel 40) 

analysis of the astronomical data contained in these zodiacs 

and their dating will be presented later in this book. 

Let us point out that not all Egyptian zodiacs contain a 

horoscope. Some of them just show the zodiac constellations 

without any planet. Of course the precise astronomical dating 

of such zodiacs makes no sense, since there is no sufficient data 

available. 

However, in this situation an approximate zodiac’s age 

can be estimated by comparing this zodiac with other similar 

zodiacs for which precise astronomical dating can be done. 

As an example we present in Figure 2.22 a picture of such a 

zodiac without horoscope. 

There are also some examples of old Egyptian zodiac 

showing less than twelve zodiac constellations, some of which 

are symbolized by unusual figures. For example, on some old 

Egyptian zodiacs there was a figure of Raven among the zodiac 

constellations, what may indicate that different type of 

division of the ecliptic into zodiac constellations was used in 

earlier times. Notice, that there is a constellation called Raven 

neighboring the zodiac Virgo constellation. One of such untypical 

zodiacs is illustrated on Figure 2.23. This old Egyptian 

zodiac, which was made of schist, is called “Libyan Palette.” 

There is a little doubt that this palette indeed represents a

2.2 Problem of Astronomical Dating of Egyptian Zodiacs. Why Egyptologists Avoid Astronomical Dating of Egyptian Zodiacs? 41 

Figure 2.21: Photograph of the zodiac from the outer room of 

the Petosiris tomb. (Taken from [5]) 

Figure 2.22: Egyptian Zodiac found in a tomb of Petubasis. 

(Taken from [5], Tafel 37) 

Figure 2.23: The Libyan Palette, which is probably an older 

type of an Egyptian zodiac with unusual constellations. (Taken 

from [120], p. 69) 

zodiac in spite of its untypical appearance. All the constellations 

are shown as towns surrounded by walls with constellation 

symbols placed above them. For instance, one can easily 

distinguish there Leo and Scorpio. Notice that each of the 

constellation symbols is holding an astronomical instrument 

resembling a primitive sextant. A very similar instrument is 

placed in the right hand of Ptolemy on an old drawing shown 

on Figure 2.24. As we already mentioned, these older zodiacs 

could be made at the time when the division of the ecliptic 

into zodiac constellations was not yet in its final stage, with 

less than twelve constellations distinguished on the zodiac 

belt. 

2.2 Problem of Astronomical Dating 

of Egyptian Zodiacs. Why 

Egyptologists Avoid Astronomical 

Dating of Egyptian Zodiacs? 

We have already explained that if on an old zodiac there are 

shown planets among the zodiac constellations, or in other 

words, if there is a horoscope contained in the zodiac, then 

there is a sufficient evidence to consider this zodiac as a astronomical 

recording of a certain date. Today with help of 

modern astronomy and computers, we are able to decipher 

these dates or at least suggest a few possible variants for such 

a date. This is, in general the basic idea of the astronomical 

dating of old zodiacs. This idea is not new. On the turn 

of the 18th century, when European scientists, following the 

Napoleonic invasion of Egypt, gained for the first time an access 

to Egypt, they discovered a number of ancient zodiacs.


Figure 2.24: Old portrait of Ptolemy with simple astronomical 

instrument in his hand similar to the instruments shown on 

the Libyan Palette. (Taken from [21], page 8) 

When these zodiacs became known in Europe, they immediately 

attracted a lot of attention by European historians 

and astronomers, who recognized their definite astronomical 

character. The scientists realized that this was a unique opportunity 

to calculate some of the exact dates from ancient 

Egyptian history. For this purpose there was undertaken an 

effort to decode the exact astronomical meaning of the zodiacs 

and calculate their dates. However, all these attempts 

were conducted under the assumption that the dates hidden 

inside the zodiacs, should be restricted to the time interval 

imposed by Scaliger’s chronology of ancient Egypt. It seems 

that the belief in Scaliger’s chronology was stronger than the 

objectivity expected from a proper scientific investigation and 

the results which did not satisfy the expectations of historians 

were not even considered as an option. Unfortunately, all 

the work done did not produce any result. There was not 

even one date which was satisfactory from the astronomical 

point of view and could agree with Scaliger’s 

chronology of ancient Egypt! 

Let us dwell on this subject. First of all, the Egyptian 

zodiacs displaying typical zodiac constellations, according to 

prevailing opinion historians, are related to time of the Roman 

influence in Egypt, i.e. the epoch around the first century 

A.D. Nevertheless, Egyptologists attempted even to date 

these zodiacs in much earlier times. For example, the Denderah 

zodiacs were initially claimed to be made around the 

year 15 000 B.C. 5 . However, there were too many evident contradictions 

resulting from such dating. It was incomprehensible 

why the symbols of the zodiac constellations on ancient 

Egyptian zodiacs are exactly the same as in medieval European 

book. The European astrology is considered to have 

Roman, not Egyptian, origin! The Roman influence expressed 

in Egyptian zodiacs could not be ignored and forced historians 

to shift the epoch of probable creation of these zodiacs to 

5 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 651. 

the time not earlier than the first century B.C. On the other 

hand, as the zodiacs were associated with ancient Egyptian 

remains, historians could not accept their dates later than 

the third century without revising Scaliger’s chronology of 

ancient Egypt. Consequently, dates of the ancient Egyptian 

zodiacs, which were acceptable to historians, turned out to 

be limited to a relatively small interval of few hundred years. 

Any significant deviation from the dates in this time interval 

would create serious contradictions with the whole concept of 

ancient Egyptian chronology and history. Unfortunately for 

historians, the obtained dates of zodiacs did not fall into this 

interval. It is very difficult to “stretch” the symbolic interpretation 

of a zodiac in order to “adjust” the results in such 

a way that they would fit into the “expected” time interval. 

The problem is related to the fact that the same horoscope 

repeats itself usually very rarely — one or two times in thousand 

years. Many horoscopes repeat only after several thousands 

of years. Nobody before Morozov had the idea that the 

time interval considered for the dating of Egyptian zodiacs 

could be wrong. Actually, accurate and precise astronomical 

dating of the ancient Egyptian zodiacs can be the best way to 

determine what should be the correct time interval for Egyptian 

chronology. Indeed, our computations suggest that the 

dates of ancient Egyptian horoscopes appear consistently in 

a specific epoch. 

Dissatisfied with the “negative” results of the astronomical 

dating, Egyptologists practically abandoned the idea of 

their further dating and declared that these zodiacs were simply 

astronomical fantasies of ancient artists. Often, they did 

not even make even the simplest attempt to decode such zodiacs 

and find their dates. A striking example of such a typical 

approach can be found in the already mentioned paper 

of O. Neugebauer, R.A. Parker and D. Pingree, where the 

authors discuss the Petosiris zodiacs: “The position of the 

planets seems to be inspired by Mithraism 6 .” As another example, 

we should mention the book by S. Cauville 7 , where the 

astronomical dating of the Denderah Round zodiac was simply 

fabricated to create appearances of scientific justification 

for made up by historian dates. The method applied by S. 

Cauville is absolutely unacceptable form the scientific point 

of view. We leave a detailed discussion of this book for later. 

Not every arbitrary configuration of the planets on a zodiac 

represents a real horoscope. Planetary configurations on 

the sky are restricted by some laws. For example, Mercury 

and Venus are always located not too far from the Sun and 

consequently in proximity of each other. Clearly an artist creating 

an imaginary horoscope would most likely violate some 

of those rules. Some knowledge of astronomy is definitely required 

to design a “realistic” horoscope, but even in such 

a case, an inventive artist would most probably produce a 

horoscope, with the date belonging to a very distant past or 

future. But all the Egyptian zodiacs, that we studied, always 

contained flawless horoscopes for which solutions exist in a 

reasonable period of time. So, it is strange that the authors 

6 See [5], p. 100. 

7 See [10].

2.2 Problem of Astronomical Dating of Egyptian Zodiacs. Why Egyptologists Avoid Astronomical Dating of Egyptian Zodiacs? 43 

of [5] instead of analyzing the astronomical content of the 

Egyptian zodiacs indulge into obscure analysis of would-be 

mystic meaning of their symbols. Maybe, they realized that 

there are no astronomical solutions complying with Scaliger’s 

chronology. Indeed, such solutions for the Petosiris zodiacs as 

well as for all other Egyptian zodiacs do not exist! 

As another example, let us examine what is written about 

the astronomical dating of ancient Egyptian zodiacs in the 

guide to the Egyptian collection of the British Museum 8 . It 

appears that there is nothing written about it! When speaking 

about the dates of the ancient sarcophagi the authors 

strangely ignore anything related to the astronomical dating 

of zodiacs painted on these sarcophagi, as it was something 

with no importance. In all these cases the dating of the Egyptian 

relics was made without any relation to the available 

astronomical information. For instance, when describing an 

ancient Egyptian sarcophagus the authors write: “.. the face 

resembles the face of the ordinary stone Sidonian sarcophagus, 

of which those of Tabnith and Eshmunazar, King of 

Sidon, B.C. 360 ... are typical examples, and for this reason 

the date of the coffin is supposed to lie between B.C. 500 and 

B.C. 350 9 .” However, a few sentences further, the authors 

state that: “... numerous astronomical texts and pictures ... 

Here we have figures of the gods of the constellations, and of 

the planets, Signs of the Zodiac 10 .”, so it is clear that they 

are talking here about a zodiac (the gods of the constellations) 

with a horoscope (the gods of ... the planets), but they 

completely ignore the question the astronomical dating of the 

horoscope. Moreover, there is no picture of the zodiac shown 

in the guide, what is rather unusual. None of the Egyptian 

zodiacs referred to in [18], [19], [20], was dated astronomically, 

and their photographs weren’t displayed in the guide either. 

Concerning the Denderah zodiac, N.A. Morozov wrote: 

“If all these was only a fantasy of an artist, then it’s hard 

to explain why on the both zodiacs Mercury and Venus were 

located in a near proximity of the Sun, as they should be, 

and not in some other place which was more convenient for 

the artist but not possible for a real horoscope. What possibly 

would be a purpose for such a fantasy? No, it is not a fantasy 

but a horoscope. 11 Morozov was the first who suggested 

to date the Egyptian zodiacs according to their astronomical 

meaning without restrictions dictated by Scaliger’s chronology. 

Before Morozov all the investigators of the Egyptian zodiacs 

were struggling to obtain the solutions postulated by historians 

belonging to the time interval around the first century 

A.D. Of course the obtained results couldn’t satisfy the expectations 

of historians and even with drastic “adjustments, ” it 

still was impossible to use these zodiacs to support Scaliger’s 

chronology. Strangely, after the works of Morozov were published 

during the years 1915–1935, Egyptologists abandoned 

all the honest attempts to use the astronomical methods to 

8 See [18], [19], [20] 

9 See [18], p.133 

10 See [18], p.133. 

11 See [4], Vo. 6, p. 653. 

date the Egyptian zodiacs. One could say, that it happened 

when it became clear that the astronomical dates of these 

zodiacs do not give any date supporting the Scaliger version 

of the conventional chronology of Egypt! It seems that the 

direct impact of the Morozov’s work was the change of the 

attitude of Egyptologists concerning Egyptian zodiacs who 

now try to overlook the astronomical information while discussing 

their meaning only. They try to divert this discussion 

away from the chronological issues to “safer grounds” of ancient 

Egyptian religions. They try to convince us that if there 

is any connection between Egyptian zodiacs and astronomy, 

then it is something very primitive and naive based rather of 

imagination than reality 12 . 

Figure 2.25: Russian Academician N.A. Morozov (1854– 

1946). 

The research of N.A. Morozov, and more recently of 

A.T. Fomenko and his collaborators 13 , prove that Scaliger’s 

chronology does not have solid foundations and that there 

are serious problems and contradictions in it (see section ??). 

It is not the purpose of this book to investigate all the aspects 

related to Scaliger’s chronology. We refer the interested 

readers to the existing literature on subject, in particular to 

[179], or [103], [104], [105], and [106]. However, as we have already 

explained our reasons in Chapter 1, in our study of the 

Egyptian zodiacs, we do not feel any bond to be restricted by 

Scaliger’s chronology. Being ourselves researchers, we strongly 

feel that the scientific objectivity oblige us to abandon any 

pre-conceived ideas related to expected in this area results. 

In order to find all possible dates that could be indicated 

on the Egyptian zodiacs, we have carried the astronomical 

computations in the extended time interval, from 500 B.C. 

till 1800 A.D. However, this approach led to some new se- 

12 See [5],[9]. 

13 See [103]


rious problems. By considering such a long time interval, we 

allow many of the horoscopes to repeat. Consequently, even in 

the case of an unquestionable decoding of a horoscope we will 

in general have to deal with its several possible dates. Which 

of these dates is correct and what are the criteria for choosing 

the right solution? In fact, decoding of Egyptian horoscopes 

can be tricky because of the ambiguities related to the positions 

of some planets. For example, an unusual symbol may 

be used to indicate a planet or its position may not be completely 

clear from the picture. Sometimes, parts of a zodiac 

are lost, damaged or are in very poor condition. For some zodiacs 

with extremely complicated design or large number of 

unusual symbols, it is necessary to consider all possible variants 

of planetary identifications. Consequently, in some cases, 

depending on the chosen variants of decodings, dozens of possible 

horoscopes have been investigated. In such cases, there 

may be hundreds of dates obtained. Even, for the zodiacs 

with clear and definite meaning of its symbols, there can still 

be two or more variants of horoscopes possible. Therefore, it 

is important to look for additional astronomical information 

in the zodiac, and use it to select the correct date. Fortunately, 

such information is available and will be discussed in 

this book. We should emphasize that none of the previous investigators 

realized the existence of this information, so their 

results can not be treated as final. 

2.3 Our New Approach to Dating 


Difficulties, that were described in the previous section 2.2, 

can be removed by using our new method of decoding and dating 

ancient Egyptian zodiacs. Namely, we adopt a formal routine 

to decode not only horoscopes contained in Egyptian zodiacs 

but also additional astronomical information frequently 

included in these zodiacs. Let us point out that usually there 

is enough of additional information to eliminate all incorrect 

solutions and determine the date of the zodiac uniquely. 

When dealing with zodiacs, there is always some uncertainty 

in decoding, which may lead to several variants of admissible 

horoscopes. But even in such ambivalent situations 

we are still able to establish the unique true solution. Of 

course, in a case when some errors were made in decoding 

of a horoscope, the calculated solutions could not agree with 

the additional astronomical information, what would result 

in elimination of all these solutions. In fact, the amount of 

all the astronomical information contained in many Egyptian 

zodiacs is so large that it makes improbable that it could 

randomly reflect a real astronomical situation. 

The novelty of this method lies in the fact that we can 

consider simultaneously all the possible decoding variants for 

a zodiac. This was not possible in previous attempts because 

the large number of the obtained results could not be reduced 

as the additional astronomical information was not properly 

understood. Consequently, the previous researchers were 

forced to choose only one variant of a decoded horoscope 

and to work with it. However, this new idea do not come 

without a price. With each additional variant of a horoscope 

the amount of necessary computations increases sharply 

and the number of possible solutions can be very large, 

sometimes more than hundred. Every solution should be 

inspected and compared with the additional information on 

the zodiac. This procedure could not be competed without 

using computers and appropriate astronomical software. 

For our purposes, we had to develop a special astronomical 

program called “Horos”, which finds for a particular planetary 

configuration (i.e. a horoscope) all the possible dates 

when such an arrangement of planets really appeared on the 

sky. This program has also ability to verify the order of the 

planets on the ecliptic and compare it with their order in the 

horoscope. Even in the case there is some doubt about the 

exact positions or order of some of the planets, the program 

“Horos” is still able to process such a data. The description 

and examples on how to use the program are included 

in the Appendix. The program itself, can be downloaded 

from web site at: http://krawcewicz.net/downloads.htm, 

http://www.math.ualberta.ca/ ∼ wkrawcew/downloads.htm 

or http://www.pims.math.ca/pi/downloads. We have also 

used the program “Turbo Sky” developed by Russian astronomer 

A. Volynkin, from the Astronomical Institute 

of Moscow State University. With its help we were able 

to determine the brightness of specific planets and other 

conditions, which are important to establish their visibility 

at a given date and location in Egypt. This information 

is important for the verification of possible solutions for 

Egyptian zodiacs. Let us explain that brightness of a planet 

varies depending on its distance from the Sun and its position 

with respect to the Sun and the Earth. 

2.4 Pictures of Egyptian Zodiacs 

used for Dating in this Book 

Investigation of an Egyptian zodiac for the purpose of astronomical 

decoding requires the most careful analysis of its 

smallest details. Our study of Egyptian zodiacs shows that 

some of the details, which at the first glance may seem to be 

unimportant, in fact are crucial for the correct decoding of 

the zodiac’s astronomical meaning. Therefore, the astronomical 

dating should be done based on the most accurate and 

detailed pictures of the zodiacs. 

The most valuable are the large and detailed color photographs, 

but unfortunately we are not able to find many of 

them. It turned out that acquiring good photographs of some, 

even very famous Egyptian zodiacs, was an extremely difficult 

task. On one hand Egyptologists profess that all these zodiacs 

are nothing else than pure fantasies, and on the other hand, 

only very few detailed images of these zodiacs, which are good 

for astronomical dating, were ever published. In many cases, 

when such photographs are available, they are either of a very 

low quality or show only a part of a zodiac making decoding 

impossible. There are some exceptions but they are very 

unique. See for example Figure 2.26, where there are visible 

only the symbols of the constellations while the planets may

Figure 2.26: Photo of an Egyptian zodiac painted on a cover 

of a coffin. Planets are not visible. (Taken from [120], page 

117) 

be hidden in shadow. It is difficult to avoid an impression that 

the specialists in Egyptian history seek to hide these evidence 

which could contradict their version of the Egyptian chronology. 

Up to the beginning of the twentieth century, when it 

was still unclear what are the dates behind Egyptian zodiacs, 

there were many publications containing high quality and detailed 

images of such zodiacs. For example, the Napoleonic 

Album (see [2]) contains several large beautiful pictures of 

Egyptian zodiacs 14 . As the reader can find out from this 

book, most of the pictures of Egyptian zodiacs, which are 

usable for the astronomical dating, were taken from old publications. 

For our purposes we also used several photographs 

of the Round Denderah zodiac, which were taken in 2000 in 

14 See also [24] and [14]. 

2.4 Pictures of Egyptian Zodiacs used for Dating in this Book 45 

the Louvre museum by Prof. Y.V. Tatarinov. These photos 

were very helpful in our work and we are grateful for it to 

Prof. Tatarinov. 

In June 2002, one of the authors — Gleb V. Nosovsky, 

joint the expedition to Egypt, organized by the producers of 

the Russian TV series “Unknown Planet.” He had a rare opportunity 

to take several photographs of the Long Denderah 

zodiac, the copy of the Round Denderah zodiac, the Big Esna 

zodiac, in their present condition. Additional photographs, 

on the request of the authors, were taken by the professional 

photografer Y.L. Maslaev, who accompagnied the expedition. 

All the details of these zodiac were documented and compared 

with the drawings from the Napolenonic Album. 

Figure 2.27: “Goddess Nut” in the Napoleonic Album and on 

an actual photo. 

Regarding the drawings of Egyptian zodiacs included in 

the Napoleonic Album [2] we have to make few remarks. Notice 

that the artists who prepared this album took a lot of 

care to produce a very high quality and exact in every detail 

pictures of almost photographic accuracy. We have to admit 

that in the most cases they were able to achieve this goal, 

however, in the same time they tried to improve the figures 

by making them more beautiful than the originals in style 

of the 18th century art. Therefore, we should not trust these 

pictures and treat them equally to photographs. In particular, 

these pictures do not reveal the real spirit of the Egyptian 

art. 

After comparing them with the actual photographs we 

discover that the originals are more crude and plain than 

these drawing. On Figure 2.27 we compare two images of the


Figure 2.28: The same fragment of the Round zodiac in the 

Napoleonic Album and on a photo. 

Figure 2.29: Fragment of the Long Denderah zodiac. Photograph 

taken by G.V. Nosovsky in 2002 

Figure 2.30: Another fragment of the Long Denderah zodiac. 

Photograph taken by G.V. Nosovsky in 2002 

“Goddess Nut” from the Round Denderah zodiac, one from 

the Napoleonic Album, another a recent photo. It is evident 

that in the Napoleonic drawing this female figure is looking 

much like an 18th century beauty, but in the same time, her 

pose and position are displayed very accurately. Let us notice 

that on the original relief, the “Goddess Nut” is naked while 

on the Napoleonic drawing she appears dressed in a transparent 

attire, which however was made to be imperceptible 

as much as possible. Nevertheless, her face is most probably 

a pure fantasy of the artist who made this drawing. On the 

original there is only a contour of a completely unrecognizable 

face. 

On Figure 2.28 we compare the same fragment of the 

Round Denderah zodiac on a modern photograph and on a 

drawing in the Napoleonic Album. Notice that the drawing 

Figure 2.31: Example of some exceptional mistakes in the 

Napoleonic picture of the Round Denderah zodiac. On the left 

modern drawing based on a photograph, in the middle and on 

the right two drawings from the Napoleonic Album 

is highly precise, nonetheless the figures on the drawing are 

clearly improved. For example, the faces of the figures on the 

drawing exhibit more details than they really have on the 

original. No doubt that they were made more beautiful. 

We would like to point out that there are some errors in 

the Napoleonic Album, which at the first glance may seem 

to be inessential but in fact can be crucial for the correct 

decoding of the zodiac. On Figure 2.31 we present a fragment 

of the Round Denderah Zodiac on three different pictures. On 

the left, there is a precise modern drawing, made based on a 

photograph, followed by two pictures of the same fragment 

from the Napoleonic Album. Notice that the male figure with 

a walking stick in the center of the picture should touch with 

his feet the top of the spike held in the hand of Virgo. This 

detail is very important for the exact understanding of the 

astronomical meaning of the whole composition. 

Figure 2.32: Photograph of a fragment of the Round Denderah 

zodiac. (Taken from [9], p.165) 

On Figure 2.32, we present a photograph of the same fragment 

from which one can see its exact appearance on the

Round Denderah zodiac. In Figure 2.31, the modern drawing 

15 , shown on the left, seems to be very precise. Therefore, 

we have decided to conduct our analysis based mostly on this 

drawing. However, we also verified all the details on the photographs 

made by Prof. Y.V. Tatarinov. 

Figure 2.33: Fragment of the Round zodiac from the 

Napoleonic Album. 

There is another important detail which was altered in the 

Napoleonic Album. Look at Figure 2.33 showing a part of the 

same fragment as in Figure 2.31 taken from the Napoleonic 

Album. The figure in the center with a walking stick represents 

a planet. Over it’s head there is star and above it there 

is a curved snake. 

However, on the original zodiac in that place there is no 

symbol of a snake, but instead, there are three hieroglyphs 

(see Figure 2.34). 

The meaning of the three hieroglyphs 16 is in fact the name 

“SBK” standing for “Sebek”, which according to Brugsch is 

the Egyptian name of Mercury 17 . Notice that in ancient Egyptian 

hieroglyphical writing there were no vowels. We didn’t 

have access to many modern photos of other Egyptian zodiacs, 

but fortunately their composition is less complicated 

than the Round zodiac and we trust that the Napoleonic pictures 

are reliable copies. For example, the Long Zodiac on the 

Napoleonic picture seems to be very precise, however, some 

15 Taken from [10], p. 71. 

16 See [109] 

17 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 697. 


Figure 2.34: Fragment of the Round zodiac. (Taken from [10], 

p. 29) 

minuscule differences still can be identified. On Figure 2.35, 

we compare a fragment of the Long zodiac with its representations 

taken from the Napoleonic Album. From this figure 

we can conclude that in general the Napoleonic picture of the 

Long zodiac is highly precise. Nevertheless, it’s possible to list 

several minor differences: 

• Over the head of the first female figure standing on the 

right from the sign of PISCES there is a rectangular 

frame. Inside this frame on the original, there is a falcon 

head which is missing in the Napoleonic picture. 

• Over the head of the female figure standing on the left 

from PISCES there is a symbol of a star. This symbol 

which is not so noticeable was omitted on the Napoleonic 

picture. Maybe the artist was not able to recognize this 

symbol. 

• The rectangular frame above the head of the male figure 

with a walking stick (on the right from PISCES) there is 

a symbol of falcon, but on the Napoleonic picture there 

is a bird definitely different than falcon. 

• The same male figure is holding in his right hand an Egyptian 

cross with handle. This cross is also omitted on the 

Napoleonic picture. 

Drawings of the both Esna zodiacs were included in the 

Napoleonic Album. In 2001, at the time we were dating the 

Esna zodiacs for the first time, we were not able to find other 

pictures or photographs of these zodiacs, and we were forced


Figure 2.36: A photograph of a zodiac from the tomb of Ramses VI in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. (Taken from [32], p. 

128-129)

Figure 2.35: A fragment of the Long Denderah zodiac on a 

modern photo (taken from [10], p.37) and the picture from 

the Napoleonic Album (taken from [2], A. Vol. IV, Plate 20) 

to trust the drawings from the Napoleonic Album. After comparing 

them to the photos taken by G.V. Nosovsky, several 

differences were discovered. However, they did not result in 

changing the final date for this zodiac that had been established 

earlier. In fact, with the new details available, we were 

able to reconfirm the accuracy of the obtained earlier solution 

(see 7.6) and clarify some ambiguities related to the earlier 

decoding of the Big zodiac. 

The corrected drawing of the Big Esna zodiac, based on 

the picture from the Napoleonic Album, is shown on Figure 

2.37. 

Let us discuss briefly the imperfections of the Napoleonic 

drawings of the Big Esna zodiac. 


Figure 2.37: Corrected drawing of the Big Esna zodiacs. The 

changes were made based on recent photos of the zodiac.


Figure 2.38: Details on the Napoleonic drawing of the Big 

Esna zodiac near the constallation of Virgo and their corrections. 

• Virgo on the Napoleonic drawings clearly touches the tail 

of the lioness with a human head (see Figure 2.38). The 

way it is shown here is missleading, because on some other 

Egyptian zodiacs Virgo is touching Leo’s tail. But, the 

lioness’ symbol is not related to Leo — it belongs to a 

partial horoscope. The photographs of this fragment of 

the zodiac revealed that these two symbols were clearly 

apart. 


Esna zodiac near the constallation of Leo and their corrections. 

• Male figure holding a knive over his head, located in a horizontal 

pozition over the constellation of Leo. In the other 

hand of this figure one can see a mace on the Napoleonic 

drawing and a bow and arrows on the photo (see Figure 

2.39). 


Esna zodiac near the constallations of Aries and Taurus and 

their corrections. 

• On the Napoleonic drawing, between Aries and Taurus, 

there is shown a human figure (see Figure 2.40), while on 

the photos there is nothing between these two constellations. 

This fragment of the zodiac was hidden behind a 

column inside the temple, which could explain the mistake 

made by the Napoleonic artist. 


Esna zodiac on the right from the constallations of Aquarius 

and their corrections. 

• On the Napoleonic drawing, there two sitting female figures 

on the right from Pisces. These two figures look differently 

on the photos and the second one is definitely a 

male figure (see Figure ??). 

• On the Napoleonic drawing, there is a sitting male figure 

on the right from Aquarius. However, the photographs of 

this fragment of the Big zodiac clearly indicate that this 

figure should be female (see Figure 2.44). 

• Male figure standing on the right from Pisces is shown on 

the Napoleonic drawing without planetary walking stick, 

which should be there (see Figure 2.45). 

In summary, let us reiterate that in principle the 

Napoleonic pictures are sufficiently precise for our purpose of 

astronomical dating. Of course one should keep in mind that 

these drawing are not originals but only copies which are excellent 

but still not flawless. As we indicated, some small and

2.5 Our Abbreviations for Egyptian Zodiacs 51 

Figure 2.41: Alternations made on a photograph of Ramses VI zodiac. (The left fragment was taken from [31], pp. 128–129, 

and the right one from [115], pp. 262–265) 







hardly noticeable details may be altered or omitted on these 

copies but clearly the artist did not contribute new symbols 

out of his own imagination. 

Finally, it may sound strange, but we discoverred that it 

is not possible to trust even the published photographs of 

the Egyptian zodiacs. On Figure 2.41 we show details on two 

photographs of the Ramses VI zodiac. The first photograph 

was taken from [31], pages 128–129, and the second photo- 

graph was taken from [181], pages 162–165. Notice that these 

two pictures show different figures on the zodiac. In fact one 

of these photographs was clearly tampered with. Fortunately, 

these detailes were not crucial for the astronomical dating of 

the Ramses VI zodiac (see section 8.5). 

2.5 Our Abbreviations for Egyptian 

Zodiacs 

Sometimes, it will be convenient for us to use short abbreviations 

when referring to the Egyptian zodiacs analyzed in this 

book. In particular, we will use these abbreviations to make 

clear at the first glance fragment of what zodiac is displayed 

in a figure. The following is the list of these abbreviations: 

DL – the Long Denderah zodiac (Fig. 2.8) 

DR – the Round Denderah zodiac (Fig. 2.6) 

EB – the Big Esna Zodiac (Fig. 2.15) 

EM – the Small Esna zodiac (Fig. 2.17–2.18) 

AV – 

the upper Athribis zodiac (Fig. 2.19, top 

one)



Esna zodiac next to the constallations of Pisces and their corrections. 

AN – 

OU – 

P1 – 

P2 – 

the lower Athribis zodiac (Fig. 2.19— 

bottom one) 

the zodiac painted inside the tomb of 

Ramses VII (Fig. 2.3) 

the zodiac from Petosiris tomb from the 

outer room (Fig. 2.21) 

the zodiac from Petosiris tomb from the 

inner room (Fig. 2.20) 

BR – the Brugsch’s zodiac (Fig. 2.13) 

LZ – the zodiac from papyrus (Fig. 2.1) 

RM – 

the zodiac from the tomb of Ramses VI 

(Fig. 2.36)

Chapter 3 

Previous Attempts of Astronomical Dating 

of Egyptian Zodiacs

3.1 History of Dating of the Denderah 

Zodiacs 

The first attempts to astronomically date the Round and 

Long Denderah zodiacs took place in the 19th century following 

their publication in Europe. Some variants of their decoding 

were suggested by Egyptologists of that time, in particular 

by famous German Egyptologist Henry Brugsch. His 

decoding was based on the interpretation of the figures and his 

translations of the inscriptions which were placed above some 

of the figures symbolizing planets. It was quickly observed 

that on the Denderah zodiacs, as well as on other Egyptian 

zodiacs, all the planets, except the Sun and Moon (which in 

the ancient astronomy were considered as planets), were usually 

shown as travelers with walking sticks. Planets in ancient 

astronomy were regarded as “moving stars 1 .” Let us notice 

that even in English the world planet originated from the 

Greek word planets – πλανητηζ which means wanderer or 

traveler, so it is not surprising that the planets on Egyptian 

zodiacs were also symbolized by figures representing travelers. 

On the other hand the Sun and the Moon were represented 

on many Egyptian zodiacs in form of circles, sometimes with 

figures inside 2 , and this was exactly the way they appear on 

the Denderah zodiacs. This initial decoding of Egyptian zodiacs 

was later improved by N.A. Morozov 3 , who among the 

other things, corrected mistake of Brugsch in identification of 

Venus what we will discuss in details below. As we’ve already 

mentioned in Chapter 1?, on the basis of the initial decoding 

suggested by Brugsch and other Egyptologists, many renown 

astronomers of the nineteenth century struggled to date these 

two zodiacs. The result of their computations did not yell any 

acceptable date for the Denderah zodiacs from the very ancient 

times till the third century AD. 4 The computations for 

the later epochs were not carried on until N.A. Morozov began 

his investigations of the Denderah zodiacs in the 1920s. 

N.A. Morozov, who was a prominent expert in the ancient 

and medieval astronomical symbolism, once more checked 

thoroughly the decoding of the Denderah zodiacs which was 

suggested by Egyptologists. In several instances he found and 

corrected some mistakes but in general he confirmed the accuracy 

of their decoding. We are going to discuss in detail all 

these decodings of the Denderah zodiacs. In principle, Morozov 

followed the same approach to study the Egyptian zodiacs 

as his predecessors, what resulted in their incomplete decoding. 

Our research proves that N.A. Morozov didn’t realize, 

overlooked or misunderstood a significant amount of astronomical 

information usually included in the Egyptian zodiacs 

aside of the main horoscopes. Morozov, like his predecessors, 

was absolutely sure that the all astronomical contents of an 

Egyptian zodiac was limited to only one horoscope. It was a 

mistake. 

1 See [27], p.40 

2 See [4], V. 6, p. 652-655. 

3 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 651-672. 

4 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 651. 

After verifying and improving the decoding of the Denderah 

zodiacs, Morozov undertook the task of computing their 

dates. Contrary to his predecessors, he was sceptical about the 

conventional Egyptian chronology, and extended his calculation 

to cover the middle age dates as well. His efforts paid 

back. He found a beautiful pair of solutions for the Denderah 

zodiacs, which, unlike all the previously obtained results, really 

agreed with these zodiacs. His solutions were: 

The Long Denderah zodiac: May 6, 540 AD. 

The Round Denderah zodiac: March 15, 568 AD. 

(N.A. Morozov 5 ) 

Let us point out that during Morozov’s time the computations 

had to be done by hand, so there was great risk that 

some mistakes could be made leading to the wrong results. 

The renowned astronomer N.E. Edelson carried out a detailed 

verification of Morozov’s calculations and obtained the planetary 

positions which were very close to the positions determined 

by Morozov. Today, even the most elaborated computations 

do not constitute a problem anymore. With the use 

of fast computers we can obtain the precise results just in 

seconds. With the use of the astronomical software Turbo Sky 

Figure 3.1: The original table with Morozov’s decoding for 

the Long zodiac and Edelson’s computations of the planetary 

positions on March 15, 568 A.D. (Taken from [4], Vol. 6, p. 

669) 

we can verify that the Morozov computations were indeed 

correct (see Figures 2.1-2.2.). 

We will return to these results later when we will analyze 

the possible decoding variants of the Denderah zodiacs. 

Morozov’s result is consider to be the first satisfactory 

from the astronomical point of view solution for the dating 

of the Denderah zodiacs. Let us emphasize that his computations 

were done only for one decoding, and there was no 

other solution found in the time interval from 964 B.C. to 

1303 A.D. For obvious reasons N.A. Morozov was forced to 

restrict his calculations to the time interval that seemed to

Figure 3.2: The original table with Morozov’s decoding for the 

Round zodiac and Edelson’s computations of the planetary 

positions on May 6, 540 AD. (Taken from [4], Vol. 6, p.687) 

him reasonable. However, Morozov’s solution wasn’t perfect. 

There were few significant discrepancies between his solution 

and the data contained in the Denderah zodiacs: 

• The figure representing Venus on the Long zodiac, according 

to Morozov’s decoding, was placed between Aries and 

Taurus. But in his solution Venus appears to be between 

Aries and Pisces, so it is on the opposite side from Aries. 

Still, one can explain such discrepancy by assuming that 

planetary positions on the Long zodiac were illustrated 

with certain aristic freedom. Of course, when dealing with 

an ancient Egyptian zodiac it is evident that there must 

be some limit for its accuracy so we can expect in advance 

some imperfections, which only bacome clear after 

obtaining some acceptable solutions. Nevertheless, based 

on our results, we are convinced that the accuracy of the 

Egyptian zodiacs is much higher than it was assumed by 

Morozov. 

• According to Morozov’s decoding of the Long Denderah 

zodiac, Mercury was located on the West from the Sun 

between Aries and Taurus. However, in his solution Mercury 

is on the East from the Sun, between Taurus and 

Gemini. Consequently, the order of the planets on the 

zodiac and in the solution are not the same. 

• On the Long zodiac, there is no star sign placed over 

the head of the figure representing Mercury, what Morozov 

himself interpreted 6 as an indication that Mercury 

was not visible due to its proximity to the Sun. However, 

Mercury in his solution was definitely visible. This matter 

was discussed by two Russian physicists N.S. Kellin and 

D.V. Denisenko: 

“ It is difficult to explain why Mercury that on May 6, 540 

AD. was 15 o – 17 o to the East from the Sun, is located on the 

Long zodiac to the West from the Sun, so close that it couldn’t 

be visible because of the sunlight, which was confirmed by the 

absence of a star sign over its head. But, 15 o from the Sun 

makes Mercury visible even at the latitude of Moscow, not to 

mention that it would be even more visible in Egypt, where 

the ecliptic is less inclined to the horizon” 7 . 

6 See [4], Vol. 6, pp. 675, 678-679. 

7 See [15], p. 315 

3.1 History of Dating of the Denderah Zodiacs 55 

• On the Round zodiac, Mercury has star sign over his 

head that indicates its visibility. But in Morozov’s solution 

Mercury was invisible. Let us explain that for visibility 

of a planet or star (except Venus) the submersion 

of the Sun with respect to the horizon must be at least 9 o 

– 10 o . In Morozov’s solution, the submersion of the Sun 

on March 15, 568 A.D. in Egypt, at the moment Mercury 

was rising above the horizon, was only 4 o – 6 o (further 

we go to the North of Egypt — smaller the submersion 

becomes). Brightness of Mercury at that time was +0.4, 

according to the standard brightness scale, what can be 

compared with the brightness of some stronger stars. All 

the above indicates that on March 15, 568 A.D. Mercury 

was definitely invisible 8 . 

All the above imperfections of Morozov’s solution convinced 

N.S. Kellin and D.V. Denisenko to write the following comment: 

“The solution obtained by N.A. Morozov for the Long zodiac 

contains several flaws and therefore should be called conditional 

9 

In 1990s, Kellin and Denisenko extended Morozov’s computations 

for the Denderah zodiacs beyond the year 1303. 

They adopted the proposed by Morozov decoding, fully trusting 

him in this respect. This time the astronomical calculations 

were done using computers and all the dates, until 

present times, were verified for their conformity with the data 

provided by the zodiacs. They found that there is one more 

solution for the Denderah zodiacs: 

The Long Denderah zodiac: May 12, 1394 AD. 

The Round Denderah zodiac: March22, 1422 AD. 

(N.S. Kellin and D.V. Denisenko 10 ) 

The solution obtained by N.S. Kellin and D.V. Denisenko 

appears to be better than Morozov’s solution 11 . However, for 

the Long zodiac this new solution still wasn’t flawless and the 

authors were aware of it. They made the following comment: 

“ We have to admit that our solution for the Long zodiac 

should also be considered as conditional even if it is more 

satisfactory than the one that was found by Morozov 12 .” 

Consequently, it is clear that there is no ideal solution for 

Morozov’s original decoding of the Denderah zodiacs. In the 

year 1999-2000, the problem of astronomical dating of Egyptian 

zodiacs, including the Denderah zodiacs, was studied by 

Tatiana Fomenko, who analyzed the decoding proposed by 

Morozov and suggested some modifications. In particular, she 

discovered that the drawing of the Long zodiac, taken from 

the book Uranographia by Bode, which was used by N.A. Morozov, 

contained several mistakes 13 . This drawing was orig- 

8 The calculations were done using the program Turbo Sky 

9 See [15], p. 323 

11 See [15], pp. 321-325. 

12 See [15], p. 325. 

13 See [1], p. 746-748.

56 3 Previous Attempts of Astronomical Dating of Egyptian Zodiacs 

Figure 3.3: The drawing of the Long zodiac used by N.A. Morozov, 

which was reproduced from the Bode’s “Uranographia”. 

(See [4], Vol. 6, p. 671-672. The annotations on the drawing 

were made by Morozov) 

inally published in the second volume of the D.V. Denon’s 

book [109]. In 1798, he accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte on 

his expedition to Egypt, and there he made numerous sketches 

of the ancient monuments. By comparing this drawing with 

the picture of the Long zodiac published in the Napoleonic 

album, T. Fomenko noticed that the existing differences were 

sufficiently significant to change the astronomical meaning 

of the Long zodiac. Clearly, Morozov was not aware of these 

mistakes which resulted in an erroneous decoding of the horoscope. 

We show on Figure 3.3 the drawing of the Long zodiac 

from Bode’s “Uranographia”. T. Fomenko wrote: 

“N.A. Morozov with full trust in the Denon’s picture decoded 

the Long zodiac. ... Let us look carefully at the Denon’s 

picture. It is easy to notice that the figure representing Saturn 

somehow doesn’t have a walking stick, which is present 

on the original. ... On the contrary, Denon supplied a figure 

standing between Libra and Virgo, with a walking stick. ... 

On the Napoleonic drawing this figure has no stick. Morozov, 

deceived by Denon’s picture, recognized this figure as Saturn, 

ant that was a mistake 14 . 

Figure 3.4: Comparison of the Napoleonic picture of the Long 

zodiac and Denon’s drawing: the fragment between Libra and 

Virgo 

On Figure 3.4, we compare the discussed by T. Fomenko 

fragment of Denon’s drawing of the Long zodiac with the 

same fragment of the Napoleonic picture. Notice that 

on Bode’s drawing the female figure, which on the Napoleonic 

picture has a crescent over her head (second from the right), 

was changed into a male figure and in addition it was equipped 

with a walking stick. This transformation resulted in “creation” 

of a planetary figure that shouldn’t be there. 

14 See [1], p.737.

As the picture of the Long zodiac, published in [4], Volume 

6, was not of a high quality, in Figure 3.5 we show another 

reproduction of Denon’s picture of the Long zodiac, which 

was taken from [110] 15 . T. Fomenko corrected these mistakes 

in Morozov’s decoding and modified it accordingly. For a detailed 

explanation related to her decoding we refer to [1]. 

In her work, T. Fomenko stated more strict and rigorous 

requirements for acceptable astronomical solutions of the 

Egyptian zodiacs, which are: 

• The positions of all the planets on a solution should correspond 

exactly to their positions on the zodiac without 

any distinguishable adjustment. 

• For an acceptable solution, the order of planets on the 

ecliptic must be exactly the same as on the zodiac. This 

requirement, which was introduced for the first time in 

T Fomenko’s work, was not respected by previous researchers. 

In many aspects, the above requirements impose new 

and higher standards on acceptable astronomical solutions 

for the Egyptian zodiacs. Contrary to Morozov, Kellin and 

Denisenko, T.N. Fomenko did not accept any conditional solution 

and kept searching for the exact solutions. Based on 

these principles, T.N. Fomenko proposed a new decoding of 

the Denderah zodiacs, for which she found one solution for 

the Long Denderah zodiac and two solutions for the Round 

Denderah zodiacs. However, these solutions were previously 

obtained by N.A. Morozov, and by N.S. Kellin and D.V. 

Denisenko. 

The Long Denderah zodiac: April 7-8, 1727 AD. 

The Round Denderah zodiac: March 15, 568 AD. 

or: March 22, 1422 AD. 

(T.N. Fomenko 16 ) 

We will follow this approach even in more rigorous way 

and we will show that it is possible to obtain the exact solutions 

for the all analyzed in our book Egyptian zodiacs. For 

example, we will also take into account the symbols indicating 

the visibility or invisibility of the planets portrayed on 

Egyptian zodiacs, which were not scrutinized by T. Fomenko 

in [1]. 

More precisely, our strategy for the astronomical dating 

of the ancient Egyptian zodiacs will be based on the following 

principles: 

• We will consider only those astronomical solutions which 

meet all the listed above requirements stated by T.N. 

Fomenko in [1]. 

• We will also require that all the admissible solutions satisfy 

the conditions of the visibility/invisibility indicated 

on the zodiac by the symbolic convention that was discovered 

by N.A. Morozov 17 . 

15 See [110], p. 251-252, Plate VII 

17 See [4], Vol. 6, p.675,678 and 679. 

3.1 History of Dating of the Denderah Zodiacs 57 

Figure 3.5: The D.V. Denon’s drawing of the Long zodiac.


• In addition we will require that any admissible astronomical 

solution should fully agree with all the additional astronomical 

information contained in the zodiac. 

Figure 3.6: Additional astronomical symbols on the Round 

Denderah zodiac (marked in blue) 

In addition, contrary to the previous researchers, in our 

approach we will treat equally all the possible decodings of 

the Egyptian zodiacs, without choosing in advance any “preferred 

candidate” for the “best decoding” of the horoscope 

contained in the zodiac. Let us point out that by applying 

this method we were able to obtain exact and unique solutions 

for all the studied in this book Egyptian zodiacs. This 

fact can be considered as a practical justification and proof of 

the effectivness our method for the dating of ancient Egyptian 


Our investigation of the Denderah zodiacs showed that, 

beside the main horoscopes, they also contain sufficiently detailed 

partial horoscopes which we will explain later in this 

book (see sections 5.5, 5.6, and 5.8). With such a large amount 

of the additional astronomical information expected from any 

acceptable solution, the probability of finding by chance a 

date satisfying all the imposed requirements is practically 

zero. In order to give an idea how much of a meaningful astronomical 

information is contained in the Denderah zodiacs, 

we indicate on Figures 3.6 and 3.7 all the symbols with astronomical 

meaning which do not belong to the main horoscopes. 

Clearly, there is a large variety of such symbols. 

All the details of our analysis, decoding and dating of the 

Denderah zodiacs will be presented in the subsequent chapters 

7 and 8. Let us simply mention that we have obtained the 

following solution for the Denderah zodiacs, which appears 

Figure 3.7: Additional astronomical symbols on the Long Denderah 

zodiac (marked in blue).

to be unique on the whole historical interval from 500 B.C. 

to our times: 

The Long Denderah zodiac: 

April 22-26, 1168 AD. 

The Round Denderah zodiac: 

March 13 – April 9, 1185 AD. 

3.2 Two Esna Zodiacs 

Esna lies 53 kilometers south of Luxor on the west bank of the 

Nile river, exactly at the place where Nile begins a big semicircle 

meander around a stony hills area. This was the burial 

place for Pharaohs and there is also located the famous Valley 

of the Kings. It is surrounded by many ancient Egyptian 

temples, structures and monuments. Denderah is located on 

the north side of this semicircular area, which is not so far 

from Esna. Let us point out that most of the ancient Egyptian 

zodiacs come from this region what may indicate their 

close relationship with the Egyptian tombs (see the map of 

the river Nile in Egypt on Figure 3.8). 

Figure 3.8: A modern map of Egypt with the Middle Nile Valley 

indicated 

As we’ve already mentioned, there were discovered in Esna 

two temples with zodiacs reliefs on their ceilings. Symbols on 

these zodiacs are in many aspects very similar to the symbols 

on the Denderah zodiacs, but there are some clear differences 

as well. 

3.3 Athribis Zodiacs Discovered by Flinders Petrie 59 

As far as we know, the first and the only attempt to decode 

and date the Esna zodiacs, using the astronomical methods, 

was undertaken by T.N. Fomenko in [1]. She proposed 

a decoding variant for these zodiacs and calculated the dates 

based on it. Fomenko’s decoding led to the following solution, 

which appears to be the only one in the whole historical time 

interval: 

The Big Esna zodiac: May 1–2, 1641 AD. 

The Small Esna zodiac: May 2-3, 1570 AD. 

(T.N. Fomenko 18 ) 

Our analysis of the Esna zodiacs showed that, in fact, 

there are several admissible variants of decodings that should 

be considered for the Esna zodiacs. The additional astronomical 

information contained in these zodiacs allows to eliminate 

all the incorrect solutions, which are incompatible with this 

data. The details of our research related to the analysis of the 

Esna zodiacs will be presented in sections 7.5 and 7.6. In this 

moment, let us simply announce our final result: 

The Big Esna zodiac: 

March 31 – April 3, 1394 AD. 

The Small Esna zodiac: 

May 6–8, 1404 AD. 

This solution appears to be unique on the time interval 

from 500 B.C. until the present times. We should mention 

that our final decoding, which led to the above solution, is 

different from the one suggested by T.N. Fomenko in [1], so 

the resulting final dates are also different. 

3.3 Athribis Zodiacs Discovered by 

Flinders Petrie 

The two Athribis zodiacs which we’ve already mentioned in 

section 2.1 (see Figures 2.19 and 3.9), were investigated by 

N.A. Morozov 19 . He described these zodiacs and the previous 

attempts of their dating as follows: 

“In 1902 the British Egyptology School in London published 

the work of Egyptologist W.M. Flinders Petrie under 

the title “Athribis.” This book was devoted to the description 

of findings made by Petrie in 1901 in Upper Egypt 

near Sohag. Athribis was called in the antiquity Hat-Repit 

(i.e. Repit Citadel) and is located to the south from Dekr- 

Amba-Shenude (i.e. White Monastery), where remains of a 

monastery cell were discovered. This cell was dated by Egyptologists 

to be of the forth century A.D. To the south from 

that place, near Horgaze, where the surrounding rocks like 

a stairway descend to the Nile valley, there were excavated 

historical remains, which were associated by the researchers 

with the Old Kingdom. Earlier, in Athribis there were discov- 

19 See [4], Vol. 6, pp.728-752


ered two temples, one was estimated to be built in the time of 

reign of Ptolemy IX ... and construction of another was “initiated 

by Ptolemy XIII Auletes ... and finished by Claudius and 

Hadrian.” Athribis is located on the perimeter of the desert 

and it was covered by the sand ... The second temple was 

similar to the Denderah temple or the temple in Edfu. The 

surrounding the temple columns exhibit Greek influence and 

sculpture decorations of the both temples point to the “Roman 

culture.” ... Not far from the excavation site of these 

two temples ... Flinders Petrie discovered a man-made burial 

cave with walls covered by paintings and inscriptions. On the 

ceiling there were painted in color two horoscopes joined into 

one composition. Evidently, they were painted by the same 

artist, which means that the lower horoscope was painted not 

more than thirty years later after the upper one, but most 

probably, even this estimate is too large 20 ”. 

Figure 3.9: Two fragments of the Athribis zodiacs. (Taken 

from [112], p. 22) 

N.A. Morozov’s assumption that the difference between 

the dates of the two Athribis zodiacs should not exceed thirty 

years, appears to be a mistake which led Morozov to the 

wrong result. Further, Morozov writes: 

20 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 731. 

“The figures on the zodiacs are of Hellenistic type but they 

also show some purely Egyptian features. For example, the 

Orion constellation (look at the lower part of the Figure) symbolized 

by a man with his right arm rised in a gesture inviting 

souls of Meri-Hor and his father Ab-Ne-Mani, whose names 

were written in hieroglyphs near the symbols of their souls, to 

come to Heaven. Their souls were accompanied by their sins 

symbolized by snakes and jackals on the left side of the painting. 

Both souls are shown as birds with human heads. The 

upper horoscope probably belongs to the father and the lower 

of his son. Probably, both horoscopes indicate the time of their 

passage to Heaven, not their births. Only in such a case, it 

was appropriate to show them as birds 21 ”. 

We intentionally included this long passage from Morozov’s 

book, describing his interpretation of the additional 

symbols on the Athribis zodiacs, to indicate his erroneous 

approach based on common understanding of the Egyptian 

zodiacs as mystic or religious pictures. Morozov declared in 

haste that those symbols seemed to him unrelated to the main 

horoscope and having no astronomical meaning. For example, 

on the Athribis zodiacs he misunderstood an important astronomical 

information, namely the symbols of the partial 

horoscopes of the summer solstice (see Figure 3.10), which he 

categorized as Orion surounded by a mystical entourage. 

Figure 3.10: A fragment of the lower Athribis zodiac the symbols 

of the partial horoscope of the summer solstice. (Taken 

from [111], Plate 10) 

Morozov mistakenly took the figures of the partial horoscopes 

for the souls of a “father” and his “son,” what resulted 

in a huge impact on the final result. By the way, Morozov 

himself stressed out that on the Athribis zodiac the planets 

are represented by birds, but strangely he didn’t realize the 

astronomical meaning of this configuration of figures. Consequently, 

he lost the essential astronomical data directly related 

to the problem of dating these two horoscopes. Moreover, 

this mistake reassured him that the difference between 

the dates for the both Athribis zodiacs, which he believed belonged 

to a father and his son, should be not more than thirty 

years. In fact it was wrong to make such a presupposition. We 

will show that the difference between the dates for these two 

21 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 731.

zodiacs is 98 years, so they could be related to the birth and 

death of the same person or to the deaths of two relatives. 

Let as look on what Morozov writes further: 

Similarly to the case of the Denderah zodiacs, the dating 

of this tomb is particularly reliable due to the fact that we 

are dealing here with two related horoscopes for which their 

dates are not too distant one from another. In the summer 

1919, Professor B.A. Turaev showed me the forth volume of 

the “British School of Archaeology in Egypt” containing these 

two horoscopes for the purpose of more accurate determination 

of their dates by astronomical methods. In the beginning 

I’d just repeated the calculations of E.B. Knobel, which were 

presented in the book. Knobel together with Egyptologists identified 

the bird with a snake-like tail as Jupiter throwing snakelike 

thunders, the bird with a bull-head as Saturn, the falcon 

away from the Sun as Mars, the two-faced Janus and the bird 

without any specific feature located near the Sun, as Mercury 

and Venus. My verification showed that Jupiter, in the both 

horoscopes, appears much too far to the left than it was calculated 

by Knobel. The same was with Mars. On the other 

hand, Saturn’s position on the lower horoscope was too much 

to the right than it is shown on the Athribis zodiac. The results 

appear to be worst than it is claimed by Knobel in this 

book 22 .”. 

Figure 3.11: Dating of the Athribis zodiac by E.B. Knobel. 

22 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 731 

3.3 Athribis Zodiacs Discovered by Flinders Petrie 61 

We should say that it seems that Knobel himself wasn’t 

satisfied with his result for the astronomical dating of the 

Athribis zodiacs, which was 52 and 58 A.D. On Figure 3.11 

we present the original table with the Knobel’s computations 

which was reproduced by N.A. Morozov in his book [4], Vol. 6. 

One can easily see that Knobel didn’t even try to conduct an 

independent astronomical dating of the zodiacs and simply attempted 

to find the most satisfactory dates in the postulated 

by Egyptologists time interval. Of course, it is always possible 

to choose the best date for a horoscope in a given time interval, 

but could it be acceptable as an astronomical solution? 

Knobel’s solution turned out to be very bad and with such 

a low accuracy it could be possible to date these horoscopes 

practically to any arbitrary epoch. Knobel was aware of this 

problem and provides the following explanation: 

“The horoscope positions are probably taken from tables 

and not from observations, and the positions are in signs 

and not in constellations. The year A.D. 59, January, suits 

well for Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, but is discordant 

for Venus. No attempt has been made to reconcile Mercury. 

Jupiter and Saturn would be in similar relative positions about 

every 58 or 59 years. In the epochs –118, –60, –1, 59, 117, 

the only year that suits the three superior planets is A.D. 59, 

but the position of Venus is quite wrong for that year 23 ” 

Let us quote what Morozov writes about this issue: 

“In order ... to look for a better solution, I’ve instructed 

my former assistant from the Astronomical Department of the 

Lesgaft Institute for Natural Sciences 24 , late M.A. Vil’ev, to 

conduct a special investigation of this ancient artifact. He carried 

complete computations over the interval from 500 B.C. 

to 600 A.D. ... It turned out that Vil’ev had not obtained any 

satisfactory result 25 .” 

As Morozov was unable to obtain a satisfactory solution, 

he was forced to revise and modify his decoding of the horoscopes 

from the Athribis zodiacs. Namely, he interchanged 

Jupiter and Saturn. With this new decoding he was able to 

find the following solution: 

The Upper Athribis zodiac: May 6, 1049 AD. 

The Lower Athribis zodiac: February 9, 1065 AD. 


We show in Figure 3.12 Morozov’s computations for the 

Athribis zodiacs. 

However, as it is clear from Figure 3.11, the Morozov solution 

wasn’t perfect. For example, he was forced to assume 

that only the lower zodiac was based on direct observations, 

while the upper one was calculated with high inaccuracy. This 

was his explanation for the fact that Mars on the date specified 

by his solution for the upper zodiac was not located in 

the right place on the zodiac (see Figure 3.12). Moreover, the 

order of the planets in Morozov’s solution is different from the 

23 See [113] or [4], Vol. 6, p. 732. 

24 N.A. Morozov was a director of this Institute. 

25 See [4], Vol. 6, pp. 731-733


Figure 3.12: Dating of the Athribis zodiac by N.A. Morozov. 

(Translated from [4], Vol.6, p.746, Fig. 150.) 

order on the zodiacs. For instance, the order of the planets 

in the surroundings of the Sun on the lower zodiac, according 

to Morozov’s decoding, is as follows: Mercury, Venus, Sun 

and Mars (see Figure 2.19). However, in the Morozov solution 

the order is: Mercury, Mars, Sun and Venus (see Figure 

3.12), so it is inappropriate to consider Morozov’s solution for 

the lower zodiac as satisfactory. In fact this solution has several 

flaws, the most important of which discuss below. N.A. 

Morozov commented his modified decoding as follows: 

“First of all, a question arises if the interpretation, by the 

British Egyptologist School, of the bird with snake-like tail 

as Jupiter, and the bird with bull-head as Saturn, is correct? 

Flinders Petrie’s book doesn’t mention even one word why it 

is so 27 ..” 

After that, Morozov proposes to interchange the identifications 

of Jupiter and Saturn. He explains: 

“Jupiter, as it is well known, was turning himself into a 

bull, but not Saturn. Saturn was considered as an ominous 

planet ... so the snake-like tail agrees well with its nature, but 

not with the blissful nature of Jupiter 28 ..” 

It is hard to accept the arguments of N.A. Morozov as convincing 

and conclusive. We shouldn’t forget that he proposed 

this conjecture only after unsuccessful attempts to date the 

Athribis zodiacs trusting the earlier decoding by Knobel. Concerning 

his objection to identify Saturn with the bird with a 

27 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 738. 

28 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 739 

bull-head, as it was suggested by Egyptologists, Morozov did 

not present a strong case. In fact, on the Denderah zodiacs 

the symbol of Saturn is often accompanied by a figure of a 

bull. Therefore, it seems that the problem of the identification 

of Saturn and Jupiter on the Athribis zodiacs should be 

kept open, keeping in mind that even with the new decoding 

Morozov was still unable to find a statisfactory solution. 

But, there is a more serious issue. Our analysis of the 

previous two decodings of the Athribis zodiacs, which were 

used by Knobel and Morozov, uncovered extremely strong 

flaws. Namely, the same birds on the upper and lower zodiacs 

were somehow identified with different planets. On Figure 

3.13 we show the complete set of the planetary symbols on the 

Athribis zodiacs together with their identifications according 

to Morozov and Egyptologists. On this figure one can notice 

that the fundamental requirement that the same symbols on 

the both zodiacs should be associated with the same planets, 

is not fulfilled neither by Knobel’s nor by Morozov’s decodings. 

It’s clear that by allowing such inconsistent identifications 

all kinds of various manipulations are possible, which 

could result in arbitrary dates without any real connection to 

these zodiacs. 

Let us explain Figure 3.13. In the top row, there are presented 

the planetary symbols from the Upper Athribis zodiac 

and in the bottom row, from the Lower zodiac. All the planets 

are symbolized by figures of birds with exception of Mercury 

which is shown in the same way as on the Denderah zodiacs, 

i.e. as a two-faced male figure with a walking stick. The annotations 

in green indicate Morozov’s and in brown Knobel’s 

decodings. We placed the similar symbols, according to their 

apearance, in the same column. It is easy to see that the planetary 

symbols on the Upper zodiac match the symbols on the 

Lower zodiac. Indeed, let us point out that there are two birds 

with horns on each of the zodiacs, but their horns are clearly 

of different shape, so it is easy to match them with the corresponding 

birds on the another zodiac. This is not something 

unexpected — the planetary symbols on two zodiacs, which 

are the parts of the same composition, should be the same! 

It is possible that Knobel’s and Morozov’s decodings were 

incorrect because of a very simple reason — erroneous assumption 

that the difference between the dates encoded in 

the Athribis zodiacs should be not larger than 30 years. In 

our analysis of these zodiacs we’ve considered all the possible 

variants of consistent identifications of the planetary symbols 

with specific planets. Moreover, we’ve also used the additional 

astronomical information contained in the zodiacs. A detailed 

presentation of our method will be presented in Chapter 8 

(see section 8.1). However, our final result, indicates that the 

difference between dates for the Upper and Lower Athribis 

zodiacs is 38 years. More precisely, under the condition that 

the difference between the calculated dates is not larger than 

150 years, we have obtained for the Athribis zodiacs the following 

complete solution, which is unique in the historical 

time interval from 500 B.C. till the present time:

3.4 Brugsch’s Zodiac 63 

Figure 3.13: Planetary symbols of the Athribis zodiacs and their identification by Morozov and Knobel 

The Upper Athribis zodiac: 

May 15–16, 1230 AD. 

The Lower Athribis zodiac: 

February 9–10, 1268 AD. 

3.4 Brugsch’s Zodiac 

The Thebes zodiac found by H. Brugsch was discussed in 

detail in [4], Vol. 6, pp. 695-728. A drawing of the complete 

zodiac is shown on Figure 2.13 and the part containing a 

horoscope, which was discovered by H. Brugsch and dated by 

N.A. Morozov, is presented on Figure 3.14. Regarding this 

zodiac, Morozov wrote: 

“In 1913, N.V. Rumancev, who was still at that time a 

student at the Philological Institute ... brought to me ... a 

book by Henri Brugsch: “Recueil de Monuments Egyptiens, 

dessines sur lieux”, in which among other things was described 

a coffin in a perfect condition, so good that someone could say 

it was made not long ago. This coffin ... can be found now in 

the collection of Monier. Brugsch discovered it, according to 

his own account, in 1857 but published its description only in 

1868. 

Inside the coffin there was a mummy of the same type as 

traditional Egyptian mummies ... On the side of its cover, 

which symbolizes the sky ... there were painted twelve constellations 

of zodiacs just in the same manner as they are usually 

shown in astronomical books of the epoch of humanism ... The 

only important feature here are the Demotic inscriptions written 

in irregular curved lines on the left side ... among which 

especially striking are the two lines between Cancer and Leo 

aiming at the Leo’s head. In the first line it is written “Hor-pe- 

Seta” and in the other “Hor-pe-Ka”, i.e. the planets Saturn 

and Jupiter 29 . Since these two lines were placed very close one 

to another, while in the surrounding there was plenty of free 

space, it indicates that Jupiter and Saturn were near by. ... 

Near Virgo, from the side of Leo, there is a Demotic inscription 

“Hor-Tezer” meaning the planet Mars. Between Scorpio 

and Sagittarius, bending to head of Sagittarius, is written in 

Demotic “Pe-Neter-Tau,” which means “light of the morning” 

or Venus .... and finally, between Scorpio and Libra, 

there is written “Sebek”, which means Mercury 30 .” 

Concerning the positions of the Sun and Moon on the 

zodiac, Morozov wrote: 

“The figure of Scorpion ... is painted in a way indicating 

that it is submerged in the sunlight, what takes place in 

November, and the figure of Taurus, which is opposite to Scor- 

29 Morozov took all the translations of the inscriptions on this zodiac from the book 

[14] of H. Brugsch. 

30 See [4], Vol. 6, pp. 697-698.


Figure 3.14: Fragment of Brugsch’s zodiac with the constellation 

symbols and names of planets. (Taken from [14]) 

pio, is black, what indicates that it could be seen all the night 

(i.e. it culminated at the midnight). A crescent is shown on 

the head of Virgo, which corresponds exactly to the appearance 

of the Moon when the Sun is in Scorpio 31 .” 

In the above passage it is indicated that the Sun is shown 

on the zodiac in Scorpio and the Moon in Virgo. 

“Demotic script was first deciphered by J.D. Akerblad in 

1802, twenty years before Jean-François Champollion decoded 

the hieroglyphic writing. Demotic is believed to be not as old 

as hieroglyphs ... Brugsch dated this coffin to the time of the 

Roman reign in Egypt, i.e. not later than the first century 

A.D. It is understandable how I was excited to work on the 

dating of such a remarkable artifact .... but I couldn’t believe 

my eyes when I’ve obtained a shocking result indicating the 

unique solution: November 17, 1682 A.D. 32 ” 

Further in his book, N.A. Morozov admits that there was 

another perfect solution, which was even better than the first 

one, because the order of Mercury and the Sun, contrary to 

31 See [4], Vol. 6, pp. 695-696. 

32 See [4], Vol. 6, pp. 697-698, 727. 

the first solution, was exactly the same as on the zodiac. However, 

the location of Jupiter and Saturn was in the tail of Leo, 

instead of the Leo’s head. This solution was November 18, 

1861, but Morozov rejected it as impossible because it was 

later than the date of the zodiac’s discovery. 

We’ve verified all Morozov’s calculations and confirmed 

their accuracy. There are indeed only two solutions for this 

Demotic horoscope and they are exactly as it was described 

by Morozov. Let us point out that the planetary positions inside 

a particular constellation were never accurately indicated 

on the Egyptian zodiacs, even in such cases when the arrangment 

of a zodiac allowed it in principle (we will illustrate it 

later in this book). So, there is no foundation to assume that 

Jupiter and Saturn met exactly at the Leo’s head, but we 

should be satisfied with any close position of these two planets 

inside the Leo constellation. On the other hand, the order 

of the planets on Egyptian zodiacs is usually correct. From 

this point of view the first solution is a little bit worst than 

the second one. At first, because of the reasons pointed out 

by Morozov, we’d considered the solution 1861 as impossible. 

However, later, we have discovered on Brugsch’s zodiacs two 

more complete horoscopes, which contrary to the Demotic 

horoscope, were the integral parts of the original picture. It 

is quite obvious that the Demotic horoscope wasn’t a part of 

the original design and it was appended to the zodiac much 

later — this fact was already remarked by the previous investigators, 

including N.A. Morozov 33 . 

One of these newly found horoscopes is located on the left 

side of the picture and the another one on the right. We show 

these horoscopes on Figure 3.15. We will call the horoscope 

on the right the horoscope in Boats because all its planetary 

symbols are shown standing in boats. On the other hand, the 

left-hand side horoscope has all its planetary symbols represented 

by figures without walking sticks, probably in order to 

avoid confusion with the horoscope in Boats. We will call it 

the horoscope without Walking Sticks. 

The detailed analysis of Brugsch’s zodiac will be done in 

Chapter 8 (see section 8.2). The horoscopes in Boats and 

without walking sticks have very few solutions in the historical 

time interval, but there is a pair of reasonable close solutions, 

which are the years 1841 and 1853. Probably, these two dates 

indicate the birth and the death of a young person for which 

this coffin was made. But this would indicate that the date 

of the Demotic horoscope is also from the nineteenth century 

(1861), so the second Morozov solution would be right. Maybe 

our computations can be considered as an evidence that H. 

Brugsch was fooled by somebody who supplied him as a joke 

with this not so old coffin and annotated the zodiac using 

Demotic script to indicate this strange date 1861. At that 

time it wasn’t a problem to create horoscopes for future dates, 

which could be simply looked up in the astronomy books. 

The story of Brugsch’s zodiac definitely deserves some more 

investigation. 

33 See [4], Vol. 6, p.797.

Figure 3.15: Brugsch’s zodiac with the three horoscopes indicated. 

In conclusion, let us summarize all the results obtained 

for this zodiac. We begin with the Morozov’s solution: 

The horoscope in Boats: 

Not investigated 

The horoscope without walking sticks: 

The Demotic horoscope: 

Not investigated 

November 17, 1682 AD. 

(Solution November 18, 1861 AD. was rejected) 


Our solution for Brugsch’s zodiac 35 : 

35 See details in Chapter 7? 

3.5 Astronomical Dating of Zodiacs by Egyptologists 65 

The horoscope in Boats: 

February 15, 1853 AD. 

The horoscope without walking sticks: 

The Demotic horoscope: 

October 6–7, 1841 AD. 

November 18, 1861 AD. 

3.5 Astronomical Dating of Zodiacs 

by Egyptologists 

Let us discuss briefly the astronomical dating that can be 

found in the books written by Egyptologists. We are not 

going to investigate all the details of this approach mainly 

because their methods of dating are profoundly influenced 

by Scaliger’s chronology of Egypt and therefore can not be 

considered as objective or independent. As our main goal 

is to present an unbiased and independent from any preassumption 

approach to the astronomical dating of Egyptian 

zodiacs, it is not our concern to look for methodological errors 

in these methods. In this section we only would like to 

illustrate on one example of the Round Denderah zodiac, how 

Egyptologists do it. 

In 1970s, French Egyptologist Sylvie Cauville published a 

five volume monograph “Dendara. Les chapelles osiriennes” 36 

about the reliefs in the Denderah Temple. Cauville completely 

devoted another book entitled “Le zodiaque d’Osisris” 37 to 

the Round Denderah zodiac. This book was based on her 

findings published in the monograph. In the chapter entitled 

“Dating of the zodiac” she presents an attempt to astronomical 

dating of the Round zodiac. Right in the beginning she 

refers Scaliger’s Egyptian chronology and states that Ptolemy 

Auletes — the King of Egypt in the first century B.C., renovated 

the Denderah Temple for the last time 38 . Even before 

starting astronomical analysis, she already concludes that the 

date of the Round zodiac must be between 51 B.C. and 47 

B.C. 39 In this way she reduced the role of the astronomical 

analysis to a secondary verification of the date that seems to 

be already well-known to the author: 

“Partant de cette donnée assurée, É. Aubourg a cherché si, 

dans se laps de temps (51–43 av. J.-C.), la place des planètes 

parmi les constellations du zodiaque était astronomiquement 

possible40 .” Which means: “Staring from this conclusive data, 

É. Aubourg was checking if in this period of time (51 B.C. – 

43 B.C.) the planetary positions among the constellations on 

the zodiac were possible from the astronomical point of view.” 

36 See [11]. 

37 See [10]. 

38 See [10], p. 11. 

39 See [10], p. 11. 

40 See [10], p. 11.


Based on the Aubourg’s computations, S. Cauville claims 

that the configuration of the planets on the zodiac was indeed 

possible in the required period of time. However, a little 

further she provides an explanation that can hardly support 

such a statement. In fact, already on the next page 41 it becomes 

clear that the planetary positions shown on the Round 

zodiac, according to Cauville’s decoding, never appeared on 

the sky in the specified by her time interval. Her solution is 

simply based on manipulations with different dates for different 

planets so the planetary positions could be compared with 

the zodiac. Moreover, she does it only for two planets: Mars 

and Mercury. It is absolutely evident that this type of “confirmation” 

can be applied to any arbitrarily given period of time 

with the same positive result. More precisely, S. Cauville dates 

the Mars position on the Round zodiac by June 16, 50 B.C. 

and Mercury by August 12, 50 B.C. 42 . The difference between 

these two dates is about two months, what is relatively long 

time taking into account that Mars is a fast moving planet and 

Mercury is even faster than Marsy. During the indicated by 

Cauville time Mercury actually had traveled through two full 

zodiac constellations. However, Cauville “cleverly” neglects 

to discuss the positions of all the other planets from the zodiac, 

which by chance are different for the indicated dates. Let 

us indicate that the decoding which was used for this dating 

places Venus and Mercury on the opposite sides of the zodiac, 

what is astronomically impossible. In addition, the symbols 

of the Sun and Moon are interpreted, for some unknown reason, 

as the signs of the solar and lunar eclipses 43 . Assume for 

a second that these two symbols indeed were correctly recognized 

as eclipses and consider their implications on the dating 

of the zodiac. In her book, she suggested two candidates for 

the date of the lunar eclipse: April 1, 52 B.C. (maximal phase 

at 21:21 GMT) and September 25, 52 B.C. (maximal phase 

22:56 GMT) 44 . But, these two ellipses are not full and in fact 

similar eclipses are quite common and happen almost every 

year, so it is not surprising that S. Cauville was able to find 

not only one, but two such eclipses. Notice, that there is no 

connection between the dates for Mars and Mercury and for 

the lunar eclipses. Regarding the solar eclipse, she found the 

eclipse on March 7, 50 B.C. at 11:10 GMT, which was supposed 

to be almost full in Denderah. With the help of the 

astronomical software Turbo Sky we found that this eclipse in 

the Nile region was only partial and didn’t cause any significant 

darkening of the sky. The trace of the maximal phase of 

this eclipse was 100 km to the West from Nile, and therefore 

from Denderah as well. Again, there is no connection with 

the dates of lunar eclipses. The few year proximity of all the 

suggested dates can not be considered as any kind of a proof 

for any approximate date. Taking into account the above observations, 

it is impossible to claim that the dates arount 

the year 50 B.C., which were found by Cauville, are related 

to any kind of a particular astronomical event. Is clear that 

these dates represent absolutely nothing exceptional from the 

astronomical point of view. In fact, it is possible to find such a 

41 See [10], p. 12. 

42 See [10], p. 12. 

43 See [10], pp. 19–22. 

44 See [10], p. 20. 

sequence of astronomical situations in any arbitrary historical 

epoch. However, we should point out that there was no justification 

for the interpretation of any symbol on the Round 

zodiac as an eclipse sign. 

It is not possible to discuss all the mistakes and flaws 

related to the astronomical analysis of the Round zodiac contained 

in [10]. For example, the same symbols are sometimes 

considered as planets and another time as non-zodiacal constellations 

45 . Cauville’s wrong identification of Venus on the 

Round zodiac, is a repetition of Brugsch’s mistaken identification 

of this planet, which was discovered and corrected by 

N.A. Morozov 46 . 

There can be only one conclusion, that the whole analysis 

presented in this book confirms again, that in the pre-assumed 

by Egyptologists time interval there is no solution for the 

Round zodiac. We refer all the interested readers to the books 

[10] and [11] for more information on this subject. 

45 See [10], p. 9. 

46 See [4], Vol. 6, pp. 652–653.

Chapter 4 

New Approach to Decoding of Egyptian 

Zodiacs

4.1 New Approach to Decoding of 


In this section we will describe in general terms our approach 

to the decoding and dating of Egyptian zodiacs. Before undertaking 

the task of dating any particular zodiac, first we 

analyzed ancient Egyptian zodiacs with the purpose of comparing 

their symbols. Let us emphasize that this analysis was 

based not only on one, two or even few similar zodiacs, but 

we considered the collection of all accessible to us Egyptian 

zodiacs. It turned out, and it was not at all evident in the beginning, 

that the astronomical symbolism on all these zodiacs 

was practically the same. This observation was crucial for a 

better and deeper understanding of the symbolic language of 

the Egyptian zodiacs. Recall that all the previous researchers 

attempted the analysis of particular zodiacs without a systematic 

comparative analysis of their symbols on other available 

to them Egyptian zodiacs. 

Let us be more specific. Is it possible to decode the symbols 

on Egyptian zodiacs in such a way that the same symbols 

would have the same meaning on all the zodiacs? Of course 

we have to require that the obtained in this way astronomical 

pictures were meaningful in all cases and their solutions 

belong to a historical time interval. From the statistical point 

of view, the last requirement, if it is satisfied, would give us 

a high confidence that the obtained results are not products 

of a pure coincidence, but they reflect the real contents of the 

Egyptian zodiacs. Yes, it is possible and we will provide the 

reader with substantial proofs supporting this claim! What is 

the most significant, practically all the obtained dates appear 

to be unique in the historical interval and indicate a single 

historical epoch starting in the 12th century A.D. Let us underline 

that the existence of a uniform symbolic language on 

the Egyptian zodiacs is not at all evident. In principle, it could 

be possible that Egyptian artists used astronomical symbols 

in a somehow chaotic and unsystematic manner. For example, 

similar symbols on different zodiacs could have completely different 

astronomical meanings. However, if it was the case, we 

would not be able to arrive to such methodical and meaningful 

results, which we have indeed obtained. The wrong general 

approach could lead in some cases to a decoding of the planetary 

position which were either astronomically impossible or 

produced some unreasonable dates. 

With the results already in our hands, it is impossible 

to accept the opinion claimed by Egyptologists, that ancient 

Egyptian artists created most zodiacs as products of fantasy, 

where their astronomical content was completely secondary. 

In what follows we’ll show that the astronomical content of 

the Egyptian zodiacs is surprisingly rich and precise, which 

couldn’t have been a product of pure imagination. 

It turns out that behind the usage of astronomical symbols 

on Egyptian zodiacs, there are definite and systematic rules. 

For example, the same astronomical symbols or their combinations, 

in a similar context, always have the same meaning. 

However, the identical astronomical notions could be represented 

in different ways, exactly as in the hieroglyphic writing. 

4.2 Equinox and Solstice Points on 


In this section we will discuss briefly the background behind 

our new unified interpretation of the symbols of Egyptian zodiacs. 

The precise astronomical meaning of the symbolizm on 

Egyptian zodiacs was not systematically investigated by previous 

researchers and consequently, their astronomical dating 

contains flaws. 

Figure 4.1: Fragment of the Round Denderah Zodiac. Marked 

in blue: “Bull laying down on a boat,” “Woman shooting an 

Arrow” and “Pillar” 

Let us notice that on many Egyptian zodiacs one can find 

the same or similar symbols. Sometimes, these symbols are 

almost identical or just slightly modified. Moreover, there are 

repetitions not only of individual symbols but even of larger 

groups. An attentive observer will notice that many of such 

groups or single symbols always appear in the same positions 

on the ecliptic, i.e. near the same specific zodiac constellation. 

Clearly, these symbols can not be associated with planets, 

which constantly change their locations on the ecliptic, 

moving from one zodiac constellation to another. Therefore, 

it becomes evident that these symbols represent something 

different from planets but, as their positions are fixed on the 

ecliptic, it is indisputable that they have some astronomical 

meaning as well. This observation leads us to an important 

conclusions which will allow us to decipher more completely 

the symbolic language of Egyptian zodiacs including the planetary 

symbols. 

Let us give an example. We consider the following group 

of symbols:

Figure 4.2: Fragment of the Long Denderah Zodiac. Marked 

in blue: “Man with Raised Hand”, “Bull laying down on a 

boat” and “Pillar” 

(1) A pillar, sometimes with a bird on the top of it, or in between 

two poles bending away from each other (see Figures 

4.1, 4.2 and 4.3); 

(2) A man with a raised hand (see Figures 4.4 and 4.5). If 

that figure is shown holding in his other hand a walking 

stick, which is a planetary symbol, than necessarily he is 

standing on a boat. 

Figure 4.3: Fragment of the Big Esna Zodiac. Marked in blue: 

“Pillar” with two bended poles 

(3) A laying bull, sometimes with a women standing behind 

and shooting an arrow over the bull (see Figure 4.1, 4.2, 

4.4 and 4.5). On some zodiacs, the figures of a bull and a 

woman are shown on the same or separate boats. On the 

Round zodiac only the bull is laying down on a boat. 

Notice on Figure 4.4, that the imaginary line on which 

the “Man with the Raised Hand” is standing passes exactly 

through the Gemini sign and we can think about it as an 

indication that he stands in Gemini. 

Notice on Figure 4.5, that the Arrow is “moving” above 

the head of the Laying Bull and it seems that it comes from 

the Woman standing behind the Bull. This group shows lots 

of similarities with the Round zodiac (see Figure 4.1). 

We would like to point out that the listed above symbols 

are located on Egyptian zodiacs only in close proximity to 

Gemini, and never appear in other parts of these zodiacs. 

Clearly, there is some reason that connects this group with 

Gemini or something inside it. A natural question arises what 

makes Gemini so special among other constellations that this 

4.2 Equinox and Solstice Points on Egyptian Zodiacs 69 

Figure 4.4: Fragment of the Athribis Zodiac. Marked in blue: 

a “Man with a Raised Hand” and a “Bull Laying down” on a 

boat. 

Figure 4.5: Fragment of the Small Esna Zodiac. Marked in 

blue: a “Man with Raised Hand”, a “Bull Laying” down on a 

boat, a “Woman” and an “Arrow”. 

group of symbols is always surrounding it? Let us try to look 

for some indication that may be related to the role of these 

symbols. First of all, the character of these symbols (bird sitting 

on a top of a pillar, man with a raised hand pointing up, 

or a pillar pointing up with two bended pillars on its sides) 

may indicate an idea of something “high,” for example the 

highest point or a kind of a local maximum of something. 

But this is already a good lead to explain why these symbols 

always appear near Gemini. The summer solstice, the northernmost 

point reached by the Sun (i.e. which is the highest 

point for an observer in the Northern Hemisphere) in its annual 

apparent journey among the stars, lies in Gemini. The 

term solstice also is used in reference to either of the two 

points of the greatest deviation of the ecliptic (the Sun’s ap-

70 4 New Approach to Decoding of Egyptian Zodiacs 

parent annual path) from the celestial equator. In fact the 

summer solstice point is one of the four important astronomical 

points on the zodiac belt, namely there are the summer 

and winter solstices and the spring and autumn equinoxes. 

These points divide the ecliptic in four almost equal parts. 

We will show that all these four points on Egyptian zodiacs 

were emphasized by special symbolism. 

Figure 4.6: Movement of the solstice and equinox points during 

the last 2000 years. 

Nowadays, the summer solstice takes place on June 21– 

22, according to the modern (Gregorian) calendar. On this 

day the Sun is located in Gemini very close to the border 

with Taurus. However, this was not always the case. It is well 

known astronomical fact that the point the summer solstice, 

as well as all three other equinox and solstice points, slowly 

changes its position with respect to stars. During 72 years it 

moves about 1 o in the direction opposite to the Sun’s movement 

on the ecliptic, so it makes a revolution of 30 o in about 

2000 years. In particular, that means that during the last 2000 

years the Sun at the summer solstice was always located in 

Gemini. In the beginning of our era it was located near to 

the border with Cancer and presently it moved to the other 

side of Gemini, near the border with Taurus. We illustrate 

the solstice and equinox points motion on Figure 4.6. 

Let us remark, that during the last 2000 years, according 

to Julian calendar, the summer solstice was always in June, 

the autumn equinox was always in September, the winter solstice 

in December and the spring equinox in March. In Julian 

calendar the equinox and solstice dates are moving approximately 

one day per 128 years. But now we use Gregorian 

calendar, created in the year 1582, in which the equinox and 

solstice dates were made invariable calendar dates. However, 

it was done at the price that one average Gregorian year is 

too short for the Sun to complete a full revolution around 

ecliptic. 

From the astronomical point of view there are two natural 

choices for the length of a year. The first is the time 

of the full Earth revolution around the Sun, which is some- 

Figure 4.7: Movement of the Sun positions on the celestial 

sphere and the equinox and solstice dates in Julian and Gregorian 

calendars. 

times called the sidereal year (365 days 6 hours 9 minutes 10 

seconds). Another one is the time period between two consequent 

spring equinoxes, which is called the tropical year (365 

days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds). The average length of a 

year in the Julian calendar is 365 days and 6 hours, which is 

approximately the average of these two lengths, while in the 

Gregorian calendar it is almost the same as the length of the 

tropical year. Consequently, the difference between the sidereal 

and Gregorian years is twice larger than the difference 

between the sidereal and Julian years. In order to avoid complications 

resulting from the change of calendars that took 

place in 1582, the Julian calendar is still used for astronomical 

calculations. In fact it has other advantages for astronomy, 

for example a century in the Julian calendar is composed of 

36525 days, while in the Gregorian calendar this number is 

36524.2199, which is not an integer. 

We should remember that as the Gregorian calendar is 

used only for the dates after 1582, we will need very often to 

refer to the Julian calendar. On Figure 4.7, we illustrate the 

astronomical implications resulting from the use of the Julian 

and Gregorian calendars. 

There is another example that we would like to discuss. 

On the Big Esna zodiac EB one can distinguish two practically 

the same symbols of “meeting and handshaking” (see 

Figure 4.8). In order to identify what kind of a “meeting” it 

is, we look at their position on the ecliptic shown on the zodiac. 

We notice that one of these symbols is located between 

Virgo and Leo, while the another one is between Pisces and 

Aquarius. These are exactly the opposite points on the ecliptic 

corresponding to the two equinox points: the spring and 

autumn equinoxes. There is no need for much imagination in 

order to realize that the meeting taking place at these two 

points is between the night and the day, which have the same 

length exactly twice per year on these days. Consequently, we 

can guess that on Egyptian zodiacs the equinox points were 

marked by some special symbols. Of course, in order to support 

this claim we need to analyze other Egyptian zodiacs as 

well, what is one of our goals in the next chapter.

Figure 4.8: Two symbols of “meeting and handshaking” on the 

Big Esna Zodiac placed at the equinox points. 

Let us present one more example where the winter solstice 

is clearly indicated. The winter solstice is the day when the 

rise of the Sun above the horizon is the lowest in the Northern 

hemisphere. During the last 2000 years the winter solstice 

was in Sagittarius (see Figure 4.6). If we look at the sign of 

Sagittarius on the Big Esna zodiac, we find out that it is the 

only constellation figure which is placed upside-down, what 

can be read as an indication of the lowest Sun’s position. 

This is not the case with other Egyptian zodiacs, but there 

are always some special symbols accompanying Sagittarius on 

these zodiacs (see Figure 4.9). 

We have studied from this point of view all the accessible 

to us Egyptian zodiacs and concluded that practically on 

all Egyptian zodiacs the four tropical points (i.e. the solstice 

and equinox points) are always marked by additional symbols 

located in proximity of the following constellations: 

Figure 4.9: The upside-down Sagittarius indicates the winter 

solstice on the Big Esna Zodiac. 

4.2 Equinox and Solstice Points on Egyptian Zodiacs 71 

• Pisces — since the second century A.D., it contains the 

spring equinox point; 

• Gemini — from the beginning of our era, it contains the 

summer solstice point; 

• Virgo — since first centuries B.C., it contains the autumn 

equinox point; 

• Sagittarius — from beginning of our era, it contains the 

winter solstice point. 

Figure 4.10: The sign of the spring equinox (marked in blue) 

on the Round Denderah zodiac. 

We should stress out that, in the beginning of our era, 

which according to Scaliger’s chronology corresponds to the 

time of creation of the ancient Egyptian zodiacs, the spring 

equinox was not yet located in Pisces. However, on these zodiacs 

it is shown in the constellation of Pisces. It entered Pisces 

only in the second century A.D., which already contradicts 

Scaliger’s chronology version of Egyptian history! 

This contradiction was already pointed out by Morozov 1 who 

recognized on the Denderah zodiacs some of the symbols of 

the spring and autumn equinoxes (see Figure 4.10). These 

signs of the equinoxes on the Denderah zodiacs are rectangular 

palettes with wavy lines inside. One can easily recognize 

on Figure 4.10 that this sign is located exactly in Pisces and 

not in Aries, where it should be placed if the zodiac was made 

in the first century B.C. or A.D. 

From the astronomical dating point of view, it is important 

to notice that often the symbols of these four points were 

accompanied by some planetary signs. These signs appear to 

represent the planets which, on the equinox or solstice day, 

were close to the Sun. Remember, Mercury and Venus are 

always close to the Sun, but occasionally some other planets 

could also appear closely to the Sun on these four special 

days of the year. In this way, the configuration of the 

planets shown at such a point becomes a meaningful partial 

1 See [4], p. 658.

72 4 New Approach to Decoding of Egyptian Zodiacs 

Figure 4.11: Principal structure of an Egyptian zodiac.

4.3 Egyptian Zodiacs as Astronomical Pictures of the Whole Year Containing the Main Date 73 

horoscope involving few planets. Consequently, such an astronomical 

picture becomes an important additional information 

for the zodiac dating. 

It is clear that more information we have, better are the 

chances to obtain fewer admissible dates. In fact, if there is 

sufficiently large amount of additional information, it is possible 

that a unique and complete solution could be selected 

leading to reliable date for the zodiac. A planet which can 

provide us with particularly valuable information is Mars. 

Contrary to the planets Jupiter and Saturn, which move relatively 

slowly and during the whole year their positions do 

not change much, Mars is moving comparatively fast and its 

location on the main horoscope can be very different from its 

locations on the solstice and equinox days. It makes Mars a 

very important planet with significant impact on the astronomical 

dating. 

One can ask a question: how it was possible for Egyptian 

astronomers and artists to avoid confusion between the 

planetary symbols of the main horoscope, i.e. the horoscope 

encoding the date for which the whole zodiac was created, 

and the partial horoscopes associated with the solstice and 

equinox points? In this book we provide an answer supported 

by many examples. In fact, the zodiacs were indeed designed 

very carefully to clearly separate the symbols of the main 

horoscope from those of the partial horoscopes. 

Of course, one can wonder why all these facts about partial 

horoscopes on Egyptian zodiacs were not discovered in the 

earlier studies of Egyptian zodiacs. For example, even N.A. 

Morozov with his deep expertise in ancient astronomy was 

not able to recognize their existence. Let us emphasize that 

our claims are based on more substantial grounds than just 

an idea or impression. In fact, any kind of an explanation or a 

possible variant for interpretation of symbolizm on Egyptian 

zodiacs, should be verified based on the whole information 

available. Only after conducting elaborated computations and 

careful verifications such a choice can be made. Without massive 

astronomical calculations it is almost impossible, just by 

looking at the zodiac, to understand their underlying structure. 

In order to make these tasks possible, it is necessary to 

use advanced computational technology, which became only 

widely available in recent years. There were no computers n 

the time of Morozov and the amount of computations needed 

even for decoding of just one variant for a zodiac required several 

months of hard work. We must acknowledge that N.A. 

Morozov was aware of some elements of partial horoscopes 

but he didn’t give them a serious consideration. In this way, 

he remained unaware of the whole zodiac’s structure 2 . 

2 See [114], for more details 

4.3 Egyptian Zodiacs as Astronomical 

Pictures of the Whole Year 

Containing the Main Date 

As it was explained in section 2.1, an Egyptian zodiacs is a 

recording of a particular date, which we call the main date 

of the zodiac. Based on our research, we claim that an Egyptian 

zodiac is in general an astronomical description of the 

whole calendar year during which the main date occurred. 

While the main horoscope encodes the main date, the partial 

horoscopes describe the four solstice and equinox days during 

that year. Sometimes, other symbolic scenes of particular astronomical 

meanings are also included in a zodiac. However, 

they are always related to the calendar year containing the 

main date. The structure of Egyptian zodiacs is illustrated on 

Figure 4.11, where one axis shows the time during one calendar 

year measured in months and the other one corresponds 

to the ecliptic divided into twelve zodiac constellations. The 

month of September is considered here as the first month of 

the calendar year, like it is indicated on most of Egyptian zodiacs. 

The curves show the planetary positions on the ecliptic 

through the year. For example, in order to find the position of 

Mars in December, we look where on the trajectory of Mars 

is located the point corresponding to December. On Figure 

4.11, the dashed vertical line intersects the trajectory of Mars 

at the “height,” which can be identified on the vertical axis as 

belonging to Scorpio. That means, in December of this particular 

year, Mars was in Scorpio. The trajectory of the Sun 

is marked by a yellow straight line placed across the picture. 

Of course, for different years the trajectories of the planets 

(except Sun) are different. Since the motion of Moon is very 

fast in comparison to the other planets, for the reason of simplicity, 

we did not include it in this diagram. 

Based on the diagram shown on Figure ??, let us create, as 

an example, an Egyptian horoscope for February 10th for that 

year. In other words, February 10th will be our main date, 

which on Figure 4.11 is marked by yellow triangle. The planetary 

positions on the main date are indicated on a gray pole 

(with a question mark on its top). The zodiac and the horoscope 

for this main date is illustrated on the left from the diagram. 

Notice that the planetary positions in the main horoscope 

correspond exactly their positions indicated on the gray 

pole, i.e. the actual planetary locations on the main date. As 

it was already mentioned, Egyptian astronomers and artists, 

created their zodiacs not only as astronomical picture showing 

the planetary positions on the main date, but they also supplied 

additional astronomical information. Besides the main 

horoscope, there were also included the partial horoscopes 

related to the planetary positions near the Sun on the four 

equinox and solstice days. We encircled the vicinity of the 

Sun on these four dates and the planets included inside these 

ovals make up the four partial horoscopes for that year, which 

are symbolized by blue ovals on the right side of the main 

horoscope. We should point out that this is only a schematic 

picture illustrating the main features of an Egyptian zodiac. 

In real zodiacs the main and partial horoscopes usually share

the same space. As our purpose is to find the main date of an 

Egyptian horoscope, we have placed in our diagram a question 

mark above the pole indicating the main date. The question 

mark is simply a reminder that in order to identify the moment, 

when the astronomical situation shown in the zodiac 

took place, we need to carry out appropriate computations. In 

this case, a complete solution is a date belonging to the year 

where all the specified in the zodiac conditions are satisfied. 

4.4 Dating of Egyptian Zodiacs with 

Equal Treatment of all Admissible 

Decodings 

With discovery of partial horoscopes the dating of Egyptian 

zodiacs took a new dimension. The amount of the astronomical 

information now available is sufficient not only for finding 

a unique date for a zodiac, but in fact, also to verify the correctness 

of the used decoding. In the earlier attempts, based 

on the preliminary analysis, a decoding was chosen and only 

then used to carried out the calculation of the dates. Now, 

we do not select the “best” decodings but instead, we calculate 

the dates for all admissible decodings, and next compared 

them with the additional information. In this way, the 

correctness of a decoding is determined as a result of calculations. 

This method became possible due to the fact that there 

is now enough astronomical information available to exclude, 

for most of the considered zodiacs, random dates resulting 

from incorrect decodings. It is statistically impossible to have 

a date in the historical time interval, which corresponds to 

incorrect decoding and in the same time satisfies all the astronomical 

conditions retrieved from the zodiac. Let us point 

out that for a successful application of this method to obtain 

a reliable dating of anEgyptian zodiac, it is not necessary to 

have all the four partial horoscopes present on the zodiac. 

However, if there are two or even one partial horoscope available, 

with astronomically significant information, it is already 

sufficient to determine which decoding is correct and find the 

unique main date. Of course, in order do assure that the obtained 

result is correct, in each particular case, we must use 

all the accessible astronomical information. 

To be more specific, we should clarify that not every decoding 

is admissible. It is possible to create imaginary decodings, 

just by arbitrarily assigning astronomical meanings 

to the symbols of a zodiac. But, the principle of our method 

would require that the same rule should be applied to the 

all other studied zodiacs with no exception. That means that 

the same type of a symbol in a similar context, but on different 

zodiacs, should always have the same meaning. In this 

way, it is possible to eliminate many unrealistic decodings. 

By applying the rule that the same symbol on different zodiacs 

should be treated exactly in the same manner, we are 

able to significantly reduce the total number of possible variants 

of admissible decodings for the analyzed zodiacs. Still, in 

the case of many zodiacs there are dozens of variants, which 

should be analyzed and calculated.

Chapter 5 

Symbolism on Egyptian Zodiacs and New 

Complete Decoding

5.1 Symbols of Constellations on 


In general, the figures denoting constellations on ancient 

Egyptian zodiacs are very similar to their medieval European 

representations, so there is no problem with the recognition of 

their meaning. Nevertheless, some of the Egyptian symbols of 

constellations possess unique features which are not present 

in the medieval European manuscripts. These features, which 

were not recognized by previous researchers, are important 

for understanding the symbolic language of Egyptian zodiacs. 

More precisely, certain planetary symbols were sometimes 

integrated into a constellation symbol, which appeared 

as a complex “astronomical hieroglyph.” We will discuss such 

“astronomical hieroglyphs” later in the section devoted to 

the partial horoscopes. This section is devoted mostly to the 

symbolism of constellations and we will only briefly examine 

the planetary symbols present in the complex constellation 

figures. 

Figure 5.1: Representations of Aries on different Egyptian zodiacs 

and in the European astronomy. 

Below, we analyze the Egyptian symbols of all the twelve 

zodiac constellations. 

5.1.1 Aries 

On Figure 5.1 we show the figures representing Aries on different 

Egyptian zodiacs, and for comparison, we also include 

a picture of Aries made by A. Dürer 1 in 1515 (see Figure 5.2). 

Figure 5.2: The star chart of the Northern hemisphere made 

by Dürer’s (color added for better contrast). The zodiac constellations 

are placed around the ecliptic illustrated as a circle. 

It is not hard to see that the symbols of Aries on the 

Egyptian zodiacs, shown on Figure 5.1, are similar to the 

Dürer’s drawing from the 16th century. We should remember 

that according to the conventional chronology, there is more 

than fifteen hundred years of difference between them. 

5.1.2 Taurus 

Next constellation after Aries is Taurus. On Figure 5.3 we 

show the symbols representing Taurus on the Egyptian zodiacs 

and compare them with the Dürer’s drawing. Again, there 

is no problem with recognizing this constellation and there is 

also a clear resemblance with the Dürer’s drawing. 

Note that all the symbols have the same type of crescentlike 

horns. We would like to point out that on Egyptian zodiacs 

there may be many figures, in particular symbolizing 

planets, with different shapes of horns. The shape of horns 

seems to be important in Egyptian astronomical symbolism. 

For example, we will see later that Saturn is often shown 

1 See [28], p.8.

Figure 5.3: Representations of Taurus on different Egyptian 

zodiacs and in the European astronomy. 

with horns like Taurus, and Jupiter with horns of different 

type similar to the horns of Aries. 

5.1.3 Gemini 

The next constellation on the ecliptic is Gemini. On Figure 

5.4, we show the representations of Gemini on the zodiacs and 

compare them again with the picture of A. Dürer. On Figure 

5.5, we also show a photograph of the symbol of Gemini on 

the Long Denderah zodiac. 

On Dürer’s picture Gemini is shown as a couple of children 

hugging each other. A similar symbol of Gemini one finds 

only on the Petosiris zodiacs. On all other zodiacs Gemini 

is depicted in different ways. In fact, there are two distinct 

patterns among these symbols. The first shows Gemini as a 

couple, a male and female figures holding hands. The female 

may have a lion’s head with a circle on the top of it, while the 

male figure has a feather on the top of its head (see DL, AV 

and AN). Another pattern is characterized by three figures, 

a male and a female figures with hands crossed on the chest, 

and another male figure in front of them with a long stick 

(notice that this stick is different from a planetary “walking 

stick”, which always have a handle on its top). We should 

mention that there is a simple way to distinguish male and 

female figures on Egyptian zodiacs. It is the size the step that 

5.1 Symbols of Constellations on Egyptian Zodiacs 77 

Figure 5.4: Representations of Gemini on different Egyptian 


Figure 5.5: Gemini on the Long Denderah zodiac. 

(Taken from [10])

78 5 Symbolism on Egyptian Zodiacs and New Complete Decoding 

Figure 5.6: Representations of Cancer on different Egyptian 


is always small for females and much bigger for males. We will 

discuss later more details and present a proof for this claim. 

5.1.4 Cancer 

The constellation of Cancer follows Gemini on the ecliptic. 

On Figure 5.6 we show Cancer on the Egyptian zodiacs and 

compare it again with the Dürer’s picture. 

Let us notice that the position of Cancer on the Round 

Denderah zodiac is not aligned with the other constellations 

— it sticks out of the “zodiacal circle” (see Figures 5.7 and 

5.8). 

At the first glance one can think that Egyptian artist 

didn’t plan well the arrangement of the zodiacal constellations, 

and since there was not enough space left for the symbol 

of Cancer he was forced to move Cancer aside. For example, 

N.A. Morozov and other investigators of Egyptian zodiacs believed 

that this was indeed a reason for Cancer’s displaced position 

on the Denderah zodiac. Accepting such an explanation 

would imply that the astronomical accuracy of an Egyptian 

zodiac could possibly be distorted by Egyptain artists who 

created the design of the zodiac. But, we claim that this is 

not the case. For example, if we look at the position of Cancer 

on the Long Denderah zodiac, then it is also displaced but 

here it clear that it was done intentionally (see Figure 5.9). In 

Figure 5.7: Position of Cancer on the Round Denderah zodiac. 

All non-constellation symbols were removed from the zodiac 

for better clarity 

Figure 5.8: Position of Cancer on the Round Denderah zodiac.

Figure 5.9: Nonalignment of Cancer on the Long Denderah zodiac. 

5.1 Symbols of Constellations on Egyptian Zodiacs 79


this book we assume that all the astronomical content of an 

Egyptian zodiac is accurate and we will look for the exact solutions. 

That means, we do not look for any excuse to accept 

a flaw in a solution by justifying it using non-astronomical 

arguments. This strict approach is also supported by the fact 

that we have obtained the exact and unique solutions for the 

all analyzed Egyptian zodiacs. 

5.1.5 Leo 

The constellation of Cancer is followed by Leo. On Figure 

5.10, we show the representations of this constellation on the 

Egyptian zodiacs and compare them with the Dürer drawing. 

It is clear that Leo can be easily distinguished on all the 

Egyptian zodiacs. However, we would like to point out two 

important features of Leo present on different zodiacs. 

Figure 5.10: Representations of Leo on different Egyptian zodiacs 

and in the European astronomy. 

On several zodiacs, there is a female figure usually standing 

on its tail or sometimes holding it in her hand. At the 

first glance, this female figure could be considered as a symbol 

of the next constellation of Virgo, but in almost all such 

cases there is another figure representing Virgo. The only exception 

is the Upper Athribis zodiac, where the female figure 

holding Leo by the tail is indeed Virgo. On the other hand, 

it is clear that this female figure has to be related to Virgo, 

so we will simply call it secondary Virgo. As a matter of fact, 

Virgo is represented by as standing female figure occupying 

much smaller space than Leo, whose body on a zodiac usually 

spreads horizontally over much larger area, but this is not the 

case on the real sky. Among all the zodiac constellations Virgo 

occupies the largest part of the ecliptic, while Leo occupies 

much smaller area. This disproportion causes some difficulty 

in picturing Virgo on the zodiacs or star charts. For example, 

on the medieval European star maps Virgo was shown in a 

laying position, what allowed Virgo to cover a larger apace. 

But on Egyptian zodiacs there was another way to expand 

Virgo over larger area on ecliptic. The little secondary Virgo 

standing on the tail of Leo indicates that this place belongs to 

Virgo. Notice, that Leo often stands on a snake. This is an important 

detail in Egyptian astronomical symbolism. We will 

present later many examples of symbols standing on snakes or 

boats. We claim, and will justify it, that it always means that 

the symbols using such attributes were shifted or expanded 

to another place on ecliptic or are even related to the time 

different from the main date of the zodiac. For example, Leo’s 

figure is often placed on a snake to indicate that it expands 

“illegally” over the neighboring constellation of Virgo, which 

is in addition is indicated by the presence of the secondary 

Virgo. 

Figure 5.11: Representations of Virgo on different Egyptian 

zodiacs and in the European astronomy.

5.1.6 Virgo 

Now, we move to the next constellation of Virgo. On Figure 

5.11, we show the representations of Virgo on the Egyptian 

zodiacs and on the A. Dürer’s picture. 

Figure 5.12: Representations of Virgo and the star Spica at 

the tip of Leo’s tail on the Dürer’s drawing. 

There is no problem with recognizing Virgo on Egyptian 

zodiacs. It is almost always represented by a female figure 

holding a spike in her hand. The only exceptions are the Inner 

Petosiris zodiac P1, where Virgo is symbolized by a woman 

holding instead of spike a scale, and the zodiac (OU) from 

Thebes, where Virgo has nothing in her hands. The spike in 

Virgo’s hand is not just a decoration, but it symbolizes one of 

the most bright and famous in ancient astronomy star called 

today α-Virgo. This star in ancient astronomy was called 

Spike of Virgo or Spica in Latin. On the Upper Athribis zodiac 

Virgo holds, instead of a spike, the Leo’s tail with a tuft 

on the tail tip. If we look at the Dürer’s picture, we will find 

a similar idea of showing the star Spica at the Leo’s tail tip, 

which Virgo touches with her finger tip (see Figure 5.12). 

5.1.7 Libra 

We show on Figure 5.13 the various representations of Libra 

on the Egyptian zodiacs and the Dürer’s picture. On all the 

zodiacs Libra is symbolized by a figure of a balance with two 

pans hung from bearings. 

Notice a circle with a figure inside it, which is placed on the 

several zodiacs together with the balance. This circle is not a 

part of the Libra symbol but it simply indicates the Moon in 

Libra. We leave the discussion of these details for later. On the 

Big Esna zodiac, the balance is placed in a hand of a woman. 

Again, this woman is not a part of the Libra symbol nor it is 

a Virgo symbol. Indeed, the Virgo’s position on this zodiac is 

on the other side of Libra, where it is represented by another 

female figure having all the attributes of Virgo (see Figure 

5.11). We will prove that this figure represents Venus in Virgo 

from the partial horoscope of the winter solstice. However, on 


Figure 5.13: Representations of Libra on different Egyptian 


the Inner Petosiris zodiac, a very similar female figure holding 

the balance in her hand is indeed a symbol of Virgo. Contrary 

to the previous case, this woman is located on the zodiac P2 in 

a position corresponding to the Virgo constellation (according 

to the orientation of the constellations on this zodiac) and it 

is the only possible figure here, which could be identified with 

Virgo. 

5.1.8 Scorpio 

On Figure 5.14 we show how Scorpio is represented on the 

Egyptian zodiacs. It is easy to recognized this symbol because 

of its elongated body and a curved tail tipped with a stinger. 

Notice that Scorpio on the Dürer’s picture is strikingly 

similar to the representation of Scorpio on the all Egyptian 


5.1.9 Sagittarius 

Now we move to the constellation of Sagittarius. The representations 

of Sagittarius on the Egyptian zodiacs and the 

Dürer’s picture are shown on Figure 5.15. 

On all the zodiacs Sagittarius is represented by a figure 

of centaur — an imaginary creature which is part horse and


Figure 5.14: Representations of Scorpio on different Egyptian 


part man, aiming an arrow at Scorpio. Notice, that most of 

the centaurs shown on Figure 5.15 have wings and even the 

Dürer’s centaur has also something floating above its back 

resembling wings. 

As we already mentioned it in Chapter 4, during the last 

2000 years the winter solstice takes place in Sagittarius, therefore 

the figure of Sagittarius on Egyptian zodiacs is usually 

accompanied by additional symbols. Practically all the centaurs 

on the Egyptian zodiacs have double-faced heads — 

one face of a human and another one of a lion. Particularly 

it is clearly visible on the zodiacs DL, EB and EV (see Figure 

5.15). Let us point out that double face on Egyptian zodiacs 

is a feature associated with Mercury and lion’s head 

with Venus, which are two planets always accompanying the 

Sun. Another attribute that can be recognized on most of the 

Egyptian zodiacs shown in Figure 5.15, which indicates that 

some “displaced” symbols are present here, is the boat under 

Sagittarius. On Athribis zodiacs there is also a star inside the 

boat, which could suggest that we are dealing here with “displaced” 

planets (remember that according to the ancient astronomy 

planets were considered as “moving stars”). There is 

also another detail pointing to the Sun. Namely, some of centaurs 

wear a crown with a small circle on its top. All together, 

these symbols convey a message that the Sun, Mercury and 

Figure 5.15: Representations of Sagittarius on different Egyptian 


Venus are shown in this separated from the main horoscope 

position, in order to indicate their presence at proximity of 

the winter solstice point. 

5.1.10 Capricorn 

Now, we proceed with the next constellation of Capricorn. On 

Figure 5.16 we show the representations of Capricorn on all 

the studied here Egyptian zodiacs, together with the D¨rer’s 

drawing of Capricorn. The symbol of Capricorn, which is represented 

by a fantastic animal — a goat with a fishtail, can 

be easily recognized on the Egyptian zodiacs. We would like 

to point out a strange male figure standing on Capricorn on 

the Big Esna zodiac (see Figure 5.17). 

The fact that this man is standing on Capricorn means 

that it is “displaced” and the presence of the small summer 

solstice attributes in his hands (see Figures 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3) 

probably indicates that Sun’s trajectory begins to rise here 

to the summer solstice. In other words, the Sun which just 

passed in Sagittarius its lowest point is now in Capricorn and 

it begins its cycle in the direction to the highest position, i.e. 

the summer solstice. So, there is no ground for speculating 

that this figure stands for a planet in a partial horoscope 

(notice that it could not belong to the main horoscope because

Figure 5.16: Representations of Capricorn on different Egyptian 


it is standing on something and has no walking stick in his 

hand). 

5.1.11 Aquarius 

We move now to the symbol of Aquarius. On Figure 5.18 we 

show the representations of Aquarius on the Egyptian zodiacs 

and in the European medieval tradition. On the Egyptian 

zodiacs Aquarius is shown as a male figure pouring water 

from two jars in his hands. 

On the Round Denderah zodiac we can see that Aquarius 

pours the water over a fish. It is worthy to mention that in 

Old Christian tradition the fish was a symbol of Christ 2 , so 

the symbol of Aquarius pouring water over a fish strangely reminds 

us a picture of John The Baptist baptizing Christ. This 

remark was made by N.A. Morozov 3 . The parallel between 

John The Baptist and the Egyptian symbols of Aquarius is 

supported by additional elements surrounding Aquarius. On 

the zodiacs DR, DL and EM, Aquarius is accompanied by 

a sequence of figures suggesting beheading, which is another 

parallel with the story of John The Baptist. We may think 

that it is very strange to find Christian symbols on ancient 

2 See [29] or Encyclopædia Britannica. 

3 See [4], Vol. 6, p.679. 


Figure 5.17: Figure with tiny summer solstice attributes standing 

on Capricorn on the Big Esna zodiac. 

Egyptian zodiacs. However, as we will see it later, there are 

in fact even more Christian symbols present on these zodiacs, 

which is not so surprising when we realize their decoded 

dates. 

5.1.12 Pisces 

The last zodiac constellation is Pisces. On Figure 2.19 we 

show the representations of Pisces on the Egyptian zodiacs 

and compare them with the European symbol of Pisces depicted 

on the Dürer’s drawing. It is always symbolized by 

a pair of fish, which are often connected by a thread. As 

long as there is a figure representing Pisces, there is no difficulty 

in recognizing it, or any other zodiac constellation, on 

Egyptian zodiacs. However, this is not always the case. On 

some Egyptian zodiacs there is no constellation figure present 

or sometimes only few of them are indicated by typical figures. 

We will call them the Thebes type zodiacs, because they 

mostly come from Luxor that is located at the place of ancient 

Thebes. On the Thebes type zodiacs the zodiacal belt 

was probably divided into several parts. It is unknown to us 

how these parts are related to the constellations or where 

they are located on the ecliptic (see Figure ?? and its enlarged 

fragment on Figure 5.20). However, it is possible to 

recognize there the symbols of planets, what definitely means 

that there is a horoscope encoded in such a zodiac and consequently 

there is also a particular date hidden in it. Still, it is 

sometimes possible to date such zodiacs, if there are at least 

some constellations indicated on such zodiacs.


Figure 5.18: Representations of Aquarius on different Egyptian 


On Figure 5.20, the ecliptic is divided into 36 parts by 

small marking above the figures in both, upper and lower 

part of the zodiacs. There are 18 parts in the lower part and 

18 parts in the upper one. 

Let us consider the Color Thebes zodiac, which we denoted 

by the letters ‘OU’. It is also a zodiac of Thebes type 

but it contains few symbols of constellations, namely, it shows 

only these zodiac constellations in which there were planets 

present on the main date. These constellations are displayed 

together in the center of the zodiac (see Figure 5.21) and the 

planetary symbols are placed around them. 

5.2 Symbols of Decans and Principal 

Scale on Egyptian Zodiacs 

5.2.1 Decans on the Long Denderah Zodiac 

We have already mentioned that on some Egyptian zodiacs, in 

particular on the zodiacs of Thebes type, instead of the constellations 

the ecliptic is divided into 36 parts, each of them 

Figure 5.19: Representations of Pisces on different Egyptian 


representing a sector 10 o long in average. The time needed for 

Sun to travel across such a sector is approximately 10 days in 

average. For these reasons we will call these sectors decans. 

For each of the twelve zodiac constellations correspond in average 

three decans. It is quite probable that on the Thebes 

type zodiacs the constellations are present in a form of triples 

of decans. This idea is supported by the structure of the Long 

Denderah zodiac. It was already noticed by N.A. Morozov 4 , 

that each zodiac constellation is accompanied by two additional 

figures of girls, often with stars over their heads. All 

these girls are alike, except few of them, which symbolize 

supplementary astronomical information that we will explain 

later in this chapter. These 24 figures and 12 zodiac constellations 

represent 36 figures dividing the ecliptic into 36 sectors. 

For each constellation corresponds three decans symbolized 

by these three figures, one of them being the constellation 

symbol itself. Following these idea we can analyze all the figures 

on the Long zodiac and verify if it is possible to divide 

them into 12 subsequent triples, each of them composed of 

two female figures and one zodiac symbol. It turns out that it 

is feasible and in fact there is only one way to do it! This partition 

into subsequent triples is shown on Figure 5.22, where 

we used the numbers 1, 2 and 3 to indicate the figures belonging 

to the same triple. We used different colors for different 

4 See [4], Vol. 6, p 675.

5.2 Symbols of Decans and Principal Scale on Egyptian Zodiacs 85 

Figure 5.21: The zodiac constellations on the Color Thebes zodiac (OU). 

triples. For each triple, one of the numbers 1, 2 or 3 is encircled 

to indicate the figure of the constellation. We colored all 

the constellations in red and other decans symbols in brown. 

Let us show that indeed it is the only way the decans 

can be divided into triples. Notice that there is only one decans 

symbol between Aquarius and Pisces, so there are only 

two possibilities: it belongs to Pisces or Aquarius. For each 

of these two options we can try to extend this partition (in 

a unique way) over the whole zodiacs. If we assume that this 

decans symbol belongs to Aquarius, we will obtain a partition 

with one triple containing no zodiac symbol. On the contrary, 

if this symbol belongs to Pisces, the partition into triples extends 

in a unique way over the whole zodiac and there is 

exactly one zodiac figure in each triple. 

5.2.2 Principal Scale on Egyptian Zodiacs 

The presence of decans on an Egyptian zodiac gives us a hope 

that the positions of the planets in main horoscope are specified 

here more precisely. For example, a creator of the Long 

zodiac could indicate the location of a planet, by placing it 

in between appropriate decans, with accuracy up to 20 o in 

average. Unfortunately, this is not the case. If we look again 

on the Long Denderah zodiac, we will find out that all the 

planetary figures from the main horoscope, except the Sun 

and Moon, are placed exactly in between the constellation 

triples (look for the symbols with the walking sticks on Figure 

5.22). All the figures with walking sticks inside the triples 

stand either on a boat or hold the walking sticks over another 

symbol. This indicates that these figures are not parts 

of the main horoscope, but belong to the partial horoscopes. 

By taking advantage of the decans, the position of these par- 

tial horoscope symbols on the Long zodiac can be specified 

more accurately. We will show that in the final solution for the 

Long zodiac these partial horoscope positions are exactly as 

on the Long zodiac. But, as we explained, the main horoscope 

is not so accurately presented on the Long zodiac. 

Notice that among all the decans represented by the brown 

females on Figure 5.22, all of them except one look in the 

one direction, which is the direction of the whole procession 

along the zodiac. This figure is located between Cancer and 

Gemini, and it belongs to the Cancer triple. One can ask the 

question: what this change in direction could mean? In order 

to suggest an answer, we should look at the set of figures 

between Cancer and this decan. There are three boats and a 

pole with a bird on the top of it. We already discussed them 

as symbols of the summer solstice which occurs in Gemini. As 

they are following the first decan of Cancer, we could think 

that their place is in Cancer, and indeed it would happen 

if the first decan was oriented in the same direction as the 

whole procession. However, this is not a case here, because 

the way the first decan is represented on the Long zodiac 

shows that the summer solstice figures stand in front of her 

(and not behind), which clearly indicates that she is following 

these summer solstice symbols. By this example we would 

like to point out how careful should be the analysis of the 

Egyptian symbols in order to find the correct decoding. Even 

the smallest details may contain some important information. 

Let us stress out that an Egyptian zodiac is often a very 

complex astronomical picture showing a large amount of astronomical 

information, and because of it, its structure and 

symbolic language could be quite complicated. Nevertheless, 

we will show that these zodiacs are practically flawless re-


Figure 5.22: Symbols of decans on the Long Denderah zodiac.

Figure 5.20: Enlarged fragment of the Thebes zodiac from Figure 

2.1. There are no constellations signs and the ecliptic is 

divided into 36 parts. 

5.3 Male and Female Figures 87 

garding their astronomical contents and their accuracy can 

be fully trusted. Since this is not an attitude shared by specialists 

in Egyptian astronomy and zodiacs, many researchers 

easily assume that the astronomical contents of the Egyptian 

zodiacs is not very precise and could be corrupted because of 

artistic or other reasons. We would like to use our research 

against this attitude that we consider to be wrong. 

5.3 Male and Female Figures 

In order to understand how it is possible to distinguish male 

and female figures on Egyptian zodiacs, even in the case the 

quality of a picture is very low, we need to look first at some 

examples. On Figure 5.24 we reproduce a collection of Egyptian 

symbols from [7]. We claim that most of symbols on Figure 

5.24 equipped with walking sticks, represent some planets 

which can be found on Egyptian zodiacs. 

Figure 5.23: Painting of a dead person and a wooden sarcophagus. 

(Taken from [116], pp. 152 and 161) 

Let us discuss symbols on Figure 5.24. They show important 

features of Egyptian symbolism. For example, we can 

notice that the length of a step for female figures is much 

shorter than such length for male figures. Therefore, it is possible 

to easily distinguish on Egyptian zodiacs which figures


are male or female, even if the picture with a zodiac is unclear 

or damaged. Of course this distinction is very important 

for a correct decoding of an Egyptian zodiac. In the case we 

are dealing with such a female figure, it could only represent 

planets Venus or Moon, while the other planets are always 

represented by male figures. There are also some figures to 

which this rule can not be applied, because they are shown 

in a standing position in profile with only one leg visible. 

On Figure 5.24 there are four such symbols shown in the second 

row from the bottom. There is some resemblance between 

these figures and mummified bodies or bodies in Egyptian anthropomorphic 

sarcophagi (see Figure 5.23). They represent 

deads. 

5.4 Planetary Symbols of the Main 

Horoscope 

5.4.1 Planetary Walking Stick 

It was already noticed by the 19th century investigators that 

there is a rule allowing to recognize the most of the planetary 

symbols on the Egyptian zodiacs by a walking sticks held in 

their hands. Moreover, this planetary walking stick is not just 

a simple rod but it must be equipped with a handle on its 

top (see Figure 5.24). Most often such a handle has a hooked 

T-shape (see Figure 5.25) but it can also be bulb-shaped. 

Figure 5.25: Planetary walking stick hold by a sitting figure 

with falcon’s head. (Taken from [116], p. 177) 

N.A. Morozov in his investigation of the Egyptian zodiacs 

illustrated the planetary symbols on a picture which we 

reproduce on Figure 5.26. 

Figure 5.26: Typical planetary symbols on Egyptian zodiacs 

recognized by N.A. Morozov. (Taken from [4], Vol. 6, p. 956) 

Let us recall that a walking stick in medieval symbolism 

was used to indicate a traveler. Probably, for the same reason 

in the Egyptian astronomy a walking stick was chosen as 

an attribute of a planet. In the old times the planets were 

considered to be the traveling stars. Indeed, for an observer, 

who at that time had no telescope, the planets looked exactly 

as stars with the only noticeable difference that they were 

changing their positions with respect to the fixed stars. The 

real stars practically do not change their positions with respect 

to each other and the same configurations of stars were 

observed through many centuries. This spherical picture could 

be imagined as a sphere of fixed stars on which the planets 

move around the big circle, which is the ecliptic, following the 

same general direction. However the motion of some planets 

is not uniform and it is changing all the time. Sometimes they 

stop, move backward, turn back and move forward again in 

common for all planets direction (see Figure 5.27). 

In old chronicles planets were described as wandering 

stars 5 and today’s modern world planet originated from the 

Greek word planets, which means wanderer. We’ve already 

explained that in ancient astronomy the Sun and Moon were 

also considered as planets, because they are moving around 

the ecliptic in the same common planetary direction. In this 

book we will also refer to the Sun and Moon as planets. Of 

course, from the point of view of the modern astronomy it 

is not correct, but this convention is helpful to simplify the 

discussion of the old astronomical symbolism. As we already 

mentioned, the fact that a walking stick was used on the 

Egyptian zodiacs as a planetary attribute was well-known to 

researchers in the 19th century, and it was also used by N.A. 

Morozov, as well as by Egyptologists, to recognize planets 

on Egyptian zodiacs. For example, in the modern work by 

French Egyptologists S. Cauville 6 all the recognized by her 

planetary figures on the Round Denderah zodiac are equipped 

with walking sticks of exactly the same shape as on Figures 

5.25 and 5.26. 

5 See [25], p. 195. 

6 See [10].

5.4 Planetary Symbols of the Main Horoscope 89 

Figure 5.24: Collection of Egyptian “gods” and “goddesses” most of which are planetary symbols.


SUN 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 5.27: Sphere of fixed stars and the motion of the planets 

along the ecliptic. 

However, if we look at an Egyptian zodiac there may be 

more figures with the planetary walking sticks than required. 

With a naked eye one can only distinguish five planets without 

counting the Sun and Moon. They are: Saturn, Mars, 

Jupiter, Mercury and Venus. Notice that on the Long Denderah 

zodiac there are ten figures holding planetary walking 

sticks and on the Round Denderah zodiac there are nine such 

figures. Certainly, on the Egyptian zodiac some planets could 

be represented by several symbols with walking sticks arranged 

in a procession, but the number of such procession still 

could exceed required number five. The reasons for such large 

number of planetary symbols was already explained briefly in 

Chapter 4. In fact, there are usually additional partial horoscopes 

present in a zodiac, which could increase the number 

of planetary symbols. The previous researchers didn’t realize 

the existence of such partial horoscopes. Therefore, they 

were forced to explained the additional planetary symbols in a 

conjectural way. For example, N.A. Morozov postulated that 

some of these symbols represented comets — it is impossible 

to check this claim by any kind of calculations. Comets, 

which are visible from the Earth are not classified and astronomers 

may not be even aware about those comets that 

had appeared near the Earth in the distant past. Still, appearances 

of comets is relatively rare, thus there is a small 

probability that Morozov’s conjecture is true. In our work 

we do not need to make any unverifiable conjecture. We follow 

the principle that every figure with a walking stick or 

a procession of such figures symbolizes a planet, maybe in 

the main or partial horoscope. We will explain in subsequent 

sections how to distinguish between them. For example, if 

a figure holds just a simple stick, without the characteristic 

for a planetary stick handle at its top, it is definitely not a 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

planet of the main horoscope. However, as the symbolism of 

the partial horoscopes is much less formal, such figure could 

represent a planet belonging to a partial horoscope. 

There are also Egyptian zodiacs, on which planets are represented 

in a completely different way, not as travelers. For 

example, on the Athribis zodiacs, all the planets (except the 

Sun, Moon and Mercury) are shown as birds. On the Petosiris 

zodiacs, the planets are symbolized by busts without hands, 

and therefore, without planetary walking sticks as well. These 

zodiacs in some sense are exceptions. 

Let us emphasize that the identification of planets on an 

Egyptian zodiac is the crucial element of the astronomical 

dating. The obtained by astronomical calculations date would 

be wrong if the planetary identifications on the zodiac were 

incorrect. However, there may be more than one possible variant 

for identifications of some planets. The decision, which of 

these variants is the right one, can only be made after all 

the calculations are completed. Let us explain how it is done. 

Suppose that on a zodiac there are several possible identifications 

for some of the planets, and there is no reliable a 

priori indication which one of them is true. Can we, in such 

a situation, find a correct identification? It turns out that it 

is possible for most of the Egyptian zodiacs. Mainly because 

of abundance of the additional information provided by the 

partial horoscopes, which were discovered by us (see [114]). 

We proceed as follows: 

• At the first stage, we consider as equal all the possible 

identifications and obtained for them astronomical solutions 

for the main horoscope, which belong to the historical 

time-interval from 500 B.C. till nowadays. 

• Next, we compare these solutions with the additional information 

provided by the partial horoscopes. If there is 

any discrepancy we simply dismiss such a solution. It appears 

that in almost all the cases, there always remains 

the unique solution, even if there were dozens of solutions 

at the first stage. 

• Finally, we return to problem of identification. We consider 

the variant resulting in the final unique solution as 

the correct identification. It appears that the final identifications 

for all the Egyptian zodiacs contains no contradiction 

among the symbols and their meanings. Actually, 

the same symbolic rules can be applied to all Egyptian 


According to our procedure, we can classify all the planetary 

symbols into two categories: 

•• The symbols that can be reliably identified before carrying 

on the calculations. Most of such symbols were already 

analyzed and identified by our predecessors, including 

Egyptologists — H. Brugsch, F. Petrie , astronomers 

— Ch. Dupuis, P. Laplace, J. Fourier, A. Letronne, K. 

Helm, J. Biot, E.B. Knobel, M.A. Vil’ev. The summary of

their huge work was made by N.A. Morozov 7 , who made 

also some improvements and corrections. 

•• The symbols for which we do not have a definite rule at 

the first stage. Usually, there are not so many figures of 

this type, typically there are no more than one or two such 

symbols, but sometimes almost all figures fell into this 

category. We should keep in mind that for astronomical 

dating a change of even one planet can result in a drastic 

change of the date. Therefore, in the case there is any 

doubt, the identification should be based on analysis of 

all the possible variants. 

The whole procedure of identification of planets will be 

presented in Chapters 7 and 8. For each zodiac, we will discuss 

our calculations, the results and their compatibility with the 

additional data, and finally we will produce the final identification. 

In this section we present only the final identification 

of all the planets on the investigated zodiacs. We will display 

this identification in the sequence of seven tables, one for each 

planet (including the Sun and Moon) separately. These tables 

will allow a convenient comparison of the planetary symbols 

on the Egyptian zodiacs studied in this book. 

In order to distinguish a planetary symbol from the first 

(“recognizable”) category from a symbol belonging to the second 

(“calculated”) category, we use two different forms of the 

zodiac labels. We will use the labels with shaded background 

inside the circle to indicated the second category. 

5.4.2 Saturn in the Main Horoscope 

On Figure 5.28, we show the representation of Saturn on different 

Egyptian zodiacs, where the zodiacs (DR), (DL), (EB) 

and (BR), Saturn was recognized (before calculations), and 

on the others (with the shaded labels (EM), (AV), (AN) and 

(OU)) it was calculated. Saturn on the Petosiris zodiacs is 

not shown on Figure 5.28, because it isrepresented there in a 

different, non-typical for Egyptian zodiac form, and a comparison 

in this case would be unproductive. We will analyze 

Saturn on the Petosiris zodiacs separately. Concerning the 

Brugsch’s zodiac we should explain why there are three different 

representations of Saturn shown on Figure 5.28(BR). 

This is related to the fact that on this zodiac instead of one, 

there are three main horoscopes. The one of them, which was 

dated by N.A. Morozov, has Saturn indicated by a Demotic 

inscription. In the two other horoscopes, which were found by 

us, Saturn is shown in a symbolic way. These horoscopes were 

already discussed in section 3.4 (see Figure 2.15), where we 

also assigned to them the names Demotic Horoscope, Horoscope 

without Walking Sticks and Horoscope in Boats, which 

will be used throughout this book. 

The symbol of Saturn can be sometimes easily recognized 

by some of its characteristic features. The most distinctive 

feature is the presence of a crescent on the head of a male 

planetary figure. Another attribute of Saturn is the hieroglyph 

in a shape of a bull (see Figure 5.28 (DR) and (DL)). 

7 See [4], Vol. 6. 


Whenever these features are present, all the researchers agree 

that it is an representation of Saturn 8 . In other cases, we have 

to consider many possible variants in order to compute the 

right identification. Such cases on Figure 5.28 are marked with 

shaded labels. We will discuss them later in detail in Chapters 

7 and 8. In this section we will only analyze the cases 

when these characteristic features of Saturn are present, i.e. 

the “recognizable” cases (with un-shaded labels). 

We being with the “recognizable” representations of Saturn 

on the zodiacs from the Egyptian temples. There are exactly 

three such cases shown on Figure 5.28, namely DR, DL 

and EB. On all these zodiacs we see the same planetary symbol, 

which is a male figure with animal’s face, crescent on 

the head and standard planetary walking stick in his hand. 

Of course, the crescent shown on this figure’s head could be 

the bull’s horns (notice that the figure’s face resemble bull’s 

head), but still we will call it simply crescent. This terminology 

is completely unimportant for the astronomical dating, 

but we have our reasons for calling it crescent 9 . 

On the both Denderah zodiacs, the planetary male figure 

with crescent is accompanied by the same hieroglyphic 

inscription. The translation of this inscription, given in [10], 

reads: “Horus le Taureau” which means “Horus the Bull”. 

The exact translation of this inscription is not important for 

us, because we will not rely on it. The significant here is that 

the same inscription stands by the same planetary figure on 

the both Denderah zodiacs. This clearly indicates the same 

planet. What is that planet? The answer is provided in the 

previous works devoted to the Egyptian zodiacs. It is indeed 

Saturn 10 

Figure 5.29: Two figures of Saturn on the Round Denderah 

zodiac: one (marked in yellow) in the main horoscope, another 

(marked in blue) in the partial horoscope of the autumn 

equinox (surrounded by a blue contour) 

8 See for example [4], Vol. 6, [10] and [11] 

9 See [105]. 

10 See [4], Vol. 6, [1], [10] and [11].


Figure 5.28: Representations of Saturn in the main horoscope on different Egyptian zodiacs.

In order to explain this answer, let us point out that on the 

Round zodiac, just under this figure, there is another similar 

figure with a crescent on the head holding a scythe instead 

of a walking stick (see Figure 5.29). That figure is a part of 

the partial horoscope for the autumn equinox, so the planetary 

walking stick is not a requirement in this case. Except 

for the object held in their hands, these two figures are completely 

identical, so they definitely indicate the same planet. 

Just from this connection one can deduct that this planet 

is probably Saturn, because it moves so slowly that during 

the whole year its position usually stays inside the same zodiac 

constellation. Consequently, the positions of Saturn in 

the main and the partial horoscopes coincide. However, we 

can definitely recognize Saturn in this figure, because it is 

well-known that the scythe was an attribute of Saturn in old 

astronomy. For example, there are many pictures in medieval 

astronomy books showing Saturn with a scythe (see Figure 

5.30). 

Figure 5.30: Saturn shown with a scythe on an old drawing 

found in a medieval astronomical book. (Taken from [32].) 

Consequently, this male figure with a crescent on the head 

should be considered as Saturn, what is noting new, because 

this identification was used by all the previous investigators of 

the Egyptian zodiacs. But, based on our analysis and the fact 

that with this identification a complete solution is obtained, 

we can confirm its correctness. 

Notice that on the Athribis zodiacs Saturn is shown as a 

bird with a crescent on its head (see Figure 5.28 (AN) and 

(AB)), but coincidence is a result of our computations and 

not an a priori choice based on similarities. This identification 

appears to be the same as it was suggested by Flinders 

Petrie, but is different from the one chosen by N.A. Morozov 

11 . There is one more “recognizable” case of Saturn on 

Figure 5.28 (BR). Here Saturn can also be identified prior 

to the computations. As we’ve already mentioned, there are 

three main horoscopes on this zodiac: Demotic Horoscope, 

Horoscope without Walking Sticks and Horoscope in Boats. 

11 See [4], Vol. 6, pp. 731-738. 


All the three representations of Saturn are shown on Figure 

5.28 (BR). In the Demotic Horoscope, the name of Saturn 

is written together with the name of Jupiter in two lines located 

near Leo’s head. H. Brugsch translated this inscription 

as “Hor-pe-seta” and “Hor-pe-ka”, which means “Saturn” and 

“Jupiter”. As the name of Saturn is simply inscribed in this 

horoscope, there is no problem with its identification. 

Regarding the Horoscope in Boats, it is not difficultto 

recognize here Saturn, because it is represented exactly by 

the same symbol as on the Denderah zodiacs: a male figure 

with an animal/bull-like head and a crescent on the top of 

it holding a planetary walking stick in his hand (see Figure 

5.28 (BR)). The third horoscope on the Brugsch’s zodiac is 

the Horoscope without Walking Sticks (see Figure 2.15). On 

this horoscope the situation with Saturn is more complicated, 

therefore, on Figure 5.28 (BR) there is a question mark placed 

under the presumed figure of Saturn. As a matter of fact, it 

is unclear which of the four figures standing together in this 

horoscope symbolizes Saturn: the man, monkey, jackal or falcon 


Figure 5.31: Fragment of the Brugsch’s zodiac containing the 

Horoscope without Walking Sticks. 

The situation here is rather complicated. However, we are 

quite lucky here, because all the four figures are male and located 

together, which indicates that Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury 

and Mars are shown here together. As Venus is never symbolized 

by a male figure and the Sun and Moon usually on the 

Egyptian zodiacs are not shown as humans, the other three 

planets couldn’t be represented by these figures. So, from the 

point of view of the astronomical dating it is not so important 

to know exactly which one among these four figures is Saturn. 

Nevertheless, at the end of astronomical computations 

we were able to determine the correct order of these planes 

and obtained that the figure with jackal head is Saturn. We 

will discuss these computations and the results in Chapter 8. 

The fact that the Horoscope without Walking Sticks escaped 

the attention of the previous researchers wasn’t without 

a reason. The four symbols representing the “male” planets 

on this horoscope were very common in the Egyptian mum-


Figure 5.32: Four Canopic jars. (Taken from [116], p. 115) 

mification process. On Figure 5.32 we show the four so-called 

Canopic jars decorated with heads of a man, baboon, falcon 

and jackal. This type of jars were always found near the coffins 

inside the Egyptian graves 12 . 

Egyptologists explain the presence of Canopic jars as follows: 

Near the coffins in the graves there are always other containers 

to be found, mostly wooden boxes, in which four vessels 

were kept, . . . The Egyptians called them Canopic jars 

. . . They were used to hold the internal organs taken from the 

body and, because the body was incomplete without them, these 

were always placed together. . . . The precious internal organs 

were entrusted to divine protection, to the four sons of Horus, 

whose heads usually adorn the stoppers of the Canopic 

vessels. The human-headed Amset, . . . Hapi, with the head of 

a baboon, . . . Duamutef looks like a dog . . . and Qebehsenuf, 

with the head of a falcon, . . . ” 13 

It is not surprising that previous investigators of Brugsch’s 

zodiac, including H. Brugsch himself, associated these four 

figures with the mummification ritual only and did not realize 

that they could actually represent planetary symbols. 

There is no contradiction in the double role of these figures. 

In fact, some researchers claim that the souls of the pharaohs 

were believed to become stars after their deaths, which quite 

well agree with some old Byzantine chronicles, according to 

12 See for example [116], p.114, or [112], p. 143. 

13 See [112], p. 154. 

which, the names of the first kings of Assyria and Egypt were 

simply the names of planets 14 . We should also mention that 

modern Egyptologists, following the opinion of Parker and 

Neugebauer, are convinced that this ancient Egyptian believe 

is related not to the planets but to the stars of the Orion constellation 

15 . However, as we will show it in this book, this is a 

mistake resulting from the misunderstanding of the Egyptian 

symbol of the summer solstice, represented by a figure of a 

man with a raised hand (see Figures 4.4 and 4.5), as a symbol 

of the Orion constellation 16 . 

5.4.3 Seth, Anubis and Thoth as Egyptian 

Symbols of Saturn and Mercury 

The identification of Saturn with the jackal-headed figure 

turns out to correspond well with the ancient Egyptian 

mythology. It is accepted that the jackal-headed figure on 

ancient Egyptian drawings represents the god Anubis 17 (see 

Figure 5.33), which is, according to the Pyramid Texts, the 

main god of the dead 18 . On the other hand, Saturn was also 

considered to be a god of the dead 19 , what was also stressed 

on the medieval representations of Saturn by the presence of 

a scythe as its attribute (see for example Figure 5.30). Moreover, 

it is believed that Anubis was sometimes identified with 

the Greek god Hermes, who was the conductor of the dead 

to Hades. But Hermes was often identified with the Roman 

Mercury 20 . Therefore, Anubis on Egyptian zodiacs could symbolize 

Saturn as well as Mercury, and these two possibilities 

should always be considered. It follows from our calculations 

that indeed the jackal head on Egyptian zodiacs usually represents 

Saturn but sometimes it may also represent Mercury. 

For example, on the Big Esna zodiac, it is Mercury symbolized 

by a figure with a jackal head. It is possible that on the Color 

Thebes zodiac (OU), Mercury also has a jackal head, while 

Saturn has an ibis head. Since, in the astronomical solution 

obtained for this zodiac Saturn and Mercury were very close 

one to another, the other combination can not be dismissed 

(see Figure 5.28 (OU)). 

N.A. Morozov believed that Egyptian god Anubis was a 

symbol of Saturn 21 . 

It is clearly a situation where two possible meanings could 

be associated with the same jackal-headed figure, so Saturn 

and Mercury could be confused. There is some explanation for 

it. If we look at Figure 5.33, we notice that there is another 

god called Seth, with almost identical appearance as Anubis. 

Although the head of Seth is described by Egyptologists as 

an imaginary (composite) animal’s head, it is difficult not to 

see striking similarities to the head of Anubis. In our opinion 

these two figures have jackal heads. Seth is considered to be 

14 See [25], p. 195, [33], p. 40, [34], p. 8. 

15 [36], p. 96. 

16 See [35], Vol. 1, pp. 24-25. 

17 See [118], p. 19. 

18 See [26], p. 49. 

19 See [26], p. 488. 

20 See [26], pp. 50, 151. 

21 See [4], Vol. 6, pp. 653, 658, 678.

Figure 5.33: Egyptian “gods” — representations of planets on 

Egyptian zodiacs. (Taken from [9], p. 15) 

the god of destruction, or in other words, the embodiment of 

the necessary and creative element of violence and disorder 

within the ordered world. This description and the name Seth 

match well the character of Saturn. 

Therefore, jackal’s head had a dual meaning on Egyptian 

zodiacs. It could represent Saturn or Mercury. But, there 

is another symbol to which we can assign the same dual 

meaning. It is the head of ibis. The sacred ibis (Threskiornis 

aethiopica), of southern Arabia and Africa south of the 

Sahara, was a bird worshiped by ancient Egyptians. On Figure 

5.34 we show a photo of ibis. 

The ancient Egyptian god with head of ibis is called Thoth 

(see Figure 5.33 and 5.23). It is believed that the Greeks identified 

Thoth with their god Hermes: 

The Greeks had adopted the Egyptian god Thoth into their 

pantheon under the name of Hermes. According to Clemens 

Alexandrinus, Thoth wrote forty two books, . . . only very small 

parts of these works remain in the writings of Stobaeus and 

others of that time. These . . . have been claimed by some authorities 

as post-Christian, because of their similarity to the 

works of Neo-platonic writers. 22 

22 See [118], p. 67. 


Figure 5.34: A photo of ibis. 

Figure 5.35: Egyptian “gods” Anubis and Thoth. (Taken from 

[112], p. 137) 

As we’ve already explained, Hermes was identified by Romans 

with Mercury. We will see that on Egyptian zodiacs 

Thoth sometimes symbolized Saturn. For example, Saturn 

on the Small Esna zodiac is shown as a procession of three 

male figures, one of them with the ibis head (see Figure 5.28 

(EM)). As we already mentioned, probably Saturn has also 

the ibis head on the Color Thebes zodiac, but this figure also 

symbolize Mercury. Some researchers believe that Thoth and 

Seth were the names of the same ancient Egyptian “god” 23 

23 See [39] or [37], II, pp. 78-80.


This duality involving Saturn and Mercury certainly 

should sometimes cause confusion in old astronomical symbolism. 

It was already noticed by N.A. Morozov, who wrote: 

Egyptologists refer to Seth as the oldest son of Osiris — 

a murderer of his father. He is the King of Darkness. Astrologically 

. . . he is symbolized by Mercury, . . . who always hides 

behind the Sun to ambush his father Moon — Osiris, when he 

approaches the Sun . . . Later, when the evil connotations were 

transferred on Saturn, Seth became mixed up with Saturn.” 24 

5.4.4 Jupiter in the Main Horoscope 

On Figure 5.37, we show the representations of Jupiter in the 

main horoscope on different Egyptian zodiacs. We use the 

same convention as in the case of Saturn, namely, we mark 

with shaded labels those zodiacs where it was not possible 

to identify the symbol of Jupiter during the first stage (prior 

to calculations) and the identification was obtained only after 

the calculations. For the same reason as for Saturn, on Figure 

5.37 the symbols representing Jupiter on the Petosiris zodiacs, 

as they are of different type, are not included. We will discuss 

them later in this chapter. 

Let us remind that there are three main horoscopes on 

Brugsch’s zodiac, so there are also three representations of 

Jupiter indicated for the zodiac (BR) of Figure 5.37. 

First, let us discuss the representation of Jupiter on the 

Denderah zodiacs. Above the figure of Jupiter, on the both 

zodiacs, there is exactly the same hieroglyphic inscription (see 

Figure 5.37 (DR) and (DL). These hieroglyphs include a bird 

and horns. Henry Brugsch, based on this inscription, which 

reads Hor-apis-seta, identified this figure as Jupiter 25 . N.A. 

Morozov had no objection to this identification 26 

In the works written by contemporary Egyptologists we 

can also see the same identification of Jupiter on the Denderah 

zodiacs 27 . That means that all the researchers accepted on the 

Denderah zodiacs the figures indicated by Brugsch as Jupiter. 

We also accept Brugsch’s choice as a symbol of Jupiter. Let 

us add that modern Egyptologist S. Cauville translates the 

hieroglyphic inscription above Jupiter’s head differently. In 

fact she suggested two variants: “Horus qui eclaire le pays” 

(in French) or “Horus qui devile le mystere” (in French), what 

simply means “Horus who enlightens the country” and “Horus 

who reveals the mystery”, but still she confirmed these 

symbols as Jupiter. This identification of Jupiter was finally 

confirmed by the results of our computations, which led to 

the complete and unique solutions for all the studied zodiacs. 

We’ve already explained in the previous section that on 

Brugsch’s zodiac the name of Jupiter in the Demotic Horoscope 

was inscribed together with the name of Saturn near 

24 See [4], Vol. 6, p.787. 

25 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 652. 

26 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 652. 

27 See [10], p. 31. 

Leo’s head. This Demotic inscription was translated by H. 

Brugsch and we trust his accuracy. Brugsch was a prominent 

expert in the Demotic writing and an author of the wellknown 

Demotic grammar 28 . We should add, that by following 

Brugsch’s translation we have arrived to a meaningful 

solution, which is well consistent with the solutions of the 

two other horoscopes on this zodiac. Based on our computations 

we can reconfirm the correctness of Brugsch’s identification, 

otherwise it would be highly improbable that faulty 

data could result in coinciding solutions. 

In the Horoscope without Walking Sticks, Jupiter is shown 

in a group of four “male” planets placed together (see Figure 

5.31) and our computations indicated that it has to be 

the figure with baboon’s head (see Figure 5.37 (BR)). In the 

Horoscope in Boats, Jupiter can be recognized by elimination 

process (see Chapter 8 for more details). 

Figure 5.36: The fragment of the Big Esna zodiac showing the 

Jupiter procession broken by the spring equinox sign. 

On the Athribis zodiacs, Jupiter is represented by a bird 

with snake-like tail and head. This detail can be clearly distinguished 

on the Lower Athribis zodiac (see Figure 5.36 (AN)), 

but on the Upper Athribis zodiac it is damaged (see Figures 

3.13 and 5.37 (AN) and (AB)). This identification of Jupiter 

on the Athribis zodiacs agrees with Flinders Petrie’s explanation 

that snaky birds must symbolize Jupiter. According to 

the ancient mythology, Jupiter was throwing, from the heaven 

at the Earth, the lightnings that were shaped like snakes. We 

didn’t use the Flinders Petrie idea, however, we obtained the 

same identification as a result of our computations. 

We would like to point out that on Figure 5.37 (EB) the 

symbol of the spring equinox, which is placed right in the 

middle of the Jupiter procession, is shown in a smaller size. 

By doing so we wanted to emphasize only the symbols directly 

related to Jupiter. The original (undistorted) look of 

this fragment of the Big Esna zodiac is shown on Figure 5.36. 

5.4.5 Mars in the Main Horoscope 

On Figure 5.38, we show the representations of Mars in the 

main horoscope on different Egyptian zodiacs. Again we use 

the same convention — we mark with shaded labels the zodiacs, 

for which it was not possible to identify the symbol 

28 See [118], p. 47.


Figure 5.37: Representations of Jupiter in the main horoscope on different Egyptian zodiacs


Figure 5.38: Representations of Mars in the main horoscope on different Egyptian zodiacs

of Mars during the first stage, and the identification was obtained 

only after the computations were completed. On Figure 

5.38 we skipped the symbols representing Mars on the 

Petosiris zodiacs. They are of different type and we will discuss 

them later in this chapter. 

For Brugsch’s zodiac, there are three representations of 

Mars shown of Figure 5.38 (BR). In the Demotic Horoscope, 

Mars is indicated by an inscription, which was translated by 

H. Brugsch as “Hor-Teser”, which according to him means 

Mars 29 . 

Figure 5.39: The fragment of the Round Denderah zodiac 

showing the symbol of Mars (a falcon-headed figure) with a 

hieroglyphic inscription above its head. 

On the majority of the other horoscopes, except the Big 

Esna and the Athribis zodiacs, Mars is shown as a male figure 

with a falcon head. On the Big Esna zodiac, there is no figure 

with a falcon head present at all. The identification of Mars 

with a falcon-headed male figure was first suggested by Henry 

Brugsch in the case of the Denderah zodiacs. H. Brugsch 

translated a hieroglyphic inscription placed near the head of 

this figure (see Figure 5.38 (DL)) as “Hor-Tos”, which means 

“Red Planet” 30 . Let us point out that only Mars is called the 

Red Planet because of its reddish appearance. This identi- 

29 See [4], Vol. 6, p.697. 

30 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 652. 


fication of Mars on the Long Denderah zodiac was adopted 

by Morozov and all other investigators of the Denderah zodiacs. 

On the Round Denderah zodiac, there is also the same 

figure of Mars (see Figures 5.38 (DR) and 5.39) placed over 

Capricorn with a hieroglyphic inscription near its head. This 

inscription, according to the translation of modern Egyptologist 

S. Cauville, means “Red Planet”, i.e. Mars 31 . 

We also used the same identifications of Mars on the Denderah 

zodiacs, as well as on the Color Thebes (OU) and 

Brugsch’s zodiacs (BR), where there was only one planet with 

such an appearance. However, on the Big Esna zodiac, there is 

no falcon-headed figure and on the Small Esna zodiacs there 

are many such figures present. We used our calculations to 

determine the exact location of Mars on each of two Esna 

zodiacs (see Chapter 7 for details). It is remarkable that on 

the Small Esna zodiac the falcon-headed figures appear in 

few planetary procession, but there is only one procession 

composed entirely of falcon-headed figures, and exactly this 

procession turned out to symbolize Mars. 

5.4.6 Venus in the Main Horoscope 

On Figure 5.41, we show the representation of Venus on the 

Egyptian zodiacs. As before, Venus on the Petosiris zodiacs 

is not shown on Figure 5.41, and this case will be discussed 

later. 

Figure 5.40: The fragment of the Big Esna zodiac showing 

figures of Venus and Mars. 

Concerning Brugsch’s zodiac, there are three different representations 

of Venus shown on Figure 5.41 (BR). An inscription 

in the Demotic Horoscope, which was translated by H. 

Brugsch, clearly identifies Venus. N.A. Morozov, who adopted 

Brugsch’s identification of all planets in this horoscope, writes 

the following: “In between Scorpio and Sagittarius, there is a 

Demotic inscription bending towards Sagittarius’ head, which 

reads “Pe-Neter-Tau” (i.e. Morning Planet) — Venus.” 32 On 

the other horoscopes in the Brugsch’s zodiac, Venus is shown 

by figures. In the case of the Horoscope in Boats, Venus is 

easy to recognize as the only female figure on a boat. But, 

in the Horoscope without Walking Sticks, the representation 

31 See [10], p. 30. 

32 See [4], V. 6, p.697.


Figure 5.41: Representations of Venus in the main horoscope on different Egyptian zodiacs.

of Venus, as a lioness, is more complicated, but still agrees 

with the convention used in the Egyptian symbolism. We will 

discuss this symbol in more details later in this section. 

On Figure 5.40, we show a fragment of the Big Esna zodiac 

with Venus represented by two figures with walking sticks — a 

female accompanied by a lion-headed male. On the right side 

of the same picture, we can also see Mars holding a walking 

stick and a whip. 

Venus, as the only “female planet” (except Moon), which 

is practically always represented by a human female figure, 

and therefore, it is the simplest planet to identify on the Egyptian 

zodiacs. Notice that Moon, which was also considered by 

the old astronomy to be a female 33 , is always represented (or 

at least accompanied) by a symbol of a crescent or a disc, so 

it is impossible to confuse these two planets. Consequently, 

in order to identify Venus, it is sufficient to find on a zodiac 

a female planetary figure. Let us point out that on the 

all known to us Egyptian zodiacs, except the Athribis zodiacs, 

Venus can be immediately recognized as the only female 

planet. Our calculations confirmed the correctness of this approach 

— for all the considered zodiacs we obtained complete 

and unique meaningful solutions. 

Nevertheless, the famous Egyptologist Henry Brugsch 

made a mistake in identifying Venus on the Denderah zodiacs. 

Surprisingly, this mistake is persistently reproduced by 

other Egyptologists and dragged from one book to another 34 , 

and all these in spite the fact that N.A. Morozov, already in 

the first half of the 20th century, found this error, corrected 

it, and even explain the reasons why Brugsch made it. Let us 

present this matter in detail. 

Figure 5.42: The fragment of the Round Denderah zodiac 

showing figures of Venus and Mercury 

When in the 19th century Henry Brugsch was decoding 

the astronomical content of the Round Denderah zodiac and 

tried to find Venus on it, for some reason, he disregarded 

33 See [26], p. 121. 

34 See for example [10], p. 30. 


two female figures with planetary walking sticks (see Figures 

5.41 (DR) or 5.42). Possibly, the reason for it was the absence 

of an inscription near the heads of these two figures. H. 

Brugsch, in his attempt of decoding of the planetary symbols, 

was guided by the meaning of hieroglyphic inscriptions without 

putting too much attention to the analysis of the Egyptian 

symbols. Indeed, near the two female planetary symbols there 

are no hieroglyphs, contrary to the other planetary symbols. 

But anyway, this is the only one occurrence of female planetary 

symbols on the whole Round zodiac. Instead, Brugsch 

suggested that Venus is represented by a male(?) planetary 

figure with a double face. On the Round zodiac this figure is 

located between Pisces and Aquarius, and on the Long zodiac 

between Aries and Taurus (see Figures 5.42 and 5.43). 

Figure 5.43: The fragment of the Long Denderah zodiac showing 

figures of Venus and Mercury. 

Henry Brugsch, in his investigation, found on the Long 

zodiac near the double-faced figure a hieroglyphic inscription, 

which he read as “Pnouter-Ti” and translated as 

“God/Goddess of the Morning” 35 . He interpreted this inscription 

as the name of Venus but he didn’t realize that from the 

astronomical point of view it could also be Mercury. N.A. Morozov, 

while checking the Brugsch’s identification found this 

mistake. Let us explain why the inscription “God/Goddess 

of the Morning” could also refer to Mercury as well as to 

Venus. It is known that in ancient Egypt Mercury and Venus 

were both called “morning star” 36 . They are inferior planets – 

those with orbits smaller than the Earth orbit and that is why 

for an observer on the Earth they can only be visible in the 

evenings or mornings, when the Sun is not too deep under the 

horizon. But Mercury is even closer to the Sun than Venus, 

in fact it is never more than 27 o 45 ′ of angle away from the 

Sun and thus it is seen only as a “morning” star just before 

sunrise or an “evening” star just after sunset. The angular 

35 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 653. 

36 See [120], page 117.


distance of Venus from the Sun is less or equal to 48 o , so it 

can be seen also in the beginning and the end of a night. In 

fact, the name “God of the Morning” fits better Mercury than 

Venus. Moreover, there are other more appropriate planetary 

symbols for Venus on the both Denderah zodiacs. Namely, 

as we’ve already explained, on the Round zodiac there is a 

pair of two females with walking sticks (one of them with a 

lion head) and on the Long zodiac there is a female with a 

walking stick escorted by a lion-headed male figure also with 

a walking stick. 

Let us notice that on an Egyptian zodiac Venus is usually 

is represented by a couple of planetary figures, one of which 

is a female and another either a female or a male. On the 

other hand, all the “male planets” on the Egyptian zodiacs, 

i.e. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury and sometimes the Sun 

(when it is shown by a human figure), are always males. 

This double appearance of the inferior planets on the 

Egyptian horoscopes, i.e. a two-faced Mercury and a twofigure 

Venus, can be explained from the astronomical point 

of view. The appearances of each of these two inferior planets 

alternate among mornings and evenings only. These morning 

and evening appearances are separated by periods of invisibility, 

which in the beginning of the ancient astronomy was 

considered as a physical disappearance of the planet. The 

reappearance of the planet was seen as the birth of a new 

— morning or evening planet. After some time it was realized 

that the same planet was observed in the mornings and 

the evenings, which was simply invisible in between. For example, 

in ancient Greece Mercury was called Apollo when it 

appeared as a morning star and Hermes, when it appeared as 

an evening star. This old belief left its traces in the ancient 

Egyptian astronomical symbolism in a form of the double representation 

of these planets. However, N.A. Morozov pointed 

out that the creators of the Egyptian zodiacs had already a 

clear understanding of the true nature of the morning/evening 

planets, which means that these zodiacs could not belong to 

the epoch of the early astronomy. 

A question arises: after identifying Venus with the figure 

of Mercury, how Egyptologists explain the presence of the female 

planetary symbol in a different part of the zodiac? Simply, 

they have no other option left, and this definitely creates 

a big problem for them. They have no idea what to do with 

these female planetary symbol. For example, French Egyptologist 

S. Cauville, in her detailed study of the astronomical 

symbolism of the Round Denderah zodiac completely ignores 

this female pair (see Figure 5.42) representing Venus 37 . Nevertheless, 

she provides some explanation for the all other figures 

in the proximity of the zodiacal belt on the Round zodiac 

and conveniently overlooks the correct Venus representation! 

This refusal to acknowledge the presence of the correct Venus 

symbol on the Round Denderah zodiac suggests that Egyptologists 

realize some flaws in Brugsch’s identification of Venus 

with the male two-faced figure. However, what is troubling 

them to correct the Brugsch’s mistake? Maybe, correcting 

37 See [10]. 

mistakes made by prominent and famous classical scholars is 

simply considered in Egyptology as a blasphemy? 

Let us mention that Sylvie Cauville, when discussing in 

[10] the figure of Mercury on the Round zodiac, which she 

calls Venus, translates the hieroglyphic inscription above the 

Mercury’s head as “le dieu du matin”, which in French means 

“the god of the morning. Let us point out that the noun “le 

dieu - the god” is of masculine gender, so again it confirms 

the male nature of this figure, which is of course clear from 

its appearance. We would like to point out that the Egyptian 

hieroglyphs indicate clearly the gender 38 , and Cauville’s 

translations demonstrate that this inscription is related to a 

male figure. 

We should admit that in some cases Egyptologists correctly 

identify Venus and Mercury on the Egyptian zodiacs, 

i.e. by choosing the female planetary figure as Venus and the 

two-faced male figure as Mercury. However, this routine is applied 

only to the zodiacs that were not previously analyzed 

by such great authorities in Egyptology as for example the 

renowned H. Brugsch, and consequently there is no danger 

of creating contradictions with those opinions. For example, 

the contemporary specialists in the old Egyptian astronomical 

texts, the well-known Egyptologists O. Neugebauer, R.A. 

Parker and D. Pingree suggest in [5] such a decoding of the 

Petosiris zodiacs, where Venus is represented by a female bust 

and Mercury by a two-faced male bust, and this is a correct 

identification. We should say that on the Petosiris zodiacs all 

the planets, except the Sun, are shown in a form of busts 

(see Figure 5.44). For example on the Inner Petosiris zodiac 

there are two female busts, but one of them sits on a crescent 

indicating Moon, and the second one, by exclusion must 

represent Venus. On the same zodiac, Mercury is shown by 

its standard representation — two-faced male figure (see Figure 

5.44). By making this identification the authors of [5], 

practically make correction of Brugsch’s mistake. If they were 

following Brugsch’s idea, they should recognize the two-faced 

male figure as Venus and, in the same time, identify a male 

planet with one of the female figures. On this zodiac the number 

of busts is equal to the number of planets, so each bust 

has to represent a planet. As there is no partial horoscope 

here. Since there is no room for any manipulation with the 

planetary figures, Brugsch’s mistake becomes obvious. 

On the Color Thebes zodiac (OU) there is only one variant 

possible for Venus. Venus is represented by the only female 

figure located in the horoscope area on this zodiac (see Figures 

5.42 (OU) and 2.3). Let us notice that on this zodiac there 

are no figures with walking sticks present and the planets are 

indicated by figures accompanied by inscriptions. On Figure 

5.42 (OU), we show the magnified inscription corresponding 

to Venus. 

We’ve already discussed the inscription indicating Venus 

in the Demotic Horoscope on the Brugsch’s zodiac. Since on 

this horoscope all the planets are marked by Demotic inscrip- 

38 See [9], p. 119.

Figure 5.44: Planets on the Inner Petosiris zodiac. 

5.4 Planetary Symbols of the Main Horoscope 103


Figure 5.45: Photographs of two stone statues representing the 

“goddess” Sekhmet. (The photo the left was taken from [119], 

p. 36, and the photo on the right was taken by the authors in 

the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia) 

tions, we relay on Brugsch’s translation. In the Horoscope in 

Boats, Venus is easily recognized as the only one female figure 

among all the other figures with walking sticks standing 

in boats (see Figure 2.15). Notice that this figure has a long 

dress and its step-size is noticeably smaller than the stepsize 

of the other figures. On the Horoscope without Walking 

Sticks, the representation of Venus is unusual. It was first determined 

by identifying all the other planets, so there was 

only one symbol left for Venus. This symbol appears to be 

the lioness and the crocodile under it (See 5.42 (BR)). It is 

interesting to compare it with the Venus representation on 

the Color Thebes zodiac (OU). On the both zodiacs Venus is 

shown in Leo. Notice that on the Color Thebes zodiac besides 

of the female figure symbolizing Venus, there is exactly the 

same combination, as on Brugsch’s zodiac, of a lion and a 

crocodile under it. Consequently, there is a strong indication 

that such a combination of symbols should be associated with 

Venus in Leo. 

Let us emphasize that a representation of Venus on the 

Egyptian zodiacs is very often endowed with lioness attributes. 

This appearance is common in the main horoscopes, 

but it is even more common in the symbolism of the partial 

horoscopes, what will be discussed later. For example, on 

the both Denderah zodiacs and the both Esna zodiacs one of 

the two figures representing Venus has a lioness’ head, which 

can be seen more clearly on Figure 5.28, where the “goddess” 

Sekhmet has exactly the same appearance. The fact 

that Sekhmet or Sekhet is represented with a lioness’ head is 

well known to Egyptologists 39 . On Figure 5.45 we show two 

Egyptian stone statues of Sekhmet, where it is easy to see 

that it indeed has a lioness’ head. 

39 See [118], p. 156. 

5.4.7 Mercury in the Main Horoscope 

On Figure 5.46, we show the representations of Mercury in the 

main horoscope on different Egyptian zodiacs. The representation 

of Mercury on the Inner Petosiris zodiac (P2) is given 

on Figure 5.47. Unfortunately, Mercury on the Outer Petosiris 

zodiac was badly damaged (see Chapter 8). As before, there 

are three different representations of Mercury shown on Figure 

5.46 (BR), which correspond to three main horoscopes on 

Brugsch’s zodiac. In the Demotic Horoscope on this zodiac, 

Mercury’s name was inscribed in demotic between Scorpio 

and Libra (see Figure 5.46 (BR)). Henry Brugsch deciphered 

it as “Sebek” and translated it as Mercury. 

Figure 5.47: Representation of Mercury on the Inner Petosiris 

zodiac. 

As we already explained it earlier, Mercury was often represented 

in a form of a male figure with a double face. This is 

the case of the Denderah, Athribis and Petosiris zodiacs (see 

Figures 5.46 and 5.47). However, on some Egyptian zodiacs 

there is no two-faced planetary symbol at all, and Mercury in 

such cases is represented by a male figure with one face. Usually 

it is a human face, but sometimes it could be a face of a 

animal, for example a jackal face. We already mentioned that 

some planetary figures with jackal’s or ibis’ head can symbolize 

Saturn as well as Mercury, so these two possibilities should 

always be considered. On the Color Thebes zodiac (OU), Mercury 

and Saturn are shown by two figures standing together, 

one with jackal’s and another one with ibis’ heads. In this 

situation we are not able to definitely determine which one 

of these figures represents Mercury, so on Figure 5.46 (OU) 

we marked with a solid arrow the most probable variant for 

Mercury (a figure with a jackal head) and also another variant 

with a dashed arrow annotated with a question mark. 

In our investigation we have adopted a principle that if on 

a zodiac there is a double-faced male planetary figure, 

it is Mercury (see the discussion in subsection 5.4.6).


Figure 5.46: Representations of Mercury in the main horoscope on different Egyptian zodiacs (some symbols not related to 

Mercury were intentionally shrank).


5.4.8 Additional Symbols associated with 

Mercury on Egyptian Zodiacs 

During the process of our research, it became clear that Mercury 

on various Egyptian zodiacs was often accompanied by 

additional symbols. In this subsection we will classify briefly 

these symbols, which turned out to be very useful in certain 

difficult situations to locate Mercury on a zodiac. These symbols 

are: 

• Creatures with double faces or with two heads. A pair of 

two identical animals looking in opposite directions or a 

figure pointing opposite directions with spread hands. (See 

for example Figure 5.46 (EB)) Notice that on the Color 

Thebes zodiac (OU) among the hieroglyphs standing near 

the head of one of the figures, which is most probably representing 

Mercury, there is a small symbol of a person in 

a sitting position with arms spread in different directions 

(see Figure 5.46 (OU)). There is some resemblance between 

this figure and one of the sitting figures on the Big 

Esna zodiac (see Figure 5.46 (EB)). 

• A snake in a vertical position, sometimes held in a hand 

like a walking stick. This symbol can also be sometimes 

associated with Venus. It is quite common in the partial 

horoscopes but can also appear in the main horoscopes. 

For example, notice two vertically placed snakes on the 

Big Esna zodiac in the Mercury procession (see Figure 

5.46 (EB)). In certain cases, like in the partial horoscope 

of the summer solstice on the Big Esna zodiac, the snake 

can be two-headed (we will discuss this example in the 

subsection devoted to partial horoscopes). We would like 

to point out that snakes placed horizontally, even with two 

heads, can be found in many places on the Egyptian zodiacs 

and they are not connected to Mercury. Some types 

of such snakes denote the equinox points. Similarly, there 

is also a special type of a snake in a vertical position, “sitting” 

on its tail, which is neither related to Mercury, but 

denotes the solstice points. We will discuss these symbols 

later with more details. 

• A feather on the head of figure or replacing the head. This 

symbol very often denotes Mercury, but there are also 

some exceptions. It is a common symbol for Mercury in 

the partial horoscopes, in particular for the summer solstice 

horoscopes. Notice that the figure with spread hands 

sitting in the Mercury procession on the Big Esna zodiac 

(see Figure 5.46 (EB)) has a feather instead of its head. 

5.4.9 Representation of Mercury in two locations 

on one Horoscope 

Mercury is moving on the sky much faster than all the other 

planets (except the Sun and Moon). In one or two days it can 

noticeably change its position on the ecliptic. We should mention 

that a typical horoscope shows a date with an accuracy 

from one to several days and sometimes even more than one 

week. We are not sure about the intentional accuracy of the 

dates encoded in the Egyptian zodiacs, but it is likely that 

it was up to several days. As in the old epochs the time was 

sometimes measured in weeks not in days, it is probable that 

the Egyptian zodiacs were intended to show the astronomical 

picture for the whole week when some important events 

related to this zodiac took place. If it was indeed the truth, 

then a horoscope was a perfectly sufficient tool to commemorate 

an important date with such accuracy. However, in order 

to keep up with the fast changing position of Mercury, which 

within one week could move from a visible to invisible position 

(or vice versa), sometimes it was necessary to record its 

multiple positions. This would explain the fact that on some 

Egyptian zodiacs Mercury appears in two positions simultaneously. 

For example on the Long Denderah zodiac, Mercury 

is shown in two close to each other positions, in one of which 

it was visible but in another it wasn’t. 

The fact that Mercury is shown on the Long Denderah 

zodiac two times, was already noticed by N.A. Morozov 40 . On 

Figure 5.46 (DL) we show a fragment of the Long Denderah 

zodiac with two symbols representing Mercury. On the left 

from Taurus, Mercury is shown in visible position represented 

by a couple of males — one of them with a walking stick and 

another one, with two feathers on its head (which are features 

of Mercury), is holding vertically a snake. The visibility of 

Mercury is indicated here by a star symbol over the head of 

the figure with a walking stick. On the right side from Taurus, 

Mercury is shown as a two-faced male with a walking stick. 

As there is no star over its head, it wasn’t visible at that 

time. The symbols of visibility are not the same of different 

Egyptian zodiacs and we will discuss them in more detailed 

way later in this chapter. On the both Denderah zodiacs the 

visibility symbol, which was discovered by Morozov, is a star 

over the head. 

Mercury has also two representations in the Horoscope in 

Boats on Brugsch’s zodiac (see Figure 5.46 (BR)). 

5.4.10 Relation between Mercury and the 

Roman god Janus 

Let us make few remarks concerning the idea expressed by 

N.A. Morozov that Mercury corresponds to the two-faced Roman 

god Janus. This idea is supported by some facts from 

mythology. The Greek name of Mercury was Hermes 41 and 

this name is believed to be derived from herma — the Greek 

word for a heap of stones, which was used in the country to 

indicate boundaries or as a landmark. 

Hermes was the swift messenger of the gods, and the name 

of this planet refers to its rapid motions relative to the other 

objects in the sky. Hermes was also the god of roads and 

doorways, and he was the protector of travelers. He was also 

called Hermes Propylaeum, what means Hermes the Gatekeeper. 

On the other hand, in the Roman mythology, the gate god 

is Janus and his name was derived from jani (i.e., ceremonial 

40 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 654. 

41 See [26], p. 151.

Figure 5.48: The god Janus on a Roman coin. (Taken from 

Encyclopedia Britannica) 

gateways in Rome). Janus is the god of all the doorways and 

was represented by a double-faced head, with or without a 

beard (see Figure 5.48). Occasionally he was depicted as fourfaced. 

Such four-faced symbols can also be found on Egyptian 

zodiacs in the partial horoscopes. 

Figure 5.49: Four-headed figures on Egyptian zodiacs. 

5.4.11 The Sun in the Main Horoscope 

On Figure 5.51, we show the representations of the Sun in 

the main horoscope on different Egyptian zodiacs. It is not 

difficult to notice that the Sun in the most cases was shown as 

a circle. Sometimes, there was a narrow crescent marked on 

the circle near the edge, maybe in order to indicate that the 

crescent of new Moon always appears near the Sun. Indeed, 

usually we can only observe a part of the illuminated Moon’s 

hemisphere. The whole hemisphere, i.e. the full moon, can 

only be seen when the Sun and Moon are positioned on the 

opposite sides of the Earth. On the other hand, if the Sun and 

Moon are positioned on the same side of the Earth and are 

close one to another, we can only see a small part (or even 

nothing) of the illuminated hemisphere of Moon. This is why 

Moon “dies” or is “reborn always ”near the Sun, where it 


appears as a narrow crescent. This particular representation 

of the Sun can be seen on the zodiacs (DL), (EM) and (P2) 


Star appears on 

the horizon 

 

Earth 

meridian 

To the Star 

 

 

To the Star 

To the Star 

Star appears on 

the horizon 

CULMINATION: 

While crossing the local meridian 

the star reaches it’s highest 

location over the horizon 

Figure 5.50: Graph showing a star at the culmination point. 

On some Egyptian zodiacs, there is no special figure to 

denote the Sun, but still its location is specified in an indirect 

way. For example, in the Demotic Horoscope on the Brugsch’s 

zodiac, there is no inscription neither a symbol to indicate the 

Sun. However, its position is clearly demonstrated by a color 

filling of the Scorpio’s figure. This observation was already 

made by N.A. Morozov, who profoundly investigated the Demotic 

Horoscope. He wrote: 

“Among the twelve zodiac constellations, only the Scorpio’s 

figure is colored to indicate that it disappeared in the 

sunlight that occurs in November, and the opposite to Scorpio 

figure of Taurus is filled with black color to suggest that it 

“rules” through the whole night, or in other words, it culminates 

at the midnight.” 42 (See Figure 5.51 (BR)) 

Any star or planet located on the meridian is said to be 

at meridian transit or culmination. At the culmination point 

a star appears at the highest location over the horizon (see 

Figure 5.50). In a similar way we can consider the culmination 

of a whole constellation. The sun and a zodiac constellation 

that culminates at the midnight are located on the ecliptic on 

the opposite sides (see Figure 5.52). 

On a particular date, a zodiac constellation that culminates 

at midnight is the only one that can be observed 

through the whole night and therefore, it could be considered 

to be the “main” constellation of that night. According to 

Morozov’s idea, the culminating at midnight constellation of 

Taurus, which is marked in black on the Demotic Horoscope, 

indicates that the Sun was located in the colored constella- 

42 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 696.


Figure 5.51: Representations of the Sun in the main horoscope on different Egyptian zodiacs.

Midnight Culminating 

Constellation 

⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ 

⋆ ⋆ ⋆⋆ 

⋆ ⋆ ⋆ 

Midnight 

Earth 

Equator 

Ecliptic 

Noon 

Sun 

Figure 5.52: Zodiac constellation, which culminates at midnight 

is opposite to the Sun on the ecliptic 

tion of Scorpio, which is situated on the opposite side of the 

ecliptic. 

On the two other main horoscopes on the Brugsch’s zodiac, 

the Sun is shown as a bird (see Figure 5.51 (BR)). Later, 

when we will discuss features of the partial horoscopes, we will 

present many examples of birds symbolizing the Sun. We will 

find out that all these birds look alike. One of such examples 

was already discussed, when we spoke about the partial 

horoscopes of the summer solstice, where the Sun is often 

represented as a bird sitting on a pole (see Figures 4.1 and 

4.2). On the Long Denderah zodiac there are several symbols 

of birds, which belong to the partial horoscopes, indicating 

the movement of the Sun along the ecliptic. We will return to 

this discussion later in section 5.8, in which we will deal with 

partial horoscopes. Right now we would like to point out that 

this specific form of birds (see Figure 5.50 (BR)) was commonly 

used on the Egyptian zodiacs, mainly in partial but 

also sometimes in main horoscopes, to represent the Sun. 

Figure 5.53: A hieroglyphic inscription near the Virgo’s head 

on the Color Thebes zodiac (OU). 


We have another example of a disguised representation of 

the Sun on the Color Thebes zodiac (OU), where there is no 

special symbol for the Sun. In order to find the Sun we have 

to look for indirect indications of its location. This is not a 

complicated task. Notice that on this zodiac, the constellation 

of Taurus is shown in the way clearly suggesting that it was 

culminating (see Figure 5.51 (OU)). More precisely, the symbol 

of Taurus is held up in a hand of a man. Consequently, 

the Sun at that time should be on the opposite side of the 

ecliptic, in the proximity of Scorpio or Libra. Our computations 

proved that at that date the Sun was located in Virgo 

near its border with Libra (see Chapter 8 for the details). We 

would like to mention that on the Color Thebes zodiac, there 

is a hieroglyphic inscription above the head of Virgo with two 

symbols of birds (see Figure 5.53). It is quite possible that it 

denotes the Sun in Virgo. 

In general, finding the Sun and Moon on the Egyptian zodiacs 

is not very complicated procedure. However, since the 

Sun and Moon could be represented by similar or even identical 

symbols, it is sometimes necessary to consider several 

possible variants for their identifications in the main horoscope. 

There is also a possibility that the Sun in the partial 

horoscope of the spring equinox can be represented by a similar 

symbol as in the main horoscope. Therefore, in such situations 

additional variants should be considered. This is exactly 

the case of the two Denderah zodiacs. 

5.4.12 The Astronomical Meaning of the 

Egyptian Eye Symbol 

On the Round Denderah zodiac, in the circle that represents 

the Sun, there is a symbol of an eye (see Figure 5.54). Let 

us point out that the identification of this circle with the 

Sun in the main horoscope was obtained as a result of our 

computations. In particular, we also considered the possibility 

that it could represent Moon, but such a variant was rejected 

because it didn’t produce a complete solution. 

Figure 5.54: Two representations of the Sun on the Round 

Denderah zodiac: the circle with an eye (in the main horoscope) 

and the circle with a female-Venus inside (in the partial 

horoscope)


We should explain that in the previous investigations the 

circle with an eye on the Round zodiac was interpreted in 

several different ways. For instance, N.A. Morozov identified 

it with the Sun 43 while T.N. Fomenko with Moon 44 . Let us 

notice that Egyptologists connect this symbol of an eye 

with the Sun as well as with Moon: “The sacred eye, or the 

eye of Ra, or heaven, is the Sun ... But there are two eyes 

represented, and ... the right the Sun and, the left the moon. 45 

However, we would like to suggest another explanation of the 

symbol of an eye on the Egyptian zodiacs, at least in the cases 

when it is an attribute of a planet. 

Among all the Egyptian zodiacs that we investigated, this 

eye appeared (in association with a planetary symbol) only 

twice, and in the both cases near Aries. On the Round zodiac 

it is placed between Aries and Pisces, and on the Outer 

Petosiris zodiac, it is on the head of the female representing 

Moon, in between the symbols of Aries and Taurus (see Figures 

5.54 and 5.55). Let us observe that exactly in Aries there 

is a star named Eye of Aries or simply Eye, which was a famous 

star in ancient astronomy. Nowadays, it is called Alpha 

Aries (or simply “αAries) and it is the brightest star in the 

Aries constellation. There is a convention, which was introduced 

by the German astronomer Johann Bayer in the 17th 

century, to assign Greek letters to stars in a constellation, 

according to their visibility. The symbol α is reserved for the 

brightest star. Aries representation as a ram (Aries in Latin is 

Ram) is identified with the Egyptian god Amon, who is more 

frequently found in conjecture with Ra, as Amon-Ra, than 

alone. So, the Egyptian equivalent for the expression Eye of 

Aries could very well be Eye of Amon-Ra or simply Eye of 

Ra and be symbolized by . 

Therefore, it seems that the eye, as a planetary attribute 

on the Egyptian zodiacs, signifies simply the fact that the 

planet was in the proximity of the star Eye. We have only 

two examples with the eye, and in both cases, it is related 

either to the Sun or Moon. Based on this information we can 

conjecture that this symbol was used as planetary attribute 

in association with the Sun or Moon only. 

5.4.13 Moon in the Main Horoscope 

On Figure 5.56 we show Moon on different Egyptian zodiacs. 

Let us recall that we use the convention in which we mark 

with shaded labels for those zodiacs, where it was not possible 

to identify the symbol of Moon during the first stage and the 

identification was obtained only after the calculations. 

Moon is simple to identify in the case, when there is a 

symbol of crescent appearing on the zodiac. For example, such 

symbols can be found on the both Petosiris zodiacs and the 

Color Thebes zodiac. It is more complicated case, when the 

symbol representing the Sun on the zodiac is similar or even 

the same as the symbol for Moon. In such situation we have to 

43 See [4], Vol. 6. 

44 See [1]. 

45 See [118], p. 54. 

Figure 5.55: The Outer Petosiris zodiac (P1). Moon with the 

eye symbol is emphasized by colors. See the enlarged detail on 

the top. 

consider several possible variants. For instance, on the Small 

Esna zodiac the Sun and Moon have the same representation 

(compare Figures 5.56 (EM) and 5.50 (EM)) as a circle 

with a crescent marked along its lower edge. As we already 

mentioned, a narrow crescent could be added to the circle representing 

the Sun to indicated that Moon in such a form can 

only be located not far from the Sun. But the same symbol 

of a circle with a crescent was also used for Moon, so in such 

a case the final identification should be done based on the 

calculation using the additional astronomical information.


Figure 5.56: Representations of Moon in the main horoscope on different Egyptian zodiacs


Figure 5.57: Three circles (marked in blue) in the planetary 

area (colored for clarity) on the Round Denderah zodiac. 

Our identification of Moon on the Denderah zodiacs was 

obtained after long computations involving several possible 

variants, but verification of the additional data showed that 

in fact there is only one possibility for the correct identification. 

The calculations were conducted independently for each 

of the Denderah zodiacs and the same figure turned out to 

represent Moon in the both cases. This figure was somehow 

unexpected because previous investigators didn’t even consider 

it as a planetary symbol. In their research the existence 

of the partial horoscopes wasn’t realized and consequently 

some important symbols were disregarded. For example, on 

the Round zodiac there are three circles in the area of the zodiac 

constellations. Not surprisingly, one of these circles was 

dismissed by N.A. Morozov, who assumed that it was representing 

the “goddess of justice” or other divinity. This was 

the circle on Libra (see Figure 5.57). Morozov’s explanation 

was accepted by several other researchers. The results of our 

calculations proved the contrary — this was the symbol of 

Moon in the main horoscope (see Figure 5.56 (DR)). 

In spite of the fact that this identification was obtained 

as a result of computations, it seems to be natural. Moreover, 

Morozov himself explained a similar figure on the Long zodiac 

as a symbol of Moon (see Figure 5.58). He wrote the following: 

“ ... the figure of a girl has a Moon symbol on her head. 

The absence of breast and her finger in the mouth indicate 

that she is a child.” We show the symbols described by Morozov 

in the middle (from Bode’s Uranographia) and the right 

(from Napoleonic album) pictures on Figure 5.58. On the left 

picture we show the same figure of a child (with a finger in 

the mouth) inside the circle, that we identified as the sym- 

Figure 5.58: Infant figure with a finger in the mouth on the 

Denderah zodiacs: on the left – from the Round zodiac, in 

the middle and on the right — from the Long zodiac (from 

Bode’s Uranographia and the same figure from the Napoleonic 

album). 

bol of Moon. Notice that among all the planets or stars only 

Moon is changing its appearance and is called either young 

or old. In this way the symbol of a child should be associated 

with Moon and Morozov was right with this idea. Let 

us explain that the symbol of the child-Moon, described by 

Morozov belongs to the secondary line on the Long Denderah 

zodiac, outside the main horoscope area. Strangely, he didn’t 

recognize the same symbol in Libra on the both Denderah 

zodiacs. His claim that it is the “justice goddess” or Hercules 

contradicts its appearance in a form of a child. 

5.5 Planetary Symbols in the Partial 

Horoscopes 

The Egyptian symbols of planets in the partial horoscopes are 

usually very different from the planetary symbols in the main 

horoscopes, and that’s exactlt how it should be. Otherwise, 

it would be impossible to extract the main horoscope, understand 

its meaning and decode the date of the zodiac. Apparently, 

the ancient Egyptian astronomers and artists didn’t 

want to create confusion and tried to avoid mixing up the 

symbols of the main and partial horoscopes. We have to acknowledge 

that they succeeded in achieving this goal. In most 

of the cases, it is hard to mistaken a planet from a partial 

horoscope for a symbol from the main horoscope. 

The partial horoscopes on the Egyptian zodiacs are associated 

with the solstice and equinox points. In particular, 

all of them are located around the symbols of the same four 

zodiac constellations, which contain these four points. Recall, 

that the equinox point is a position of the Sun, when day and 

night are of equal length, and a solstice point is Sun’s location 

when day or night is shortest. These four points move 

along the ecliptic, but their movement is very slow. It needs 

thousands of years to travel across one zodiac constellation. 

Therefore, it is not surprising that on every investigated by 

us Egyptian zodiac the autumn equinox is always shown in 

Virgo, the winter solstice — in Sagittarius, the spring equinox 

— in Pisces, and finally, the summer solstice — in Gemini. 

The partial horoscopes always reside near the same four 

zodiac constellations, which in many aspects affect their ap-

pearance. For example, some planetary symbols in the partial 

horoscopes are often integrated into the constellation figures 

in a form of attributes or some objects, which at the first 

glance may look insignificant. As a matter of fact, the structure 

of the partial horoscopes can be drastically different from 

the structure of the main horoscope. Even a smallest detail 

of the partial horoscope may contain some important astronomical 

information. During the last centuries, the existence 

of partial horoscope was overlooked by Egyptologists and all 

the previous investigators. It is surprising how it is possible 

that so many experts were not able to understand correctly 

the principal structure of an Egyptian zodiac. An explanation 

to it could be the fact that their efforts were concentrated 

on individual zodiacs, without an attempt to make a careful 

and complete comparative analysis of multiple Egyptian zodiacs. 

The symbolism of the partial horoscopes was understood 

only after comparing all the known to us Egyptian zodiacs. 

We noticed that similar symbols or details appear on different 

zodiacs not chaotically but in a certain organized way. 

The further investigation revealed that on the Egyptian zodiacs, 

apart from the main horoscopes, there are also shown 

planetary configurations associated with the four solstice and 

equinox points, which we call the partial horoscopes. These 

partial horoscopes appear on almost all the Egyptian zodiacs, 

not only on few “exotic” ones. 

We are not going to present detailed tables of the planetary 

symbols in the partial horoscopes, like it was done for 

the main horoscopes. These symbols are more individual, less 

uniform and often integrated into the other symbols as their 

parts, so it is very inconvenient to discuss their meaning out 

of the zodiac context. In this section we only initiate a discussion 

of the symbolism of the partial horoscopes, and later, we 

will return often to this topic. In particular we will present a 

detailed explanation of the partial horoscopes in Chapters 7 

and 8, which are devoted to the decoding and dating of the 

zodiacs. Here we will only review several concrete examples 

just to give an idea how a partial horoscope is constructed 

in principle. One of these examples will be the partial horoscope 

of the winter solstice on the Round Denderah zodiac. 

This is the most famous Egyptian zodiac and its symbolism 

was analyzed and discussed in many works. Let us emphasize 

that our interpretation of the symbols belonging to the 

partial horoscopes is completely new. 

5.5.1 First Example: Partial Horoscope of 

Autumn Equinox on the Long zodiac 

On Figure 5.59, we show a fragment of the Long Denderah 

zodiac around the Virgo constellation. Recall that Virgo is 

the place for a partial horoscope of the autumn equinox, and 

indeed such a partial horoscope can be found there. 

In order to understand the astronomical symbolism shown 

on Figure 5.59, first of all we have to remember that on the 

Long Denderah zodiac every constellation is represented by 

three decans (see Section 5.2.1), one of each is the specific figure 

of the constellation, and two others are the female figures, 

5.5 Planetary Symbols in the Partial Horoscopes 113 

which all look alike. The symbol of Virgo is a female figure 

holding a spike in her hand (see Figure 5.53) and the two 

decans are behind her (see Figure 5.22). In this way Virgo’s 

symbol serves as her first decan. The partial horoscope of the 

autumn equinox is integrated into the second decan figure 

of Virgo, which on Figure 5.59 is shown enlarged. Immediately, 

one can notice that there is something different about 

this symbol. There are some planetary attributes incorporated 

and added here. The Sun is represented in a form of a 

bird near the girl-decan’s head. Such figure of a bird indicates 

on the Long zodiac the places where the additional astronomical 

information related to the Sun and nearby planets was 

inserted. 

Figure 5.59: Partial horoscope of the autumn equinox on the 

Long Denderah zodiac. 

The symbol of Venus and Moon can also be distinguished 

here. As it was already discussed in Section ??, one of the 

Egyptian attributes was a lioness. For example, Venus was 

often shown as a female figure with a lioness head. This is for 

example the case on the Round Denderah zodiac (see Figure 

5.42). Notice that the head of the second girl-decan in Virgo is 

not human but animal, and could definitely be a lioness head. 

Moreover, the bird representing the Sun also has animal face 

similar to a lioness head (see the enlarged detail on Figure 

5.59). Let us point out that among all the 24 girl-decans on 

the Long zodiac there are only two with modified appearance. 

The another one is the girl-decan with a falcon head between 

Scorpio and Libra. Since we are going to discuss this topic 

later, let us simply indicate that this symbol also carries the 

planetary information. In this case it is for the partial horoscope 

of the winter solstice. Notice that the second girl-decan 

of Virgo actually looks the same except for the planetary stick. 

Of course, if there was a planetary stick in her hand, it would 

be definitely a figure of Venus from the main horoscope with 

its usual lioness attribute. However, by expressing this incomplete 

Venus-alike look, the Egyptian artist achieved the 

goal of showing Venus in the partial horoscope without creating 

confusion about the main horoscope. The same girl-decan 

has another attribute — a crescent placed on her head. She


is the only decan with a crescent on her head, which can be 

recognized as the symbol of Moon in this partial horoscope. 

To conclude this section, let us remark that there could be 

possibly another variant of decoding this partial horoscope. 

On Figure 5.59, we have recognized the face of the second girldecan 

as lioness, and consequently we deciphered this partial 

horoscope as: the Sun, Venus and Moon in Virgo. However, 

the drawing of the Long zodiac is not very precise and this 

face could also be recognized by someone as a bull-face. In 

this case the decoding of the partial horoscope of the autumn 

equinox would be completely different. On many Egyptian zodiacs, 

including Denderah zodiacs, the bull-head with a crescent 

symbolizes Saturn (see Figure 5.28), so in this case it 

would be the symbol of Saturn (instead of Venus and Moon). 

Venus, which is usually present in the partial horoscopes because 

it is never too far from the Sun, still could be recognized 

here as the lioness head of the bird representing the 

Sun. In principle, this decoding is also good, however, it is 

not possible, because it contradicts the location of Saturn in 

the main horoscope. As the matter of fact, the motion of Saturn 

is so slow that during the whole year it usually resides 

in one constellation only. But Saturn in the main horoscope 

is in between Aquarius and Capricorn, which is much too far 

for it to be in Virgo within one year. Consequently, it makes 

no sense to even consider such a variant, because no solution 

could ever be found for it. 

5.5.2 Second Example: Partial Horoscope of 

Winter Solstice on the Round zodiac 

On Figure 5.60 we show a fragment of the Round Denderah 

zodiac around the symbol of Sagittarius. 

Let us recall that on the Egyptian zodiacs, Sagittarius is 

the location for the partial horoscope of the winter solstice. 

Here, similarly as it is on other Egyptian zodiacs, the figure of 

Sagittarius has incorporated additional symbols of Mercury 

and Venus. They are shown by a two-faced head of Sagittarius. 

One face is human (Mercury) but another one is of 

a lioness (Venus). These is the standard Egyptian symbol of 

Sagittarius with a minimal partial horoscope incorporated in 

it. We will discuss this symbol in more details in Section 5.8. 

Notice that one half of the horse-tail of Sagittarius is standing 

up and on its top there is a goose, which on Egyptian zodiacs 

is associated with Mars. That means, Mars is present in this 

partial horoscope. 

The presence of additional attributes incorporated into 

the figure of Sagittarius is indicated by a special Egyptian 

pull-out symbol, which is here a small boat under the front 

legs of Sagittarius. We will explain later in more detail, why 

the symbol of a boat or any other symbol, placed right under 

the feet of a figure, means that this figure was pulled-out (in 

time or in space) from its proper place. On the Egyptian 

zodiacs of the round type, where the symbols are arranged 

one under another, in order to avoid confusion only boats 

were used as pull-out symbols. In particular, if a pull-out 

Figure 5.60: Surrounding of the Sagittarius constellation with 

the partial horoscope of the winter solstice on the Round Denderah 

zodiac. 

symbol is an attribute of a planet, it means that this planetary 

symbol doesn’t belong to the main horoscope. In the case of 

Sagittarius, the boat indicates that there is something here 

not belonging to the main horoscope. 

Notice other figures located right above the Sagittarius 

symbol. One of these figures holds a planetary walking stick 

but it is does not belong to the main horoscope, because it 

is placed on a boat — a pull-out symbol. Two other figures 

do not have walking sticks — one of them holds a mace and 

another a whip, so they are not related to the main horoscope 

either. All these symbols are located in a proximity of 

Sagittarius, which means that they are related to the partial 

horoscope of winter solstice. The planetary symbols of this 

partial horoscope are: 

1. A man with a mace in his hand denoting a male planet, 

i.e. it could be any planet except Venus. 

2. A figure sitting in a chair on a boat with a big circle on its 

head holding a planetary walking stick. On the Egyptian 

zodiacs, the circle placed over a head always denotes the 

Sun, so this figure could symbolize either the Sun or a 

planet close to it. In the first case, the circle should be 

looked at as an integral part of the figure representing the 

Sun, and in the second case, it indicates that a certain 

planet represented by this figure was near the Sun. In our 

calculations the both variants were considered. It is not 

possible to be sure about the gender of this figure because 

it is in a sitting position (so we are not able to judge the 

size of its step) and the quality of the image is poor. 

3 A small figure sitting on a chair with an animal under its 

feet. On the drawing shown on the left side in Figure 5.60, 

this animal looks like a dog but on the actual photograph, 

shown on the right, it resembles a lioness or a leopard. If 

it was a lioness, then it sands for Venus. But, the picture 

is unclear, so all the possible variants had to be taken into 

account.

Let us resume that in this partial horoscope there are the 

Sun and two or even three planets included. One of them is 

Mars. 

5.5.3 Third Example: Partial Horoscope 

of Summer Solstice on the Lower 

Athribis zodiac 

On Figure 5.61 we show a fragment of the Lower Athribis zodiac 

around the constellations of Libra, Virgo, Cancer, Gemini 

and Taurus. On Figure 5.61 one can easy recognize all the 

figures representing these constellations, which we colored in 

red for more clarity. They form the upper row of symbols, 

under which one can see two birds (in yellow) representing 

planets in the main horoscope, and further below them, there 

is another row of symbols (in blue), which is the partial horoscope 

of summer solstice. 

Figure 5.61: A fragment of the Lower Athribis zodiac with a 

partial horoscope of summer solstice. We marked the constellation 

figures in red, planets of the main horoscope in yellow 

and the partial horoscope in blue. 

Let us notice that there is no partial horoscope of autumn 

equinox present on the Lower Athribis zodiac. It should be 

located under Virgo, but the whole space here is occupied by 

the symbols of the partial horoscope of summer solstice. In 

fact this is the only (nontrivial) partial horoscope on the both 

Athribis zodiacs (see Chapter 8 for more discussion). 

Let us look carefully at the row of the blue figures. Many 

of them are already familiar to us. Starting from the left of 

the picture, we see a bull lying on a boat with a star between 

his horns, then there is a male figure with a raised hand surrounded 

by five birds with human faces, two on one side and 

three on the other. The bull in the boat is a standard Egyptian 

symbol of the summer solstice. This symbol sometimes is 

shown accompanied by a female figure shooting an arrow over 

its head (see for example fragments of the zodiacs (DR) and 

(EM) on Figures 4.1 and 4.5). The man with a raised hand 

is also a standard Egyptian symbol of the summer solstice 

(see Figures 4.2 and 4.5). It symbolizes the Sun in its highest 

position. These two symbols always appear in a proximity of 

5.6 Boats, Snakes, and Other Objects under the Feet of Figures as Pull-Out Symbols 115 

Gemini. On the Lower Athribis zodiac, the imaginary ground 

line, where the man with a raised hand stands on, passes exactly 

through the symbol of Gemini, so we can simply say, 

that he “stands” in Gemini. Consequently, these symbols are 

definitely related to the partial horoscope of the summer solstice. 

Now, let us recognize the planetary symbols of this partial 

horoscope. It is not hard to find them. Recall that on the 

Athribis zodiacs, the planets are usually symbolized as birds, 

and indeed we see here five birds with human faces. This fact 

means that at the summer solstice, there were all five planets 

present near Gemini around the Sun. It could be possible that 

Venus or Mercury were shown here not by one but by two 

birds, but it is very unlikely because in the main horoscope 

Venus is represented by one bird figure (Mercury in the main 

horoscope is not a bird — see Chapter 8). Let us say that 

these partial horoscope indeed appears to be very precise. 

The full solution computed for this zodiac ideally exhibits all 

the features of this picture. In particular, it turns out that 

at the summer solstice there were two planets ahead of the 

Sun (visible in the morning) and three other planets behind 

of it (Visible in the evening). This simply means that on the 

summer solstice day there were all five planets present near 

Gemini around the Sun. 

5.6 Boats, Snakes, and Other Objects 

under the Feet of Figures 

as Pull-Out Symbols 

A carefully study of the Egyptian zodiacs leads to the following 

observation. Some figures appear on zodiacs without any 

support under their feet, while other clearly stand on something 

or even are enclosed inside other objects. Often, they 

stand on boats or snakes which are sometimes shaped like 

boats. On an Egyptian zodiac, the same figure may appear in 

one place floating on a boat and in another place without it. 

Figure 5.62: A fragment of the Long Denderah zodiac showing 

Mars in the main horoscope and with a pull-out symbol 

On Figure 5.62 we present a fragment of the Long Denderah 

zodiac, where two identical figures with planetary walking 

sticks can be identified. These are the male figures with


falcon heads. As they are shown exactly in the same way, they 

should represent the same planet. But, as we have already justified 

it earlier, an Egyptian zodiac is in fact an astronomical 

symbolic message that was intended to be readable. Notice 

that one of these figures is located on the left of Aquarius 

and the another one is placed on its right, far away from the 

first one. There are many other figures between them (see 

Figure 5.62). As their positions are far apart, they represent 

the same planet but at two different dates! However, there is 

something distinct about the way they appear — one is simply 

walking while the another one is floating on a goose (see 

Figure 5.62). 

Figure 5.63: A fragment of the Small Esna zodiac showing 

several figures on snakes or boats 

On the Egyptian zodiacs one can find many examples of 

this kind. On almost every zodiac there are figures (planetary 

or not) standing or sitting on other objects. In the most cases, 

these objects are boats or snakes but sometimes they are other 

animals or things. As an another example we show on Figure 

5.63 a fragment of the Small Esna zodiac (EM), where one 

can see several figures standing on boats or snakes. 

Our comparative analysis of the Egyptian zodiacs proved 

that all these “supporting” symbols of boats, snakes, geese, 

etc., have a definite astronomical meaning. Namely, they are 

the pull-out symbols applied to those figures on the zodiac 

that were displaced from its proper position on the zodiac 

(either in time or space). 

The use of the pull-out symbols was very common on 

Egyptian zodiacs. It was a smart method that allowed ancient 

artist and astronomers to put together on the same zodiac 

more than one horoscope displaying astronomical description 

of several related dates. The pull-out symbols applied to a 

planetary figure created a new meaning for it, making clear 

that it does not belong to the main horoscope. As all the partial 

horoscopes have fixed locations on the ecliptic, in practice 

there is no confusion between them either. Moreover, by applying 

the pull-out symbols, an Egyptian artist was able to 

design more freely the whole zodiac. For example, he was 

able to move some figures from the overcrowded areas on a 

zodiac to other places. For this purpose it was sufficient to use 

a pull-out symbol and assure that there are adequate indications 

of its proper location. For instance, on Figure 5.63 there 

is a symbol of the spring equinox, represented by two male 

figures holding hands. Notice two small lambs near them indicating 

that this configuration speaks about the spring equinox 

(if there were two lions instead of lambs, it would be an indication 

of the autumn equinox). Indeed, a lamb symbolizes 

Aries, which is the neighboring constellation for the spring 

equinox point, and a lion symbolizes Leo, which is the neighboring 

constellation to the autumn equinox. Notice that the 

actual location of this symbol of the spring equinox, which 

is in between Capricorn and Sagittarius, is not proper for it. 

However, the whole picture is still correct because of the usage 

of the pull-out symbol in a form of a snake. 

Let us recall that in the case of Egyptian zodiacs of the 

round type the pull-out symbols are limited to snakes or boats 

only. There are some exceptions, but only in special cases. 

5.7 Signs of Visibility of Planets in 

the Main Horoscope 

When a planet, in its apparent motion around the ecliptic 

approaches the Sun, it loses its visibility. For example, it rises 

closer to the morning and finally it is only visible for a short 

time during the sunrise and disappears completely for several 

days. It reappears again on sunset and continue to be visible 

in the beginning of the night. A planet can also be visible for 

a short time following the sunset and gradually completely 

disappears from the sky for few days and then reappears at 

the dawn. In average, outer planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars 

disappear from the sky only once per year, while the inner 

planets are invisible more often. In fact Venus and Mercury 

can only be observed in the beginning and the end of the 

night and continuously appear and disappear from the sky. 

Therefore, it was quite possible that on the date encoded in 

an Egyptian zodiac, Mercury and/or Venus were not visible. 

N.A. Morozov noticed that the visibility of a planet was accurately 

indicated on the Egyptian zodiacs. For example, on the 

Denderah zodiacs a symbol of a star placed above (or near) 

the head of the planetary figure symbolizes its visibility 46 . 

On Figure 5.64 we show two fragments of the Long and 

Round Denderah zodiacs, where some visible planets around 

the Sun (which we marked in yellow) are indicated by a star 

(marked in red) placed above their heads. We marked these 

planets in light-blue Color. On each of the Denderah zodiac 

there is one invisible planet (colored by us in brown), where a 

star near its head is missing. As some of the planets on Figure 

5.64 were represented by double figures, for better clarity we 

encircled with a yellow contour each of the planetary representations. 

We checked the Morozov’s hypothesis about the visibility 

attributes on the Egyptian zodiacs and we can confirmed it. 

It turned out that on many Egyptian zodiacs the visibility 

or invisibility of planets was indeed indicated. It was done 

46 See [4], Vol. 6, pp. 765, 678, 679.

Figure 5.64: Visible (marked in light-blue Color) and invisible 

(marked in brown Color) planets on the Long (upper picture) 

and Round (lower picture) Denderah zodiacs. 

carefully for the planetary symbols in the proximity of the 

Sun, where this information actually was important. In the 

case of the planets located far away from the Sun, where there 

couldn’t be any doubt about their visibility, this rule was not 

so rigorously applied, but still used. 

For the majority of the Egyptian zodiacs, the sign of visibility 

was a star placed above the planetary figure, similarly 

like it was done on the Denderah zodiacs. However, on certain 

zodiacs another method was used. For example on the 

Big Esna zodiac, instead of the visibility sign there was used 

the invisibility sign, which was a disk replacing the head (or 

sometimes on the head) of a planetary figure. This convention 

is logical and shows that the creators of this zodiac had 

a good understanding of this phenomena — a planet becomes 

invisible because the Sun “blazes” its face. 

On Figure 5.65, we show a fragment of the Big Esna zodiac 

with the partial horoscope of autumn equinox. We indicated 

with colors only the planetary figures belonging to this 

partial horoscope. On this zodiac, the figures of the partial 

horoscopes do not hold walking sticks. The invisible planets 

5.7 Signs of Visibility of Planets in the Main Horoscope 117 

Figure 5.65: The partial horoscope of autumn equinox on the 

Big Esna zodiac with the invisible (marked in brown) and visible 

(marked in light-blue) planets. The invisibility symbol (a 

disk) is marked in yellow. 

(marked in brown) have a disk (marked in yellow) placed on 

the head or instead of it. 

Let us recall that Mercury, which is a fast moving planet, 

was sometimes represented on the Egyptian zodiacs in two 

positions, one visible and another invisible. It is for example 

the case on the Long Denderah zodiac (see Figure 5.66). 

For each investigated by us Egyptian zodiac, there exists 

an astronomical solution for which 

• all the planetary locations are the same as in the main 

horoscope; 

• the order of planets is exactly the same as in the main 

horoscope; 

• all the partial horoscopes are satisfied; 

• the visibility/invisibility conditions are also fulfilled. 

Figure 5.66: A fragment of the Long Denderah zodiac with 

Mercury in two positions: visible and invisible. 

Being able to find such “perfect” solutions for all the 

investigated zodiacs, we can confirm that Morozov’s claim 

about the visibility/invisibility symbolism was indeed correct.


It wouldn’t be possible to find randomly such solutions for all 

the zodiacs without exceptions. 

5.8 Symbols of Equinoxes and Solstices 

The equinox and solstice points are marked on Egyptian zodiacs 

using special symbolism. These symbols for the first time 

were decoded by us during our study of the Egyptian zodiacs. 

They are used on different zodiacs systematically and consistently 

in very similar forms so, it is not hard to understand 

their meaning. 

The symbols of the equinoxes and solstices are very important 

for the astronomical dating. In particular, they mark 

the locations of the partial horoscopes. Let us point out that 

some of these symbols were misinterpreted in the existing literature. 

We will discuss some of the examples in the following 

subsections. 

Earlier, we’ve already discussed some of the equinox and 

solstice symbols used on the Egyptian zodiacs 47 . In this section 

we will systematically examine this symbolism. 

5.8.1 Symbols of the Autumn Equinox in 

Virgo 

On Figure 5.67 we show the Egyptian symbols related to the 

autumn equinox. These symbols can be found on the Egyptian 

zodiacs only in the proximity of Virgo or possibly near Pisces, 

where the spring equinox occurs. Notice that the spring and 

autumn equinoxes are located symmetrically on the opposite 

sides of the ecliptic. From the astronomical point of view they 

are similar, so, it is not surprising that they share some of the 

symbols (but not all of them). 

Let us list the symbols of the autumn equinox (see Figure 

5.67): 

(1) A human figure holding a child on his/her hand. This 

symbol appears on the both Denderah zodiacs in the proximity 

of the autumn equinox. Recall that the Egyptian 

new year began in September near the autumn equinox 48 , 

so the figure of a child probably symbolizes here the new 

year. 

(2) Rectangular plate with wavy lines. On the Round Denderah 

zodiacs one can find two such plates located near 

the spring and autumn equinoxes. On the Long Denderah 

zodiac one such plate is located near the spring equinox 

point. Notice that on the Round zodiac, a figure of lion 

reposes his two front legs on it. We should point out that 

sometimes the Egyptian equinox symbols contain signs 

of the neighboring constellations — Leo for the autumn 

and Aries for the spring equinox (see for example Figure 

5.67 (DR), (EB) and Figure 5.69 (EM)). N.A. Morozov 

47 See for example Section 4.2 

48 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 641. 

correctly identified these rectangular plates on the Round 

zodiac as symbols of the equinoxes 49 . 

(3) A person sitting on a chair with spread out arms holding 

two identical objects. This figure clearly indicates the 

equilibrium (between the left and right hands) which most 

probably symbolizes the equilibrium point between the 

day and night occurring at the equinox point. However, 

we found only one example of such figure (see Figure 5.67 

(DR)). 

(4) A self-entwined snake. This symbol appears on several 

zodiacs and it is always located near the autumn equinox. 

Among the Egyptian zodiacs that we investigated, this 

symbol occurred on the Long Denderah, Small Esna and 

Lower Athribis zodiacs (see Figure 5.67 (DL), (EM) and 

(AN)). 

(5) Two-headed wave-shaped symmetrical snake. Sometimes a 

pair of small wings is attached near each head (see Figure 

5.67 (EB)) without disturbing its symmetry. This symbol 

can be found near the both equinox points and undoubtedly 

it indicates the equality between the day and night. 

(6) A figure on a podium with a diagonal cross. In our examples 

a figure on the podium is either a bird or a human. 

This symbol was used on the Egyptian zodiacs for the 

autumn equinox (see Figure 5.67 (EM)) as well as for the 

spring equinox (see Figure 5.69 (EM)). Let us point out 

that such symbol, where the podium is without a diagonal 

cross, indicates not an equinox but a solstice point. In this 

case usually on the podium there is a cobra in threatening 

position (with upright fore body). The diagonal cross 

likely indicates the equality of a day and night. 

(7) A figure with four heads. It can be associated with the 

autumn and spring equinoxes. On Brugsch’s zodiac, the 

equinox and solstice symbols are located in the four corners 

of the picture. The symbol of the autumn equinox is 

placed on the same side as Virgo. It has a body of a horse 

with four lamb heads (see Figure 5.67 (BR)). On the Inner 

Petosiris zodiac, near the Virgo constellation there is 

a male figure with the same four lamb heads (see Figure 

5.67 (P2)). 

5.8.2 Symbols of the Winter Solstice in 

Sagittarius 

The symbols, which were used on the Egyptian zodiacs to 

denote the winter solstice are shown on Figure 5.68. They are 

always located in vicinity of Sagittarius. Let us list them: 

(1) On almost all the Egyptian zodiacs the figure of Sagittarius 

incorporates symbolism of the minimal partial horoscope 

of winter solstice. This is a complex figure including 

a centaur (the symbol of Sagittarius) and also signs of the 

Sun, Mercury and Venus. We illustrate this astronomical 

hieroglyph on Figure 5.69. 

49 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 658.

5.8 Symbols of Equinoxes and Solstices 119 

Figure 5.67: Symbols of the autumn equinox on different Egyptian zodiacs. In some cases these symbols are encircled by green 

contours to distinguish them from other symbols


Figure 5.68: Symbols of the winter solstice on different Egyptian zodiacs. Some of these symbols are encircled by green contours 

to distinguish them from other figures.

Figure 5.69: Figure of Sagittarius with a minimal partial horoscope 

of winter solstice 

Figure 5.70: A picture of a simple bow and a recurved composite 

bow. (Taken from Encyclopedia Britannica Online) 

Notice that Sagittarius on some Egyptian zodiacs is 

shooting an arrow using the so called composite recurved 

bow, which was in common use in middle ages. According 

to history of weapons, the composite bow was invented 

in the 11th century. It was more powerful than a simple 

bow but much more complicated to produce. Its advantage 

was that it could be engineered to essentially any 

desired strength. Its characteristic shape is easy to recognize 

— the bow is curved away from the archer (see 

Figure 5.70). 

We would like to indicate that all the astronomical dates 

obtained by us for the Egyptian zodiacs are later than the 

eleventh century, which is exactly the period of the common 

use of the recurved composite bows. According to 

the conventional chronology, which places the Egyptian 

zodiacs thousands years earlier, the presence of the composite 

bows on these zodiacs creates a strange situation in 

which historians must acknowledge their invention thousand 

years before their common usage by military. For a 

weapon, which was a very practical object, such disappearance 

sounds highly suspicious. 


(2) A cobra with upright fore body on a podium — see Figure 

5.68 (EB). Such symbols were used for both the winter 

and summer solstice points. Sometimes instead of cobra 

other symbols were placed on a podium. For example on 

the Round Denderah zodiac, there is a head of an animal 

with a disc over its head. However, if the podium is diagonally 

crossed out, or an animal on it has four heads, 

then it would be an equinox symbol. It is possible that 

Egyptian artists tried to associate with equinox points 

horizontally symmetric symbols and with solstice points 

figures manifesting vertical directions. 

(3) A fantastic creature resembling a bull with wings — see 

Figure 5.68 (EM) and (BR). This animal is often portrayed 

with a lamb-head. Again, it’s important that this 

animal has only one head. A four-headed animal would 

symbolize an equinox point. On the Small Esna zodiac 

(EM) such fantastic animals are placed vertically at the 

solstice points. Again, this position emphasizes the vertical 

direction. Such animals could equally be associated 

with the summer solstice point as well (see for example 

the Small Esna zodiac on Figure 2.17). 

(4) A falcon headed man stabbing with a spear a bull-like creature 

— see Figure 5.68 (DL) and (OU). Notice that in all 

cases the bull-like animal has no front legs (only one rear 

leg is usually shown). This scene always appears only near 

the solstice points. Its meaning is unclear to us, but we 

can see that in some sense it was associated with a solstice 

point. 

5.8.3 Symbols of the Spring Equinox in 

Pisces 

The symbols used on the Egyptian zodiacs to describe the 

spring equinox point are shown on Figure 5.71. They are always 

located around Pisces. Let us describe them: 

(1) Rectangular plate with wavy lines, the same as at the autumn 

equinox point. At the spring equinox such a table 

is present on the both Denderah zodiacs (see Figure 5.71 

(DR) and (DL)). 

(2) Four-headed fantastic creature with two pairs of heads 

facing opposite directions, which could be also be present 

at the autumn equinox point (see subsection 5.8.1). Such a 

figure is present at sthe pring equinox point on the Round 

Denderah and Brugsch’s zodiacs (see Figure 5.71 (DR) 

and (BR)). It seems to be a rule that all four heads of 

this symbol look like lamb-heads. 

(3) A sequence of snakes (cobras) with upright fore bodies, 

all looking in one direction. On the Round Denderah zodiac 

these snakes are placed on a podium (see Figure 5.71 

(DR)). On the Inner Petosiris zodiac this sequence is located 

right above another fantastic symbol of an eye with 

spread wings and human legs (see Figure 5.71 (P2)). 

(4) A horizontally symmetric wavy snake with two heads with 

wings. This symbol is present on the Small Esna zodiac, 

where one can also notice two little beetles in between


Figure 5.71: Symbols of the spring equinox on different Egyptian zodiacs. In some cases these symbols are encircled by green 

contours to distinguish them from other symbols

the wings on each side (see Figure 5.71 (EM)). Such a 

symbol was also used at the autumn equinox point (see 

subsection 5.8.1). 

(5) A figure on a podium with a diagonal cross. This symbol 

was also used at the autumn equinox point (see subsection 

5.8.1). On the Small Esna zodiac at the two equinox 

points, one can find two such podiums with different figures 

on them (see Figure 5.71 (EM) and Figure 5.67 

(EM)). 

5.8.4 Symbols of the Summer Solstice in 

Gemini 

The symbols of the summer solstice are presented on Figures 

5.72, 5.73 and 5.74. Let us list them: 

Figure 5.72: The Egyptian astronomical hieroglyph of Gemini 

with a minimal partial horoscope of the summer solstice 

(1) Like in the case of Sagittarius, the symbol of Gemini on 

the most Egyptian zodiacs is a complex figure. Apart of 

Gemini itself it also includes the minimal partial horoscope 

of the summer solstice: the Sun, Mercury and 

Venus. This complex astronomical hieroglyph of Gemini 

is explained on Figure 5.72. 

(2) A man with a raised hand (see Figures 5.73 and 5.74 (DL), 

(EM) and (AN)). Sometimes this figure is placed on a 

boat. In another hand he may hold a planetary walking 

stick indicating that this is a symbol of the Sun, which 

was considered as a planet in the ancient astronomy. As 

we already discussed this figure in section 4.2, his raised 

hand symbolizes the summer solstice. Such a figure never 

appears at the winter solstice point. 

Let us point out that this figure of a man with a raised 

hand is wrongly interpreted by Egyptologists as a symbol 


Figure 5.73: The summer solstice symbols on the Small Esna 

zodiac with some details enlarged. 

of the non-zodiacal Orion constellation. On this basis a 

huge theory about the hidden meaning of the Egyptian 

astronomical texts was speculated. Even leading to a conjectured 

“dating” of Egyptian pyramids. See for example 

[36]. We do not intend to engage here into a dispute about 

these theories, but in view of our results it is clear that 

this symbol has nothing to do with the Orion constellation. 

There is no evidence that any other than zodiac 

constellations were ever displayed on the Egyptian zodiacs. 

(3) A bird sitting on a pillar. This bird symbolizes the Sun 

at the summer solstice (see Figure 5.74 (DR) and (DL)). 

This figure appears only at the summer solstice point. 

We’ve already discussed this symbol in section 4.2. 

(4) A standing pillar with two bending poles on its sides. This 

symbol, which is another variation of the previous one, 

expresses the idea of a local maximum. On the Egyptian 

zodiacs it can only be found around the summer solstice 

point. Sometimes the middle pillar was decorated with a 

snake around it (see Figures 5.73 and 5.74 (EM)). 

(5) A fantastic creature with bull’s body, lamb’s head and the 

wings (see Figures 5.73 and 5.74 (EM)). Such a symbol 

also can be found at the winter solstice point (see subsection 

5.8.3). A similar creature with four heads has another 

meaning — it denotes an equinox point (see subsections 

5.8.1 and 5.8.3). 

(6) A fantastic bird with a lamb or crocodile head. For example, 

on the both Esna zodiacs this figure has a crocodile 

head (see Figures 5.73 and 5.74 (EM) and (EB)) and on 

Brugsch’s zodiac it has a lamb head. 

This bird has additional pair of wings similar to the wings 

of the bull discussed above. On all the zodiacs that we 

studied, we found it only around the summer solstice 

point. 

(7) A wavy symmetric snake with two heads (without wings). 

A similar snake with wings would represent an equinox 

point (see Figures 5.73 and 5.74 (EM) and (EB)).


Figure 5.74: Egyptian zodiacs. Some of these symbols are encircled by green contours to distinguish them from the other 

figures.

Figure 5.75: The fringe of figures surrounding the two Athribis 

zodiacs with other symbols made dim. 

(8) A two-headed cobra with upright fore body (both heads 

on the same side) (see Figures 5.73 and 5.74 (EM) and 

(EB)). 

We conclude this section with a picture of the fringe surrounding 

the two Athribis zodiacs (see Figure 5.75). This encircling 

arrangement of the figures is composed mainly of the 

equinox and solstice symbols described above. For example, 

there are several sequences of snakes, which usually occur at 

the spring equinox points. There are also two entwined snakes 

— a symbol of the equinox point (the most probably the autumn 

one), and a cobra on a small podium representing the 

summer solstice. The bottom part of the fringe is a partial 

horoscope of the summer solstice that we have discussed in 

subsection 5.5.3. Directly beneath, there is a symbolic scene, 

which will be discussed in the next section. 

5.9 Supplementary Astronomical Symbols on Egyptian Zodiacs 125 

5.9 Supplementary Astronomical 

Symbols on Egyptian Zodiacs 

On the Egyptian zodiacs, beside the symbols of the main and 

the partial horoscopes, constellations figures and the symbols 

of the solstice and equinox points, there are sometimes present 

other additional symbols or even symbolic scenes with definite 

astronomical meaning. In this section we describe some 

of them, for which we were able to understand at leasttheir 

meaning at least partially. Let us point out that only few 

such symbols can be found on the Egyptian zodiacs and most 

of them do not contain any significant information for the 

dating, but there are some exceptions. Nevertheless, understanding 

the meaning of these symbols is important for the 

decoding process of the general astronomical chart shown on 

a zodiac. 

It is intriguing that one particular astronomical event 

found a special place on the Egyptian zodiacs. This was the 

first spring full-moon. In the medieval Christian tradition the 

date of Easter was calculated using the concept of so-called 

paschal moon, which is the first full moon that occurs after 

the spring equinox. The same concept of the paschal moon, 

but with different rules, were used in the Jewish tradition to 

determine the date of Passover. According to the conventional 

chronology the paschal moon has nothing to do with the ancient 

Egyptian tradition, however it is sometimes represented 

on the Egyptian zodiacs. Moreover, in some cases, this representation 

clearly indicates a strong link with the Christian 

Easter. 

Figure 5.76: A representation of the paschal moon procession 

on the Athribis zodiacs 

5.9.1 Paschal Moon 

Let us look at the symbolic scene, shown of Figure 5.76, at 

the bottom of the Athribis zodiacs (see Figure 5.75). In view 

of the already decoded symbolism on the Egyptian zodiacs, 

the meaning of this scene is not difficult to understand. We 

read it from the right to left, as it is indicated by the direction 

of the procession. 

At the right end of this procession, we see a familiar symbol 

of the spring equinox, which is the sequence of the snakes 

with upright fore bodies (see subsection 5.8.3). Next to the 

left, there is a boat carrying a disk with a narrow crescent. 

Two human attendants stand on its both sides facing it. This 

is a symbol of the first new moon, which was “born” after the


Figure 5.77: A representation of the paschal moon on the 

Athribis zodiacs 

spring equinox. In fourteen days it will become the full moon, 

which is symbolized by a disk on the next boat (see Figure 

5.77). This time there is no crescent marked on the disk, but 

only a bird, which symbolizes the Sun. It is astronomically 

correct picture indicating that the whole enlightened by the 

Sun hemisphere of Moon was visible. In this way, what is represented 

on this picture is the first full moon after the spring 

equinox, which is the paschal full-moon. Notice that the boats 

on this picture were not used for artistic reasons only, but they 

are the pull-out symbols with a definite astronomical connotation. 

They signalize that the planetary figures placed on them 

are not connected to the main horoscope (time pull-out) and 

possibly they do not refer to the nearby constellations (space 

pull-out). 

The same symbol of paschal full moon, in a form of a 

disk with a bird inside, is also shown on each of the Athribis 

zodiacs, in the both cases in Libra (see Figure 2.19). Is it 

just accidental that on the both zodiacs, referring to different 

years, the paschal full moon occurred in Libra? But, this was 

not a coincidence. 

As a matter of fact, during the last two thousand years 

the paschal full-moon always occurred in Libra or near it. In 

order to explain it, first we find the Sun position on this day, 

which is a relatively easy task. As we already know, that at 

the spring equinox the Sun was located in Pisces, and the full 

moon occurs after fifteen days from the beginning of the new 

moon cycle. For the paschal full moon, in half of the cases, 

its new moon appeared within two weeks after the spring 

equinox, and in the other half, within two weeks before it. 

That means that the paschal full moon always occurs form 

one to thirty days after the spring equinox. That means that 

during the last two thousand years the Sun could only be 

located around Aries (in most cases inside Aries). 

Consequently, the position of the paschal full moon should 

be in Libra or nearby in a neighboring constellation. Indeed, 

at the time of full moon the Moon is on the side of the Earth 

opposite to the Sun, i.e. for an observer on the Earth, it is on 

the side of the ecliptic opposite to the Sun. 

It was already noticed by Morozov, that on the Egyptian 

zodiacs there is often a disk shown in Libra. Now, we 

Figure 5.78: Representation in Libra of the paschal moon and 

Moon in the main horoscope on the Long Denderah zodiac. 

Figure 5.79: Representation of the paschal moon and the seven 

day resurrection associated with fifteen days (full) moon. 

can explain it as a representation of the paschal full moon 50 . 

Sometimes, in exceptional cases, this disk could denote Moon 

in the main horoscope, but only when its date was exactly the 

date of the paschal full moon. Such an example is the Round 

Denderah zodiac (see Chapter 7). On the other hand, on the 

Long Denderah zodiac there are two moon disks shown in Libra 

— one for the main horoscope (which means that Moon 

was in Libra on the main date) and another one to denote 

the paschal moon. It is interesting, but not surprising, that 

in the case when there was a full moon in Libra in the main 

horoscope, which was not paschal, the Egyptian artist placed 

two different circles in Libra (see Figure 5.78). 

Another, even more intriguing, example of the paschal 

moon representation we find on the Small Esna zodiac (see 

Figure 5.79). Notice that under the Aries and Pisces constellation 

there are two human figures with crescents and disks 

over their heads. Both of them are placed on pull-out symbols. 

One of them is a familiar symbol of a new moon, which 

50 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 697.

is the sitting child with a hand near its mouth (a baby sucking 

a finger?). The second figure is standing with a planetary 

walking stick in its hand. That means we are again dealing 

here with a representation of two subsequent moon phases: 

the new moon and the full moon. 

Figure 5.80: Egyptian painting of the resurrection of Osiris 

with two eyes above his head. (Taken from [116], p. 168) 

The usage of the pull-out symbols made it possible that 

these two stages of Moon are shown together (notice that the 

new and full moons appear on the opposite sides of the ecliptic). 

Two stars over the child symbol of the new moon could 

indicate that its age is two days, and indeed the new moon 

appears exactly two days later after its disappearance. But 

the most interesting symbols related to this paschal moon 

representation are located in the extension of this scene under 

Taurus. The sequence of these figures is interrupted by a 

male figure from the main horoscope holding a walking stick. 

Behind it, there is a big boat (a pull-out symbol) with a scene 

symbolizing the resurrection of Osiris accompanied by seven 

stars and a circle made of fifteen stars. Inside the boat there 

is a sarcophagus with a dead body and the symbol of two eyes 

above it indicate that this body belong to Osiris who is going 

to be resurrected 51 . 

We present on Figure 5.80 an Egyptian painting illustrating 

the resurrection of Osiris. Notice the presence of two eyes, 

51 See [10] (p. 68) and [7] (p. 2). 

5.9 Supplementary Astronomical Symbols on Egyptian Zodiacs 127 

similar to those on the Small Esna zodiac (see Figure 5.79). 

The difference between these two pictures is that here the 

mummy of Osiris is already resurrected and standing, while 

on the Esna zodiac it is still lying down prior to its resurrection. 

Moreover, there are two numbers associated with the 

scene of the resurrection on the Esna zodiac, namely 15 and 

7. Notice above the eyes a disk made up of 15 stars and under 

them a sequence of 7 stars. These are all the symbols related 

to this scene. 

On the other hand, let us recall the rules of the date determination 

for Easter Holiday of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. 

Ester is a seven day holiday starting on the first Sunday after 

the fifteen days (i.e. full) moon following the spring equinox. 

It is not difficult to realize that this scene of Osiris resurrection 

is fully parallel to the description of Easter date. First 

of all, the whole scene begins exactly under the Pisces at the 

spring equinox point with the new and full moons. Notice 

that the standing figure with a disk on its head (see Figure 

5.79) holds also, beside of the walking stick, two attributes 

of Osiris (see Figure 5.80), which clearly connect it with the 

resurrection of Osiris scene. Moreover, the circle made of 15 

stars is a perfect symbol for a 15 day full moon (notice that 

the lunar cycle is almost 30 days and a full moon occurs on 15 

day of this cycle). Finally, Ester holiday is determined based 

on concept of a seven day week and lasts seven days. 

This symbolism agrees well with the actual date encoded 

in this zodiac. It was proved by our computations that this 

date was May 6-8, 1404 AD, which indicates the late Middle 

Ages and the epoch of Christianity (see Chapter 7). 

5.9.2 Bird-Sun on the Long Denderah Zodiac 

On the Long Denderah zodiac one can see the same bird appearing 

in several different places, which look like short stops 

on its way along the zodiac. The bird symbolizes the Sun 

moving around the zodiac during its yearly itinerary. There 

are six such places: 

1. Right above the second decan in Virgo (see Figure 5.59) 

in a partial horoscope of the autumn equinox. Here, the 

bird indicates the location of the partial horoscope as well 

as the moment when the Sun passed the autumn equinox 

point. 

2. Between Scorpio and Sagittarius next to the figure of a 

wolf standing on a scythe (see Figures 3.7, 5.22 and 5.9). 

We will discuss this symbol in subsection 5.9.6. Here, the 

bird wears a high hat. 

3. On the top of the wing of Sagittarius. Here, it indicates 

the Sun passing through the winter solstice point (see 

Figures 3.7, 5.22 and 5.9). 

4. Right above the first decan of Sagittarius, which precedes 

the scene of slaughter of a bull with one leg (see Figures 

3.7, 5.22 and 5.9). Here, the bird with horns is again a 

part of the partial horoscope of winter solstice, this time 

indicating the presence of some elements of this horoscope 

in Capricorn.


5. Right behind Venus on the head of one of two animals 

sitting back to back. Here, it also wears a tall hat. According 

to Morozov these two animals symbolize two twilights 

(the sunrise and sunset). This symbol appears near 

Venus, which is morning/evening planet, on both Denderah 

zodiacs. In this case the bird-sun is a part of this 

symbol. 

6. On the top of a column following the constellation of 

Gemini. Here, it is a part of the summer solstice symbol 

(see Figure 4.2) and clearly indicates the passage of 

the Sun through the summer solstice point. 

One can ask a question why there is no such bird near the 

spring equinox point, which is one of the main points on the 

ecliptic in the ancient as well as in modern astronomy. Notice 

that there is already a big circle symbolizing the Sun at this 

location (see Chapter 7). 

Figure 5.81: A figure of two back-to-back animals on the Long 

(on the left) and Round (on the right) Denderah zodiacs. 

5.9.3 Symbol of the Twilights 

According to N.A. Morozov 52 , the figure of two back-to-back 

animals symbolizes on Egyptian zodiacs the morning and 

evening twilights. This figure appears near Venus on the main 

horoscope on the both Denderah zodiacs (see Figure 5.81). 

It is clear why this symbol is associated with Venus, which 

was considered to be a morning and evening star so the twilight 

figure seems to be a natural companion for it. 

5.9.4 Beheading Scenes near Aquarius 

On the both Denderah zodiacs, near the figure of Aquarius 

we can see a scene of beheading. This scene, on the Long 

Denderah zodiac, is located on the right from Aquarius. There 

is a man grasping an animal by ears while getting ready to cut 

52 See [4], Vol. 6, p.667. 

Figure 5.82: A scene of beheading on the Long (on the left) 

and Round (on the right) Denderah zodiacs. 

its throat with a knife that he holds in another hand. Notice 

a beheaded human figure standing behind that man. On the 

Round Denderah zodiac, next to a similar scene, there is an 

already beheaded animal (see Figure 5.82). 

Probably, as we already mentioned it in subsection 5.1.11, 

this scene depicts in a symbolic way the severed head of John 

the Baptist. 

Figure 5.83: Mars meeting Saturn on the Long Denderah zodiac. 

5.9.5 Meeting of Saturn and Mars on the 

Long Denderah Zodiac. 

On the Long Denderah zodiac, next to the beheading scene, 

there is a figure of Mars with a planetary walking stick standing 

on a goose preceded by Saturn in the main horoscope — 

a figure with a planetary stick and a crescent on its head (see 

Figure 5.83). Clearly, the goose is here a pull-out symbol indicating 

that Mars appears here not in the main horoscope. 

On the other hand, a goose appears as an attribute of Mars 

on several Egyptian zodiacs, so using it as a pull-out symbol 

for Mars seems to be logical. It is the most probable that 

this combination of symbols refers to a meeting of Mars and 

Saturn that took place some time during that year. But this 

information is not very useful for the dating purposes. In fact,

ecause Saturn moves very slowly, while Mars is moving relatively 

fast, such meeting occurs every year and it is always 

near the location of Saturn on the main date (whenever it 

was). Nevertheless, in order to assure the correctness of the 

dating process, it is important to understand all the symbols, 

in particular, the planetary symbols appearing on the Egyptian 

zodiacs even if they do not produce any new information. 

Figure 5.84: Bullfighting scene on the Long Denderah zodiac. 

5.9.6 Stabbing of a Bull (Bullfighting) 

On Figure 5.84 we show a scene of killing a bull, in which a 

man with a falcon head trusts a long spear at a one-legged 

bull. We already mentioned this scene in subsection 5.8.2 in 

the context of the partial horoscope of the winter solstice. 

It is not clear what is the meaning of this symbolism but 

we should indicate that bullfighting, which this scene strongly 

resembles, was common in Europe during the medieval times. 

It existed in the Imperial Rome and is still present in Spain as 

a form of entertainment. From this point of view, knowing the 

actual date of the zodiac, it is not surprising to see such scenes 

on the Egyptian zodiacs. In fact, it is possible that corrida, 

which is a popular spectacle in Spain, represents remains of 

a wide-spread tradition that was also portrayed on Egyptian 


5.9.7 Wolf on a Scythe 

On Figure 5.85 we present a symbol of a wolf (or a dog) on a 

scythe, which appears on the both Denderah zodiacs. On the 

Long Denderah zodiac it is located between Sagittarius and 

Scorpio and on the Round Denderah zodiac, it can be found 

in the center of the zodiac circle at the approximate area of 

the ecliptic and celestial poles. Again, we are not sure about 

the meaning of this symbol. 

5.10 The Places of Astronomical Observations: Cairo and Luxor 129 

Figure 5.85: Two scenes with a wolf on a scythe on the Long 

(on the left) and Round (on the right) Denderah zodiacs. 

5.10 The Places of Astronomical 

Observations: Cairo and Luxor 

Visibility of planets close to the Sun may vary depending on 

the location, where the astronomical observations take place. 

Let us recall that on the Egyptian zodiacs the visibility of 

some planets are indicated and this information should be 

verified for the astronomical solutions. In certain cases the location 

of the observer is essential. We choose Cairo in Egypt 

as a standard location for the observer, but is certain particular 

cases, we also checked the visibility in Luxor. As Luxor 

is located about 500 km to the south from Cairo, it was possible 

that an observer in Luxor could still see some close to 

the Sun planets, while they weren’t visible in Cairo. Since 

Denderah, Esna, the Valley of the Kings, are all located in 

proximity of Luxor (Thebes), it should be assumed that the 

original location of the observer could also be in this area. 

Figure 5.86: A fragment of an old 18th century Russian map 

showing the city of Ibrim at the location of Luxor.


Egyptologists consider Luxor to be located at the place 

of ancient Thebes. Nevertheless, on some old maps instead 

of Luxor there is another name indicated, namely Ibrim (see 

[3]). On Figure 5.86 we present a fragment of an 18th century 

Russian map, showing the region of Egypt with the name 

Ibrim clearly written instead of Luxor. The name Ibrim resembles 

Abram or Abraham. Actually, the Arabic equivalent 

of the name Abraham is Ibrahim, so this city or another place 

nearby possibly was named after Abraham. Since the dates 

of all the Egyptian zodiacs turned out to be medieval, the 

existence of a city with such a biblical name near the Valley 

of the Kings is not surprising. In fact, there is some symbolic 

link connecting the Kings burial grounds with the biblical 

patriarch Abraham, which is the ancestral character of this 

place. 

5.11 Beginning of the Year on the 


As we already explained, a typical ancient Egyptian zodiac is 

an astronomical representation of the whole year containing 

the main date. Therefore, it is essential to clarify when the 

beginning of the year was assumed to take place. Nowadays, 

the new year starts on January 1st, but in old times there 

were many different conventions concerning the beginning of 

the year. For example, year could start in March, September 

(what was very common in the middle ages) or another 

month. Consequently, we have to answer the question, when 

in the ancient Egyptian tradition the new year was beginning? 

In order to tackle this problem we need to examine the 

structure of the available to us Egyptian zodiacs. On most 

of them, it appears that the beginning of the year was taking 

place in September. Let us consider first the rectangular 

zodiacs, i.e. the Long Denderah, Big and Small Esna zodiacs. 

For example, on the Small Esna zodiac (see Figure 2.17) 

the constellations and planets are shown in a form of a one 

long procession. beginning in Virgo Although the beginning 

of the zodiac was destroyed, from the remaining parts we can 

deduct that it was Virgo, i.e. the new year was taking place in 

September. In the case of the Long Denderah (see Figure 2.8) 

and Big Esna (see Figure 2.15) zodiacs, this situation is more 

complicated. Each of these zodiacs is divided into two parts, 

for each one of them we have two possible variants for the 

starting point of the procession, and consequently, for the beginning 

of the year. On the Long zodiac the procession begins 

either in Leo or Aquarius, but taking into account that additional 

Virgo is a part of Leo symbol (see subsection 5.1.5), the 

beginning of the year could also take place in Virgo. On the 

Big Esna zodiac the first constellation could be either Virgo, 

Leo or Pisces (see Figure 2.15). In summary, we can conclude 

that the first constellation on these rectangular zodiac was 

most probably Virgo. In other words, according to these zodiacs, 

the Egyptian year began in September. This conclusion 

does not contradicts the information provided by other zodiacs, 

except possibly the Athribis zodiacs (we will discuss this 

case later in Chapter 8). 

It turns out that our conjecture about the beginning of the 

Egyptian year in September, which was made purely based on 

the evidence from the zodiacs, agrees with the particularities 

of the Egyptian climate. It was pointed out by N.A. Morozov 

that periodic Nile floods, which culminate in September, 

are related to the beginning of the new agricultural season, 

so from this point of view the choice of September as the 

beginning of the new year was natural in Egypt. 53 

Consequently, during the Egyptian year the equinoxes and 

solstices were appearing in the following order: 

1. Autumn Equinox in September (at the beginning of the 

new year); 

2. Winter Solstice in December; 

3. Spring Equinox in March; 

4. Summer Solstice in June (at the end of the year). 

In our computation, we didn’t assume as a requirement that 

the Egyptian year began in September. In fact all possibilities 

were taken into account and the information provided by 

the partial horoscopes was verified for all considered variants. 

Nevertheless, in all the cases, with the only exception of the 

Athribis zodiacs, we’ve obtain a confirmation that indeed the 

Egyptian year started in September. 

53 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 641.

Chapter 6 

Method of Astronomical Determination of 

the Dates Encoded in Egyptian Zodiacs

6.1 Seven Planets of Ancient Astronomy: 

Zodiacs and Horoscopes 

In today’s astronomy there are the nine major planets known 

to revolve around the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, 

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, among which 

the first five had been visible in the sky to the naked eye since 

ancient times. In old times Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were 

unknown. Uranus was discovered in 1781 by the English astronomer 

William Herschel. Neptune is the only giant gaseous 

planet that is not visible without a telescope. It was discovered 

in 1846 by John C. Adams and Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le 

Verrier. Pluto was found in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. 

In primitive astronomy the term planet was applied to 

the seven celestial bodies that were observed to move appreciably 

against the background of the apparently fixed stars. 

These included the Sun and Moon, as well as the five true 

planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn). Let us 

explain that until the heliocentric theory of Copernicus was 

established in the 16th century, the Sun and Moon were also 

considered as planets. Before that time it was a common believe 

that all the celestial bodies revolved around the Earth. 

For an observer on the Earth, the trajectory of the Sun or 

Moon looked the same as trajectories of the real planets and 

they were also treated to be the same. 

Probably, at the early stage of the astronomical knowledge 

people thought that the Earth was surrounded by a gigantic 

sphere, which we call today the celestial sphere, covered by 

immobile stars. On this sphere there were also visible moving 

lights of the Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Mars and 

Venus. After long observations the ancient astronomers realized 

that all these lights move on the celestial sphere following 

the same imaginary path in proximity of a large circle. They 

had impression that this path was always staying unchanged. 

In fact, this is not true, but the changes that take place are 

so slow that it is impossible to observe them with a naked 

eye only. This path among the stars on the celestial sphere 

is called the ecliptic or zodiacal belt. The star constellations 

placed along the ecliptic are called the zodiacal constellations. 

In this way, the creators of the Egyptian zodiacs believed 

that on the sphere filled with immobile stars, on the path 

along the zodiacal belt, there were seven slowly moving planets. 

These seven moving stars, like they were used to be called 

in the old times, were the Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, 

Mercury, Mars, and Venus. This practice to include among 

the planets also the Sun and Moon, lasted for a very long 

time. On Figure 6.1, we show a page from an 18th century 

Russian calendar, where the Sun and Moon are still listed 

among planets. 

All these planets, except the Sun and Moon, can only be 

visible at night, when the overwhelming brightness of the Sun 

is absent. On the other hand, the Sun is visible only during 

the day, while Moon is visible by night, but sometimes also 

in the daylight. Moreover, at any moment of the time each of 

the seven planets of antiquity is located in one of the zodiacal 

constellations. The arraignment of these seven planets among 

the zodiac constellations is called a horoscope. 

Egyptian zodiacs are old Egyptian representations of 

the zodiacal constellations on the sky, shown in a symbolic 

form. Often, beside the zodiacal constellations there were also 

shown the planets, which in such case were describing a horoscope. 

Moreover, as we discussed it in the previous chapters, 

on an Egyptian zodiac other additional symbols could also be 

included. There is usually only one complete horoscope on an 

Egyptian zodiac, but sometimes there are more than one, or 

no horoscope at all. 

Figure 6.1: A page from an eighteenth century Russian calendar, 

from the time of Empress Anna Ivanovna (1730-1740). 

On the enlarged fragment the Sun and Moon are listed among 

the seven planets. 

For all the planets, with the exception of the Sun, their 

positions among the zodiacal constellations can be usually determined 

by direct observation of the sky. At night the planets 

and the stars are visible together on the sky. Only those planets, 

which are too close to the Sun, can not be observed at 

night, and of course they are not visible at the daylight either.

However, still it is possible to determine their position on the 

zodiacal belt — they are simply located in the same place as 

the Sun. 

Since the stars are not visible when the Sun is in the sky, 

there are some indirect ways to determine its precise location 

among them. For example, just after sunset, when it’s 

already dark enough, it is possible to recognize the zodiacal 

constellation appearing at the location where the Sun was 

last seen on the horizon. Then, by estimating at this moment 

the Sun’s submersion under the horizon, its distance from the 

Sun can be approximated. For this purpose, we need to know 

the speed of the Sun in its apparent motion on the sky, which 

is related to the eastward rotation of the Earth on its axis. 

The Earth’s angular velocity doesn’t change in time (within 

the limits of the required by us precision), hence the calculation 

of the submersion of the Sun is rather simple, but still is 

depended on some kind of a time measuring device. 

There is another method to quite precisely determine the 

position of the Sun among the constellations, but this method 

could only be applied on specific days, namely at the time 

of Full Moon, and under the assumptions that the lengths of 

the zodiac constellations were already measured and compiled 

into a catalogue. With a help of such a catalogue, an ancient 

astronomer could determine the position of the Sun based on 

the position of Moon. More precisely, at Full Moon the location 

of the Sun on the ecliptic is exactly at the point on 

the opposite from Moon side of the Earth. Therefore, by direct 

observations the position of Moon could be established, 

and next the location of the Sun, at the opposite point on 

the ecliptic, could be determined based on the data in the 

catalogue. Knowing the Sun positions at the Full Moon days 

and using the fact that it moves on the ecliptic with constant 

velocity making a complete revolution in one year, it is possible 

to calculate the Sun’s position on the sky on any day. 

Clearly this task could only be achieved with help of a device 

for measuring time and ability to carry on calculations with 

fractions, which were accomplished only in the middle ages 1 . 

Let us point out, that regardless of the astronomical observations, 

since the Sun and the stars could never be observed 

together at the same time, the position of the Sun among the 

star constellations could only be computed. We should also 

notice that on the Egyptian zodiacs the position of the Sun 

seems usually to be precisely specified, what indicated that 

they could not be created based only on the observations of 

the sky, without any astronomical computations. 

6.2 Calculated Horoscopes on the 


As we already explained, the ancient astronomers were able to 

determine by direct observations the positions of all the planets 

except the Sun. The position of the Sun was either calculated 

or roughly estimated. Consequently, the horoscopes on 

1 See [173], p. 94-102 

6.2 Calculated Horoscopes on the Egyptian Zodiacs 133 

the old zodiacs could be created as a result of direct observations. 

On the other hand, there was nothing to prevent the 

ancient astronomers from actually computing one or another 

horoscope. For this purpose, they needed a kind of astronomical 

theory, which would allowed them to roughly compute 

positions of all the planets, not only just the Sun’s position. 

High precision of such a theory was not really important, a 

margin of an error from 5 o to 6 o would be completely sufficient 

for the computation of the planetary positions. This 

precision would be high enough to determine the locations of 

the planets with respect to the zodiacal constellations. For 

example, the geocentric theory of Ptolemy, which was presented 

in the presumable “ancient” Almagest, was more than 

sufficient for such purposes. Let mention that it is believed 

that Almagest was written in Egypt, in Alexandria 2 

Let us recall that the Almagest was an astronomical and 

mathematical encyclopedia, which according to the conventional 

chronology was compiled about AD 140 by Ptolemy 

(Claudius Ptolemaeus of Alexandria) (see section ??). However, 

it was proved in the monograph [106] that this dating of 

the Almagest is wrong, and in fact it belongs to the epoch from 

the 7th to 14th century, with editorial modifications made up 

to the 17th century. 

In this way, in any case, regardless if we trust or not 

Scaliger’s chronology, we see that the Egyptian astronomers 

disposed of an astronomical theory completely sufficient to 

compute, and not only observe, the astronomical data for the 

horoscopes, which we find on the zodiacs. 

This leads us to the following important statement: 

A horoscope shown on an Egyptian zodiac does not 

necessarily refer to a date coinciding with the time of 

the creation of that zodiac. 

For example, if a zodiac is a part of a ceiling in an old 

temple, then encoded in its horoscope date may be related to 

the time of the construction of the temple, but more likely it 

is a date of a significant event to which this temple was dedicated. 

In this case, it is most probable, that such a horoscope 

was computed at the time of the construction based on the 

information about the commemorated event. 

There is also another possibility. The “ancient” creators 

of the zodiacs, who, as we will see, possibly lived in the 15th 

or even 16th century A.D., could have access to old books 

with astronomical records. These not existing anymore books 

could contain descriptions of astronomical observations from 

the 11th to 13th century, which were used by them to design 

zodiacs in the “ancient” Egyptian temples. They could 

also have an access to an earlier version of the Ptolemy’s Almagest 

from the 11th to 14th century A.D. Today, we only 

have its European edition from the 17th century, which pretends 

to be the original version that survived till our present 

time from the ancient times. For more information we refer 

the interested reader to the monograph “Astronomical Anal- 

2 See [22].

134 6 Method of Astronomical Determination of the Dates Encoded in Egyptian Zodiacs 

ysis of Chronology,” by Fomenko, Kalashnikov and Nosovsky 

(see [173]). 

On the other hand, a horoscope painted on a cover of an 

Egyptian sarcophagus or on a tomb, is the most likely describing 

the date of death or birth of the buried there person. 

So, in this case it would also be an approximate date of the 

creation the sarcophagus or tomb. In such situations, a horoscope 

was probably determined by direct observations of the 

sky, with exception for the Sun. Since at that time, not too 

many computations were needed to find out a position of the 

Sun, it was presumably the most likely way the horoscopes 

were made. However, we should not exclude the possibility 

that in a tomb of a prominent individual there could also be 

a zodiac commemorating his or her date of birth or death, but 

another date of an important event related to this person. For 

example, it could be even an event in which predecessors of 

this individual took part. Therefore, zodiacs with calculated 

horoscopes could also be created for tombs. Clearly, such zodiacs 

referring to the long passed events couldn’t be compiled 

using simple observations of the night sky only. It could be 

done by qualified astronomers who were able carry out the 

calculations for such a horoscope. Of course, the early chronologists 

could be mistaken in their ideas about the dates of 

the past events. Such mistakes were made before and are still 

done today, but it was always more likely that the dates were 

made rather older than younger. Longer was history of a family, 

a tribe, or a nation, more respect it had. In this way, we 

should expect that even in very old tombs it is possible to 

find calculated horoscopes indicating ancient dates that are 

false. 

On the other hand, it is impossible to imagine that on a 

ceiling of a temple or inside a tomb, there could be commemorated 

dates from the future! Therefore, the construction 

date of a temple or a tomb should be considered to be later 

than the date encoded in the horoscope found inside it. 

6.3 Movement of Planets Among 

Zodiac Constellations 

Before we explain how with a help of a horoscope, it is possible 

to record in a unique, or almost unique way, a date of an event, 

we will recall some basic facts from astronomy. 

When observing the night sky, we have an impression that 

we are surrounded by an imaginary sphere (called celestial 

sphere) extending outward from the Earth for an infinite distance 

and whose surface is filled with fixed stars. It is not 

difficult to notice that this sphere appears to rotate slowly. 

Today we know that this effect is created by the rotation of 

the Earth around its axis, around which the celestial sphere 

also seems to revolve. However, for the early astronomers the 

Earth was in the center of the universe surrounded by this 

slowly revolving celestial sphere on which the stars seem to 

be fixed. The term celestial sphere is still used in the modern 

astronomy in spite of the fact that it doesn’t exist! Nevertheless, 

it is convenient for the astronomical analysis of the 

observable planetary motions and it also is used to make the 

astronomical maps, or sky charts showing the configurations 

of celestial bodies on the sky in the way how they are exactly 

seen by an Earth-based observer. 

Figure 5.2 

The Solar system shown inside the celestial sphere. The 

observed position of planets on the celestial sphere indicated 

by the rays from the Earth. 

In fact, the actual distance from the Earth to all the stars 

(except the Sun) is so large in comparison to the size of the 

Solar system, that it can be assumed to be infinite or, what 

would result in the same, that all the stars are equally (but 

enormously) far from the Earth. Therefore, we can imagine 

that all the stars are indeed placed on a surface of a huge 

sphere (of an “infinite” radius) with the center at the Earth. 

On the other hand, since the distance from the Earth to the 

stars is incomparably larger that the distance to the Sun, it is 

also possible to assume that this celestial sphere has its center 

at the Sun, instead of the Earth. In this case, the planets 

revolve around the Sun on the orbits of much shorter (finite) 

radius, so the whole Solar system is contained in the celestial 

sphere (see Figure ??). 

Let us ignore for a moment the rotation of the Earth, 

which determines what portion of the sky is visible for an 

observer on the Earth. For example, from the location on the 

same side of the Earth as the Sun, the only visible star will be 

the Sun and there will be a daytime. In the same time, on the 

other side of the Earth, the Sun won’t be visible, but instead 

an observer will see the half of the celestial sphere filled with 

stars. The line limiting the visibility is the horizon.

In this way, the daily rotation of the Earth around its axis 

determines where on the Earth either the Sun or the planets 

were visible at that particular moment. A horoscope, which 

is just the arrangement of the planets among the zodiacal 

constellations at a certain moment, does not depend on it at 

all. Nevertheless, we will later consider the daily rotation of 

the Earth in order to verify the visibility conditions for planets 

in a horoscope. For now, we will assume that our observer, like 

an imaginary person sitting in the center of the completely 

transparent Earth, can see everything at every moment — 

the Sun, the planets, and the stars. 

From this point of view, it is easy to understand how the 

motion of the planets is perceived from the Earth. Indeed, the 

location of a planet, or even the Sun, on the celestial sphere 

(for an observer on the Earth) is determined by the direction 

of the ray from the Earth passing through that planet. If 

we imagine that this ray is extended indefinitely till it “intersects” 

the celestial sphere at some point, then at that moment 

this point is exactly at the position of that planet among the 

star constellations (see Figure ??). 

Since all the planets, including the Earth, revolve around 

the Sun, thus also moves the ray from the Earth pointing at 

any other planet (including the Sun and Moon). Besides, the 

beginning as well as the end point of the segment, of which 

this ray is an extension, move as well. Consequently, all the 

planets slowly and with different velocities wander among the 

fixed stars. A trajectory of every planet on the sky is the path 

of the end-point of the ray (on the celestial sphere) originated 

on the Earth and passing through that planet (see Figure ??). 

We should recall that all the rays pointing the planets belong 

(almost) to the same plane, called the orbital plane of 

the Solar system. It is well known in astronomy that although 

they are different, all the planes containing the orbits of planets 

are very close one to another. It is possible to think that 

approximately they all coincide with the one plane, which is 

the orbital plane. The intersection of this plane with the celestial 

sphere is the celestial path on which, to an observer on 

the Earth, all the planets appear to move, including the Sun 

and Moon. 

The simplest to describe is the trajectory of the Sun. The 

almost uniform motion of the Earth around the Sun, causes an 

impression for an observer on the Earth, that the Sun revolves 

uniformly around the Earth. In result, we see the Sun that 

always moves across the sky in one direction at an even rate. 

It takes the Sun about a year to complete an orbit around the 

Earth. The exact time to make such a full revolution, which 

is about 365.242 days, is called the astronomical year. 

Trajectories of the other planets are more complicated. 

They are obtained as a result of the interaction of two revolutions 

around the Sun; the one of the Earth and the other 

planet. As the ray, pointing the location of a planet on the 

celestial sphere, originates at the Earth and passes through 

that planet, the observed trajectory of the planet can be complicated. 

The planet may appear to somebody on the Earth, 

6.4 Partition of the Zodiac Belt into Zodiac Constellations 135 

as moving forward, stopping for a while, than going back and 

finally advancing forward again, following the common for all 

the planets general direction. This variable forward planetary 

motion was already observed a long time ago, and there were 

many ancient astronomers, who tried to explain this phenomena. 

We should mention that the “ancient” astronomical theory 

of Ptolemy describes the planetary motions with rather 

high accuracy. 

Up to now, we have discussed only the yearly motion of the 

Sun and the planets among the star constellations. Regarding 

the daily movement of the Sun on the sky — from the East to 

the West, it has no effect on its position among the stars, and 

in fact, it doesn’t have impact on anything on the celestial 

sphere. In other words, the horoscope doesn’t depend on it. 

Indeed, this daily motion of the Sun is in fact created by the 

Earth’s rotation around its axis, and it has no connection 

with other planets, which revolve around the Earth together 

with the celestial sphere. 

6.4 Partition of the Zodiac Belt into 

Zodiac Constellations 

Therefore, during its yearly trip the Sun, Moon and the planets, 

move along the large circle on the celestial sphere, which 

in astronomy is called the ecliptic. The stars surrounding the 

ecliptic are grouped in the so called zodiacal constellations. 

In this way, we obtain a circular belt of constellations encompassing 

the firmament around the ecliptic. 

To be more specific, the ecliptic is the circle obtained as 

the intersection of the plane, containing the orbit of the Earth 

revolving around the Sun, and the celestial sphere. We can 

assume that the celestial sphere has its center at the Sun, 

which also belongs to the plane containing the ecliptic. On 

Figure 6.2 we marked the center of the celestial sphere by the 

letter O. However, as we already explained, the distance from 

the Earth to remote stars is incomparable with the size of the 

Solar system, and magnitude of changes related to the Earth 

motion, thus it is also possible to consider the Earth to be 

the center of the celestial sphere. 

Today it is well known that the ecliptic is also moving with 

time, but it is a very slow motion. Therefore, a concept of a 

temporary ecliptic (or time-depended ecliptic) was introduced 

for a specified year or epoch. The temporary position of the 

ecliptic during that year or epoch is called the specified ecliptic 

epoch. For example, the position of the ecliptic on January 1, 

2000 is called the ecliptic of the year 2000 epoch, or just simply 

the J2000 ecliptic. 

The letter “J” in the word J2000 is simply a reminder that 

in astronomy the time is measured in Julian years 3 There is 

another method of measuring the time in astronomy, which 

we also used in our calculations, namely in Julian days of the 

Scaliger period or simply in Julian day numbers. Beginning 

3 See [95] and [96].


with the year 4713 B.C,, J. Scaliger decided to number all 

the days. For example the Julian day of April 1, 1400 A.D., 

corresponds to the number 2232407 4 . 

Figure 6.2: The celestial sphere with the indicated ecliptic, 

equator, and the equinox and solstice points. The spring and 

autumn equinox points are the intersection points of the ecliptic 

with the equator. 

On Figure 6.2, besides the ecliptic there is another large 

circle marked on the celestial sphere, which is the equator. 

This equator is exactly the intersection circle of the plane 

containing the Earth’s equator with the celestial sphere. It 

is a well-known fact, that the equator circle is relatively fast 

changing its position in time. It constantly revolves around 

the celestial sphere. 

The ecliptic and equator intersect on the celestial sphere 

at the angle of 23 o 27 ′ approximately. The points of their intersection 

are denoted on Figure 6.2 by the letters Q and R. 

In the course of a year, the Sun in its apparent movement 

along the ecliptic crosses twice the equator at these points. 

The point Q, through which the Sun enters into the northern 

hemisphere, is called the spring equinox point. At that 

time the day and night are of equal length. The opposite to 

Q point on the celestial sphere is the autumn equinox point. 

On Figure 6.2, this point is denoted by the letter R. Through 

the point R the Sun enters the southern hemisphere. At that 

time the day and night are again of equal length. 

4 See [27], p. 316. 

The winter and summer solstice points are also located on 

the ecliptic. The four equinox and solstice points divide the 

ecliptic into four equal parts (see Figure 6.2). 

As time goes by, the four equinox and solstice points continually 

move along the ecliptic in the direction of decreasing 

ecliptic longitude. This motion is called in astronomy the 

precession of the equinoxes or simply the precession 5 . The 

equinoxes drift westward along the ecliptic at the rate of 1 o 

per 72 years. This drift caused in the Julian Calendar a shifting 

of the dates for the equinox days. 

Indeed, since the Julian year is almost the same as the 

astronomical year, i.e. the time taken for the Earth to complete 

its orbit around the Sun, — the shifting of the spring 

equinox on the ecliptic results in shifting of the date of the 

spring equinox in Julian calendar (i.e. the “old style date”). 

In fact the “old style date” of the spring equinox, which in 

the Northern Hemisphere occurs now about March 21, is decreasing 

constantly at the rate of one day per 128 years (see 

Figure 4.7). 

In order to determine positions of celestial objects, we 

need a system of coordinates on the celestial sphere. There 

are several systems of coordinates used in astronomy, but we 

choose the so called system of ecliptic coordinates, which is 

illustrated on Figure 6.2. Consider a meridian on the celestial 

sphere from the pole P passing through the point A, for 

which we would like to determine its coordinates. The meridian 

intersects the ecliptic at the point D (see Figure 6.2). The 

length of the arc QD will be considered to be the ecliptic longitude 

of the point A, and the length of the arc AD — its 

ecliptic latitude (the both lengths measured in degrees). Let 

us recall that the point Q is the spring equinox point. 

In this way, the ecliptic longitude on the celestial sphere 

is calculated as a distance from the spring equinox point of 

a specific epoch, which was chosen for this purpose. In other 

words, the system of ecliptic coordinates is “attached” to certain 

fixed epoch. However, once such an epoch is chosen, the 

related system of ecliptic coordinates can be used to describe 

the positions of the Sun, Moon, the planets, and, in fact, of 

any celestial object at any moment of time from this or 

another epoch. 

In our calculations we used the ecliptic coordinate system 

attached to the ecliptic J2000, i.e. on January 1, 2000. 

We took, as the basis for the establishment of the ecliptic 

coordinates between the zodiacal constellations according to 

the ecliptic J2000, their J1900 coordinates (January 1, 1900) 6 . 

This partition of the ecliptic fits the contours of the constellations 

on an astronomical chart published in [49]. After readjusting 

this partition for the J2000 epoch (January 1, 2000), 

we obtained the results that are summarized in Table 6.1. 

We should explain that the boundaries of the constellations 

are not defined precisely on the sky. Therefore, any 

5 See [95]. 

6 See [173], p. 782

Zodiacal Interval on the ecliptic 

Constellation (J2000 epoch) 

Aries 26 — 51 

Taurus 51 — 89 

Gemini 89 — 118 

Cancer 118 — 143 

Leo 143 — 174 

Virgo 174 — 215 

Libra 215 — 236 

Scorpio 236 — 266 

Sagittarius 266 — 301 

Capricorn 301 — 329 

Aquarius 329 — 346 

Pisces 346 — 26 

Table 6.1: Zodiacal intervals on ecliptic 

partition of the ecliptic into zodiacal constellations is always 

subjective and approximative. Different authors use slightly 

different partitions, but their discrepancies are not larger than 

5 o or, in other words, 5 days (if use the displacement of the 

Sun on the ecliptic). For example, the latitudes differences 

between the partition of the ecliptic, shown on the sky chart 

by A. Dürer (see Figure 5.2), and the one used by us, are not 

larger than 5 o . 

The subjective nature of the partition of the ecliptic into 

zodiacal constellations has to be taken into account. In our 

computations, we used two ways to eliminate errors that eventually 

could result from it. The first one is reflected in the 

computer program Horos, where for all the boundaries of the 

zodiacal constellations a 5 o margin of tolerance was enabled. 

The second one is applied, when in the process of decoding 

of the zodiacs and searching for the preliminary astronomical 

solutions we allow some extensions of the range of the admissible 

planetary positions. Namely, we permitted the planets 

to “wander” into neighboring constellations up to a half of 

constellation length. In this way, we were able to completely 

exclude the possibility of losing a correct solution due to imprecisions 

in determining the exact boundaries of the zodiacal 

constellations on the ecliptic. Of course, in result we’ve obtained 

a whole collection of worthless astronomical solutions, 

which were rejected after verifying their conformity with the 

partial horoscopes and the visibility attributes. 

In addition, at the final stage of our research, for every 

obtained by us final solution, we carefully analyzed agreement 

between the Egyptian zodiac and the solution using the 

computer program Turbo-Sky. We should point out that in 

every case there was no disparity between the planetary positions 

on the zodiac and the final solution. In other words, 

all the final solutions, i.e. those preliminary solutions, which 

agree with the partial horoscopes and the visibility attributes, 

turned out to be in a very good correspondence with their zodiacs 

regarding the planetary positions. Regardless the fact 

that these final solutions were selected using only rough veri- 

6.5 “Celestial Calendar” and Its Principles 137 

fication of the additional information, still they strongly agree 

with the zodiacs. 

6.5 “Celestial Calendar” and Its 

Principles 

Let us explain in detail how works the so called “celestial calendar,” 

which was used to record special dates on the Egyptian 

zodiacs. As we already explained, a date on an Egyptian 

zodiacs was indicated by a horoscope showing the locations 

of the seven ancient planets (including the Sun and Moon) 

among the zodiacal constellations. 

A question arises: are there sufficiently many possible 

planetary arrangements among the zodiac constellations, i.e. 

horoscopes, to indicated effectively any particular date with 

a precision of one or two days? 

In order to give an answer, we will do a simple calculation. 

One year consists of 365.25 days in average. The period 

of history based on the written documents, according to the 

conventional chronology, is considered to be approximately 

the last 5000–6000 years, so it is a period consisting of about 

2 000 000 days. Is it possible, using different horoscopes, to 

“cover” all these days? Maybe, there are not enough different 

horoscopes, so the same horoscopes have to repeat on the sky 

every 100 or 200 years? If it really was the case, the dates represented 

by Egyptian horoscopes would be completely useless 

for the independent chronological studies. Indeed, in such a 

situation it would be possible to find for a given horoscope a 

date in almost every century. By the way, such erroneous assumptions 

were made, and continue to be made, in attempts 

to justify the conventional chronology with help of the astronomical 

dating of Sumerian clay tablets (see [97] and [99]), or 

Egyptian zodiacs (see [10], [11], and [98]) 7 . 

Let us return to the estimation of the number of different 

horoscopes. Fortunately, this problem is much simpler than 

it appears at the first glance. In fact this number is very 

large — there are over 3.5 million of different horoscopes. 

Consequently, we can state safely that it is large enough for 

our purpose of independent dating. 

Indeed, let us show how this number was calculated. Recall 

that every planet can be located in any of the twelve zodiacal 

constellations , while the inner planets — Mercury and 

Venus, — are always located in the proximity of the Sun. In 

fact, the distance of Venus from the Sun is never larger than 

48 o in longitude, while Mercury is even closer to the Sun at 

the distance less than 28 o in longitude 8 . Consequently, once 

the Sun’s position on the zodiacal belt is fixed, Mercury can 

be not further than one, and Venus not further than two, 

zodiacal constellations from the Sun. Let us recall that an 

average length of a zodiacal constellation is about 30 o . In 

this case we obtain that Venus can be located in 5 possible 

zodiacal constellations, which are the constellation where the 

7 See also section 3.5. 

8 See [15].


Sun is located or 2 neighboring constellations on each side 

of the Sun. Similarly, having the position of the Sun fixed, 

Mercury can be located in only 3 possible zodiacal constellations. 

All the other planets can be located in any of the 

twelve zodiacal constellations, independent on the Sun’s position. 

Therefore, we obtain the following number of possible 

different horoscopes: 

12 × 12 × 12 × 12 × 12 × 5 × 3 = 3 732 480. 

Without trying to be too precise, we can assume that an 

average horoscope remains on the sky for about 24 hours. 

Therefore, by dividing the number of all possible horoscopes 

by 365 days, we will get the number of years corresponding 

to the average radius of repeatability of the same horoscope, 

which is about 10 thousand years. In other words, if the distribution 

of horoscopes was completely chaotic, then every 

horoscope would repeat itself every 10 thousand years in average. 

However, this distribution is not completely chaotic, 

thus a horoscope can repeat two or even three times within 

the period of 1500–2000 years, and then, as a rule, disappear 

for many dozens of thousands of years. 

This repeatability of horoscopes is related to the existence 

of the so-called pseudo-periods in the planetary configuration 

of the Solar system, i.e. the false periods of time after which 

the planetary locations around the Sun repeat themselves in a 

similar configuration. After that, there is one more repetition 

of a similar, but more distorted, configuration of planetary positions. 

After such two or three reappearances, usually there 

is no more pseudo-periodic repetition of such a configuration. 

One of such pseudo-periods of 854 years was investigated by 

N.A. Morozov, and later by N.S. Kellin and D.V. Denisenko. 

In relation to this problem, Morozov wrote: 

“Trying to shorten the computations, my assistant from 

the Astronomical Department of the State Institute for Natural 

Sciences (“Lesgaft Institute”), late M.A. Vil’ev, found an 

approximate period of 912.9 years for the geocentric configuration 

of Jupiter and Saturn. Later, I have concluded that 

854 years period works even better ... But precisely speaking, 

Saturn returns into the same point on the sky after 854.25 

years and not 854 years, when it appears 3 o behind, while 

Jupiter returns to its previous geocentric location after 854.05 

years, so it appears 1.5 o behind. ... The New and Half Moon 

phases occur in 854 years periodic series after 8 days in average 

and Mars returns closely to its previous location. In 

addition, Venus and Mercury have also tendency to be located 

in such series two-three times on the same side of the Sun, 

either to the South or North from it. Nevertheless, it would be 

very imprudent ... to use this approximate period ... on very 

long time intervals (like 10 periods, i.e. 8500 years).” 9 

N.S. Kellin and D.V. Denisenko investigated this pseudoperiod, 

which was found by N.A. Morozov, and concluded 

that from the viewpoint of an observer on the Earth, it sometimes 

works even in cases when the whole planetary configuration 

changes significantly. They wrote: 

9 See [4], Vol.6, pp. 706, 708 

During 854 years, Venus makes 1388 full revolutions 

around the Sun plus additional 70 o , while after this time Mercury 

still will be 40 o behind its initial position. In spite of the 

fact that these shifts are substantially larger than the displacements 

of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (in average 21 o , −1.5 o , 

and −3 o , respectively), for an observer on the Earth, Mercury 

and Venus may appear not only in the same zodiacal 

constellation, but practically at the same as their initial locations. 

The reason fort this is that they revolve around the 

Sun closer to the Earth, thus their projections can be at the 

same points even if they are located at different places on their 

orbits 10 .” 

Finding these pseudo-periods leads to a conclusion that 

for many horoscopes, as long as they appeared in the last 

2–3 thousand years, they could repeated themselves two or 

three times during the historical time interval. From the astronomical 

dating point of view, it brings us to the existence 

of undesirably many solutions for one horoscope in this time 

interval. However, usually there are only few such solutions 

— two or three, sometimes one, or even four. Therefore, if 

in addition to the horoscope we would also have, even a very 

small, nontrivial astronomical information characterizing the 

encoded date, then it could be that there is only one final 

solution. This is exactly the situation with the Egyptian zodiacs. 

On the other hand, the repetition of horoscopes means also 

that, in the historical time interval of the last 2–3 thousand 

years, there were in fact less horoscopes appearing on the 

sky. Thus, it follows from our reasoning that a “taken from 

the air” imaginary horoscope most probably won’t have any 

solution in this time interval. 

We can conclude our reasoning with the statement that 

the “celestial calendar” encoded into Egyptian zodiacs was 

indeed an effective way to preserve till present time the exact 

and precise dates of the ancient Egyptian history. 

The whole idea of using this “celestial calendar” for commemorating 

the burial dates is clearly related to the fact that it is 

an exceptional and practically everlasting way to record the 

dates. It doesn’t depend on any type of calendar, era of any 

imperial reign, conventions of recording numbers, or other 

events that could be easily forgotten. In other words, it is 

a universal way to record the dates that is independent on 

anything that could be forgotten by future generations. 

Indeed, to record a date using the “celestial calendar,” 

there was no need to use words or numbers. Everything was 

done with a help of pictures only. Of course, in order to decode 

the recorded date, it is necessary to know the meaning 

of the symbols of zodiacal constellations and the planetary 

figures. We have to agree with the ancient Egyptians that, as 

long as the sky filled with stars exists above us, people will 

always remember these astronomical notions. Indeed, we have 

preserved till the present times sufficiently enough information 

above the ancient astronomy to be able to decode this 

“celestial dates.” These old records help us to understand the 

10 See [15].

meaning of the ancient astronomical symbolism on the Egyptian 


It is the most fortunate that today we are able, but not 

without effort, to read these old “celestial” Egyptian dates, 

and determine what was the exact time of the existence of 

the ancient Egypt. 

6.6 Principal Accuracy of the Computations 

of the Past Planetary 

Positions 

For the calculations of the visible from the Earth positions of 

the Sun, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Venus, we used 

the computational program PLANETAP, written in the language 

FORTRAN by French astronomers J.L. Simon, P. Bretagnon, 

J. Chapront, M. Chapront-Touze, G. Francou, and J. 

Laskar, from le Bureau des Longitudes in Paris, which was 

published in the astronomical journal “Astronomy and Astrophysics” 

in 1994 11 . 

The program PLANETAP allows to compute the past coordinates, 

radial vectors and instantaneous velocities of the 8 

basic planets of the solar system: Earth (or more precisely 

– the center of mass of the Earth-Moon system), Saturn, 

Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Uranus, and Neptune. The 

heliocentric coordinates of the planets, used in the PLAN- 

ETAP, are computed according to the ecliptic plane for the 

epoch J2000 (Julian day JD2451545.0) 12 . 

The authors of the program PLANETAP guarantee the 

precision not less than 2 o for all the computations of the heliocentric 

longitudes of all the eight planets in the time interval 

from the year 1000 A.D. 13 . For the dates earlier than the 

year 1000, the precision of this program gradually decreases, 

however, up to the first centuries A.D., it is still sufficient for 

our purposes. Let us recall that we are satisfied with the coordinates 

of the visible from the Earth planets that are precise 

only up to few degrees. In fact for the dating of the Egyptian 

zodiacs the higher than this precision is not needed. Nevertheless, 

in order to reduce the growth of the computational 

errors for the epoch preceding the year 1000 A.D., in the algorithm 

of the program PLANETAP, we truncated beginning 

from the year 1000 A.D. the higher terms in the power series 

expansions of the average orbit elements. The trigonometric 

representations, which did not contain increasing terms, were 

left unchanged. 

We used the program PLANETAP as a subroutine for our 

computer program HOROS, which was designed precisely for 

the purpose of dating of the Egyptian zodiacs or other old zodiacs 

of a similar type. The program HOROS uses the calculations 

of the heliocentric planetary coordinates, done by the 

program PLANETAP, to compute the ecliptic longitudes of 

11 See [50]. 

12 See [50]. 

13 See [50]. 

6.7 Dating of Egyptian Zodiacs Based on Contents of the Main and Partial Horoscopes 139 

the visible from the Earth planets: Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, 

Mars, and Venus. As the beginning point for the longitudes 

we chose the spring equinox of the epoch J2000. 

In the program HOROS, the location of the Moon among 

the zodiacal constellations are computed using another subroutine, 

which was written by the same group of the specialists 

from le Bureau des Longitudes in Paris. More precisely, 

we used the program ELP2000-85 (version 1.0) for the calculations 

of the lunar ephemeris, written using language FOR- 

TRAN by the astronomers J. Chapront and M. Chapront- 

Touze 14 . This program allows to compute with high precision 

the visible from the Earth position of the Moon on the celestial 

sphere. For not too distant from our times epochs, the 

precision of this program (in the variant we used in the program 

HOROS), according to its authors, is not smaller than 

1 second 15 . For the dates from 1–2 thousands years ago, its 

precision, as expected, is significantly lower. However, let us 

recall again that for the dating of the Egyptian zodiacs, which 

only approximately show the planetary positions, we do not 

need very high precision of these computations. In fact, we 

could be completely satisfied with a precision of up to few degrees, 

but the precision of the program ELP2000-85 is much 

higher than that. 

With the help of the programs PLANETAP and 

ELP2000-85, which allowed us to compute the past positions 

on the sky of all the ancient planets, we wrote another computer 

program HOROS, which was specially designed for the 

astronomical dating of old zodiacs. For an arbitrary approximate 

configuration of the ancient planets, the program Horos 

calculates all the possible dates when such configuration could 

occur. Moreover, if the source of this configuration, i.e. an 

Egyptian zodiac, specifies a specific order of these planets on 

the zodiacal belt, then the program HOROS indicates also if 

the order (partial or complete) of the planets on these dates 

was exactly as required. 

For a detail description of the program HOROS, the associated 

with it files, and how to use it, we refer the reader 

to Appendix. The program itself can be downloaded from the 

following web site on the Internet: 

http://krawcewicz.net/download 

or from any of the other sites listed at the list of references 

at the end of the book. 

6.7 Dating of Egyptian Zodiacs 

Based on Contents of the Main 

and Partial Horoscopes 

In this section we will describe our procedure for the astronomical 

dating of the Egyptian zodiacs. It is remarkably different 

from the methods used earlier by the other researchers, 

14 See [51]. 

15 See [51].


mainly because it uses more complete decoding of the astronomical 

contents of the zodiacs. 

Let us point out, right from the beginning, that by the 

astronomical dating of the Egyptian zodiacs, we mean not 

finding the dates of their creations, but the dates, which were 

encoded by the ancient Egyptians on these zodiacs. With the 

help of the available today computational technology, we have 

an opportunity to discover many of these dates. Regarding 

the dates of the creation of these zodiacs, it is completely 

another problem, which has to be treated differently. One 

thing is sure that they couldn’t be created earlier than the 

dates encoded in them. Indeed, it is reasonable to think that 

people at that time, as it would be today, used these zodiacs 

to commemorate certain events from the past, and not from 

the future. 

On the other hand, there was nothing that could prevent 

an ancient Egyptian artist from encoding of a much older date 

into a zodiac. As we explained earlier, ancient astronomers 

were able to calculate the planetary positions for a specified 

date. It is also possible that they already had a chronological 

concept of their own “ancient,” but not always correct, 

chronology. Therefore, in the case of some Egyptian zodiacs, 

we may be dealing with the dates that were ancient even 

for the creators of these zodiacs, and are represented by the 

planetary configurations resulting from astronomical computations. 

Our astronomical dating procedure of the Egyptian zodiacs 

consists of the following steps: 

6.7.1 Step 1: Identification of the Planets in 

the Main Horoscope with All Possible 

Variants Considered. 

For a given Egyptian zodiac, we recognize with the help of 

the comparative tables of Egyptian astronomical symbols (see 

section 5.4), all the possible variants of identification of the 

planetary symbols in the main horoscope, i.e. the variants of 

decoding of its main horoscope. 

Usually, there are always several variants of decoding. For 

example, very often the symbols of the Sun and Moon, shown 

on an Egyptian zodiac, are very similar. In such a situation, 

we have to consider all the possible choices of their identification. 

Sometimes, there are problems with identification of the 

other planets, whose symbols couldn’t be definitely recognize 

at the preliminary stage. 

6.7.2 Step 2: Computation of the Dates for 

All Variants of Decoding 

For every variant of decoding of the main horoscope, obtained 

in the previous step, we compute all the dates, indicating 

when the configuration of the planets, coinciding with the 

arrangement of the planets on the zodiac (according to the 

considered variant of decoding) occured on the real sky. These 

computations were carried out using the computer program 

Horos (see section 6.6). 

In the same time, we verify if the order of the planets is 

the same as shown on the zodiac. Let us point out that not 

always this order can be fully determined. In some cases the 

order is not clear. For example, on zodiacs of the round type, 

a pair of planets can be arranged in such a way that any order 

of these planets is compatible with the picture of the zodiac. 

Or, a zodiac could be partially damaged, so the order of the 

planets in the damaged area is of course undefined. For these 

reasons, the program Horos was designed in such a way that 

it is possible to deal with all kinds of such situations. 

The computations were carried out for the time interval 

from the year 500 B.C. till 1900 A.D. We decided to choose 

the lower bound of 500 B.C. for this interval based on the fact 

that, according to presently accepted Scaliger’s chronology of 

Ancient Egypt, all the zodiacs allowing their decoding and astronomical 

dating, i.e. the zodiacs of the “Greek-Babylonian” 

type, began to appear in Egypt not earlier than in the first 

century B.C. 16 . Before that time, Egyptian zodiacs were completely 

different, and the rules for their decoding still have 

to be established 17 . In order to properly cover in our computations 

the assumed by Egyptologists epoch of the “Greek- 

Babylonian” zodiacs, a margin of additional few centuries was 

included in the lower bound for the time interval. 

All the computed dates from the interval 500 B.C. — 1900 

A.D., for which the planetary configuration on the sky was 

conformed with the horoscope on the zodiac (with the same 

order of planets), were included in the list of all possible 

(admissible) dates for the considered variant of decoding. As a 

result, for every analyzed zodiac, we’ve obtained a table with 

columns corresponding to the specified variants of decoding 

of the main horoscope, each column containing all the admissible 

dates computed by the program Horos. The number of 

admissible dates varied from 4–5 to several dozens for some 

of the considered zodiacs. 

It is very interesting, that in the case of many analyzed 

by us Egyptian zodiacs, there was not even one admissible 

date falling into the postulated by Egyptologists epoch of 

few centuries before and after the beginning of our era. This 

fact fully confirms the Morozov’s claim that for that epoch it 

doesn’t exist any admissible astronomical solution, so needed 

by Egyptologists to support their version of Egyptian chronology. 

All the postulated by various authors astronomical solutions, 

related to that epoch, admit such incredible flaws that 

it is difficult at all to consider them as solutions 18 . 

16 See [31], p. 40. 

17 See [31], p. 38. 

18 See [4], Vol.6.

6.7.3 Step 3: Validation of Dates Based on 

the Precise Planetary Positions, Visibility 

Attributes, and Partial Horoscopes. 

Rejection of Incomplete Solutions. 

With the help of the astronomical software Turbo-Sky, written 

by A. Volynkin, we checked for each of the admissible dates 

the following: 

[A] Exact Correspondence to the Main Horoscope: At 

this point, we verified if there is exact correspondence 

between the real (computed) configuration of the planets 

on the zodiacal belt, and the initial data, i.e. the main 

horoscope according to the considered decoding. The necessity 

of such a verification is dictated by the fact that 

in our computations we have significantly weaken the requirements 

related to the acceptable locations of planets 

on the zodiacal belt. Let us recall that we did it in order 

to avoid the impact of undefined boundaries between the 

zodiacal constellations and other inevitable imprecisions. 

[B] Conformity to the Visibility Attributes of Venus, 

Mercury and Other Planets in Proximity of the 

Sun. For more information about the visibility attributes, 

we refer to section 5.7. 

– We were verifying the visibility of planets for the computed 

solutions at the two locations of an observer: 

Alexandria and Luxor (which is located 500 km South 

from Alexandria). In section 5.11, we explained why 

these two places were chosen for this verification. In 

the case of any doubt, other locations further to the 

North were also considered. 

– Planets and stars can be observed only when the sky 

is sufficiently dark, i.e. only when the Sun is located 

sufficiently far behind the local horizon. However, depending 

on the brightness of these planets and 

stars, the required for their visibility submersion of 

the Sun behind the horizon is also different. Let us 

recall shortly how the brightness of stars and planets 

is measured. We will use this information later for the 

investigation of the Egyptian zodiacs. 

– In astronomy, the measurement of the brightness of 

stars and other celestial objects (nebulae, galaxies, 

planets, etc.) is done according to the so-called photometric 

scale. The brightness of stars is denoted by 

the letter M, which is called the magnitude. Brighter 

the star, smaller is its photometric magnitude. For 

the brightest celestial objects their magnitude is negative, 

but there are very few such stars or planets. 

These are the brightest stars and the planets, which 

were at the moment of observations not too far from 

the Sun. We should explain that the brightness of 

the planets, contrary to the brightness of stars, depends 

on their location with respect to the Sun and 

the Earth — the sunlight is reflected from the planets. 

– Sirius, also called Alpha Canis Majoris, or Dog Star, 

is brightest star in the night sky, with apparent vi- 

6.7 Dating of Egyptian Zodiacs Based on Contents of the Main and Partial Horoscopes 141 

sual magnitude M = −1.46 19 . There are only two or 

three stars on the sky with sufficiently strong brightness, 

which can be compared to Sirius. The brightest 

planet is Venus. Its magnitude can sometimes reach 

as much as M = −5, and most of the time is not 

smaller than M = −3. When approaching the Sun, 

Venus gradually becomes brighter and brighter to finally 

disappear from the sky in the sunlight. Then 

it reappears on the other side of the Sun, i.e. Venus 

changes its morning visibility to evening visibility or 

vice versa. The other planets, when approaching the 

Sun can reach the visibility magnitude up to M = −2. 

Let us point out that the magnitude M = 0 is in fact 

related to a very high visibility. The brightness of dim 

stars are from M = +5 to M = +6. The star with 

magnitude in the range M = +6 or M = +7 can not 

be seen with a naked eye 20 . 

– The stars, with similar to Sirius photometric magnitude, 

and the planets close to the Sun (but still sufficiently 

far from it, so the sunlight didn’t render them 

invisible), are the brightest stars on the sky, with 

Venus being the brightest among them. These planets 

and stars become visible on the sky with the submersion 

of the Sun behind the local horizon not less 

than 7 o . If the submersion of the Sun is smaller 

than 7 o , no planet nor star (as stars are even less 

bright than planets) is visible 21 . The only exception 

is Moon, that can be even seen in the middle of the 

day. The bright stars are those planets and stars for 

which the photometric magnitude is around M = +1. 

There are not many such stars on the sky — possible 

around two dozens. They become visible on the sky 

with the Sun’s submersion of 9 o –10 o . The class of the 

fifth and sixth magnitude of visibility is composed of 

those stars and planets with photometric magnitude 

around M = +5 and M = +6. They are the faintest 

stars visible to the unaided eye, which can only be 

observed in a complete darkness. The required submersion 

of the Sun behind the local horizon 

should in this case be not less than 18 o , what is 

also considered in astronomy to be the beginning or 

the end of the night 22 . At that time even the dimmest 

stars become visible. 

– In this way, for checking the visibility of the planets 

we needed their photometric magnitude, which was 

computed using the program Turbo-Sky, written by 

A. Volynkin. A planet with the photometric magnitude 

M = −1 was considered to be visible, if at the 

time of observation the submersion of the Sun was 

not less than 7 o . If the magnitude was M = +2, the 

planet was considered as visible with the submersion 

of the Sun of 10 o at least. All the doubtful or border 

cases were always decided in favor of a solution. 

In other words, we didn’t require a precise correspon- 

19 See [93] and [94]. 

20 See [93]. 

21 See [27], p. 16. 

22 See [27], p. 16.


dence between the initial data and the solution, but 

we looked at such a solution that could be regarded 

as eventually satisfying the required conditions. If it 

was the case, we did not reject such a solution. For 

example, a planet was annotated on the Egyptian zodiac 

with a visibility attribute, while it was possible 

to confirm its visibility on the real sky only for a specific 

time of observations. Namely, either before the 

dawn or after the dusk. In such cases of a morning or 

evening visibility only, the related solution was not 

rejected. 

– The submersion of the Sun was measured in degrees 

in direction perpendicular to the local horizon. Let us 

point out, that the submersion of the Sun could in fact 

be much smaller than the actual distance (also measured 

in degrees) from the Sun to the planet which 

was at this moment on the horizon (either rising above 

it or setting down). Indeed, the shortest ark on the celestial 

sphere, joining the planet and the Sun, doesn’t 

need to be perpendicular to the horizon. Therefore, 

it is clear that using the distance from the Sun to a 

planet for verification of the visibility conditions can 

lead to a mistake. Considering the time difference between 

the rising (or setting down) of the Sun and the 

planet can also lead to an error. In fact, it may take 

sometimes longer sometimes shorter for the Sun to 

reach the horizon from the positions with the same 

submersion behind the horizon. It depends on the angle 

between the ecliptic and the local horizon, which 

is different at different locations on the Earth. This 

angle varies with the latitude of the place of observations. 

[C] Accordance with the Partial Horoscopes. We required 

that the symbolic description of every partial horoscope, 

present on the Egyptian zodiac, should be in full 

agreement with the real astronomical situation on the sky, 

which occured near the corresponding equinox or solstice 

point for the year indicated by the considered solution. 

It turned out in practice, that this was a very strong requirement, 

which could never be satisfied by a random 

solution. For our purposes it was sufficient to have one or 

two non-trivial partial horoscopes in order to eliminate 

all the wrong solutions. (Let us recall that sometimes the 

partial horoscopes shown on the Egyptian zodiac may be 

trivial, i.e. any solution will always satisfy them). 

– In general, the verification of the solutions, with respect 

to the partial horoscopes, depends strongly on 

the convention when, according to the creators of the 

zodiac, the beginning of the year was taking place. For 

example, if the obtained solution indicated the spring 

date for the main horoscope, than in order to check its 

requirements related to the partial horoscope of the 

winter solstice, we had to proceed in different ways, 

depending when was the beginning of the year. If the 

beginning of the year was in September, we analyzed 

the winter solstice that took place in December preceding 

the main date. Or, if the beginning of the year 

was in January, then we looked at the winter solstice 

that occurred in December following the main date 

(i.e. in December of the same year). 

– We have already mentioned earlier, that according to 

all the indications, the beginning of the year used on 

the Egyptian zodiacs was in September. However, we 

shouldn’t exclude a possibility that, on certain zodiacs, 

the beginning of the year may turn out to be 

in March or January. Therefore, in our verification of 

the solutions with respect to the partial horoscopes, 

we considered all the possible conventions for the beginning 

of the year. We did it as follows: first we 

were assuming that the beginning of the year was in 

September, and if the solution failed to agree with the 

partial horoscopes, other beginnings of the year were 

also considered. However, for all the obtained final solutions 

the beginning of the year turned out to be in 

September. 

6.8 Color-Annotated Zodiacs 

At the first glance, this Egyptian zodiac looks like a complicated 

and confusing collection of symbols. Only after long 

and careful analysis of its contents it becomes clear that it is 

indeed an astronomical chart. 

In previous chapters we’ve described the main features 

of an Egyptian zodiac. It turned out that a usual Egyptian 

zodiac is composed of several symbolic “layers,” each of them 

carrying its own “load” of information. With some time and a 

little patience, an experienced eye becomes able to distinguish 

those symbols on an Egyptian zodiac, which belong to the 

same layer. Only then, the meaning of the zodiac becomes 

understandable. 

In order to make easier for the reader to recognize different 

symbolic layers on Egyptian zodiacs, we will use the so called 

color-annotated zodiacs. Let us explain what it is about. A 

color-annotated zodiac is the first concrete result of the initial 

stage of the analysis of an Egyptian zodiac. At this stage 

we identify the symbols representing zodiacal constellations, 

planets, partial horoscopes, etc. However, at this stage, it is 

still not fully determined what exactly each of these symbols 

represents. For example, it is still uncertain what exactly is 

the planet represented by a certain planetary symbol on the 

zodiac, or what is the meaning of the symbols shown in a 

partial horoscope. 

More precisely, a color-annotated zodiac is a drawing of an 

Egyptian zodiac, on which astronomical symbols, related to 

different symbolic levels, were marked using different colors. 

The colors were chosen arbitrarily, without any relation to 

the actual meaning of the zodiac. These colors are: 

(1) Red — Figures of the Zodiacal Constellations. We 

used this color to partition the astronomical chart, shown 

on an Egyptian zodiac, into zodiacal constellations.

(2) Yellow – Symbols of the Planets in the Main Horoscope. 

This part of the horoscope is the actual encoding 

of the date shown of the zodiac. A distribution of 

the planets among the zodiacal constellations represents 

a horoscope, which is the way ancient Egyptians were 

recording the dates using this symbolic “celestial calendar.” 

However, at this point, we are not completely sure 

what exactly is the horoscope shown on the zodiac. In order 

to decode the horoscope, we need to identify among 

these symbols all the seven planets of the antiquity. This 

is much more complicated task than just a simple recognition 

of the planetary symbols, which can be usually identified 

by their attributes, for example — the planetary 

walking sticks (see the previous chapters). Assigning the 

“roles” to these planetary figures is not always easy and 

straight forward process. 

Nevertheless, just by looking at the color-annotated zodiac, 

it is quite easy to see some possible variants of decoding 

of the main horoscope on this zodiac. 

(3) Light-Blue — Symbols of the Partial Horoscopes. 

Here we are talking about the symbols of the equinoxes 

and solstices, surrounded by the partial horoscopes, together 

with the planetary symbols in these horoscopes. 

We’ve already discussed in the previous chapters the symbols 

of the partial horoscopes. 

(4) Brown — Symbols of the Decans. These symbols 

divides each zodiacal constellation into three parts, each 

of them occupying a sector of about 10 o on the ecliptic. 

This can be considered as an explanation of the name 

“decan,” which was introduced by N.A. Morozov 23 . These 

symbols are present on the Long Denderah zodiac, where 

they are shown in form of female figures (see section 5.2). 

However, the existence of decans doesn’t necessarily mean 

that the precision of the planetary locations shown on a 

zodiac is three times higher — up to 10 o instead of 30 o . 

The precision of the Long zodiac is still up to 30 o , in 

spite of the presence of decans (see the discussion of this 

problem in section 5.2). 

(5) Green — the Symbols Accompanying the Planetary 

Figures of the Main Horoscope, and the 

Supplementary Astronomical Symbols. Examples of 

such symbols were discussed in section 5.9. 

(6) Uncolored Symbols. In this way are shown all the symbols 

with unknown or unclear meaning to us. We also left 

uncolored the symbols which had no apparent connection 

with the encoded in the zodiac date. 

In the case of a symbol, for which it was not fully clear to 

what layer it belongs, it was divided in parts and colored using 

different colors, depending on the layers it could be related to. 

The resulting from it possible interpretations of the symbols, 

were added to the collection of all the admissible variants of 

decoding for the zodiac. The pictures of the color-annotated 

zodiacs will be shown in sections dealing with the dating of 

the individual zodiacs. 

23 See [4], Vol.6. 

6.9 Conclusive Determination of the Main Date. Final (Complete) Solutions. 143 

6.9 Conclusive Determination of the 

Main Date. Final (Complete) 

Solutions. 

As a consequence of applying the presented in the previous 

section method, we could conclude that either all the preliminary 

solutions were rejected, or there was exactly one solution 

selected, except of some rare cases, where there was more than 

one solution left. This was the case with certain very “poor” 

or damaged zodiacs. 

Obtained in this way, for an Egyptian zodiac, solution we 

will be called the final or complete solution. 

If on an Egyptian zodiac at the preliminary stage (Step 

1), the main horoscope was decoded correctly (at least in one 

of the considered variants), then as the results of the computations 

there was always a unique final solution obtained for 

this horoscope. It turned out to became a kind of a rule that 

all the final solutions coincided perfectly with the astronomical 

pictures shown on the zodiacs. 

If in the case, for which all the considered variants of decoding 

were incorrect for a zodiac with at least one non-trivial 

partial horoscope, there was not even one final solution found. 

The incorrect decodings were basically the consequences of 

the hidden symbols or conventions, which remained at that 

stage unknown to us. In such cases we had to return to the 

Step 1 and continue our work on the decoding of the zodiac. 

Let us emphasize the most important outcome of our research: 

our procedure for decoding and the astronomical 

dating of the Egyptian zodiacs, in the most cases, 

allowed us to determine uniquely the date that was 

encoded in the main horoscope — the ancient “celestial 

calendar.” 

As we will see in the next chapters, all these dates turned 

out to be medieval. 

6.10 Constellation-Sized Scale of 

The Zodiacal Belt 

Let us discuss one more aspect of our method for the astronomical 

dating of the Egyptian zodiacs. As we’ve explained it 

earlier, the results of the preliminary decoding of an Egyptian 

zodiac were formulated as one or more variants for its decoding 

of the main horoscope, i.e. the descriptions of the planetary 

locations with respect to the zodiacal constellations. It is 

the horoscope that carries the investigated by us date encoded 

by means of the “celestial calendar.” In the subsequent step, 

every identified variant of decoding was worked out using the 

program Horos. 

It is clear that all the identified variants of the main horoscope 

do not provide precise information about the planetary 

locations. For example, it is not possible to determine exactly 

in what part of a zodiacal constellation a particular planet was


located. In principle, the structure of the Egyptian zodiacs do 

not permit to indicate the positions of planets with high accuracy. 

All the analyzed by us horoscopes on the Egyptian 

zodiacs were merely approximate descriptions of the planetary 

locations with respect to the zodiacal figures. 

However, in order to carry out the astronomical computations, 

for each of the planets we need to set up, using the ecliptic 

longitude measured in degrees, the intervals of its possible 

locations. It is difficult, just by looking on an Egyptian zodiac, 

to indicate in degrees its approximate location. Indeed, 

there is no scale or other numerical indicators on a zodiac, 

which could help us with this task. There are only pictures. 

Therefore, in order to express the planetary locations in degrees, 

it would be necessary to make several simple (albeit 

annoying) calculations. 

To avoid these complications, we wrote the program Horos 

in such a way that the locations of the planets are specified 

with respect to the constellation-sized scale of the zodiacal 

belt, instead of degrees of latitude. This scale allows us to 

determine the planetary positions directly from the Egyptian 

zodiac, where we can see, for example, that a planetary figure 

is shown in Virgo or in the first half of Libra, which is next 

to Virgo, or that if this planet is located in Aries, probably on 

its boundary, possibly even in the next constellations, but not 

further from Aries than 1/3 of its length. 

Let us recall that in relation to the decoding of zodiacs, 

in order to avoid losing the correct solution, we agreed to 

enlarge the boundaries of the interval for possible planetary 

locations. As the results of this enlargement, the obtained in 

this way incorrect solutions were rejected anyway because of 

their incompatibility with partial horoscopes. However, this 

enlargement resulted in the intervals of admissible planetary 

positions of the type: half of Aquarius, Capricorn, and half of 

Sagittarius, etc. 

Therefore, we chose the following scale: 

(1) We divide the ecliptic J2000 into 12 non-equal parts, 

where each of these parts corresponds to one zodiacal 

constellation. The boundary points for this partition were 

discussed in section 6.4. 

(2) We denote using the integers from 0 to 12 (see Figure 

6.3) the points of this partition, dividing the ecliptic into 

sectors occupied by the zodiacal constellations. In this 

way we obtain on the ecliptic J2000 a nonuniform scale. 

We “close” this scale by putting 12 = 0, what is dictated 

by the fact that the ecliptic is a circle, where the points 

0 and 12 are identified. 

In this way, to every zodiacal constellation corresponds an 

interval of the length one. However, the real lengths of these 

unit intervals are different and equal to the actual lengths of 

the zodiacal constellations. 

Consequently, we have the following constellation-sized 

scale on the ecliptic J2000: 

Figure 6.3: The cyclic constellation-sized scale on the ecliptic 

J2000. 

-------------------------------------------------- 

ARIES TAUR GEMINI CANCER LEO 

VIRGO LIBRA SCORP SAGIT CAPRI 

AQUAR PISCES 

-------------------------------------------------- 

Now, when describing the planetary locations on the 

Egyptian zodiacs, we will be indicating the corresponding 

points on the ecliptic using not degrees, but the above 

constellation-sized scale. For example, the coordinate 1.5 will 

correspond to the middle point of the constellation Taurus, 

or more precisely the point on the ecliptic J2000 with the 

latitude 70 o . The point 13.5 will correspond to exactly the 

same point, because this scale is cyclic with period 12, so 

13.5 − 12 = 1.5. 

This constellation-sized scale will be used to specify the 

horoscopes decoded from the Egyptian zodiacs as the input 

for the program Horos. For example, using this scale the interval 

half of Aquarius, Capricorn, and half of Sagittarius will 

be simply the interval from 8.5 (the middle of Sagittarius) to 

10.5 (the middle of Aquarius). 

Since the constellation-sized scale is cyclic, the beginning 

of the interval can be smaller than its end. In this way, the 

interval (11.5, 0.33) denotes the sector: from the middle of 

Pisces to the first one-third of Aries. 

We will use the constellation-sized scale to specify for each 

planet the range of all its admissible positions, which will be 

an interval showing all its possible positions according to the 

information retrieved from the Egyptian zodiac.

6.11 Best Points for the Planets and 

the Planetary Order 

For each planet, besides the range of admissible positions, 

we will also specify its exemplary position on the sky, 

which in some sense would correspond the best location of 

its planetary figure on the Egyptian zodiac. This point on 

the ecliptic J2000 will be called the “best point” or the 

“exemplary position point” of this planet. 

Actually, the choice of such a point can be strongly subjective. 

Therefore, the positions of the best points have no 

impact on the rejection of incompatible solutions. However, 

the order of the “best points” plays and important role in 

the rejection process. This order should be exactly the same as 

the order of planets on the Egyptian zodiac, according to the 

considered decoding variant of the main horoscope. For each 

computed solution, the program Horos compares the order of 

planets on the ecliptic with the order of the “best points.” 

Those solutions with the order of planets different than the 

order indicated by the “best points” are rejected. 

If the arrangement of two or more planetary figures is such 

that it is impossible to determine their definite order, in the 

computations we have assigned to all those planets the same 

value of the best point. As a consequence, the program Horos 

will assess any arrangement of those planets as correct with 

respect to their order. On the other hand, the order of all the 

other planets will be verified according to the order of their 

“best points.” Let us point out, that situations with undetermined 

order of some planetary symbols indeed occurred on 

the Egyptian zodiacs. In particular, this was the case with the 

zodiacs of round type, where the figures are not arranged in 

a sequential order, but are rather scattered around the whole 

picture. 

It may happen that, for a certain planet, we are not able 

at all to identify its location on the ecliptic. For example, 

it could happen that we were unable to recognize the figure 

representing a particular planet on the zodiac. In this case 

the range of admissible positions for this planet should be 

from 0 to 12, and as its best point a number greater than 

100 should assigned. For the program Horos this will be an 

indication that this planet should be considered as undefined 

or free, i.e. there are no constrains imposed on its location. 

If a best point is not indicated in the input data, then the 

program Horos will respond with an error message. 

6.12 Mean Discrepancy from the 

Best Points as an Indicator of 

the Accuracy of the Solution 

The “best points” were also used for each solution to calculate 

the numerical indicator called “mean discrepancy from 

the best points.” Because the choice of the “best points” was 

not independent of subjective factors, this number can only 

be used as an advisory indicator for the correspondence 

6.13 Example of the Input Data for the Program Horos 145 

between the configuration of the planets in the solution, and 

the arrangement shown on the Egyptian zodiac. In spite of its 

dependencies, such an indicator turns out to be very useful. 

The mean discrepancy from the best points is evaluated in 

degrees. It is obtained by taking the average value for all the 

distances from the corresponding best points for all the seven 

planets. Recall that the “best points” represent the “ideal” 

locations of the planets, as it is suggested by the picture on 

the zodiac. When it is possible to identify all the planets on 

the zodiac, then the corresponding best points could be determined 

with the precision up to 15 o , which corresponds to 

an average length of a zodiacal constellation. The precision of 

15 o degree is the best precision that can be expected for an 

Egyptian zodiac. Therefore, the values of the mean discrepancy 

from the best points in the range from 0 o to 15 o should 

be considered as very good, and in the range from 15 o to 20 o , 

as satisfactory. However, even higher values of this indicator 

can occur in the case of a correct astronomical solution. 

But, it can happen only in a situation where it was not possible 

to determine in advance a definite position(s) of certain 

planet(s). Such situation can arise in a case, for example, of 

a damaged zodiac, where some of its parts were destroyed. 

If the “best point” for a certain planet is undefined, i.e. 

its value is assumed to be larger than 100, then in such a 

situation it was possible to evaluate the mean discrepancy 

indicator by assuming (for this purpose only) that its best 

point was exactly the calculated position of the planet. However, 

this wouldn’t be right, because such an assumption could 

lead to a significantly lower value of the mean discrepancy 

indicator for that solution. In particular, in the case where 

there were more than one undefined (free) planet in the input 

data, another problem appeared. How the solutions with 

different number of undefined (free) planets should be compared? 

To solve these complications, in our computations we 

applied the following algorithm, which helped to eliminate 

these undesired effects: 

(1) Computations of the mean discrepancy indicator were 

carried out successively with respect to the sequential order 

of the planets. 

(2) In the case an undefined (free) planet was encountered, a 

temporary best point (which was only used in this computations) 

was assigned to it. This best point was evaluated 

based on the average distances from the best points for 

the other planets, for which the best points were defined 

or already computed in the previous steps of this process. 

6.13 Example of the Input Data for 

the Program Horos 

Let us present as an example a sample input data file 

INPUT.TXT for the program Horos. This data was obtained for 

one variant of decoding of the main horoscope on the Long 

Denderah zodiac. The ranges of the admissible planetary positions 

and the best points are expressed in coordinates of the 

constellation-sized scale on the ecliptic J2000.


There was no need for even slightest calculations in order 

to create the input data — all these values were retrieved 

directly form the zodiac. The conversion of the data from the 

constellation-sized scale to the ecliptic longitude in degrees, 

were done by the program Horos. 

SAMPLE INPUT FILE: INPUT.TXT 

INPUT DATA FOR TH PROGRAM FOR 

COMPUTATIONS OF THE HOROSCOPE DATES 

-----------------------DATA------------------------- 

SUN MOON SATURN JUPITER MARS VENUS MERCURY 

# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

11.0 6.0 9.0 11.0 10.0 0.0 0.0 # TO: 

---------------------------------------------# 

1.0 8.0 11.0 1.0 12.0 2.0 2.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------# 

11.5 7.5 9.5 12.0 11.0 0.5 1.0 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 

Comments can be added to the file INPUT.TXT, however, 

the lines beginning with the symbol #, preceding the lines 

containing the data, should be left unaltered. Moreover, no 

other lines, than those three, in the file INPUT.TXT, should 

begin with the symbol #, nor the order of the data should be 

changed. 

6.14 Check-up List for an Astronomical 

Solution 

For every solution, obtained as a result of the astronomical 

computations done by the program Horos, we created a special 

table. In this table we compared the properties of the solution 

with the features shown on the Egyptian zodiac, which 

were not examined during the verification process of the admissible 

solutions in Step 2 (see section 6.7). 

In particular, the following properties of the solutions were 

examined: 

• Visibility Attributes for Venus, Mercury and other 

planets, which were located in the proximity of the Sun 

on the main horoscope (see section 5.7). 

• Agreement with Four Partial Horoscopes of the autumn 

equinox, winter solstice, spring equinox, and the 

summer solstice (see sections 5.5, 5.6, and 5.8). 

• Agreement with Additional Astronomical Symbols 

and Supplementary Scenes, which are present 

on the Egyptian zodiac (see section 5.9). 

This verification was conducted with the help of a Checkup 

List, which was set up in a form of a table for every admissible 

solution. This table had six, or possible even more columns, 

with the following contents: 

(1) VISIBILITY OF VENUS in the main horoscope. 

(2) VISIBILITY OF MERCURY in the main horoscope. 

(3) PARTIAL HOROSCOPE OF THE AUTUMN 

EQUINOX. 

(4) PARTIAL HOROSCOPE OF THE WINTER 

SOLSTICE. 

(5) PARTIAL HOROSCOPE OF THE SPRING 

EQUINOX. 

(6) PARTIAL HOROSCOPE OF THE SUMMER 

SOLSTICE. 

(7) SUPPLEMENTARY SCENE OF THE 

PASCHAL FULL MOON. This column was reserved 

only for those zodiacs, where there was a disc 

in Libra, or other symbols that could be interpreted as 

representations of the Paschal Moon. 

For some Egyptian zodiacs, depending on the presence of 

the additional astronomical symbols or supplementary scenes, 

the number of the columns in the checkup table was even 

further extended. 

In each column, we included a short description of the 

corresponding chart of the sky, related to the examined solution. 

If the picture on the chart fully agreed with the situation 

presented on the Egyptian zodiac, the column was annotated 

with the sign +. If the full correspondence between the solution 

and the zodiac couldn’t be confirmed, we annotated the 

column with the sign −. In questionable cases, where some 

doubt still existed, we annotated such column with the sign 

±. 

By a complete or ideal solution we understand such final 

solution, for which all the columns of its checkup table 

are annotated with plus signs only. Only such solutions were 

accepted as final solutions, while all other solutions were rejected. 

Let us emphasize, that we did not expect in the beginning 

of our research that it would be possible to find complete 

(ideal) solutions for all investigated Egyptian zodiacs. 

In fact, it could happen that our requirements were overstated 

for the actual ability of ancient artists and astronomers to 

achieve expected from the zodiac accuracy. Clearly, in such 

case, it wouldn’t be possible to obtain ideal solutions for all 

the zodiacs. 

On the other hand, if the requirements imposed on an 

ideal (complete) solutions were too low, then at least for 

some zodiacs there would be more than one ideal solution. 

But neither one of these two eventualities occurred in our 

case. Contrary to our expectations, the results were surprisingly 

good. For all investigated by us Egyptian zodiacs, always 

only one admissible solution turned out to be ideal. 

Therefore, we can say that this method allows a unique dating 

of practically all Egyptian zodiacs, except the zodiacs 

with very poor astronomical content or those that are 

badly damaged. Moreover, for every investigated zodiac, there 

were always several solutions satisfying almost all the requirements 

from the checkup list, with possibly one or two −/± 

annotations. Nevertheless, there was always only one solution 

with all the plus signs.

Later, in the subsequent chapters, we will present the 

checkup tables for all the ideal solutions of the specific Egyptian 

zodiacs. In this tables we will use the following abbreviations: 

1. SUH — the submersion of the Sun under the local horizon 

measured in degrees. For example SUH=10 o means 

that the submersion of the Sun was 10 o . 

• The submersion of the Sun is measured at the moment 

when a planet is raising or setting down over 

the local horizon (depending on the morning, or respectively, 

the evening visibility of this planet that is 

examined). At that moment, if the submersion of the 

Sun is sufficient, it is possible for an observer to see 

the planet on the sky. We will always assume that all 

the submersions of the Sun are calculated for an observer 

located in Cairo, except the cases when it will 

be specified otherwise. Let us recall that a planet with 

an average brightness is visible if the submersion of 

the Sun is 10 o or more, and a bright planet (with the 

magnitude M = −3.5) is visible if the submersion of 

the Sun is about 7 o –8 o , or more (see section 6.7, Step 

3 [B]). 

2. M — the magnitude of brightness of the planet measured 

according to the photometric scale. For example M = 

−3.2 means that at that moment the brightness of the 

planet was −3.5. As we explained before, brightness of 

the planets changes with time. 

• Let us recall that the brightness according to the photometric 

scale can be possibly expressed by negative 

numbers — smaller the number, higher the brightness 

of the planet. The brightest planet is Venus. Its 

magnitude can reach up to M = −4, but the most 

frequently it is from M = −3 to M = −3.7. The 

magnitude from M = 0 to M = +1 is characteristic 

not only for the planets but also for bright stars. The 

planets with such magnitude of brightness are visible 

on the sky only when it is sufficiently dark. Such conditions 

exist if the submersion of the Sun is at least 

8 o –9 o . Less bright planets can be observed with the 

naked eye only if the submersion of the Sun is 10 o or 

more. With the submersion of the Sun of 18 o , there 

is a complete darkness. At that time it is possible to 

see faint stars. We discussed this issue in subsection 

6.7.3. 

3. Decimal Number from 0 to 12 in brackets, indicating 

a position of the planet according to the constellationsized 

scale (see section 6.10). For example, (2.5) denotes 

the middle of Gemini, or a point with the longitude 70 o 

on the ecliptic J2000, and (0.2) – a point in Aries with 

longitude 31 o on the ecliptic J2000 (see section 6.10). 

4. Sometimes, in a column related to the visibility conditions 

of a certain planet, we indicate its distance (in degrees) 

from the Sun, which we denote using the capital Greek 

letter delta: ∆. 

We use the last column in the checkup table for comments. 

At the bottom of this column we placed a sequence of squared 

6.14 Check-up List for an Astronomical Solution 147 

boxes, corresponding to the columns in the table. Each of 

these boxes contains one of the signs +, − or ±, depending 

on how the solutions agrees with the zodiac. If the solution is 

complete, in all boxes there are only plus signs. In addition 

to these boxes, we also included there the mean discrepancy 

from the best points for this solution, which we denoted by 

the symbol ∆av (see section 6.11).

Chapter 7 

The Dates Shown on the Monumental 

Zodiacs in the Denderah and Esna Temples

7.1 Denderah and Esna Zodiacs as 

Parts of the Gigantic Burial 

Complex in the Great Bend of 

Nile 

Inside of the great bend of the Nile River in Upper Egypt, 

is located the Valley of the Kings, also called the Valley of 

the Tombs of the Kings, and the Valley of the Queens. It is 

surrounded by numerous mortuary temples, and other structures, 

which form a gigantic burial complex for almost all 

the Egyptian kings (pharaohs), queens, and members of their 

families (see Figure 7.1). 

Figure 7.1: A fragment of a modern tourist map of Egypt 

showing the surroundings of the Valley of the Kings. This 

map doesn’t show the real orientation of the temples. 

Inside the center of this complex, hidden in inaccessible 

valleys surrounded by rocky hills, was located the ancient 

Egyptian necropolis, or the “city of the dead” — an area 

containing many tombs, including royal tombs. In a lonely 

valley in the western hills behind Dayr al-Bahri, the royal 

tombs were sunk deep into the heart of the mountain (see Figure 

7.2). The long descending corridors leading to the burial 

chambers were carved in soft rock. The entrances were well 

concealed (see Figures 7.3, 7.4 and 7.5). 

In particular, in the Valley of the Kings the famous Tutankhamen’s 

tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter. 

The entrance to this tomb is shown in the center of Figure 

7.3. 

On the other side of the Nile river, across from the Valley 

of the Kings, parallel with the bank of Nile there is a gi- 

Figure 7.2: The Valley of the Kings. 

Figure 7.3: Entrances to the royal tomb of Ramses VI in the 

Valley of the Kings. 

Figure 7.4: Descending corridor leading to the burial chamber.

7.1 Denderah and Esna Zodiacs as Parts of the Gigantic Burial Complex in the Great Bend of Nile 151 

Figure 7.5: The burial chamber with a stone sarcophagus. 

ant temple, known today as the Temple of Luxor (see Figure 

7.7). Couple of kilometers further to the north, also on the 

east bank of the Nile river, there is located the Great Karnak 

Temple (see Figures 7.6 and 7.9). These two temples, which 

were connected by the Sphinx Avenue (see Figure 7.8), constituted 

the beginning place for the burial rituals. First the 

body was taken to the Karnak temple, then along the Sphinx 

Avenue, to the Luxor temple located on the bank of the Nile 

river, and from there, by boat to the western bank of the Nile. 

Next, following the road passing by the Memnon Colossi, the 

body was transported to the desert-mountains, in which lies 

the Valley of the Kings. 

All these temples, buildings and monuments were parts of 

a giant burial complex surrounding the burial grounds with 

numerous tombs inside. On the perimeter of this complex 

were located other temples including the Denderah and Esna 

temples in which monumental zodiac relieves were discovered. 

This Chapter is devoted to the detailed analysis and reconstruction 

of the dates encoded in these zodiacs. 

It is important to point out that the Denderah and Esna 

temples were raised in proximity of the burial complex, what 

is an indication that they were connected to the burial rituals, 

and it is possible that these immense zodiacs were placed 

there to commemorate the deaths of some eminent individuals. 

It would be interesting to find out to whom these zodiacs 

were devoted, but it is not our goal to speculate on that subject. 

We are concerned here only in discovering the encoded 

dates, which may be helpful later in further investigation of 

this matter. 

As we already revealed, all the dates on the Esna and 

Denderah zodiacs fall into the period from the 12th to 15th 

centuries. This implies that the events related to the construction 

of these temples took place in the middle ages, but this 

also means that the temples themselves couldn’t be build be- 

Figure 7.6: Inside of the Karnak Temple. 

Figure 7.7: Painting of the Luxor Temple by David Roberts 

in 1838. (London, Victoria and Albert Museum. Taken from 

[116], p. 190) 

fore these dates. However, from the point of view of presently 

accepted Scaliger’s chronology, it is not possible either to accept 

nor explain these results. On the other hand, the obtained 

results perfectly fit the revised version of chronology, 

which was constructed with the use of the empirico-statistical 

and astronomical methods based on the data retrieved from 

the collection of written historical documents (see

152 7 The Dates Shown on the Monumental Zodiacs in the Denderah and Esna Temples 

Figure 7.9: Karnak Temple (reconstruction). (See [108], pp. 208–209) 

Figure 7.8: The end of Avenue of Sphinx in front of the Luxor 

temple. (Taken from [116], p. 191) 

7.2 sec:0.9 

). We refer the interested reader to the books on the New 

Chronology (see [103], [105], [106]) and the related web sites 

listed in the end of the book. 

Figure 7.10: A photograph of the ancient Egyptian remains in 

Denderah 

7.3 Decoding the Date from the 

Long Denderah Zodiac 

The Long Denderah zodiac was shown on Figures 2.8 and 

3.3, but in this section we will need a more detailed picture of 

this zodiac, which will be used to identify all the important 

features discussed below. Such a picture is presented on Figure 

7.11. On Figure 7.12 we present a color-annotated picture 

(see section 6.8) of the Long zodiac. Let us recall the color 

convention that we used to annotate the zodiacs:

• RED for the zodiacal constellations; 

• BROWN for decans (if they are present); 

• YELLOW for planets in the main horoscope; 

• LIGHT-BLUE for the partial horoscopes and solstice 

and equinox symbols; 

• GREEN for supplementary figures and scenes. 

In the case when at the preliminary stage (before the computations) 

several variants were considered, we use multiple 

colors. 

We will conduct the dating of the Long Denderah zodiac 

following the steps described in section 6.7. 

Step 1. (See subsection 6.7.1.) Decoding of the main horoscope 

on the Long zodiac and compiling the color annotated 

zodiac. 

By using the comparative tables (see sections 5.1 and 5.4) 

of the Egyptian astronomical symbols, we found all the symbols 

of constellations and planets in the main horoscope on 

the Long zodiac. We indicated them on the color annotated 

zodiac (see Figure 7.12), to which (as well as Figure 7.11) 

we will refer implicitly throughout the remaining part of this 

section. 

7.3.1 Constellations Figures on the Long Zodiac 

The constellation symbols on Figure 7.12 are marked in red. 

All the constellations are standard and easy to identify. Our 

identification is the same as suggested by Egyptologists (see 

for example [10]), used by N.A. Morozov, and N.S. Kellin and 

D.V. Denisenko. 

7.3.2 Planets in the Main Horoscope on the 

Long Zodiac 

We marked in yellow all the planetary figures in the main 

horoscope, which consist of all figures equipped with the planetary 

walking sticks, except those situated on other symbols 

or simply with their walking sticks placed over other objects. 

We explained in Chapter 5 that such planetary symbols do 

not belong to the main horoscope (see section 5.6 about the 

pull-out symbols). In fact, they either refer to a partial horoscope 

(colored in light-blue) or are parts of a supplementary 

scene (colored in green). Let us list all such figures on the 

Long zodiac. 

(1) A girl with a planetary walking stick placed over the back 

of Capricorn. 

(2) A man with a falcon head and holding a planetary walking 

stick, who is standing on a goose. This figure is located 

in front of Aquarius close to the edge of the zodiac. 

(3) A man holding a planetary walking stick and placed on a 

boat. This figure is located close to Gemini. 

(4) A couple of females standing on a boat, one of them with 

a planetary stick. This symbol is located behind Gemini 

close to the edge of the zodiac. Notice that this walking 

7.3 Decoding the Date from the Long Denderah Zodiac 153 

Figure 7.12: The color annotated Long Denderah Zodiac


Figure 7.11: Long Denderah Zodiac. (Drawing taken from the Napoleonic Album [2], A.Vol.IV, Pl.20.)

stick is slightly different from a typical planetary walking 

stick on the Long zodiac. Nevertheless, this symbol could 

be a planet from the main horoscope if it wasn’t standing 

on a boat. 

Notice two other female figures with objects resembling 

walking sticks in their hands. The first one is Virgo holding 

a spike, and another one is the figure inside the circle beside 

Libra, holding with both her hands a long stick. This is not a 

walking stick — a handle on its top is missing. Moreover, on 

the Long zodiac all the walking sticks are held in one hand. 

However, any circle could be a representation of the Sun or 

Moon in the main or a partial horoscope. 

All the other figures with planetary walking sticks are 

marked in yellow to indicate that they are symbols of the 

main horoscope. These figures are: 

(1) Saturn — a male figure with a planetary walking stick 

in front of Aquarius close to the edge of the zodiac. On 

his head there is a crescent or horns in a shape of a crescent. 

The explanation why this planetary figure represents 

Saturn was given in subsection 5.4.2. This figure was also 

recognized by Egyptologists 1 , as well as T.N. Fomenko 2 , 

to symbolize Saturn. N.A. Morozov identified Saturn differently, 

however, it was a mistake due to an erroneous 

picture of the Long zodiac he used (see more details in 

subsection 5.4.2). 

Consequently, Saturn on the Long zodiac is shown either 

in Aquarius or in Capricorn, so only these locations of 

Saturn are admissible for an astronomical solution. In 

other words, the range of admissible positions of Saturn 

is Aquarius and Capricorn. 

Saturn, which is located at the very end of this part of 

the zodiac, is separated from Aquarius by five other figures 

and it stands beside of a decan of Capricorn. In this 

way, we will choose the best point for Saturn to be the 

boundary between Aquarius and Capricorn. Let us recall 

that the best point is the location of the planet that seems 

to be indicated on the zodiac. We use the best points to 

establish the required order of planets and to compute 

the mean discrepancy, which is not an objective characteristic, 

but still helpful for approximate comparison of 

solutions. However, the mean discrepancy plays no role 

in the elimination process of astronomical solutions (see 

section 6.12). 

(2) Jupiter — a male figure wearing a high crown with 

a planetary walking stick, which is located between 

Pisces and Aries. Besides of his head, there is a hieroglyphic 

inscription “Hor-Apis-Seta, which accordingly to 

H. Brugsch means “Planet Jupiter” 3 . 

Our identification of Jupiter on the Long zodiac coincides 

with the identifications suggested by N.A. Morozov 4 , N.S. 

1 

See [10]. 

2 

See [1]. 

3 

See [4], Vol.6, p. 652. 

4 See [4], Vol. 6. 


Kellin and D.V. Denisenko 5 , T.N. Fomenko 6 , and Egyptologists 

7 . We refer to subsection 5.4.4 for more detailed 

discussion of this symbol. 

Consequently, Jupiter on the Long zodiac is either in 

Pisces or in Aries, so the range of admissible positions 

of Jupiter is Pisces and Aries. 

On the Long zodiac, Jupiter is separated from Pisces by 

the same number of figures as it is separated from Aries, 

so we choose as the best point for Jupiter the boundary 

between Pisces and Aries. 

(3) Mars — a male figure with a falcon head and a planetary 

walking stick, which is located between Pisces and Aquarius. 

Beside his head there is a hieroglyphic inscription 

“Hor-Tos, what H. Brugsch translated as “Red Planet”, 

which is a common name of Mars 8 . 

Our identification of Mars on the Long zodiac coincides 

with the identifications suggested by N.A. Morozov 9 , N.S. 

Kellin and D.V. Denisenko 10 , T.N. Fomenko 11 , and Egyptologists 

12 . We refer to subsection 5.4.5 for more detailed 

discussion of this symbol. 

Consequently, Mars on the Long zodiac is either in Pisces 

or in Aquarius, so the range of admissible positions of 

Mars is Pisces and Aquarius. 

Since Mars is separated from Pisces by a decan figure (belonging 

to Pisces), but its position is immediately behind 

Aquarius, we choose its best point to be the middle of 

Aquarius. 

(4) Venus — a pair of travelers with planetary walking sticks 

located in between Aries and Taurus. This symbol consists 

of a male figure with a lion head in front, followed by 

a female with a star over her head. Our identification of 

Mars on the Long zodiac coincides with the identifications 

of N.A. Morozov 13 , N.S. Kellin and D.V. Denisenko 14 , 

and T.N. Fomenko 15 , but is different from the identification 

suggested by Egyptologists 16 . However, in the case 

of other Egyptian zodiacs, Egyptologists recognize Venus 

based on the same principles as ours 17 . This problem was 

already discussed in subsection 5.4.6. 

Consequently, Venus on the Long zodiac is either in Aries 

or in Taurus, so the range of admissible positions of Venus 

is Aries and Taurus. 

5 

See [15]. 

6 

See [1]. 

7 

See [10]. 

8 

See [4], Vol.6, p.652. 

9 See [4], Vol. 6. 

10 See [15]. 

11 See [1]. 

12 See [10]. 

13 See [4], Vol. 6. 

14 See [15]. 

15 See [1]. 

16 See [10]. 

17 See [5].


Notice a star sign over the head of Venus, which on the 

Denderah zodiacs stands for a planetary visibility attribute. 

Since Venus and Mercury are always in proximity 

of the Sun, their visibility is an important information. In 

this case we know that Venus was visible. 

Venus is separated from Taurus by two decans and one 

planetary symbol, but it is located immediately behind 

Aries. Therefore, we choose its best point in the middle 

of Aries. 

(5) Mercury — a two-faced male figure with a planetary 

walking stick, which is located between Aries and Taurus. 

There is no star placed over its head, thus it wasn’t visible 

at this position. There is also another location of Mercury 

indicated on the Long zodiac — a pair of male figures 

behind Taurus. The first male holds a snake (cobra) and 

the second one a planetary walking stick. Over the head of 

the second figure, there is a star — a visibility attribute, 

so it has all the characteristics of a visible planet from the 

main horoscope. However, all the planets, except the Sun 

and Moon, are already identified. But, the Sun and Moon 

were never represented in the main horoscope by figures 

of travelers — disks were used for them (see subsections 

5.4.11–5.4.13). On the other hand this pair is not far from 

the planet Mercury, so the only possible variant is that 

it shows Mercury in another visible position. Indeed, all 

the other planets are too far from this place, but fast 

moving Mercury could be located in two different places in 

short period of time (see subsection 5.4.7). The snake held 

by the first figure also refers to Mercury (see subsection 

5.4.8). 

Consequently, Mercury on the Long zodiac is either in 

the Aries-Taurus area (for the two-faced figure), or in the 

Taurus-Gemini area (a pair of two travelers), so the range 

of admissible positions of Mercury is Aries, Taurus, and 

Gemini. 

In choosing the best point for Mercury we try to avoid 

favoring any of its two representations, so we choose as 

the best point the middle point in between them, i.e. the 

center of Taurus. 

We finished the listing of all figures with the planetary 

walking sticks on the Long zodiac. There are no more such 

figures in its zodiac area (see the colored part on Figure 7.12). 

It remains to enlist the “planets” represented by the discs, i.e. 

the Sun and Moon. 

(6) Sun and Moon — in this case the situation is much more 

complicated, what is reflected in the works of N.A. Morozov, 

N.S. Kellin and D.V. Denisenko, T.N. Fomenko, and 

S. Cauville. Their identifications were completely different. 

The problem was related to the fact that on the Long 

zodiac there are four discs, which can all be considered to 

represent the Sun or Moon, but for the main horoscope 

we need only two such disks. However, in our approach 

there this is not an issue. Since we know about the presence 

of partial horoscopes, we are not worried about too 

many disks for the Sun and Moon. We solved the problem 

of finding their right representations by considering 

all the possible choices for the Sun and Moon, and then by 

scrutinizing, according to our selection procedure (see section 

6.7), all the astronomical solutions obtained for these 

variants. In this process no particular variant is given a 

preferential treatment, and its output will be the final solution, 

which will show us the correct identifications for 

the Sun and Moon. In the same time all the other discs 

must be recognized as elements of partial horoscopes. 

In the previous attempts to date the Long zodiac, the 

authors were forced to choose among these four discs the 

symbols for the Sun and Moon. Any kind of such a choice 

was more or less arbitrary, and this is the main reason 

why their final datings were incorrect. 

It is easy to locate all the four discs on the Long zodiac, 

which we marked on Figure 7.12 with either yellow/lightblue 

or yellow/green colors. The first disc encircling a 

figure of a child sucking finger, is located inside Libra. 

The second disc, in which there is a female figure holding 

a long stick, is situated behind Libra. Inside the third 

disc, there is a male figure holding a small animal in a 

gesture of making an offering. It is near Pisces on the 

same side as Aries. Finally, the last disc is placed on the 

back of Taurus. This disc contains nothing inside, except 

a very narrow crescent at the bottom. The presence of a 

crescent doesn’t necessarily mean that it is Moon, it could 

also be the Sun (see subsections 5.4.11 and 5.4.13). In our 

computations we have considered all variants, including 

the possibility of this disc symbolizing the Sun and Moon 

together. 

We had an impression that the best candidates for the 

Sun in the main horoscope were the disc on the back of 

Taurus (the variant suggested by N.A. Morozov) or the 

disc next to Pisces (the variant of T.N. Fomenko). The 

final result showed that on the back of Taurus is the Sun 

in the main horoscope, while the disc near Pisces is the 

Sun in the partial horoscope of the spring equinox. 

The ranges of the admissible positions and the best points 

were determined for each variant separately. 

Step 2. (See subsection 6.7.2.) In the First Step, due to uncertainty 

about the Sun and Moon, we obtained several variants 

of the main horoscope. For each of these variants we calculated, 

using the program Horos, all the possible dates in the 

required time range (see section 6.7). All the solutions with 

the order of planets different from their order on the Long zodiac 

were rejected (see section 6.7). As a result, we obtained 

few dozens of preliminary dates distributed randomly over the 

time interval from 500 B.C. to 1900 A.D. Next, for each of 

these dates the partial horoscopes and the visibility attributes 

were checked.

7.3.3 Partial Horoscopes on the Long Zodiac 

The partial horoscopes on the Long Denderah zodiacs were 

already briefly discussed in section 5.8. In this subsection we 

will discuss in detail their elements referring to the planets. 

The symbolism of the equinox and solstice points was already 

described in sections 4.2, 4.3, and 5.8. 

[A] Partial Horoscope of the Autumn Equinox: This 

partial horoscope, if present on an Egyptian zodiac, is 

always located in Virgo (see section 5.8). On the Long 

zodiac the planetary symbols of this partial horoscope 

are shown on Figure 7.13 (see also Figure 5.59). 

Figure 7.13: Planetary elements of the partial horoscope of the 

autumn equinox on the Long Denderah zodiac 

Right behind Virgo, there is standing its second decan, 

which is endowed with planetary elements of the partial 

horoscope. It’s easy to notice that this figure is different 

from the other decan-girls (see subsection 5.5.1). It 

has a lioness head, which we already know is the symbol 

of Venus. This is not surprising, because Venus is not 

far from the Sun, so usually it is present in the partial 

horoscopes. This decan has also a crescent placed on its 

head, what means that Moon appeared hear at the autumn 

equinox. This picture suggests that Moon was in 

proximity of Venus, because the lioness head and the crescent 

are connected. The other interpretation of the crescent 

as a symbol of Saturn has to be rejected, because 

it would contradict the position of Saturn in the main 

horoscope (see subsection 5.5.1). Right beside the head of 

this decan-girl, there is a bird-sun. Similar birds appear in 

several different places on the Long zodiac, which indicate 


additional symbolism related to the Sun (see subsection 

5.9.2). There are no other additional planetary symbols 

in this location, even in the partially destroyed part of 

the zodiac. In particular, there is no indication of Mercury 

in this partial horoscope. Since Mercury is always 

close to the Sun, its absence here can only be explained 

by its invisibility on the equinox date. In conclusion, on 

the date of the autumn equinox Venus and Moon were 

visible not very far from the Sun, which was in Virgo, 

Mercury wasn’t visible, and there were no other visible 

planets in proximity of Virgo. 

[B] Partial Horoscope of the Winter Solstice: There is 

abundance of information in this partial horoscope on the 

Long zodiac (see Figure 7.14), which is located in Sagittarius. 

The figure of Sagittarius is represented as a complex 

“astronomical hieroglyph” (see subsection 5.8.2 and 

Figure 5.69) incorporating the symbols of Sun, Mercury 

and Venus. In the process of the dating such an “astronomical 

hieroglyph” does not provide any useful information 

and it has always the same standard form. However, 

on the Long zodiac there are other planetary symbols in 

this partial horoscope, which supply us with non-trivial 

additional information. Let us first discuss one by one all 

the symbols standing on the left from Sagittarius. Preceding 

the last decan of Sagittarius, there is a scene of 

killing a bull (see section 5.9), which appears in a standard 

form on many Egyptian zodiacs. Further from Sagittarius, 

there is the fist decan of Capricorn with a “bird-sun” 

near its head. The bird has a crescent on its head. This 

symbol was applied by the author of the zodiac to indicate 

the special positions of the Sun on the ecliptic, in 

particular to signal there the presence of additional information. 

Indeed, right behind this decan there is a female 

figure resting her planetary walking stick on the back of 

Capricorn (see Figure 7.14). Here, this female figure is 

not a decan (see section 5.2), and the planetary walking 

stick in her hand indicates that she represents a planet. 

As it is a female, it must be Venus. The presence of a pullout 

attribute (the walking stick is placed on Capricorn), 

means that it doesn’t belong to the main horoscope, so 

we have here Venus in the partial horoscope of the winter 

solstice. Regarding the figure of a bird with a crescent on 

its head, there are two possibilities. It could symbolize either 

a crescent of Moon or Saturn. In the second case, the 

position of Saturn in the main horoscope (in Aquarius or 

Capricorn) does not contradicts this interpretation. 

Let us now move the right side of Sagittarius. The first 

two figures are a decan of Sagittarius and a decan of Scorpio. 

Next, there is a wolf standing on a scythe, which 

is another standard scene (see subsection 5.9.2), accompanied 

by a “bird-sun” wearing a crown. Further to the 

right, there is Scorpio, and then an imaginary figure of 

a half-man half-animal holding two bowls in its hands. 

The precise meaning of this symbol is unclear, but there 

are similar symbols with the same bowls on the Small 

Esna zodiac in the partial horoscopes area (see subsection 

7.6.3). Finally, there are two decans of Scorpio. One


Figure 7.14: Fragment of the Long Denderah zodiac with the partial horoscope of the winter solstice. 

of them is typical but the other one has a special feature 

— it has a falcon head. We already met such a modified 

decan in the autumn equinox partial horoscope, where 

its lioness head denoted Venus. Since the falcon-headed 

planetary figure in the main horoscope was recognized as 

Mars, this attribute symbolizes as well Mars in this partial 

horoscope. 

Consequently, we can assume that on the winter solstice 

day Mars was in Scorpio or in Libra. The most likely it was 

on the boundary between Scorpio and Libra (notice that 

it is incorporated into the last decan of Libra). However, 

Mars in this position is equally distant from Sagittarius as 

it is from Virgo, so it could belong to the partial horoscope 

of the autumn equinox instead. 

In conclusion, the partial horoscope of the winter solstice 

is as follows: Venus and Saturn (or Moon) in Capricorn, 

Mercury somewhere close to the Sun, which is in Sagittarius, 

but without clearly specified position, and Mars 

in Scorpio not far from Libra or in Libra. There were no 

other planets around the Sun on this day. In the case 

Mars wasn’t there on the winter solstice day, it was in 

this location on the autumn equinox day. 

[C] Partial Horoscope of the Spring Equinox: On the 

Long zodiac the spring equinox is indicated by a rectangular 

plate with wavy lines placed in Pisces. The only 

candidate for a planetary symbol in this partial horoscope 

is the large circle with a male figure inside, but only in 

the case if this symbol turns out not to be a part of the 

main horoscope. On the color annotated zodiac (see Figure 

7.12) we marked this figure with two colors (light-blue 

and yellow), to indicate that it could belong either to the 

main or partial horoscope. There is no other candidate 

for a planet in this partial horoscope available, because 

all the figures around Pisces were already recognized as 

either planets of the main horoscope, or typical decans 

without any modification. In the case this circle is related 

to the partial horoscope, it is definitely the Sun. Otherwise, 

there wouldn’t be a partial horoscope here without 

a symbol of the Sun — its central planet. Regarding the 

male figure offering an animal inside this circle, it could 

be a planetary symbol, but without additional attributes 

it could be any planet except Venus. The only information 

that we can extract from this symbol is that probably 

the closest or closest visible planet to the Sun was a male 

planet. 

[D] Partial Horoscope of the Summer Solstice: The figure 

representing Gemini is an “astronomical hieroglyph” 

incorporating the Sun, Mercury and Venus symbols (see 

subsection 5.8.4 and Figure ??). The partial horoscope 

is placed on the left from of Gemini. Let us discuss one 

by one all the figures standing in this area. Right beside 

Gemini, there is the first decan of Cancer looking into the 

opposite direction. Further, there are the usual symbols 

of the summer solstice: a man with a raised hand standing 

on a boat, and a “bird-sun” sitting on a pole. These both 

symbols represent the Sun in summer solstice (see subsection 

5.8.4). The fact that the girl-decan is turned back 

should not be overlooked. This is the only decan standing 

this way to indicate that the whole scene in front of her 

(on the left) belongs to Gemini. If she stood in the same 

way as all the other decans, this scene would belong to 

Cancer. We will see that the order of figures in this scene 

is also reversed. On the first boat there are two female figures, 

one of them holds a planetary walking stick with a 

handle, while the other one holds in her raised hands two 

bowls from which she pours water. There is a similarly to 

Aquarius. As there is only one female planet, this symbol 

indicates Venus. On the next boat there is a lying bull, 

which is a usual symbol of the summer solstice, and then, 

there is a pole with a sun-bird wearing a crown sitting 

on its top. Finally, in the last boat there is a man with a 

raised hand holding a planetary walking stick. This symbol 

represents the Sun at the summer solstice. The presence 

of a companion of Venus with Aquarius attributes 

and the bull, which is the symbol of Taurus, suggest the 

reversed orientation of this scene on the ecliptic. That 

means that Venus was in Taurus or in its proximity. In 

conclusion, Venus was in Taurus or in its vicinity, the exact 

position of Mercury is not specified, and there were no 

other planets in the proximity of the Sun on the summer 

solstice day. 

7.3.4 Final Solution for the Long Zodiac: 

April 22-26, 1168 AD. 

Step 3. (See subsection 6.7.3) In this step we validated 

all the preliminary dates for the Long zodiac ob-


Figure 7.15: Fragment of the Long Denderah zodiac with the partial horoscope of the summer solstice. 

tained in Step 2. It was done manually using the program 

Turbo Sky written by A.V. Volynkin, however, there 

are many other good astronomical programs that can 

be used for this purpose (see for example the site at: 

http://www.seds.org/billa/astrosoftware.html. In this 

process we examined the planetary positions, the visibility 

of the planets, and compatibility with the data contained in 

the partial horoscopes. During this verification all the possibilities 

for the beginning of the Egyptian year were considered. 

A precise description of the validation procedure was 

described in section 6.7. At the end of the selection process 

we were left with only one complete astronomical solution (i.e. 

a solution, which passed all the tests): April 22-26, 1168 

A.D. This date indicate the epoch more than thousand years 

later than claimed by Egyptologists 18 . In the next section we 

will see that the second zodiac from the same Denderah temple, 

i.e. the Round Denderah zodiac, shows the date only 17 

years different from it. There is another date closely indicating 

the second half of the twelve century. It’s the date (1182 

A.D.) shown on the Color Thebes zodiac (OU), which we will 

analyze and date in Chapter 8. We would like to point out 

that in spite of the fact that these dates drastically contradict 

Scaliger’s chronology of Egypt, they ideally fit into the 

new reconstructed chronology of the global history (see [103], 

[105], [106], [117]). 

Let us present the variant of decoding that led to the full 

astronomical solution for the Long zodiac: 

--------------- INPUT DATA FOR HOROS --------------- 

ZODIAC: The Long Denderah (DL) 

DECODING VARIANT: Sun - the disc on the Taurus back, 

Moon - in Libra 

CODE OF THE DECODING VARIANT: DL2 

LOCATIONS OF THE PLANETS IN THE MAIN HOROSCOPE: 

SUN - the disc on the back of Taurus; Range: from the 

middle of Aries to the middle of Gemini; Best Point: the 

middle of Taurus. 

18 See [10]. 

MOON - the disc in Libra or the disc between Libra 

and Scorpio; Range: Libra and Scorpio; Best Point: the 

middle of Libra. 

SATURN - in Aquarius or Capricorn; Range: Aquarius and 

Capricorn; Best Point: the boundary of Aquarius and 

Capricorn. 

JUPITER - in Pisces or in Aries; Range: Pisces and 

Aries; Best Point: the boundary of Pisces and Aries. 

MARS - in Pisces or in Aquarius; Range: Pisces and 

Aquarius; Best Point: the middle of Aquarius. 

VENUS - in Aries or in Taurus; Range: Aries and Taurus; 

Best Point: 0.3 of Aries. 

MERCURY - in Aries, in Taurus or in Gemini; Range: 

Aries, Taurus and Gemini; Best Point: the middle of 

Taurus. 

We admit 5 o tolerance for all the boundaries of the 

planetary ranges. 

ORDER OF PLANETS ON THE ECLIPTIC (starting from the 

autumn equinox point in Virgo, in the direction of the 

increasing longitude): 

MOON, SATURN, MARS, JUPITER, VENUS, MERCURY SUN 

Mercury is interchangeable with the Sun (it is 

represented on the both sides of the Sun). 

-----------------------DATA------------------------- 


# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

0.5 6.0 9.0 11.0 10.0 0.0 0.0 # TO: 

---------------------------------------------# 

2.5 8.0 11.0 1.0 12.0 2.0 3.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------# 

1.5 6.5 10.0 12.0 10.5 0.3 1.5 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 

REMARK: The following constellation scale was used (see 

section 6.10): 

ARIESTAURGEMINICANCERLEOVIR 

LIBSCORPSAGITTCAPRICAQUAPISC


---------------------------------------------------- 

The best correspondence between the calculated planetary 

positions and the data of the main horoscope, according 

to the mean distance from the best points, is achieved at the 

Full Moon on April 23, 1168 A.D. On this day the mean distance 

was minimal and equal only 12 o , which is about one 

third of the average length (along the ecliptic) of the zodiacal 

constellations. Recall, that precision of the symbolic zodiacal 

scale can not be higher than half of the length of a zodiac 

constellation, which in average is 15 o , so the expected accuracy 

from an astronomical solution can not be higher than 

this. From this point of view, the date of April 23, 1168 AD, 

is very accurate. However, any other date from the interval 

April 22 – 26, 1168 A.D., is also acceptable. 

We present the exact positions of the planets on the ecliptic 

for the dates April 22, 23, 26, 1168 AD, in Table 7.1. 

In Table 7.1, beside the usual dates we also include the 

day numbers (JD) in the so called “Julian period,” which are 

commonly used in astronomical calculations 19 . The planetary 

positions on the ecliptic are given there in three ways: 

• Computed longitude J2000 (which is the elliptical longitude 

with respect to the equinox points for the epoch 

2000) — in degrees; 

• Coordinate on the constellation scale (see section 6.10). 

• Name of the constellation where the planet appeared (for 

rough idea). 

7.3.5 Check-up list for the Long Zodiac Final 

Solution 

In this subsection we will present the verification process applied 

to the final solution obtained for the Long Denderah 

zodiac. We should remind that all the other preliminary solutions 

obtained in the first step were rejected using this validation 

process. All the preliminary solutions can be easily 

generated using the program Horos, and an interested reader 

can check by himself/herself their compatibility with the additional 

data (which was specified in subsections 7.3.2 and 

7.3.3) by following our example. 

Let us recall that the goal of the check-up list is to compare 

the astronomical information decoded from the zodiac with 

the actual astronomical situation associated with the calculated 

solution. A calculated solution is called full or complete 

if all the items from the check-up list can be confirmed (see 

section 6.14). On Figure 7.16 we show the check-up list for the 

solution April 22-26, 1168 A.D., for the Long zodiac, which 

turned out to be the only final solution for this zodiac. In this 

table we used the symbol of an encircled sign plus to indicate 

that the correspondence between the particular information 

on the zodiac and the solution can be confirmed. 

19 See [27], p. 316, also see section 6.4. 

Julian day (JD) = 2147782.00 

Year/Month/Day = 1168/4/22 

Moon Saturn Mars Jupiter Venus Mercury Sun 

212.7 o 

327.0 o 

330.8 o 

361.2 o 39.3 o 

43.2 o 

50.4 o 

5.93 9.91 10.07 11.37 .51 .67 .95 

Vir/Lib Cap/Aqu Aqu/Cap Pisces Aries Aries Ari/Tau 

Mean Distance from the Best Points= 13.7 o 

Julian day (JD) = 2147783.00 

Year/Month/Day= 1168/4/23 


225.1 o 

327.0 o 

331.5 o 

361.4 o 38.8 o 

42.7 o 

51.4 o 

6.45 9.91 10.12 11.37 .49 .65 1.01 

Libra Cap/Aqu Aquar Pisces Aries Aries Ari/Tau 


. . . 

Julian day (JD) = 2147786.00 



261.4 o 

327.2 o 

333.6 o 

362.0 o 37.5 o 

41.5 o 

54.2 o 

7.83 9.91 10.24 11.39 .44 .60 1.07 

Scorp Cap/Aqu Aquar Pisces Aries Aries Taurus 


Table 7.1: Complete Solution for the Long Denderah Zodiac 

in the Main Horoscope 

Recall that in our check-up list we use the following abbreviations: 

• SUH — the submersion of the Sun under the horizon measured 

in degrees (in direction perpendicular to the horizon). 

• M — the brightness of the planet (which can changes in 

time) measured in magnitude at the specified moment. 

In the case the value of M is zero, the planet is quite 

bright. For negative values of M the brightness increases. 

See subsection 6.7.3. 

• A decimal number in brackets ranging from 0 to 12 — 

the calculated longitude of the planet with respect to the 

constellation scale (see section 6.10). For example, (2.5) 

means the middle of Gemini or in another words, the point 

on the ecliptic J2000 with longitude 70 o . 

• ∆ — a spherical distance (measured in degrees). 

We will discuss, column-by-column, all the items in the 

check-up list: 

Column 1: VISIBILITY OF MERCURY. On the days specified 

in the solution, Mercury was surely invisible in Cairo 

and Luxor. In the check-up list we include the SUH (the submersion 

of the Sun) in Cairo. In Luxor this number couldn’t


Figure 7.16: Check-Up List for the final solution for the Long Denderah Zodiac: April 22-16, 1168 AD.


be higher more than 1 o , so it wouldn’t change the invisibility 

conditions. Indeed, on April 22, 1168 A.D., which is the first 

day of the solution, the submersion of the Sun at the moment 

when Mercury was rising, was only 4 o in Cairo and less than 

5 o in Luxor. In the same time, the brightness of Mercury was 

very low M = +3.3, so it wasn’t possible to observe Mercury 

in these conditions. On the last day of the solution, which 

was April 26, 1168 A.D., the submersion of the Sun was 6 o 

in Cairo and not more than 7 o in Luxor. At that time the 

brightness of Mercury was little bit higher (M = +2.1) but 

still insufficient for the visibility in such conditions. Consequently, 

Mercury was invisible at all the days of the solution, 

and we can conclude that in this solution, Mercury must be 

represented by the two-faced figure between Aries and Taurus. 

Recall that this figure of Mercury has no star over his 

head, which means it was in invisible position. Moreover, the 

position of Mercury in the solution was in the middle of Aries, 

what ideally corresponds to the location of this figure on the 

Long Zodiac. In this case, the second figure of Mercury should 

either belong to the partial horoscope of the summer solstice, 

in which area it shown, or it simply represents a separate 

supplementary astronomical scene. Notice that such scenes 

are present on the Long zodiac. For example, there is a scene, 

that we will discuss below, showing Mars on a goose approaching 

Saturn. In any case in this solution, the second figure of 

Mercury can not belong to the main horoscope, because on 

April 22–26, 1168, Mercury stayed in Aries, while the second 

Mercury is shown in Taurus. Moreover the second one is not 

on the same side of the Sun as in the solution. That means, 

the second figure of Mercury should be included in the other 

category of the check-up list. We closed this column with an 

encircled sign plus to signal that all these condition is fully 

satisfied by the solution. 

Column 2: VISIBILITY OF VENUS. On the Long zodiac, 

the figure representing Venus has a star over its head, which 

means it was visible. On all the days included in the solution, 

Venus was clearly visible in the morning. On April 22, 

1168, when Venus was rising, the submersion of the Sun was 

SUH=10 o in Cairo, and the brightness of Venus was high 

M = −2.8, so Venus was very well visible. On April 26, 1168, 

which is the last day in the solution, the visibility conditions 

were even better. The submersion of the Sun was SUH=12 o 

and the brightness of Venus was M = −3.7. That means 

Venus was perfectly well visible in the mornings on all days 

specified in the solution. In the solution, Venus was in the 

middle of Aries, while Mercury was also in Aries not far from 

Venus on the Taurus side. This configuration corresponds perfectly 

to the astronomical picture on the Long zodiac. Again, 

we marked this column with the plus sign to show that the 

specified condition was satisfied. 

Column 3: PARTIAL HOROSCOPE OF THE AUTUMN 

EQUINOX. The variant of the beginning of the Egyptian year 

was determined through the verification process. It turned out 

that it was in September, so the year related to the solution 

started in September 1167 and ended by September 1168 (see 

section 5.11). This choice of the beginning of the year fits well 

not only the Long zodiac, but practically all the Egyptian 

zodiacs (with one exception). Therefore, the autumn equinox 

for this solution occurred in September 1167. 

Let us remark that we can not expect from the creators 

of the Long zodiac the precise determination of the dates of 

the equinoxes and solstices. It is not an easy task and even 

in the 14th century the errors of up to six days were made 20 . 

The exact date of the autumn equinox in the year 1167 was 

on September 11-12 (see Appendix ??). By assuming a six 

days margin of error, we obtain the interval September 5– 

18, 1167 for checking the planetary positions in the partial 

horoscope of the autumn equinox. The six day discrepancy 

from the exact date of the autumn equinox is significant only 

for Moon and possibly for Mercury. With respect to other 

planets (which are relatively slow) these few days make no 

difference. 

Let us indicate the planetary positions in the period 

September 13–15, 1167 (see Table 7.2): 

Julian day (JD) = 2147560.00 


Sun Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Venus Mercury 

188.1 o 

168.4 o 

309.3 o 

324.4 o 

178.9 o 

209.3 o 

179.6 o 

5.93 9.91 10.07 11.37 .51 .67 .95 

Julian day (JD) = 2147561.00 



189.1 o 

181.2 o 

309.2 o 

324.3 o 

179.5 o 

210.5 o 

178.9 o 

5.36 5.16 9.27 9.81 5.12 5.88 5.11 

Julian day (JD) = 2147562.00 



190.1 o 

193.8 o 

309.2 o 

324.3 o 

180.2 o 

211.8 o 

178.4 o 

5.38 5.47 9.27 9.81 5.14 5.91 5.09 

Table 7.2: Planetary Positions in the Period September 13– 

15, 1167 

Using Turbo-Sky program we’ve calculated that the New 

Moon appeared on September 17, 1167, at the distance 0.5 o 

from Venus. It became visible in evening on September 17, 

when it moved a little bit away from Venus, but it was still 

very close to it (see Figure 7.17). 

On the days of the autumn equinox, on the evening sky 

one could observe very bright Venus and no other planets 

around. On September 17, the New Moon appeared beside 

Venus. Before dawn there were no visible planets near the 

horizon. Mars and Mercury were too close to the Sun to be 

visible. This situation matches perfectly the information from 

the partial horoscope of the autumn equinox, i.e. on that date 

20 See [121].

Venus and Moon were visible not very far from the Sun, which 

was in Virgo, Mercury wasn’t visible, and there were no other 

visible planets in proximity of Virgo. 

Figure 7.17: A drawing showing planets in the proximity of 

the Sun on September 17, 1167 — the day of appearing of 

the New Moon following the autumn equinox. The sky under 

the horizon is marked in blue. GMT stands for the Greenwich 

Mean Time. 

In conclusion, we again should annotate the third column 

with the sign plus to indicated that all the conditions specified 

on the partial horoscope of the autumn equinox are satisfied 

by the solution. 

Julian day (JD) = 2147652.00 



280.8 o 

292.1 o 

314.0 o 

331.8 o 

239.8 o 

321.9 o 

297.9 o 

8.41 8.73 9.44 10.13 7.11 9.72 8.90 

Julian day (JD) = 2147653.00 



281.8 o 

304.2 o 

314.1 o 

332.0 o 

240.5 o 

323.0 o 

298.0 o 

8.44 9.09 9.45 10.14 7.13 9.77 8.90 

Table 7.3: Planetary Positions in the Period December 14–15, 

1167 

Column 4: PARTIAL HOROSCOPE OF THE WINTER 

SOLSTICE. In the year associated with the solution the winter 

solstice took place on December 11-12, 1167 (see Appendix 

??). We have to take into account that in old times the exact 


day of the winter solstice was the most probably determined 

with some error. By the same reasons as before, we admit a 

six days error margin for and consider the winter solstice days 

to be from December 5 to December 18, 1167. 

Figure 7.18: A drawing showing planets in the proximity of 

the Sun on December 15, 1167 (the day of appearing of the 

New Moon) at 4:00 GMT and 15:50 GMT. The sky under the 

horizon is marked in blue. 

To give an idea about the planetary positions around the 

Sun during the winter solstice period, we choose two dates, 

for example December 14-15, 1167, and list their longitudes 

in Table 7.3. 

As usual, the same positions are given twice, in the first 

row we show the longitude in degrees on the ecliptic J2000, 

and in the second row the same positions according to the 

constellation scale (see section 6.10). 

By using Turbo-Sky we obtained that on December 15, 

1167, in Cairo, the New Moon appeared in Capricorn. At 

that day, at the evening twilight, an extremely bright Venus 

(M = −4.1) and relatively bright Saturn (M = 1.6), were 

also visible in Capricorn. Bright Mercury (M = +0.4) could 

be seen near horizon in Sagittarius, and there were no other 

planets in the evening twilight zone. Before the dawn, only 

Mars was visible on the boundary between Scorpio and Li-


bra. It was sufficiently far from the Sun and rather bright 

(M = +1.6), so it was very well visible. The twilight sky on 

this day in Cairo is shown on Figure 7.18. This configuration 

of planets around the Sun corresponds exactly to the picture 

of the partial horoscope of the winter solstice on the Long 

zodiac: Venus and Saturn or/and Moon in Capricorn, Mercury 

somewhere close to the Sun, which is in Sagittarius, but 

without clearly specified position, and Mars in Scorpio not 

far from Libra or in Libra. 

Consequently, we can annotate this column with the plus 

sign to indicated that considered here requirements are all 

satisfied. 

Column 5: PARTIAL HOROSCOPE OF THE SPRING 

EQUINOX. In 1168, the spring equinox occurred on March 

13 (see Appendix ??), which was very close date to the date 

of the main horoscope in this solution. We consider as the 

spring equinox days the interval March 7–20, 1168, which is 

exactly 6 days around the equinox date. Let us present the 

positions of the planets near the Sun on the day of the New 

Moon on March 12, 1168 (see Table 7.4). 

Julian day (JD) = 2147741.00 



370.4 o 

383.6 o 

324.1 o 

352.3 o 

301.9 o 

48.9 o 

380.8 o 

11.60 11.93 9.80 11.14 9.01 .90 11.86 

Table 7.4: Planetary Positions on March 12, 1168 

Since the spring equinox day happened so closely to the 

date of the main horoscope, which was April 22–26, 1168, all 

the planets at that time (except the Sun and Moon) were still 

near in the same positions on the main date. Maybe because 

of it, the partial horoscope of the spring equinox on the Long 

zodiac is very laconic. There is only shown the Sun as big 

circle in Pisces. 

Before the dawn on March 12, 1168, the submersion of the 

Sun at the moment Jupiter was rising was 15 o , so Jupiter was 

very well visible. Its brightness was maximal (M = −1.5) and 

it was located in Pisces, i.e. in the same constellation as the 

Sun. At the evening twilight, Venus (M = −4.9) and Mercury 

(M = −0.1) were visible. Their brightness was almost 

maximal. Venus was in Aries and Mercury in Pisces. At the 

moment Mercury was crossing the horizon, the submersion of 

the Sun was about 11 o , thus Mercury was definitely visible. 

At that time the distance from Venus to the Sun was almost 

maximal — about 40 o . In the evening on March 13, 1168, the 

New Moon appeared on the boundary between Pisces and 

Aries. However, on the Long zodiac, the partial horoscope of 

the spring equinox consists solely of a big disc representing 

the Sun with a male figure inside making an offering of an animal. 

On the Round Denderah zodiac we also have a similar 

situation, where the partial horoscope of the spring equinox 

contains only a disc of the Sun. These two cases suggest that 

the spring equinox was represented differently from other solstice 

and equinoxes points. We will see later on other examples, 

that it was typical for Egyptian zodiacs to practically 

ignore the partial horoscope of the spring equinox. 

In relation to the presence of additional figure inside the 

disc of the Sun (in the partial horoscope of the spring equinox) 

on each of the two Denderah zodiacs, we notice that it is a 

male figure on the Long zodiac and a female figure on the 

Round zodiac. The most probably, this figure represents a 

planet, which at that time was making “offering” to the Sun. 

On the Long zodiac, this disc of the Sun almost touches the 

figure of Jupiter in the main horoscope, what suggests that 

Jupiter was the planet making an “offering,” and indeed, 

Jupiter was the brightest planet visible near the Sun on the 

equinox day. Of course Venus as always was much brighter 

than Jupiter, but it was also much further away from the 

Sun (40 o for Venus and 15 o for Jupiter). In the case of the 

Round zodiac, the brightest planet near the Sun on the spring 

equinox day was Venus, which matches the female figure inside 

the disc. Consequently, the astronomical situation at the 

spring equinox fits well the symbolism on the Long zodiac, so 

we can annotate the fifth column with the sign plus. 

Column 6: PARTIAL HOROSCOPE OF THE SUMMER 

SOLSTICE. In the year 1168, the summer solstice occurred 

on June 12. As before, we extend the time interval of the 

summer solstice by 6 days from each side, i.e. we consider 

as the summer solstice dates June 6–18, 1168. In this case, 

the time difference between June 6 and June 18 can have an 

impact only on the position of Moon. 

Let us list the positions of the planets on the ecliptic on 

one of the summer solstice days, for example June 14, 1168 

(see Table 7.5). 

Julian day (JD) = 2147835.00 



101.1 o 

194.0 o 

327.1 o 

369.0 o 

366.1 o 

55.9 o 

99.5 o 

2.40 5.47 9.91 11.56 11.49 1.11 2.34 

Table 7.5: Planetary Positions on June 14, 1168 

Using the program Turbo-Sky, we found that the New 

Moon appeared in Cancer on June 9, 1168. The positions 

of the planets near the Sun, as it was observed from Cairo 

on June 8, 1168, are shown on Figure 7.19. This drawing was 

made with a help of the program Turbo-Sky. It illustrates the 

sky around the summer solstice point with the morning horizon 

for June 8, 1168, indicated. Before the dawn on all these 

summer solstice days Venus, which was located on the bound-

ary between Aries and Taurus, was very bright (M = −4.7) 

and well visible. On June 8, 1168, bright Mercury (M = 0.0) 

could be still visible in Taurus, but the next day it disappeared 

in the sunlight. No other planet around the Sun, except 

Moon, was visible during the summer solstice days, neither 

before the dawn nor at the evening. 

Figure 7.19: A drawing showing planets in the proximity of the 

Sun on June 8, 1168. The sky under the horizon is marked 

in blue. 

Let us recall that on the Long zodiac in the partial horoscope 

of the summer solstice Venus was in Taurus or in its 

vicinity, the exact position of Mercury was not specified, and 

there were no other planets in the proximity of the Sun. Moreover, 

the second figure representing Mercury, according to the 

solution, doesn’t belong to the main horoscope, so it should 

be an element of the partial horoscope of the summer solstice. 

In this case the position of Mercury can be described as located 

in between Taurus and Gemini. Indeed, the figure of the 

second Mercury stands just behind Taurus preceding the first 

decan of Gemini (see Figures 7.11 and 7.12). On the other 

hand, Venus on the Long zodiac is represented by a couple 

of female figures on a boat (see Figures 7.11 and 7.12) at the 

very end of the zodiac. As it is located much further from 

Gemini than Mercury (remember that this part of the Long 

zodiac has reversed order), Venus was probably somewhere 

around Taurus. 

In the solution, Venus is located on the boundary between 

Aries and Taurus. As we can see, all the details related to the 

positions of the planets on the partial horoscope are in the 

exact correspondence with the astronomical situation according 

to the solution. The only discrepancy could be the absence 


of Moon in the partial horoscope. However, it is not unusual 

even common that Moon wasn’t shown on the Egyptian zodiacs 

in the partial horoscopes. Let us point out that the New 

Moon in the summer solstice days appeared in Cancer on the 

evening sky, but the area corresponding to Cancer was not 

displayed on the partial horoscope (see subsection 7.3.3(D)), 

where only the morning sector between Taurus and Aries was 

included. This was possible to achieve by reversing the order 

of the procession on the left from Gemini (see subsection 

7.3.3(D)). In summary, we can conclude that we have a full 

correspondence between the solution and the partial horoscope 

of the summer solstice, thus we can again annotate the 

sixth column with the plus sign. That completes the comparison 

of the solution with the data provided by the partial 

horoscopes. There are only supplementary scenes left. 

Column 7: SUPPLEMENTARY SCENE OF THE 

PASCHAL FULL MOON. We’ve already discussed in 

section 5.9 that some Egyptian zodiacs have a special representation 

of the Paschal Full Moon in the year related to the 

main date. The first Full Moon after the spring equinox, i.e. 

the Paschal Full Moon, occurred on March 26, 1168, in Libra. 

On the Long zodiac, on the left side of Libra there is located 

the last (fourth) circle, which still remains unexplained. This 

circle almost touches Libra. There is female figure holding a 

long stick in both hands. This circle ideally fits the Paschal 

Full Moon and the figure inside very well agrees with the 

description of Passover given in Bible: “And thus shall ye 

eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and 

your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the 

Lord’s Passover.” 21 , so the person standing with a walking 

stick (or stuff) is a good symbol for Passover. 

As we were able to associate a reasonable explanation with 

the forth circle, we can annotate this column with plus. 

Column 8: OTHER SUPPLEMENTARY SCENES. The last 

supplementary scene that we are considering is the figure of 

Mars standing on a goose. It is located in between the first 

decan of Aquarius and the third decan of Capricorn, at the 

very end of the zodiac. In this scene Mars makes an impression 

of approaching Saturn. However, here there is no new 

information to be obtained. Saturn moves very slowly and 

during the whole year its position changes so little that the 

same figure on the zodiac could describe all of them. In the 

same time Mars is relatively fast planet, and by knowing its 

position in the main horoscope, which was in between Pisces 

and Aquarius, we can be certain that at some moment during 

that year it passed by Saturn. 

Nevertheless, this particular information fits exceptionally 

well the solution, because on April 16, 1168, when Mars was 

passing Saturn the distance between them (in latitude) was 

only 40 ′ (this value was calculated using Turbo-Sky). Let us 

notice that this meeting took place just 6 days before the date 

of the main horoscope, and possibly that’s why this scene was 

included in the Long zodiac. 

21 Exodus 12:11.


So, we’ve managed to verify that the solution satisfies all 

the additional information on the Long zodiac, and in result 

we determined that this solution is a full (complete) solution. 

No other full solution was found for any admissible variant of 

decoding of the Long zodiac (see subsection 7.3.2). 

CONCLUSION: The Long Denderah zodiac represents the 

date April 22-26, 1168 AD. 


Round Denderah Zodiac 

In this section we will calculate the date represented on the 

Round Denderah zodiac. Recall, that the Round and Long 

zodiacs were discovered in the same temple in Denderah. 

In Chapter 1 we presented several pictures of the Round 

Denderah zodiac (see Figures 2.4–2.7), but here we will need 

a more detailed picture of the central part (the main area of 

the zodiac) showing the zodiacal constellations and the horoscope 

(see Figure 7.20). This drawing, which was taken from 

[10], was made based on the actual photograph of the Round 

zodiac. We will implicitly refer to this picture throughout all 

the discussion in this section. 

In our investigation we have also used a set of photographs 

of the original Round Denderah zodiac taken by 

Prof. Y.V. Tatarinov in Louvre (France). Comparing the photos 

with the drawing on Figure 7.20, led us to a conclusion 

that this drawing is very precise in all aspects, including the 

exact location and configuration of all the symbols, what is 

very important for the correct decoding of the Round zodiac. 

Contrary to the Long zodiac, the figures here are not arranged 

in processions, but they are organized in two-dimensional formations, 

where any small detail may turn out to express some 

important astronomical information. 

We will again describe the process of dating of the Round 

zodiac following several steps (see section 6.7). 

Step 1. (See subsection 6.7.1.) Preliminary decoding of the 

main horoscope on the Round zodiac and compiling the color 

annotated zodiac. 

By using the comparative tables (see sections 5.1 and 5.4) 

of Egyptian astronomical symbols, we found all the symbols 

of constellations and planets in the main horoscope on the 

Round zodiac. On the color annotated zodiac, shown on Figure 

??, these constellations are marked in red and the planets 

in the main horoscope in yellow. Similarly to the Long zodiac, 

here again the main problem leading to several variants of decoding, 

is the recognition of the Sun and Moon. 

7.4.1 Constellations Figures on the Round 

Zodiac 

The symbols used here to denote the zodiac constellations 

are standard and almost identical with the corresponding 

symbols on the Long zodiac. Consequently, it is straight forward 

to identify all these constellations and our identification 

is the same as suggested by Egyptologists 22 , used by N.A. 

Morozov 23 , N.S. Kellin and D.V. Denisenko 24 , and T.N. 

Fomenko 25 . 

Figure 7.22: Diagram showing the general structure of the 

Round Denderah zodiac. The zodiacal belt is indicated by red, 

elements of partial horoscope are marked in light-blue, and the 

elements of the main horoscope in yellow. Notice the demicircle 

composed of the partial horoscope symbols only. 

On the color-annotated zodiac (see Figure 7.21), we can 

see the general composition of the Round zodiac. All the zodiacal 

constellations are arranged in a form of a slightly deformed 

circle, which represents the zodiacal belt on the sky. 

It is surrounded from one side by processions of figures belonging 

to the partial horoscopes of the autumn equinox and 

summer solstice (marked in light-blue). The figures belonging 

to the other two partial horoscopes are located inside the 

zodiacal belt. 


Round Zodiac 

As usual, the planetary figures in the main horoscope are 

marked in yellow on the color-annotated zodiac. All the planets 

in the main horoscope are represented by figures equipped 

22 See [10]. 

23 See [4], Vol. 6. 

24 See [15]. 

25 See [1].

7.4 Decoding the Date from the Round Denderah Zodiac 167 

Figure 7.20: Central fragment of the Round Denderah zodiac with the constellations and horoscope.


Figure 7.21: The color-annotated Round Denderah zodiac. Meaning of colors: RED– zodiacal constellations, YELLOW – planets 

in the main horoscope, LIGHT-BLUE – partial horoscopes and solstice and equinox symbols, and GREEN – supplementary 

figures and scenes.

with the planetary walking sticks or circles located inside the 

zodiacal belt. The figures surrounding this circle are not elements 

of the main horoscope. They belong to partial horoscopes. 

However, among the figures with planetary walking 

sticks inside the zodiacal belt, there are some which belong to 

the partial horoscopes. In the most cases there is no problem 

to recognize such figures, but there are two doubtful cases, 

where we can not decide immediately to what kind of horoscope 

it belongs. The first such symbols is a planetary figure 

of a traveler standing above Capricorn. The second one 

is a planetary figure standing above the Virgo’s spike. Since 

both these symbols are placed closely above other objects, 

which could possibly indicate a pull-out situation, so there is 

a chance that they belong to partial horoscopes. If they were 

standing on an object like a boat or snake, there wouldn’t be 

any doubt that they belong to a partial horoscope. But the 

situation with these two figures constitutes a case where the 

both possibilities should be considered. At the end, we found 

out that the figure standing over Capricorn belongs to the 

main horoscope, while the second figure, above the Virgo’s 

spike, belongs to a partial horoscope. Since in the first stage 

of the dating we considered all the variants for these two figures, 

we marked them with two colors: yellow — the color 

of the main horoscope, and light-blue — the color of partial 

horoscopes. 

Let us list all the planetary figures in the main horoscope 

on the Round zodiac. 

(1) Saturn — a male figure with a planetary walking stick 

and a crescent on his head. It is located between Virgo 

and Libra. To find out why this figure was recognize 

as Saturn, see subsection 5.4.2. This identification of 

Saturn coincides with the identifications suggested by 

N.A. Morozov 26 , N.S. Kellin and D.V. Denisenko 27 , T.N. 

Fomenko 28 , and Egyptologists 29 . 

Consequently, Saturn on the Round zodiac is either in 

Libra or in Virgo, so the range of admissible positions of 

Saturn is Libra and Virgo. 

N.A. Morozov believed that Saturn on the Round zodiac 

was located in Virgo, and the same opinion was also expressed 

by N.S. Kellin and D.V. Denisenko, and T.N. 

Fomenko. Therefore, we choose as its best point the middle 

point of Virgo. Recall that the best points are only 

used in the elimination process to determine the order 

of the planets and the mean discrepancy from the best 

points gives only a rough idea about the precision of a 

solution and had no part in the elimination process (see 

section 6.12). 

(2) Jupiter — a man holding a planetary walking stick walking 

in between Cancer and Gemini. In this identification 

we agree again with N.A. Morozov, N.S. Kellin and D.V. 

Denisenko, T.N. Fomenko, and Egyptologists. According 

to the translation of the hieroglyphic inscription over the 

head of this figure, which is given in [10], the figure is in- 

26 See [4], Vol. 6. 

27 See [15]. 

28 See [1]. 

29 See [10]. 


deed Jupiter (see subsection 5.4.6). Consequently, Jupiter 

on the Round zodiac is either in Cancer or in Gemini, so 

the range of admissible positions of Jupiter is Cancer and 

Gemini. 

Following the idea of N.A. Morozov, who believed that 

Jupiter was in Cancer, we choose as the best point for 

Jupiter the middle of Cancer. 

(3) Mars — a male figure with a planetary walking stick 

standing over Capricorn. We recognized this symbol as 

a representation of Mars, because of the hieroglyphic inscription 

above its head, which indicates clearly the name 

of Mars (see subsection 5.4.5). As we already mentioned, 

there is some doubt related to this figure based on its 

placement above Capricorn — a possibility that this arrangement 

signalizes a pull-out situation. However, there 

is no other admissible variant for Mars in the main horoscope 

on the Round zodiac, so we do not have other choice 

but only to consider this figure as Mars in the main horoscope. 

It seems that due to the round shape of this zodiac 

its authors avoided to use of other pull-out symbols except 

the standard boats or snakes. Since all the figures 

on this zodiac are placed either under or above other figures, 

a confusion could result if some of them were used 

as other kind of pull-out symbols. Still there are some exception 

which we will discuss a little later. Again, there 

is no disagreement in this identification of Mars on the 

Round zodiac with other researchers, including N.A. Morozov, 

N.S. Kellin and D.V. Denisenko, T.N. Fomenko, 

and Egyptologists. 

Consequently, Mars on the Round zodiac is shown in 

Capricorn, so the range of its admissible positions is 

Capricorn. 

The best point for Mars is clearly the middle of Capricorn. 

(4) Venus — a pair of female travelers with planetary walking 

sticks (see subsection 5.4.6). The leading female figure has 

a lioness head. They are located right under the symbol 

of Aries, but the strings from Pisces also point to these females 

in a way, which looks like they were holding them. 

Therefore, from these indications we can conclude that 

Venus was either in Aries or Pisces. This identification 

of Venus is the same as it was proposed by N.A. Morozov, 

N.S. Kellin and D.V. Denisenko, and T.N. Fomenko, 

but it is different than suggested by H. Brugsch and commonly 

used by Egyptologists. For more details we refer 

to subsections 5.4.6 and 5.4.7. In the case of Venus, the 

visibility attributes are very important. On the Round 

zodiac such an attribute is a sign of star placed over the 

head of a planetary figure. There is no such sign here, 

what indicates that Venus was invisible. Using a series of 

detailed photographs, we carefully checked and confirmed 

the absence of this attribute. 

In conclusion, Venus on the Round zodiac is shown either 

in Aries or Pisces, so the range of its admissible positions 

is Aries and Pisces.


Following the suggestions of N.A. Morozov, N.S. Kellin 

and D.V. Denisenko, and T.N. Fomenko, who believed 

that Venus was shown in Aries, we choose as its best point 

the middle of Aries. 

(5) Mercury — a two faced male figure with a planetary walking 

stick located in between Pisces and Aquarius. Over its 

head there is a star indicating its visibility. Our identification 

of Mercury coincides with the identifications done by 

N.A. Morozov, N.S. Kellin and D.V. Denisenko, and T.N. 

Fomenko, but is different from the one proposed by H. 

Brugsch and followed by Egyptologists (see subsections 

5.4.6 and 5.4.7). 

Thus, Mercury on the Round zodiac is either in Aquarius 

or in Pisces, so the range of its admissible positions is 

Aquarius and Pisces. 

As the best point for Mercury we choose the boundary 

between Aquarius and Pisces. 

On Figure 7.23, we show a photograph of a fragment of 

the Round zodiac with Mercury in the main horoscope. 

Figure 7.23: A fragment of the Round zodiac with Mercury. 

In this way, we were able to identify all the planets on 

the Round zodiac in the main horoscope, except the Sun and 

Moon. Recall that there were two figures with planetary walking 

sticks, regarding which there were some doubts about the 

type of the horoscope they belong to. One of these figures, 

located over Capricorn, turned out to be Mars in the main 

horoscope. As all the planets in the main horoscope, represented 

by travelers, are already identified, the only choice for 

the second figure, standing over Virgo’s spike, is to belong 

to the partial horoscope of the autumn equinox. Notice that, 

except figures on the boats, there are no other figures with 

planetary walking sticks on the Round zodiac. 

Now we begin our discussion of the Sun and Moon on 

the Round zodiac. Recall that the Sun and Moon in main 

horoscopes on the Egyptian zodiacs, were always represented 

by discs, discs with attached crescents, or crescents for the 

Moon only. 

(6) Sun and Moon — in this case we can make a definite identification 

at the preliminary stage. The situation here is 

similar to the Long zodiac. On the Round zodiac there 

are three discs, which could be considered as candidates 

for the Sun and Moon in the main horoscope. Two of 

them are located in Pisces and the third one in Libra. 

We considered all the six possible variants of the Sun and 

Moon identifications, assuming that the remaining third 

disc belongs to a partial horoscope. The variant that led 

to a complete solution turned out to be in full agreement 

with the symbols of the Sun and Moon which were already 

determined for the Long zodiac. Namely, on the both Denderah 

zodiacs the discs in Libra, with exactly the same 

figure inside, symbolize Moon. In the both cases it was 

Full Moon. On the Round zodiac, the disc in Pisces, with 

a figure inside making an offering, was determined to be 

the Sun in the partial horoscope of the spring equinox. A 

similar symbol in Pisces on the Long zodiac represented 

the Sun in the partial horoscope of the spring equinox. 

The only difference between these two discs is that the 

figure inside on the Round zodiac is female, while on the 

Long zodiac it is a male. Recall that on the Long zodiac, 

that figure represented Jupiter “making offering to 

the Sun” at the spring equinox. Here, on the Round zodiac, 

this female figure is Venus (see below). Finally, the 

Sun in the main horoscope turned out to be the disc between 

Aries and Pisces, with a symbol of an eye inside (see 

more information related to the eye-symbol in subsection 

5.4.12). In our case, the symbol of the eye probably indicates 

a proximity of the Sun to the star αAri, which in the 

old astronomy had the name Eye of Aries (see subsection 

5.4.12). 

Step 2. (See subsection 6.7.2.) In this step, for each of the 

variants, related to the identifications of the Sun and Moon, 

we conducted computations with the use of the program 

Horos. We required that any admissible solution must have 

the same order of planets as it is shown on the Round zodiac. 

All the solutions that didn’t meet this requirement were 

rejected. In result, several dozens of preliminary dates were 

obtained in the specified time interval (from 500 B.C. till 

1980 A.D. — see section 6.7). Next, for all the obtained astronomical 

solutions we checked the visibility conditions and 

the partial horoscopes. 

7.4.3 Partial Horoscopes on the Round Zodiac. 

[A] Partial Horoscope of the Autumn Equinox: The 

partial horoscope of the autumn equinox is located around 

the figure of Virgo (see Figures 7.20 and 7.21). It contains:

– the figure of a traveler standing on the spike of Virgo 

(see Figure 7.20, 7.21 and 2.32 and 2.34). 

– the bird sitting on the tail of the snake under the Leo’s 

figure. Since it is right under the additional Virgo (see 

subsections 5.1.5 and 5.1.6) standing on the Leo’s tail, 

it could refer either to Leo or Virgo. 

– the five figures located under the constellations of Libra, 

Virgo and Leo in the procession of figures belonging 

to the partial horoscopes (see Figure 7.20 and 

7.21). The first figure is a person sitting on a chair 

with spread out arms holding two identical objects. 

It is located under Leo. It symbolizes the equilibrium 

between the day and night occurring at the equinox 

(see section 5.8). The figures in the procession preceding 

it belong to the partial horoscope of the summer 

solstice, which we will discuss later. The second figure 

— a person sitting on a chair and holding a child 

on his/her hand. This is probably a symbol of the 

new year (see section 5.8). As we already explained 

earlier, the Egyptian new year began in September 

near the autumn equinox. The next symbol is a figure 

of Saturn with a crescent on the head holding a 

scythe (see subsection 5.4.2 and Figure 5.29 and Figures 

7.20 and 7.21). Notice that the figure of Saturn in 

the main horoscope is just above it. This situation is 

natural because Saturn moves so slow that within one 

year its position does not change much. Therefore, it 

has almost the same position in the partial horoscope 

as in the main horoscope. Notice that these two figures 

of Saturn are almost the same, except Saturn 

in the main horoscope has a planetary walking stick 

instead scythe. The forth figure is a lion with front 

paws on the equinox symbol, a rectangular table with 

wavy lines (see section 5.8). Finally, behind the lion 

there is a half human half animal figure. It appears 

as a female with a lioness lower body with one hand 

holding a bowl. Bowl in her hand is an indication of a 

planet in a partial horoscope. We have already seen a 

similar figure holding bowls in the partial horoscope 

of the winter solstice on the Long zodiac. Later in this 

chapter we will see more examples of such bowls on 

the Esna zodiacs. We can conclude that this figure 

is a planetary symbol of a partial horoscope. Since 

it’s a female with lioness attributes, it must be Venus 

in Leo (because it is preceded by a figure of lion). 

Consequently, the meaning of this composition is understandable. 

In fact these five figures provide us with 

the information that on the autumn equinox Saturn 

was approximately at the same place as in the main 

horoscope (in Virgo or in Libra), and Venus was in 

Leo. 

Let us analyze the meaning of the first two figures mentioned 

earlier, i.e. the male planet standing on the Virgo’s 

spike and the bird sitting on the Leo’s snake. Let us point 

out that the spike in Virgo’s hand is not just a decoration, 

but it represents the brightest star in this constellation. 

In the modern astronomy it is denoted as αVirgo, but in 


the old astronomy it was called Spica or Spike or Virgo 30 . 

On the old astronomical charts this star was placed exactly 

at the top of the spike in the Virgo’s hand. The 

fact that this planetary symbol stands right at the top 

of the spike, indicates that it was very close to αVirgo 

on this day. We still need to explain what planet it is. 

To solve this problem we notice a hieroglyphic inscription 

above its head as well as a star indicating its visibility. 

On Figure 7.24 we present a brief table of several basic 

Egyptian hieroglyphs, which is completely sufficient for 

our purposes. 

Figure 7.24: Egyptian Alphabet. (Taken from [116], p. 70) 

In this inscription there are three hieroglyphs (see Figures 

2.34 and 7.25). The hieroglyphs were written in such a 

way that they always face the beginning of the word 31 , so 

the first symbol in this inscription is the curved line (or 

rope), which stands for the letter S. The second symbol 

is the leg, which means the letter B, and the third one, 

which looks like a cup with a handle, stands for the letter 

K. (See Figure 7.24.) In the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing 

usually only consonants were used, and all the vowels were 

omitted, so Egyptologists adopted a convention to put E 

between the consonants if there is no vowel 32 . Therefore, 

the name of this planet is SEBEK, which according to 

Henry Brugsch means Mercury 33 . 

On the other hand the figure itself has an appearance 

that is appropriate for Mercury (see Figure 2.34). Indeed, 

on some Egyptian zodiacs it was represented by 

a male figure with human face (see subsection 5.4.9). Let 

us mention that in the works of contemporary Egyptologist 

S. Cauville, this figure was also identified as Mercury 

34 . We would like to signal that in the Napoleonic 

30 See [22]. 

31 See [116], p.71. 

32 See [116], p. 71. 

33 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 697. 

34 See cite[10], p. 29.


Figure 7.25: The hieroglyphic inscription above the head of a 

planetary figure standing on Virgo’s spike. 

Album this figure is presented incorrectly. First of all, it 

is shifted away from Virgo’s spike (see Figure 2.33), and 

the hieroglyphic inscription above its head is distorted. 

Instead of the two hieroglyphs placed at the top, there 

was created a bended snake (see Figures 2.33 and 2.34 in 

Chapter 2). 

In conclusion, we obtain that in the partial horoscope of 

the autumn equinox we have: 

– Saturn — approximately located in the same place as 

in the main horoscope, i.e. in Virgo or in Libra, 

– Mercury — on Virgo’s spike, which means that it was 

very close to the star αVirgo — also called Spica, 

– Venus — in Leo. 

– One more planet, possibly the Sun, is shown as a bird 

in Virgo or in Leo (under the feet of the “additional” 

Virgo). 

Let us remark that in this location on the Round zodiac there 

is another small planetary figure belonging a partial horoscope. 

It is a human figure sitting on a chair over Leo, and 

holding a whip. As it has the same orientation as Gemini and 

other figures in the partial horoscope of the summer solstice, 

it could possibly belong to that partial horoscope. In our verification 

process we considered the both variants, but in the 

final solution it turned out that it belongs to the summer 

solstice partial horoscope and we will discuss it later in this 

section. 

[B] Partial Horoscope of the Winter Solstice: This partial 

horoscope was already discussed, as one of our examples 

in subsection 5.5.2, so we will present here only the 

final conclusions that we made there. 

In the partial horoscope of the winter solstice, on the 

Round Denderah zodiac, beside the minimal partial horoscope, 

which was incorporated into the figure of Sagittarius, 

there are three planets shown separately. One of them 

is probably the Sun, but two or even three other planets 

were also there. We definitely can recognize Mars and the 

other one was most probably Venus. 

[C] Partial Horoscope of the Spring Equinox: This partial 

horoscope depends on the variant of decoding of the 

main horoscope. Among two discs in Pisces, the one that 

doesn’t belong to the main horoscope (if it is the case) 

should be included in the partial horoscope of the spring 

equinox. We will describe the elements of this partial 

horoscope that were obtained from the decoding that led 

to the final solution. In this case, the disc with an eye 

inside represents the Sun in the main horoscope and the 

another one is not used in the main horoscope, thus, it 

belongs to the partial horoscope. Clearly, as it is the only 

element of this partial horoscope, it represents the Sun. 

Notice that this disc is relatively larger in size than other 

discs on the Round zodiac, what in some sense can be 

explain by the fact that the spring equinox was considered 

as a Festival of the Sun. Notice that this decoding is 

also supported by the fact that the partial horoscope of 

the spring equinox, which resulted from it, appears to be 

very similar to the spring equinox horoscope on the Long 

zodiac. The only difference is that the figure making an 

offering inside the disc on the Long zodiac was a male, 

and here, on the Round zodiac, it is a female. The meaning 

of this scene is that “Venus was making an offering 

to the Sun on the spring equinox day.” In other words, 

Venus was the most impressive planet around the Sun, so 

it was not far from the Sun and visible. 

[D] Partial Horoscope of the Summer Solstice: This 

partial horoscope consists of several figures, some of them 

located inside the zodiacal belt, and others being a part 

of the semi-circular procession of the partial horoscope 

figures, which surrounds from the bottom and left the 

zodiacal belt (see Figures 7.20 and 7.21). 

Let us list all these figures. Inside the zodiacal belt there 

are two such figures. The first one is a male figure holding 

two short sticks in his hand — one of them is T-shaped. 

This figure is located in between Gemini and Taurus. It 

has two feathers on its head. A figure with similar two 

feathers on its head represented “second” Mercury on the 

Long zodiac (see Figures 7.11 and 7.12). This type of head 

decoration is not very common on the Egyptian zodiacs, 

so it seems that these two figures should be related to the 

same planet. The second figure, which we already mentioned 

above, is a human figure sitting on a chair with a 

whip in a hand. It is located right above Leo. It has a high 

hat. The gender of this figure is difficult to identify. At 

this point we recognize two planets in this partial horoscope 

— the first one a male planet in Gemini or Taurus, 

probably Mercury (but other possibilities should not be 

excluded at this stage), and the second one — a male or 

female planet in Leo. 

Now we will list the five figures in the procession outside 

of the zodiacal belt. They are located in the demi-circle of

the partial horoscope processions (see Figure 7.22). Right 

under Gemini, is the center of the summer solstice procession 

— a column with a bird-sun sitting on it. This figure 

is already familiar to us (see section 5.8) and we can recognize 

it as a symbol of the summer solstice. It shows 

the Sun at its highest point on the sky, which is reached 

on the summer solstice day only. On the left from this 

figure, there is a laying bull on a boat, which is also a 

typical symbol associated with the summer solstice (see 

section 5.8). On the both sides this pair we see two figures 

representing planets in the partial horoscope. On the 

right, there is a male figure with a planetary walking stick. 

There is also a bird walking behind that figure. The man 

carries a whip on his shoulder. We recognize this symbol 

as a male planet located on the Taurus side from the Sun 

in Gemini, which could only be visible before the dawn on 

the solstice day. The exact location of this planet is not 

clear. We already observed that some planets in the demicircle 

of the partial horoscopes are not always related to 

the closest constellation in the zodiacal belt. In fact, the 

hole procession is assumed to be located around of the 

central constellation of this partial horoscope, which contains 

the corresponding solstice or equinox point. There 

are no connections between the figures in the procession 

and other constellations in the zodiacal belt. For example, 

in the autumn equinox procession there is a figure of 

lion. It symbolizes Leo in this procession, but it is placed 

under Libra, far away from the figure of Leo. From this 

picture we can only guess that a male planet appeared on 

the Taurus side from the Sun, but we can not be certain 

about it. 

On the other side from the summer solstice symbols, there 

is a woman shooting an arrow over the bull. This symbol 

appears on many Egyptian zodiacs (see section 5.8). It 

is most likely that it represents Venus on the summer 

solstice day. The meaning of this scene is unclear to us. 

Since this figure is located on the opposite side from the 

Sun, it indicates that Venus was observed on the evening 

twilight sky. 

In summary, we obtain the following information from 

this partial horoscope; In Gemini or in Taurus there was 

a male planet, probably Mercury. Another planet was in 

Leo, but we do not have any specific information about 

it. There was one more male planet. Probably it was on 

the Taurus side of the Sun (which was in Gemini), and 

its remarkable size suggests that it was well visible. This 

planet and Venus were on the opposite sides of the Sun. 

7.4.4 Final Solution for the Round Zodiac: 

Morning of March 20, 1185 A.D. 

Step 3. In this step we validated all the preliminary dates 

for the Long zodiac obtained in Step 2. It was done manually 

using the program Turbo Sky written by A.V. Volynkin. In 

result, a full solution was found for only one variant of decoding 

for the Round zodiac, and it turned our to be unique. Let 


us present this final decoding that led to the full astronomical 

solution for the Round zodiac: 

--------------- INPUT DATA FOR HOROS --------------- 

ZODIAC: The Round Denderah (DL) 

DECODING VARIANT: Moon in Libra 

CODE OF THE DECODING VARIANT: DR9 

LOCATIONS OF THE PLANETS IN THE MAIN HOROSCOPE: 

SUN -- in Pisces; Range: from the middle of Aquarius to 

the middle of Aries; Best Point: the middle of Pisces. 

MOON -- the disc in Libra; Range: from the middle of 

Virgo to the middle of Scorpio; Best Point: the middle 

of Libra. 

SATURN -- in Virgo or Libra; Range: Virgo and Libra; 

Best Point: the middle of Libra. 

JUPITER -- in Cancer or in Gemini; Range: Cancer and 

Gemini; Best Point: the middle of Cancer. 

MARS -- in Capricorn; Range: Capricorn; Best Point: the 

middle of Capricorn. 

VENUS -- in Pisces or in Aries; Range: Pisces and Aries; 

Best Point: the middle of Aries. 

MERCURY -- in Aquarius or in Pisces; Range: Aquarius 

and Pisces; Best Point: the boundary between Aries and 

Pisces. 

We admit 5 o tolerance for all the boundaries of the 

planetary ranges. 

ORDER OF PLANETS ON THE ECLIPTIC (in the direction of 

the increasing longitude): 

VENUS, JUPITER, SATURN, MOON, MARS, MERCURY, SUN 

-----------------------DATA------------------------- 


# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

10.5 5.5 5.0 2.0 9.0 11.0 10.0 # TO: 

---------------------------------------------# 

0.5 7.5 7.0 4.0 10.0 1.0 12.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------# 

11.5 6.5 5.5 3.5 9.5 0.5 11.0 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 




LIBSCORPSAGITTCAPRICAQUAPISC 

---------------------------------------------------- 

The unique solution that was obtained for this decoding 

was the morning on March 20, 1185 A.D. The mean distance 

from the best points for his solution was only 9 o , which is less 

than one third of the average length of a zodiacal constellation. 

It is a very good result with the planetary positions very 

close to the best points.


We would like to point out that the Full Moon occurred 

on the night between March 19 and 20, 1185 A.D. Let us 

present the exact positions of the planets on the ecliptic for 

these dates March 19, 20, and 21, 1185 A.D. (see Table 7.6): 

Julian day (JD) = 2153957.00 



377.0 o 214.3 o 

178.0 o 

142.1 o 

318.4 o 29.2 o 

352.9 o 

11.76 5.97 5.08 3.94 9.60 0.11 11.16 

Pisces Vir/Lib Vir/Leo Can/Leo Capric Aries Pisces 


Julian day (JD) = 2153958.00(Full Moon in Libra) 



377.9 o 226.3 o 

177.9 o 

142.1 o 

319.2 o 30.5 o 

354.4 o 

11.78 6.51 5.08 3.94 9.63 0.16 11.20 

Pisces Libra Vir/Leo Can/Leo Capric Aries Pisces 


Julian day (JD) = 2153959.00 



378.9 o 238.1 o 

177.9 o 

142.0 o 

319.9 o 31.7 o 

355.9 o 

11.81 7.05 5.08 3.94 9.66 0.21 11.23 

Pisces Sco/Lib Vir/Leo Can/Leo Capric Aries Pisces 


Table 7.6: Complete Solution for the Round Denderah Zodiac 

(Main Horoscope) 

7.4.5 Checkup List for the Round Zodiac Final 

Solution 

Let us present the verification process applied to the final 

solution of the morning on March 20, 1185 A.D., obtained 

for the Round Denderah zodiac. On Figure 7.26 we show the 

check-up list for this solution presented in a form of a table. 

The symbol of an encircled sign plus was used to indicate that 

the correspondence between the particular information on the 

zodiac and the solution was confirmed (see section 6.14). 

We will explain the contents of this check-up list. 

Column 1: VISIBILITY OF MERCURY. In the morning 

on March 20, 1185, Mercury was clearly visible in Cairo, and 

even longer in Luxor. The submersion of the Sun in Cairo at 

the moment when Mercury was rising was SUH=12 o and the 

brightness of Mercury was M = +0.7, which means it was 

equally bright as the strongest stars. These facts agree very 

well with the representation of Mercury in the main horoscope 

on the Round zodiac, where there is a star over its head. 

Consequently, this date is confirmed and we can annotate 

this column with a mark of plus. 

Column 2: VISIBILITY OF VENUS. On the Round zodiac 

there is no star sign over the couple of female figures representing 

Venus in the main horoscope. That means, Venus was 

not visible on the date of the main horoscope at the time of 

observation. 

Indeed, in the morning on March 20, 1185, Venus wasn’t 

visible because it was under the horizon. It appeared only in 

the evening. In this case we can confirm this data by assuming 

that this was a morning horoscope and we can annotate this 

column with the plus sign. Let us remark, that the Round 

zodiac is an example of a zodiac, which seems to be based 

purely on observations, rather than calculations. 

Julian day (JD) = 2153767.00 



185.8 o 

227.4 o 

174.7 o 

143.3 o 

184.7 o 

152.4 o 

204.4 o 

5.27 6.56 5.00 3.99 5.25 4.29 5.73 

Table 7.7: Planetary Positions on September 10, 1184 


EQUINOX. As before, we consider here the variant of the 

beginning of the Egyptian year in September. The year related 

to the solution started in September 1184 and ended by 

September 1185. The autumn equinox day occurred in this 

year on September 12, 1184 (see Appendix ??). 

As we already explained, in old times the determination 

of the exact equinox day wasn’t very precise and even in the 

14th century mistakes up to six days were made. Therefore, 

we will analyze the planetary positions during the time interval 

from September 6 till September 18, 1184. Indeed, on 

September 10, 1184, i.e. two days before the exact autumn 

equinox day, the planets close to the Sun were arranged in a 

configuration which exactly correspond to the picture of the 

autumn equinox on the Round zodiac. Below, we present the 

calculated longitudes of the planets on September 10, 1184 


On Figure 7.27, we show a chart of the morning and 

evening sky that was visible in Cairo on September 10, 1184. 

The invisible part of the sky between the morning and evening 

horizons is colored in gray-blue. 

Let us list the planets that were visible on that day. In 

the morning: Saturn (with M=+0.9) – the closest to the Sun 

visible planet, Venus (with M = −3.6) — next to Regulus 

(αLeo) on the boundary between Virgo and Leo, and Jupiter 

(with M = −1.4) — in Leo. In the evening: only Mercury


Figure 7.26: Check-Up List for the final solution for the Round Denderah Zodiac: March 20, 1185 A.D. (morning)


(with M = +0.98) was visible at the evening twilight. The 

submersion of the Sun at the moment when Mercury was 

setting down was only SUH=9 o , but still Mercury was sufficiently 

bright to be visible in such circumstances. At that 

time Mercury was very close to the star Spica (αVirgo) — 

distance between them was around 1 o . Mars was near the 

Sun in a distance of about 2 o and it was completely invisible 

throughout all the autumn equinox days. 

Figure 7.27: Planets in the proximity of the Sun on September 

10, 1185. The invisible area around the Sun is shaded. 

We are now ready to compare this information with the 

situation on the Round zodiac. Let us recall the contents 

of the autumn equinox partial horoscope: Mercury on the 

Virgo’s spike (i.e. very close to Spica), Saturn on its place 

in the main horoscope (i.e. in Virgo or Libra), Venus in Leo, 

and one more planet, possibly the Sun, is shown as a bird in 

Virgo or in Leo (under the feet of the “additional” Virgo).By 

comparing it with the situation on Figure 7.27, we notice that 

Mercury is exactly located as it is suggested on the zodiac. 

Saturn is also on its place, as it is expected from the main 

horoscope. Position of Venus is exactly as it should be. Invisible 

Mars, which was in Virgo, corresponds well to the figure 

of a bird “hiding” under the figure of “additional Virgo.” Indeed, 

a figure in a hiding position is a natural symbol for an 

invisible planet. At this point, only Jupiter is missing from 

this partial horoscope. However, let us notice the small sitting 

figure above Leo. As we mentioned before, it could be 

related to the partial horoscope of the autumn equinox as 

well as to the summer solstice partial horoscope. The solution 

that we’ve obtained suggests that symbol is Jupiter in 

these both partial horoscopes. Usually, it doesn’t stay so long 

in one constellation, but during this particular year it was 

making a loop in Leo, so it was “sitting” there almost the 

whole year. 

Consequently, we have a perfect confirmation of all the 

data related to the autumn equinox partial horoscope. So, we 

annotate this column with the plus sign. 


SOLSTICE. In the Egyptian year related to this solution, 

the winter solstice took place on December 12, 1184 (see Appendix 

??). By admitting a few days error margin we consider 

the winter solstice days to be approximately from December 

6 to December 18, 1184. In these days, Mercury which was 

close to the Sun, disappeared from the Sky on December 4. 

Therefore, we will present the planetary position on two days: 

December 4 (when Mercury was still visible) and December 

12, 1184 (when Mercury was not visible anymore). The other 

planets, except Moon, did not changed significantly their positions 

during the winter solstice days. Notice, that Moon 

on December 4-5 was invisible. At that time it was located 

in Sagittarius. The New Moon reappeared in the evening on 

December 6, in between Sagittarius and Capricorn. 

Julian day (JD) = 2153852.00 



271.2 o 

265.6 o 

182.4 o 

151.9 o 

242.1 o 

257.9 o 

261.2 o 

8.13 7.97 5.19 4.27 7.19 7.71 7.82 

Julian day (JD) = 2153860.00 



279.4 o 

369.0 o 

182.6 o 

151.7 o 

247.7 o 

268.0 o 

273.7 o 

8.37 11.56 5.20 4.26 7.37 8.04 8.20 

Table 7.8: Planetary Positions in the Period December 4–12, 

1167 

On Figure 7.28 we show the position of planets around 

the Sun on December 4, 1184, when Mercury was still visible. 

On this day, before the dawn, there were visible three planets. 

Mercury in Sagittarius, on the edge of the horizon, Venus in 

between Sagittarius and Scorpio, and Mars in Scorpio. At the 

evening twilight there were no visible planets. At that time 

Jupiter was in Leo, and Saturn in Virgo, i.e. the both planets 

were far from the Sun. 

Let us recall the partial horoscope of the winter solstice on 

the Round zodiac (see subsection 7.4.3.[B]). There are three 

planets shown: the figure sitting on a chair in a boat with a 

disc over its head, which could be the Sun or other planet, the 

male figure standing over the goose, which is an attribute of 

Mars, and a small figure sitting on a chair above Libra, which 

could represent Venus. Notice that the essential information 

here is the presence of Mars, which we can recognize with 

high confidence by its attribute — a goose. Let us compare 

this information with the astronomical solution. On Figure 

7.28 we see three planets near the Sun: Mars, Mercury and 

Venus. Mars was in Scorpio, so in this solution it should be 

represented on the Round zodiac by the figure sitting on a 

chair in a boat with the disc over its head. Indeed, this figure

Figure 7.28: Planets in the proximity of the Sun on December 

4, 1184. The area under the horizon is shaded. 

is in Scorpio and it has the same falcon head as the figure 

of Mars in the main horoscope. The disc over its head can 

refer to the Sun. In the solution, beside Mars there are two 

more visible planets — Venus and Mercury. In the partial 

horoscope there are also two more figures — one is a male with 

human face, which fits Mercury very well, and another figure 

with unclear gender accompanied by an animal (probably a 

lioness), which could be Venus. In this context, we have the 

correspondence between the data in the partial horoscope and 

the solution. Consequently, we put the sign plus to annotate 

this column. 


EQUINOX. In 1185, the spring equinox occurred on March 

13-14 (see Appendix ??), which was very close date to the 

date of the main horoscope. Let us present the positions of 

the planets near the Sun on March 14, 1168 (see Table 7.9). 

Julian day (JD) = 2153952.00 



372.0 o 

151.7 o 

178.4 o 

142.3 o 

314.7 o 

383.1 o 

345.9 o 

11.64 4.26 5.09 3.95 9.47 11.91 10.96 


Since the spring equinox occurred just a few days before 

the main date, all the planets (except Moon) were almost at 

the same positions as in the main horoscope. On the Round 

zodiac, as it is on the Long zodiac, the partial horoscope of 

the spring equinox consists only of the disc representing the 

Sun and the figure inside it representing the planet that was 

in its proximity on the equinox day. In the above table, we 


can easily recognize that the closest planet to the Sun on the 

equinox day was Venus. The computations made using the 

program Turbo-Sky confirm that Venus was clearly visible on 

March 14, 1168. The submersion of the Sun at the moment 

Venus was crossing the horizon in Cairo was SUH=10 o , while 

brightness of Venus was M = −3.4. There were no other 

planets near Venus, so the figure making an “offering to the 

Sun” inside the disc must be Venus, which matches well the 

female figure inside the disc. Consequently, we obtained the 

confirmation for all the data and we can annotate this column 

with the plus sign. 


SOLSTICE. In the year 1185, the summer solstice occurred 

on June 12-13. Let us list the positions of the planets on the 

ecliptic on one of the summer solstice days, i.e. June 12, 1185 


Julian day (JD) = 2154043.00 



99.8 o 

264.3 o 

176.9 o 

149.3 o 

381.2 o 

133.7 o 

98.5 o 

2.35 7.92 5.06 4.19 11.87 3.60 2.31 


On Figure 7.29, we show the configuration of the planets 

around the Sun on the summer solstice day on June 12, 1185. 

We can describe the situation on this day as follows 

(1) In Gemini, near the Sun was only Mercury. The Sun submersion 

for Mercury on the horizon was about 1 o only, so 

it was invisible (its brightness was M = +4.3). 

(2) Jupiter was visible in the evening in Leo, right beside of 

Regulus. It was very bright (M = −1.3). 

(3) Venus was visible in the evening in Cancer. Its brightness 

was M = −3.8. 

(4) In the morning only Mars was visible. It was located 

rather far from the Sun in Pisces, but it was the nearest to 

the Sun visible planet in before the dawn. Its brightness 

was very strong (M = +0.1) and approximately the same 

as the brightness of Arcturus. Consequently, on this day 

Mars was brighter than any star, except Sirius. Since two 

hours before the dawn, Sirius and Arcturus were already 

under the horizon, Mars appeared on that morning as the 

brightest “star” on the sky. 

Let us recall the partial horoscope of the summer solstice 

and compare it with the solution. 

(1) In Gemini or in Taurus, was a male planet, probably Mercury. 

This agrees exactly with the solution. 

(2) Another planet was in Leo, which we recognized as Jupiter 

(notice that the same symbol represents Jupiter in the


Figure 7.29: Planets around the Sun on the summer solstice 

day on June 12, 1185. 

partial horoscope of the autumn equinox). Again, we have 

the exact correspondence. 

(3) Venus was shown on the evening side of the Sun. In the 

solution Venus was in Cancer, which is the evening side 

of the Sun. 

(4) On the morning side there is shown a male planet, probably 

Mars (indicated by its attributes: a whip and a gooselike 

bird). This figure is very large — the largest planetary 

figure on the Round zodiac. This corresponds well 

to the solution, according to which before the dawn, on 

the summer solstice day, only one planet was visible — it 

was male planet and the brightest “star” on the sky. This 

planet was Mars. Now we can explain why its figure on 

the Round zodiac is so big. It is extremely rare for Mars 

to be the brightest “star” on the sky. 

In this way we concluded the verification of the data for 

the partial horoscope of the summer solstice and we can confirm 

that the solution agrees well with it. Consequently, we 

put the sign plus in the sixth column. 

Column 7: SUPPLEMENTARY SCENE OF THE 

PASCHAL FULL MOON. We need to discuss the Paschal 

Full Moon that occurred in the year 1185 on March 20, 

which is exactly the main date of the Round zodiac. Because 

of this coincidence, we do not expect the Paschal Full Moon 

to be shown in a separate scene, and indeed, unlike to the 

Long zodiac, there is no such symbol here. Let us recall that 

in the case of the Long zodiac, the main date coincided with 

the Full Moon following the Paschal Full Moon, both of 

which occurred in Libra. That’s why there were two separate 

symbols for Moon in Libra, while on the Round zodiac there 

is only one Moon indicated in Libra. Since the main date 

of the Round zodiac is exactly the Paschal Full Moon, we 

can consider this zodiac as paschal zodiac. In summary, this 

column can also be annotated with the plus sign to indicate 

the confirmation of this data. 

Column 8: OTHER SUPPLEMENTARY SCENES. There 

are no supplementary scenes on the Round zodiac containing 

non-trivial information. All such scenes were discussed in 

section 5.9. 

CONCLUSION: The Round Denderah zodiac represents 

the date March 20, 1185 A.D. 

7.5 Decoding the Date from the Big 

Esna Zodiac 

Let us now consider two zodiacs from the ancient Egyptian 

city Esna. As we already mentioned in section 2.1, during 

the Napoleonic expedition to Egypt, “very ancient” Egyptian 

structures were discovered in Esna. Judging from the pictures 

published in the Napoleonic Album 35 , these buildings were in 

very bad shape — partially destroyed or seriously damaged. 

There were two zodiacs were discovered there — one in a very 

big temple (we call it the Big Esna zodiac and use the symbol 

“EB” for it), and another (which we call the Small Esna 

zodiac and use the symbol “EM”) in a significantly smaller 

temple. 

There are many similarities between the zodiacs from Denderah 

and Esna — they are stone reliefs of significant sizes, 

and their astronomical symbolism is exactly the same. Moreover, 

Esna and Denderah are located not far from each other, 

on the opposite sides of the Valley of the Kings near the big 

semicircle meander of the Nile river. The following interesting 

question arises: What are exactly the dates encoded in the 

Esna zodiacs and how they are related to the dates of the zodiacs 

from the Denderah temple? 

When in 2001 we were conducting our first dating of the 

Big Esna zodiac, we did not have the actual photographs of 

the zodiac, and we had to trust its copy, which was made by 

the artists of the Napoleonic expedition. In June 2002, one of 

our authors — Gleb V. Nosovsky, was invited to participate 

in an expedition to Esna, which was organized by the Russian 

television production crew of the series “Unknown Planet.” 

During this trip, Nosovsky had a rare opportunity to take 

multiple photographs of all the details of the Big Esna zodiac, 

in its present state. It turned out that the zodiac is very 

well preserved and there is no damage of missing parts. Some 

photographs were also taken by the official photograph of the 

expedition — Y.L. Maslev. 

The photographs, which covered all the surface of the zodiac, 

showed that the accuracy of the Napoleonic drawing 

was very goo, however, there were some discrepancies with 

the original. The differences between the original Big Esna 

zodiac and Napoleonic drawing, were already discussed in section 

2.4 (see Figures 2.37 — 2.45). Most of the imprecisions 

of the Napoleonic drawing were located on the zodiac in the 

places obstructed by the columns inside the temple. Checking 

these details required taking many different viewing positions, 

which possibly could be the reason for those errors. Let 

us point out that our previously obtained final result for the 

Big Esna zodiac: March 31 – April 3, 1394 A.D., fits even better 

the data that was retrieved from the actual photos of the 

35 See [2]

Big Esna zodiac. In fact, some previously present ambiguities 

could be now easily clarified. 

In this section we conduct the dating process using the 

corrected drawing of the Big Esna zodiac, which is the modified 

Napoleonic drawing with the modifications that were 

made based on the actual photographs of the zodiac (see Figures 

7.31 and 7.32). We begin our analysis with the Big Esna 

zodiac. 

7.5.1 Constellations and “Constellation 

Brackets” on the Big Esna Zodiac 

For the purpose of dating, we need a more detailed pictures 

of the Big Esna zodiac, than the one shown on Figure 2.17. 

On Figures 7.31 and 7.32, we present the enlarged fragments 

of the Big Esna zodiac. These pictures are the corrected 

Napoleonic drawings of the Big Esna zodiac. 

As we have already noticed, sometimes the drawings of 

zodiacs may not be very accurate. Nevertheless, in spite of 

small differences that we found on the Round Denderah zodiac 

and the Big Esna zodiac, the general accuracy of the 

drawings published in the Napoleonic Album is sufficiently 

high for the purpose of the astronomical dating. In the case 

of the Big Esna zodiac these differences were negligible and 

did not affect the final solution. 

We will describe the dating of the Big Esna zodiac according 

to the steps explained in section 6.7. 

7.5.2 Planetary Figures in the Main Horoscope 

on the Big Esna Zodiac 

Step 1. (See subsection 6.7.1.) Preliminary decoding of 

the main horoscope on the Big zodiac and compiling 

the color annotated zodiac. 

By using the comparative tables (see sections 5.1) of Egyptian 

astronomical symbols, we can identify all the symbols of 

constellations on the Big zodiac. They are represented by the 

same figures as on the Denderah zodiacs. However, the symbols 

of Gemini, Libra and Virgo, which are slightly different 

on the Big zodiac, require some additional explanations. 

Gemini on the Big Esna zodiac is not represented, as it 

was on the both Denderah zodiacs, by two figures, but by 

three figures (see the color annotated Big Esna zodiac on 

Figure 7.33). The first figure is a man holding with his hands 

a long stick touching a small animal under his feet. He is 

followed by a male and female figures holding their hands 

crossed on their chests. Such a particular representation of 

Gemini is also present on the Small Esna zodiac. However, 

on the other Egyptian zodiacs, Gemini is shown in a different 

way. We will discuss it later. 

Libra is represented on the Big zodiac by a symbol of 

a balance with two pans hung from bearings. This is also a 

symbol of Libra on the both Denderah zodiacs (see Figure 

7.5 Decoding the Date from the Big Esna Zodiac 179 

Figure 7.30: A halftone picture of the Big Esna zodiac “EB,” 

which was published in the Napoleonic Album. There are some 

differences between this picture and the original Big Esna zodiac. 

(Taken from [2], A. Vol. I, Pl. 79)


Figure 7.31: The enlarged fragments of the left half of the Big Esna zodiac.


Figure 7.32: The enlarged fragments of the right half of the Big Esna zodiac.


5.13). However, on the Big zodiac the balance is placed in a 

hand of a female figure (see Figure 7.31), which we do not 

consider to be a part of the Libra symbol. According to our 

understanding, this female belongs to the partial horoscope 

of the winter solstice, what is indicated by its location (see 

subsection 5.1.7 for more detailed explanation). This identification 

is also confirmed by the existence of the full solution 

for the Big zodiac, in which this figure indeed corresponds to 

Venus in the partial horoscope. We will discuss this issue later 

in this section. 

This same can be said about the symbol of Virgo, which 

is also shown in a similar way as on the Denderah zodiacs 

— it is a figure of a woman holding a spike in her hand. In 

front of her, there is a lioness with a human face. These two 

figures are clearly separated, thus the lioness is not a part 

of the Virgo symbol, but it is most probably related to the 

partial horoscope of the autumn equinox on the Big zodiac. 

We should mention here that the arrangement of symbols of 

a lion and a woman could be at the first glance mistaken for 

the symbols of Virgo and Leo. On the Egyptian zodiacs, Leo 

is often shown with a woman standing on his tail, or holding 

it by hand (see subsection 5.1.5). However, this identification 

wouldn’t be correct here. This symbol can not represent Leo, 

but something else. A little further on the zodiac, there is another 

figure of Leo, so the figure of lioness with a human head 

cannot represent the Egyptian symbol of Leo. By comparing 

this figure of lioness with other Egyptian representations of 

Leo, we find out that the usual size proportions are violated 

here. A figure of a woman representing the secondary Virgo 

(see subsection 5.1.5) is usually much smaller than the symbol 

of Leo and standing . But here, the female figure is much 

bigger than the lion figure and it is also not touching it. In addition, 

this female figure is in fact the main Virgo symbol, so 

it cannot be considered as the secondary Virgo. On the other 

hand, the symbol of a lion or lioness with a human face clearly 

exhibits connection to a pull-out symbol — it is located above 

a snake (see section 5.6). As the figure of Virgo is not related 

to any pull-out symbol, the lioness figure is in fact separated 

from Virgo and should belong to a partial horoscope. This 

interpretation was indeed confirmed by the existence of the 

full solution for this decoding. 

There are no other peculiarities among the zodiacal figures 

on the Big Esna zodiac. On Figure 7.33, we show the 

color annotated Big Esna zodiac with the figures representing 

zodiacal constellations marked in red. We refer to section 

5.9 for the more detailed explanation on the colors used on 

the annotated zodiac. 

Let us now discuss the planets in the main horoscope. 

In the case of the Big zodiac, the identification of the planets 

is not especially complicated. Almost all the planetary symbols 

in the main horoscope can be immediately recognized, 

some of them even at the first glance. 

At once, we can recognize the figure of Saturn. It is located 

just behind Virgo at the left end of the zodiac (see 

Figure ??). Saturn is represented here exactly in the same 

way as on the Denderah zodiacs — a male traveler with a 

crescent on his head. 

Next, we notice on the Big zodiac, that all the figures with 

planetary walking sticks are divided into five groups — exactly 

as the number of planets, except the Sun and Moon. In 

addition, in two of these groups there is only one figure holding 

a walking stick, while in each of the remaining two groups 

there are two figures holding sticks, one following another 

(look at the color annotated zodiac on Figure 7.33, where 

all these figures are marked in yellow). This information we 

practically provides as with a key to decode the horoscope. 

We are already aware of the ancient tradition of a “dual 

representation” of Mercury and Venus, i.e. the two inner-circle 

planets, which always appear, for an Earth-based observer, 

not far from the Sun. It looks as they hide behind it and then 

reappear on its other side, which means that they are visible 

only before the dawn or after the sunset only. Because of this 

reason, in the ancient astronomy they were considered to have 

double nature — morning and evening stars. All these issues 

were already discussed in section 5.4. 

Not surprisingly, in one of the pairs of double planetary 

symbols we can see a female figure. She is followed by a male 

figure with a lion head (see Figure 7.33). There is no other 

planetary female figure on the Big zodiac. Therefore, it has to 

be Venus. On the both sides of Venus, not far from it, there 

are two other sitting on chairs female figures — one figure 

on the left from Venus and a another one, with a feather 

instead of its head is located on the right side of Aquarius. 

We will explain later the meaning of these two complementary 

figures, but for now, let us just to point out the fact that these 

are the only sitting female figures on the zodiac. All other 

sitting figures are male. This could be considered as another 

indication that this particular planet has female character, 

i.e. it is Venus. 

Another pair of the double planetary symbols with walking 

sticks consists of two male figures with jackal or dog heads. 

We can presume that it is a symbol of Mercury. One of its 

“representatives” is sitting on a chair, but still holds a planetary 

walking stick in a hand, while the another follows him 

behind. The both figures are located at the left end of the 

zodiac (see Figure 7.33). 

Moreover, between Mercury and, located on its left, the 

symbol of Aquarius, we can see the whole collection of attributes 

associated with a “double planet” such as Venus or 

Mercury, and other attributes that are distinct for Mercury 

only. Namely, 1) two male figures, looking almost like Mercury 

in similar pose and with the same heads; 2) two-headed 

animals; 3) two small identical animals facing each other; 4) 

a sitting on a chair female figure with arms spread apart and 

feather instead of head (a symbol of Mercury — see subsection 

5.4.10). Consequently, Mercury was in Aquarius or next 

to it.

Figure 7.33: Color annotated Big Esna zodiac “EB.” 

7.5 Decoding the Date from the Big Esna Zodiac 183


The remaining three planetary figures of the main horoscope 

are less evident. The first — a man holding a planetary 

walking stick located on the right from Venus at the very end 

of the zodiac. The second one is a male figure with a lion head 

holding a planetary walking stick, which is located on the left 

from Venus, right behind the sitting female figure (see Figure 

7.33). The third one is the male figure with a disc over its 

head, standing on the right from Pisces. 

Since all the planets of the main horoscope, except Jupiter 

and Mars, are already identified, these three figures represents 

Jupiter and Mars. We do not assume what planet is 

represented each of these two figures and consider the both 

variants as equally possible. However, we can reveal in advance 

that the male figure holding a whip over his shoulder 

is Mars, while the two other planetary figures — one with a 

lion head, and the second with a disc over its head, symbolize 

Jupiter. That means, Jupiter has also a double representation 

on the zodiac. 

Moreover, in contrast to the Denderah zodiacs, where considerable 

difficulties were encountered in the identification 

process of the Sun and Moon, the both “planets” — the Sun 

and Moon, are very precisely and unambiguously shown on 

the Big zodiac. On the whole zodiac, there are present only 

two disks — one between Aries and Pisces, and the other on 

the hips of Taurus. In addition, the one on Taurus is placed 

on a moon crescent, while the other one is represented by a 

simple circle, without a crescent. Therefore, the most likely 

Moon was in Taurus and the Sun in Aries. This variant 

is strongly supported by the final full solution. 

In order to avoid a possible mistake, we’ve also analyzed 

all the possible, although less probable, variants of identification 

of the Sun and Moon on the Big zodiac. Namely, the 

variant with the disk on crescent in Taurus as the Sun at New 

Moon, and the circle between Aries and Pisces as Full Moon. 

But, there was no solution found for this identification, so this 

decoding had to be rejected. 

As a consequence we obtained the color annotated Big 

Esna zodiac, which is shown on Figure 7.33. 

In this way, almost all the planets in the main horoscope 

could be definitely identified during the preliminary analysis. 

The only variants of decoding were related to possible Sun- 

Moon and Mars-Jupiter configurations. However, this uncertainty 

was quickly clarified already at the beginning of the 

astronomical computations. In fact, there were only ten preliminary 

solutions for the big Esna zodiac among which only 

one complete solution was selected. 

The resulting small number of preliminary solutions can 

be explained. Notice that all the planets-travelers in the main 

horoscope, except Saturn, are located between the symbols of 

Pisces and Aquarius. Moreover, the region between Pisces and 

Aquarius occupies almost a half of the zodiac, thus it is logical 

to expect that it contains almost all the planetary processions. 

Simply, on this date encoded in the main horoscope on the 

Big zodiac, all the planets gathered around that particular 

location on the ecliptic. 

From the point of view of the astronomical dating, this 

type of situation is very fortunate. Actually, for this particular 

planetary configuration we can carry on the computations 

without specific identification of all the planets, except Saturn. 

It is obvious that all these planets were either in Pisces 

or Aquarius. 

The computations were done for all possible other variants 

of decodings, but among the obtained preliminary solutions 

there was no one that could be qualified as a complete solution. 

In this way, the existence of the unique final solution 

confirms that our identification of the planetary symbols is 

also unique. Moreover, all the symbols on the Big Esna zodiac 

match perfectly the corresponding symbols on the both 

Denderah zodiacs (see sections 5.1 and 5.4). In other words, 

there is no inconsistency in the identification of the astronomical 

symbols on the Esna and Denderah zodiacs. However, the 

Esna zodiacs possess particular features that are distinctive. 

Such particularities are visibly present on the Small Esna zodiac, 

which we will discuss in the next section. 

In our further analysis of the Big Esna zodiac we will 

implicitly refer to the color annotated zodiac on Figure 7.33 

as well as to the enlarged pictures of the zodiac on Figures 

7.31 and 7.32. 

7.5.3 Main Horoscope and “Double” Planetary 

Symbols on the Big Esna Zodiac 

The planetary symbols on the main horoscope on the Big 

zodiac were already discussed in detail in the previous subsection. 

Thus, we need only to describe their locations among 

the zodiacal constellations. 

(1) Saturn — a male figure with a bull-head and a crescent 

on his head. It is located between Virgo and Libra. 

Consequently, Saturn on the Big zodiac is either in Libra 

or Virgo, so the range of admissible positions of Saturn is 

Libra and Virgo. 

As the best point for Saturn we consider the middle of 

Virgo. We didn’t choose it on the boundary between Libra 

and Virgo, because in Virgo there is another similar to 

Saturn figure — a sitting “double” of Saturn (on Figure 

7.33 this figure is marked in green). It has also a crescent 

on his head and bull-face, except it is sitting without a 

walking stick. 

Consequently, we chose as the best point for Saturn the 

middle of Virgo. However, in the final solution the Saturn 

was located on the boundary between Virgo and Libra, 

corresponding exactly to the location of the “walking” 

figure of Saturn. 

Let us point out the occurrence of the “sitting doubles” on 

the Big Esna zodiac. Such “doubles’ can be found for almost 

all of the planets, except for the Sun and Moon. Mars has 

a “double” which is a sitting figure in front of it, Jupiter’s

“double” is the sitting figure in front of the Jupiter’s figure 

standing on the right from Pisces. On the color annotated Big 

zodiac, all these “doubles” are marked in green. 

Since all the “doubles” are located in a proximity of the 

original figures, so it possible that they represent the planetary 

symbols in the partial horoscopes. In this case, all these 

figures, as they are located between Pisces and Aquarius, except 

the “double” of Saturn, would belong to the partial horoscope 

of the spring equinox. It is not difficult to notice that the 

spring equinox was close to the date of the main horoscope. 

Indeed, the Sun is shown in Aries, but the spring equinox 

point is located in Pisces, which is right next to Aries (see 

subsection 5.8.3). Consequently, it is indeed possible that all 

the “doubles” are the figures from the partial horoscopes, and 

their positions should be close to the locations of the planets 

in the main horoscope. 

However, in this case the “doubles” can not give any additional 

information that would help to validate the preliminary 

solutions. It is clear that there is nothing new that couldn’t be 

already deducted from the main horoscope. Moreover, there 

is not enough evidence to consider these figures as parts of 

the partial horoscope. It is also possible that they simply accompany 

the planetary symbols in the main horoscope. 

Let us discuss the other planets of the main horoscope on 

the Big zodiac. 

(2) Mercury, Jupiter, Mars and Venus are shown, as we 

already discussed it in subsection 7.5.2, between Aquarius 

and Pisces. Consequently, the range of admissible 

positions of all these planets are Aquarius and Pisces. 

Moreover, as we already explained in the previous subsection, 

there are only two possible variants for the order 

of these planets on the ecliptic, from Aquarius to 

Pisces: Mercury–Mars–Venus–Jupiter or Mercury– 

Jupiter–Venus–Mars. 

(3) Let us discuss now the Sun and Moon. The Sun is shown 

between Pisces and Aries, therefore the range of its admissible 

positions is Pisces and Aries. The Moon is shown on 

the hips of Taurus. Therefore, its location is most likely in 

Taurus or eventually in Aries, but it is also possible that 

the picture indicates the location of the Moon exactly in 

between Taurus and Aries. Consequently, the range of admissible 

positions of the Moon is Taurus and Aries. 

Let us remind, that we have to consider another variant 

of decoding, in which the symbols of the Sun and Moon 

were switched (see the previous subsection). Let us mention 

that in the final solution the Sun was located on the 

boundary between Aries and Taurus, while the Moon was 

in Taurus (see subsection 7.6.6). 

7.5.4 Invisibility Attributes on the Big Esna 

Zodiac 

On the Big Esna zodiac the visibility attributes of the planetary 

symbols are completely different from those used on the 


Denderah zodiacs. Let us recall that on the Denderah zodiacs, 

the visibility of a planet was indicated by a symbol of a star 

placed above the head of the figure representing the planet. 

When the planet was invisible, the star above the head was 

not present. 

On the Big zodiac it is just opposite. The visibility of a 

planet was not indicated, while its invisibility was designated 

by a symbol of a disk replacing the head of a figure. From the 

astronomical point of view, this convention is understandable. 

Indeed, a planet becomes invisible when it disappears in the 

rays of the Sun — hides behind the Sun. That’s why a disk 

— the symbol of the Sun, covers the head of such a figure. 

All the planetary symbols, which are shown in the main 

horoscope as visible. However, some planets in the partial 

horoscope of the autumn equinox have the invisibility attributes. 

We will discuss this issue in the next subsection. 

7.5.5 Partial Horoscopes on the Big Esna 

Zodiac 

[A] Partial Horoscope of the Autumn Equinox in 

Virgo. In the region of this partial horoscope on the Big 

zodiac we see the figures, which most likely indicate the 

planetary symbols in this horoscope, or the additional astronomical 

symbols that should be explain in the context 

of the final solution. These symbols are: 

On the left from Virgo, we see a lioness with a human 

face and a disk on its head. As we already explained, this 

figure doesn’t belong to the symbol of Virgo, therefore it 

is related to the partial horoscope, what is also confirmed 

by the fact that it is standing over the symbol of the autumn 

equinox — a two-headed snake (see subsection 5.8.1 

for more information about the symbols of the autumn 

equinox). Hence, this symbol of lioness symbolizes Venus, 

which on the Egyptian zodiacs was often shown in this 

way (see subsection 5.4.8). There is also another female 

figure behind Virgo, which holds Libra in her hand. This 

figure also represents Venus, because it is the only female 

planet. However, this figure of Venus should belong to 

the partial horoscope of the winter solstice, whose region 

spreads on the right from Libra. Therfore, we should look 

for the other planets belonging to the partial horoscope of 

the autumn equinox in the region on the left from Virgo 

in the direction of Leo. 

Preceding the lioness, there is the sitting “double” of Saturn. 

Since Saturn, which is a relatively slowly moving 

planet, was located in the main horoscope either in Virgo 

or Libra, it should also be located in the same area on the 

day of the autumn equinox. 

Next, there are three figures. The first one has a disk 

instead of a head, which for this planet signifies the attribute 

of invisibility because of its proximity to the Sun. 

Two other figures represent visible planets. That means,


we have here two visible and one invisible planet, all of 

them are male planets. 

After that, following the bended body of the goddess Nut, 

we switch to the upper part of the horoscope and proceed 

in the opposite direction — from the left to right. 

Right in the beginning there is a pair of two male figures 

with lion heads holding their hands, which is a symbol 

of the autumn equinox (see subsections 5.8.1 and 5.8.3). 

This means that we are still in the region of the autumn 

equinox. 

After that, there is the symbol of Leo with the secondary 

Virgo holding its tail. Above them, there is a representation 

of a warrior, holding above his head a large knife or 

a sword, ready to kill somebody, and a bowl and arrows. 

The most probably, this figure represents Mars or Saturn. 

Since it is shown above the secondary Virgo or Leo, this 

planet could be located either in Virgo or Leo. But we can 

not exclude the possibility that this figure could belong 

to the partial horoscope of the summer solstice. Indeed, 

it is located on the boundary between these two partial 

horoscopes. 

At this location, there is the end of the area of the partial 

horoscope of the autumn equinox. The figure of a warrior 

is followed by the symbol of Cancer with the subsequent 

figures of the summer solstice partial horoscope (see subsection 

5.8.4). 

In this way we have obtained the following description of 

the partial horoscope of the autumn equinox: Venus was 

in Virgo, possibly it wasn’t visible (notice the symbol of 

a disk on the lioness’ head). Moreover, in Virgo there 

were three other planets as well, one of them was invisible, 

while the remaining two were visible. Next, Mars or 

Saturn was located either in Virgo or in Leo. If it is not 

the case, then this planet should be located there on the 

summer solstice day. 

[B] Partial Horoscope of the Winter Solstice in Sagittarius. 

The symbol of Sagittarius on the Big zodiac is 

again a carefully composed astronomical hieroglyph containing 

a minimal partial horoscope. It indicates the summer 

solstice point, but doesn’t provide us with any additional 

information. A little further, there is a small male 

figure standing on Capricorn. It looks like a warrior wearing 

a helmet and holding a bow with arrows. Therefore, 

it is Mars, which was often associated with gods of war. 

Consequently, we can conclude that Mars was located in 

Capricorn on the winter solstice day. 

Notice a cluster of snake symbols on the left from Sagittarius. 

These are the symbols particular for the summer 

solstice point (see subsection 5.8.2). A little further, there 

are two male figures with jackal heads. In this way could 

only be shown Mercury — a “double” male planet. With 

regard to the use of the jackal head for the Mercury symbol, 

we refer to section 5.4. 

Finally, in front of Scorpio, there is a female figure holding 

the symbol of Libra in her hand. We have already 

discussed this symbol above, where we found out that 

this symbol represents Venus in the partial horoscope of 

the winter solstice, what means that on the day of the 

winter solstice Venus was in Libra. 

In this way we have obtained the following partial horoscope 

of the winter solstice: Mars in Capricorn, Mercury 

in Sagittarius or Scorpio, Venus in Libra. 

[C] Partial Horoscope of the Spring Equinox in Pisces. 

Like on the other Egyptian zodiac, this horoscope is not 

present on the Big Esna zodiac, what could be explain by 

the fact that the main date is close to the spring equinox 

date. However, it is also possible (see the previous sections) 

that this horoscope was indicated by the “doubles” 

of the planetary figures. But even if this was the case, we 

still don’t get any additional information. The reason for 

it is that the partial horoscope would simply repeat the 

main horoscope, and consequently, it would be satisfied 

automatically by every preliminary solution. 

[D] Partial Horoscope of the Summer Solstice in Gemini. 

This partial horoscope on the Big Esna zodiac is almost 

empty, except for the symbol of Gemini, which as 

usual, is represented as an astronomical hieroglyph. This 

symbol contains a minimal partial horoscope of the summer 

solstice, with Venus represented by the female figure 

and Mercury by the male figure (see subsection 5.8.4). 

On the left from Gemini, we can see a gathering of the 

summer solstice symbols (see subsection 5.8.4), which are 

located between Gemini and Cancer (see Figure 7.33). 

Here, there is only one symbol that eventually could symbolize 

a planet — a two-headed snake, which could indicate 

Mercury (see subsection 5.4.10). But it could possibly 

symbolize Venus as well, because it is also a “double 

planet.” 

In any case, we obtain that the partial horoscope of the 

summer solstice on the Big zodiac is minimal, consisting 

of Mercury and Venus only. In addition, one of these two 

planets, probably Mercury, was represented by the twoheaded 

snake located in between of Gemini and Cancer. 

Let us remind that there is also a possibility that the 

figure of a warrior representing Mars or Saturn, which 

is located above secondary Virgo and Leo, could also be 

related to the partial horoscope of the summer solstice. 

7.5.6 Final Solution for the Big Esna Zodiac: 

March 31 — April 3, 1394 AD. 

A complete solution for the Big Esna zodiac turned out to be 

unique. It is March 31 – April 3, 1394 AD. 

The input data that we used for the computations done 

with the help of the program Horos, is included in Appendix 

??.

On Figure 7.34, we present the final decoding of the Big 

Esna zodiac, for which the above solution was obtained. Moreover, 

it turned out that the planets in main horoscope on the 

Big Esna zodiac were located as follows: 

The Sun — the circle in Aries. During the days March 31 

— April 3, 1394, indicated in the final solution,, the Sun was 

crossing the boundary between Aries and Taurus and entering 

Taurus. 

The Moon — the circle with a crescent on the back of 

Taurus. On the days of our solution, the Moon was moving in 

Aries and Taurus, but in Aries it was invisible. Moreover, on 

April 3, 1394, the New Moon reappeared in Taurus, right in 

Pleiades star cluster. In the medieval astronomy the Pleiades 

were given special consideration because of their distinctive 

appearance on the night sky. According to the results obtained 

by using the program Turbo-Sky, the Moon was not 

visible on the sky from March 31 till the evening of April 

3, when a tiny crescent of the New Moon appeared in the 

Pleiades inside the Taurus constellation (see Figure 7.35). 

On April 3, 1394 — the last day of the solution, Moon 

reappeared in Taurus in a shape of a tiny crescent. 

Figure 7.35: Planets in the proximity of the Sun on March 31 

— April 3, 1394 A.D. The area under the horizon is shaded. 

The dotted lines indicate the trajectory of the planets during 

these dates. 

Let us now discuss the other planets in our solution. 

Saturn in our solution was located exactly on the boundary 

between Virgo and Libra, which is the same location as 

the principal figure of Saturn on the main horoscope of the 

Big zodiac. Notice that the male figure of a traveler with a 

crescent on his head and holding a planetary walking stick, 

which represents Saturn, is placed precisely in between the 

symbols of Virgo and Libra (see Figure 7.33). 


Next, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and Venus were gathered in 

Pisces, which again is exactly the same location as it was indicated 

on the Big zodiac. Furthermore, they all appeared very 

close one to another — the maximal distance between them 

was not larger than 10 o , while the distances between Venus, 

Mars and Mercury were barely 2 o –3 o . The configuration of 

these four planets, on the days specified in our solution, is 

shown on Figure 7.35. 

In addition, before the dawn on March 31, 1394, Jupiter 

raised in Cairo, when the Sun was submerged 7 o under the 

horizon (in Luxor it was 8 o ), and it was the brightness “star” 

at that time — its brightness was M = −1.5, which was the 

same as the brightness of Sirius. Consequently, Jupiter was 

visible before the dawn and since, on the days preceeding 

March 31, the submersion of the Sun under the horizon was 

smaller than 7 o , this was the first day of its visibility 36 (see 

subsection 6.7.3 for more information about the visibility of 

planets). On the last day of our solution — April 3, 1394, 

when Jupiter was rising, in Cairo the Sun was submerged 

8.5 o under the horizon and in Luxor 10 o . That means, Jupiter 

was even better visible, but still for a short time only. Therefore, 

this could provide us an explanation for the presence 

the second figure of Jupiter — a male planetary figure with 

a disk over his head. It is the last figure in the procession of 

Jupiter (see the color annotated Big zodiac on Figure 7.33 

and Figure 7.34). The presence of the disk signifies the closeness 

of Jupiter to the Sun — it’s like the Sun was “sitting” on 

Jupiter’s “head” and that’s exactly what is indicated by our 

solution. But, there is something else special about this figure 

— the representations of Jupiter on the Denderah zodiacs 

are similar to this figure. On the Round Denderah zodiac (see 

Figure 5.37), there is a hieroglyph over the head of Jupiter 

consisting of two horns, directed upward, with a small disk 

in-between, and on the Long Denderah zodiac, Jupiter has 

horizontal horns and there is also a small disk in-between. 

Let us recall that at the preliminary stage, we also considered 

another variant of decoding, in which the figure leading 

this procession was Mars. By the way, on the Big Esna zodiac, 

the size of the disk on the head of this figure is much 

larger than those on the Denderah zodiacs, what indeed could 

signalize the Jupiter closeness to the Sun. 

In our solution, when moving away from the Sun, Jupiter 

was the first planet, then we encounter Venus, followed by 

Mars and next Mercury (see Figure 7.35). However, few days 

earlier Venus was still behind Mars and Mercury, till March 

25, when Venus got ahead of these two planets. Possibly, it 

could give an explanation to the arrangement of the Big zodiac, 

where the figure of Mars is enclosed between two sitting 

“doubles” of Venus — one of them larger (of the same size 

as “doubles” of the other planets) and another smaller (see 

Figure 7.35). These two “doubles” in some sense mark the 

trajectory of Venus in proximity of Mars. The smaller “double” 

possibly indicates the position of Venus in the past, when 

it was on the other side of Mars, while the bigger one shows 

the correct position of Venus with respect to the other plan- 

36 See [27], p. 16.


Figure 7.34: The final variant of decoding for the main horoscope on the Big Esna zodiac, which resulted in a complete 

solution. We encircled the groups of figures related to the planetary symbols (marked in yellow) on the main horoscope. 

ets for the days shown on the main horoscope (see the color 

annotated Big zodiac on Figure 7.33, where all the “doubles” 

are marked in green). 

Mars and Mercury on March 31 – April 3, 1394, were 

located almost at the same latitude, i.e. nearly at the same 

place on the ecliptic. In this case, on the zodiac, these two 

planets could be displayed in any order. The planets on the 

Big zodiac are shown in the following order: Jupiter, Venus, 

Mars, Mercury (see Figure 7.34). 

At the days indicated by the solution, at the time Venus, 

Mars and Mercury were rising, the Sun was submerged behind 

the horizon at least 14 o (SUH= 14 o ), what practically was a 

complete darkness. All these planets were well visible before 

the dawn during the days of our solution, as well as in earlier 

days. 

Moreover, one week earlier than the dates indicated by 

the main horoscope, on March 25, 1394, all three planets — 

Venus, Mars and Mercury met at one point on the sky. At 

that moment the distance from Mercury to Mars, and from 

Mercury to Venus was only 3 minutes of latitude and the 

brightness of Venus was M = −3.5, the brightness of Mercury 

was M = +0.7, and of Mars was M = +1.3. With such large 

values of brightness, especially the brightness of Venus, and 

with such small distances separating these planets, they all 

appeared to an Earth based observer watching the sky by 

naked eye, as an unusually bright spot. Without doubt, it 

Figure 7.36: The close meeting of Mercury (M = +0.7), Mars 

(M = +1.3) and Venus (M = −3.6), before the dawn in the 

morning on March 25, 1394 A.D. in Cairo. (The computations 

were obtain using the program Turbo-Sky) 

was an impressive astronomical event. The submersion of the 

Sun under the horizon at the moment of rising this “triple 

star” was about 14 o , so it was still the night. On Figure 7.36, 

we show the configuration of the Sun, Mercury, Mars and 

Venus, on March 25, 1394, before the dawn in Cairo. At that 

time the Sun was submerged 10 o under the horizon. 

Let us point out, that the Big Esna horoscope was compiled 

based on the planetary locations after the occurrence of

this bright astronomical event. The first date of the solution 

coincide with the reappearance of Jupiter and the last one 

with the New Moon, that were subsequent to the merger of 

the three planets. It was exactly one week after the merger, 

on March 31 when Jupiter became visible, and on April 3, 

when the New Moon reappear again, which are exactly the 

dates of our solution. 

Consequently, our solution perfectly agrees with the situation 

shown on the Big Esna zodiac. 

Julian day (JD) = 2230306.00 



27.2 o 378.6 o 214.8 o 373.6 o 359.7 o 362.8 o 359.8 o 

0.02 11.80 5.98 11.68 11.33 11.41 11.33 

Ari/Pis Pisces Vir/Lib Pisces Pisces Pisces Pisces 

Mean Distance from the Best Points= 14 o 

Julian day (JD) = 2230307.00 



28.1 o 

31.7 o 

214.7 o 373.8 o 360.5 o 364.0 o 360.8 o 

0.06 0.21 5.98 11.68 11.35 11.44 11.36 



Julian day (JD) = 2230308.00 



29.1 o 

44.6 o 

214.7 o 374.0 o 361.2 o 365.2 o 361.8 o 

0.10 0.72 5.98 11.69 11.37 11.47 11.38 



Julian day (JD) = 2230309.00 



30.1 o 

57.3 o 

214.6 o 374.3 o 362.0 o 366.4 o 362.8 o 

0.14 1.15 5.98 11.69 11.39 11.50 11.41 



Table 7.11: Planetary Positions in the Period March 31 – 

April 3, 1394 

In Table 7.11, we list the calculated positions of the 

planets during the days from March 31 till April 3, 1394 

A.D., where the dates correspond to the Julian calendar 

(year/month/day). We have indicated the Julian day that was 

used in the astronomical computations 37 (see section 6.4). 

37 See [27], p.316. 


The locations of the planets are specified by their longitudes 

in degrees on the J2000 ecliptic (in the first row) and in coordinates 

on the constellation scale (in the second row — see 

section 6.10). The names of constellations, in which a planet 

was located on the specified date, are placed in the third row. 

The astronomical New Moon took place in the days from 

March 31 till April 2, 1394, i.e. during these days the Moon 

wasn’t visible on the sky. Then, on April 3, the Moon reappeared 

in Taurus almost at the same location as Pleiades (according 

to the computations done using the program Turbo- 

Sky). 

The best resemblance to the situation shown on the Big 

Esna zodiac was realized on April 3, 1394, when the Moon 

reappeared in Pleiades inside the Taurus constellation. On 

the Big zodiac, the Moon is shown on the back of Taurus. On 

April 3, the mean distance from the best points was only 11 o , 

which is barely one third of the average length of a zodiacal 

constellation. Let us remind, that the mean distance from the 

best points of value 15 o , which is about half of the length of an 

average constellation, is already considered as an indicator of 

a good correspondence between the figure on the zodiac and 

the astronomical picture on the sky. 

7.5.7 Checkup list for the Big Esna Zodiac 

Final Solution 

In this subsection we present the results of the verification 

of the final solution (i.e. March 31 – April 3, 1394) obtained 

for the Big Esna zodiac, with respect to the additional information 

shown on the zodiac, including the partial horoscopes 

and the visibility/invisibility attributes. On Figure 7.37, we 

present the check-up list for this solution. Let us recall that 

a solution is called full or complete if a full correspondence 

between the information on the zodiac and the astronomical 

situation at the time indicated by the solution can be confirmed 

(see subsection 6.14). 

Column 1: VISIBILITY OF JUPITER. As it turned out 

in the solution, all the planets were very close to the Sun, 

therefore it was possible that some of them were not visible. 

According to the Big zodiac, the figure representing Jupiter 

has no disk on its head, thus Jupiter should be visible on the 

days of the solution. Let us recall that in the case of the Esna 

zodiacs, the presence of a disk on the head of a figure representing 

planet indicates its invisibility (see our discussion 

above). Let us recall that on the days of our solution Jupiter 

was well visible. Indeed, on March 31, 1394, it raised in Cairo, 

when the Sun was submerged 7 o under the horizon (in Luxor 

it was 8 o ), and its brightness was at that time M = −1.5, 

which was the same as the brightness of Sirius — the one of 

brightest star on the sky. Such a submersion of the Sun was 

already sufficient for Jupiter to become visible, so it was its 

first day of visibility. In the subsequent days Jupiter the submersion 

of the Sun was even larger at the moment Jupiter 

was rising, so it was even better visible. In fact, on April 3, 

1394, Jupiter raised in Cairo with SUH=8.5 o , while in Luxor 

SUH = 10 o . Consequently, we can annotate the first column


with an encircled sign plus to indicate that the visibility condition 

for Jupiter is fully satisfied by the solution. 

Column 2: VISIBILITY OF VENUS. According to the Big 

zodiac, Venus was also visible. Again, on the days of our solution 

Venus was also very well visible, even before the dawn. 

On March 31, 1394, Venus raised in Cairo when the submersion 

of the Sun was SUH= 13 o , that means at that time it 

was still a complete darkness. The brightness of Venus was 

M = −3.5. In the subsequent days, the visibility of Venus 

was even better. Therefore, we marked this column with the 

plus sign to show that this condition was also satisfied. 

Column 3: VISIBILITY OF MARS AND MERCURY. In 

our solution, these two planets appeared very close one to 

another, so they were both either visible or invisible. According 

to the Big zodiac, Mars and Mercury should be visible 

on the days indicated by the solution, and indeed, these two 

planets were visible. On March 31, they both raised at the 

time when the submersion of the Sun was SUH= 14 o , i.e. it 

was still a complete darkness. The brightness of Mercury was 

M = +0.7, and that of Mars was slightly smaller M = +1.3. 

In the subsequent days, the visibility conditions for these two 

planets were getting even better. Consequently, we can annotate 

this column with the sign plus, to point out that the 

visibility conditions for Mars and Mercury are also satisfied. 

Julian day (JD) = 2230104.00 



184.3 o 230.9 o 205.5 o 

349.4 o 207.9 o 185.0 o 184.3 o 

5.24 6.73 5.76 11.07 5.81 5.25 5.24 

Virgo Libra Virgo Pis/Aqu Virgo Virgo Virgo 



EQUINOX. As in the case of other zodiacs, we consider the 

variant of the year beginning in September, i.e. the year of 

our solution started in September 1393 and ended in August 

1394. The exact date of the autumn equinox in that year was 

on September 10, 1394 (see Appendix ??), but a possibility 

of an error of 5 − 6 days should be considered. Let us indicate 

the positions of the planets on the ecliptic on September 10, 

1393 (see Table 7.12). In the first row of the number, under 

the names of the planets, are indicated in degrees the positions 

of these planets on the ecliptic J2000. In next row, the 

locations of the planets are expressed using their coordinates 

on the constellation scale (see section 6.10). On Figure 7.38, 

we present a drawing of the planets on the sky observed from 

Cairo on September 10, 1293. On this picture we show the 

evening horizon observed from Cairo at the moment the submersion 

of the Sun was SUH= 10 o , i.e. when the most of the 

stars were already visible, and the morning horizon with the 

Sun’s submersion SUH= 1 o , i.e. when there was already daylight, 

but Venus and Mercury didn’t rise yet. In fact Mercury 

raised in the same time as the Sun, and Venus even later. 

Figure 7.38: A drawing showing the planetary locations near 

the Sun on the autumn equinox day on September 10, 1393. 

(Astronomical computations were done using the program 

Turbo-Sky) 

It is clear from Figure 7.38 that on September 10, 1393, 

Mercury and Venus were not visible. Venus was rising after 

the sunrise, when it was already day, and was setting before 

the sunset, when it was still daylight. On the other hand, 

Mercury was located only about 2 o from the Sun, so in no 

way it could be visible. 

However, on the day of the autumn equinox, near the Sun 

the following planets were visible in the evening: 

Saturn (M = +1.0) was located, as in the main horoscope, between 

Virgo and Libra. In the evening on September 10, 1394, 

was setting when the submersion of the Sun was SUH=14 o , 

i.e. it was already total darkness. The brightness of Saturn 

was the same as the brightness of the stars of the first magnitude. 

That means, Saturn was well visible after dusk and 

even some time later. 

Mars (M = +1.8) was located only 2 o from Saturn. Its brightness 

on this day was only slightly smaller than that of Saturn, 

but still comparable with the brightness of the stars of 

the first/second magnitude. Consequently, Mars was also well 

visible from Cairo on that evening after the sunset and during 

some time following the sunset. It was also, like Saturn, 

located between Virgo and Libra. 

Moon, which was in the third day of its cycle, was on the 

autumn equinox day located in Libra. There were no other 

planets in the proximity of the Sun. Jupiter was on that day


Figure 7.37: Check-Up List for the final solution for the Big Esna Zodiac: March 31 – April 3, 1394 AD.


on the boundary between Pisces and Aquarius — almost in 

the opposite to the Sun location on the ecliptic. 

In summary, in the year of our solution (starting in 

September) there was Venus and three other planets in the 

proximity of the Sun on the day of the autumn equinox, which 

was on September 10, 1393, in Virgo. One of those planets 

was Mercury, which was at that time invisible, and two others 

were Saturn and Mars, which were well visible. Venus was 

also not visible. Moon was located in the next to Virgo constellation 

of Libra. There were no other planets around the 

Sun (see Figure ??). This situation perfectly agrees with the 

partial horoscope of the autumn equinox on the Big zodiac, 

where Venus is indicated in Virgo, and possibly was not visible 

(there is a disk on the head of the figure representing Venus). 

Moreover, Mars or Saturn was located in Virgo or Leo. That 

means the astronomical situation on the autumn equinox day 

in the year of our solution perfectly fits this description. The 

only discrepancy that should be pointed out is the absence 

of the Moon on this partial horoscope on the Big zodiac, in 

spite of the fact that in our solution the Moon was located in 

Libra — in the neighboring to Virgo constellation. However, 

if we carefully analyze the both Esna zodiacs, we will find out 

that Moon was never shown in any of the partial horoscopes 

present on these two zodiacs. That is an indication that in 

the case of the Esna zodiacs, it is possible that the Moon was 

not included in the partial horoscopes. On the other hand it 

seems to us that on the Egyptian zodiacs the fact that Moon 

was usually not shown in the partial horoscopes was rather 

a rule than exception. The only zodiac, where the Moon was 

shown in the partial horoscopes, is the Long Denderah zodiac 

with its remarkable amount of details. 

Consequently, we can confirm that our solution perfectly 

agrees with the description on the partial horoscope of the 

autumn equinox on the Big Esna zodiac. Therefore, in the 

forth column of the check-up list for our solution on Figure 

??, we also placed the sign plus to indicate that the required 

here conditions are satisfied. 


SOLSTICE. In the year associated with the solution the winter 

solstice took place on December 10, 1393 (see Appendix 

??). In Table 7.13, we show the planetary positions on this 

day, which are as usual indicated in degrees the the ecliptic 

J2000 as well as using the coordinates on the constellation 

scale (see section 6.10). 

On the winter solstice day, on December 10, 1393, the Sun 

was in Sagittarius and there were the following planets which 

were not far from the Sun: 

Mars was in Sagittarius in distance of just only 2 o from the 

Sun, thus it was not visible. 

Mercury was in the next to Sagittarius constellation of Scorpio 

and was well visible. Its brightness was M = +0.5 and, at 

the moment Mercury was rising in Cairo the submersion of 

the Sun behind the horizon was 20 o , so it still a deep night. 

Julian day (JD) = 2230195.00 



275.7 o 359.1 o 215.5 o 

349.7 o 273.3 o 229.9 o 254.7 o 

8.26 11.31 6.00 11.08 8.19 6.68 7.60 

Sagit Aquar Vir/Lib Aqu/Pis Sagit Libra Scorpio 

Table 7.13: Planetary Positions on December 12, 1393 

Venus was in Libra, even further from the Sun than Mercury, 

almost at the very end of the region associated with 

the partial horoscope of the winter solstice (see Figure 7.39). 

At that time Venus was exceptionally bright and spectacular. 

Its brightness was M = −4.4, which is was very close to its 

maximal value. 

Jupiter and Saturn were far away from Sagittarius, almost at 

the same locations as on the main date: Saturn was on the 

boundary between Virgo and Libra, while Jupiter was on the 

boundary between Aquarius and Pisces. 


the Sun on the winter solstice day on December 10, 1393.(Astronomical 

computations were done using the program Turbo- 

Sky) 

Let us compare the computations with the situation shown 

on the partial horoscope of the winter solstice on the Big Esna 

zodiac. Let us recall that in this partial horoscope Mars was 

in Capricorn, Mercury was in Sagittarius or Scorpio, while 

Venus in Libra. Clearly, our results agree with it. Although, 

in our solution Mars was in Sagittarius, at that time it was 

very close to the Sun (only 2 o from the Sun), so it was clearly 

not visible. 

Consequently, again we can annotate this column with a 

sign plus, to signal that the required conditions are satisfied.


EQUINOX. In the year of our solution, the spring equinox occured 

on March 12, 1394 – just two weeks earlier than the date 

indicated by the main horoscope (see Appendix ??). During 

that time all the planets, with the only exceptions of the Moon 

and Mercury, couldn’t move too far from their locations on the 

main date. Nevertheless, at that time Mercury was in the process 

of making a loop and from February 5 till April 19, 1394, 

so it was staying all the time inside Pisces. Consequently, the 

positions of all the planets, except the Moon, were very close 

to their locations on the main date. In this case, as we already 

pointed it out, the partial horoscope of the spring equinox was 

on the Egyptian zodiacs usually left empty, or almost empty. 

However, it is quite possible that in the case of the Big Esna 

zodiac, this partial horoscope is represented by the doubles 

of the planetary symbols, what we already discussed earlier. 

In any case, the partial horoscope of the spring equinox, as 

it is just a repetition of the main horoscope, cannot provide 

us with additional information which could be essential for 

the elimination of inadmissible solutions. Of course all preliminary 

solutions satisfying the main horoscope, would also 

satisfy the requirements obtained from this partial horoscope. 

Julian day (JD) = 2230287.00 



368.5 o 121.5 o 216.1 o 369.0 o 344.9 o 339.6 o 354.3 o 

11.55 3.12 6.03 11.56 10.90 10.59 11.19 

Pisces Cancer Libra Pisces Aquar Aquar Pisces 


In spite of its insignificance, just for the sake of completeness, 

we show in Table 7.14 the planetary positions on the 

ecliptic on March 12, 1394 — i.e. on the day of the spring 

equinox. 

Therefore, in column 7 we can again put the sign plus 

as an indicator that our solution agrees with required here 

conditions. 


SOLSTICE. In the year 1394, the summer solstice occurred on 

June 11 (see Appendix ??). In Table 7.15 we list the planetary 

positions on the ecliptic on the summer solstice day on June 

11, 1394. 

The Sun on the summer solstice day in 1394 was located in 

Gemini. In its proximity were only Venus and Mercury — the 

planets of the minimal partial horoscopes, which are always 

located not far from the Sun. More precisely: 

Venus was located on the boundary between Taurus and Gemini 

and it was not visible. On that day, when Venus was 


Julian day (JD) = 2230378.00 



96.4 o 236.6 o 210.9 o 

28.4 o 

53.6 o 

90.9 o 

122.0 o 

11.55 3.12 6.03 11.56 10.90 10.59 11.19 

Gemi Lib/Sco Virgo Pis/Ari Ari/Tau Tau/Gem Cancer 


rising in Cairo, the Sun was submerged behind the horizon 

only 5 o (according to our computations done with the program 

Turbo-Sky). Therefore, in spite of its high brightness 

(M = −3.4), Venus completely disappeared in the rays of the 

Sun. Since there is not big difference between the submersions 

of the Sun in Cairo and Luxor, Venus couldn’t be visible in 

Luxor neither. 

Mercury was in Cancer, in the part bordering with Gemini. 

It was very well visible. At the moment Mercury was rising in 

Cairo, the submersion of the Sun under the horizon was 19 o , 

so it was still a deep night. That means, Mercury was indeed 

visible. 

At that time, there were no other planets present in Gemini 

or other neighboring with Gemini constellations. Thus, we 

have to conclude that this partial horoscope is indeed minimal. 

As we already discussed it earlier, the minimal partial 

horoscope of the summer solstice on the Egyptian zodiacs is 

usually incorporated into the figure of Gemini — a male figure 

representing Mercury and a female figure representing Venus 

(see subsection 5.8.4). That means that, if there was be no 

other planetary symbols present except Venus and Mercury, 

our solution agrees with the partial horoscope of the summer 

solstice on the Big zodiac. But that is exactly what takes 

place on the Big zodiac — the partial horoscope of the summer 

solstice is indeed minimal. Moreover, one of these planets, 

namely Mercury, was indicated as visible and located in Cancer. 

Let us recall our argument based on the analysis of this 

partial horoscope: one of the planets, most likely Mercury, is 

symbolized there by an additional figure of two-headed snake 

located between Gemini and Cancer. 

Consequently, we can annotate this column with the plus 

sign. 

There are no supplementary scenes on the Big zodiac, 

which could be used as an additional source of information. 

In this way we have concluded the verification of the checkup 

list for the big zodiac, and we can confirm that our solution 

is a complete solution. No other complete solution was found 

the Big Esna zodiac. 

CONCLUSION: The Big Esna zodiac represents the date 

March 31 – April 3, 1394 AD. It was at the time of a new 

moon. The best correspondence with the Big zodiac was


achieved on April 3, 1394, when the New Moon reappeared 

in Taurus, very close to Pleiades. 


Small Esna Zodiac 

In the previous section we’ve presented how was decoded the 

date shown on the zodiac found inside a large ancient temple 

in Esna. We called this zodiac simply the Big Esna zodiac. 

It turned out that this date was pointing at the end of the 

14th century A.D. — the year 1394. As we’ve already mentioned, 

in another temple in Esna, a second zodiac was also 

discovered. In this section we will discuss the decoding of the 

date from that zodiac, which we call the Small Esna zodiac. 

It is very interesting to compare the dates of these two zodiacs. 

In the case of the Denderah zodiacs, we found out that 

the encoded in them dates were very close one to another. 

The difference between them was only 17 years. Is it a similar 

situation with the Esna zodiacs? As we will show it in a moment, 

this is indeed the case. Again, the difference between 

the dates represented on the Esna zodiacs is barely 10 years. 

Let us recall that the ancient city of Esna is located on 

the west bank of the Nile river, at the south end of the great 

meander of the Nile, surrounding from the east the Valley of 

the Kings (see Figure 3.8). It is postulated that the earlier this 

city was named in Greek Lycopolis 38 . In Esna, besides of the 

large temple with the Big zodiac, there was also discovered a 

smaller temple, in which was found another zodiac of similar 

type. We call this zodiac Small just to indicate its provenance 

from this much smaller temple, what has nothing to do with 

the actual size of this zodiac. A drawings of the Small zodiac, 

which were borrowed from the Napoleonic Album are shown 

on Figures 2.17 and 2.18. 

The small temple was located at the south end of Esna. 

Europeans who penetrated there during the Egyptian expedition 

of Napoleon, reported extensive damages to this temple. 

A drawing (see Figure 7.40) taken from the Napoleonic Description 

of Egypt 39 shows the extend of its destruction. The 

Small zodiac was also damaged — one of its fragments was 

destroyed. Namely, the part of the zodiac containing Scorpio, 

Libra and Virgo was completely missing. Fortunately, the destroyed 

part was not crucial for the decoding of the date of 

this zodiac. In fact, all the planetary figures of the main horoscope 

were located in the preserved parts of the zodiac (see 

Figure 5.43). 

Let us begin the analysis and decoding of the Small Esna 

zodiac, which will lead to obtaining the date that was encoded 

in its design by the “ancient” creators of this zodiac. 

For the purpose of dating, we will need a more detailed 

picture of the Small zodiac. On Figures 7.42, 7.43 and 7.44, 

we present the enlarged drawing of this zodiac, which we cut 

38 See [2] 

39 See [2]. 

into three parts. The size of the figures will allow us to observe 

all the necessary details needed for the analysis. 

Figure 7.40: A drawing of the temple in the north of Esna, 

where the members of the Napoleonic expedition discovered a 

second zodiac — the Small Esna zodiac. (See [2], A. Vol.I, 

Plate 85) 

As we’ve already mentioned, we had no other pictures or 

photographs of the Small Esna zodiac, except the drawings 

published in the Napoleonic Album [2]. Unfortunately, the 

small Esna temple does not exist anymore. Nevertheless, we 

were quite confident that these drawings are sufficiently precise 

for the purpose of dating. 

We precede with the dating process of the Small zodiac 

by following the usual steps (see section 6.7). 

7.6.1 Color-Annotated Small Esna Zodiac 

Step 1. (See subsection 6.7.1.) Decoding of the main horoscope 

on the Small zodiac and compiling the color annotated 

zodiac. The color annotated Small Esna zodiac is shown on 

Figure 7.42. 

With the help of the comparative tables of the Egyptian 

symbols, which were discussed in section 5.1, it is not difficult 

to recognize all the figures representing zodiacal constellations 

on the Small zodiac, except those symbols which were located 

in the destroyed part of the zodiac. All these figure are similar 

to the corresponding symbols of zodiacal constellations that 

shown on the Big Esna zodiac, that we discussed in section 

7.5. In fact, these symbols are also similar to the constellation 

symbols used on the both Denderah zodiacs. 

On the Small zodiac, we can easily recognize the figures 

of Leo (accompanied by a figure of secondary Virgo), Gemini, 

Taurus, Aries, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, and Sagittarius. 

The figure representing Sagittarius is located at the end of 

the preserved part of the zodiac, and the subsequent constel-

7.6 Decoding the Date from the Small Esna Zodiac 195 

Figure 7.41: A halftone drawing of the Small Esna zodiac taken from the Napoleonic Album. (See [2], A. Vol.I, Plate 87)


Figure 7.42: Color annotated Small Esna zodiac “EM.”

lations of Scorpio, Libra and Virgo were supposed to be in 

the destroyed section. 

All the figures representing constellations on the Small 

zodiac are located in the middle row. Moreover, notice that 

all these figures are divided into three sequences (see Figure 

7.42). 

On the Small zodiac, all the planets of the main horoscope 

are located in the bottom row. On the annotated zodiac (Figure 

7.42), we marked these figure in yellow. Those symbols 

are all the figures holding the usual planetary walking sticks. 

In the bottom row there is located a representation of the 

paschal moon (see subsection 5.9.1 and Figure 5.79), as well 

as few symbols belonging to partial horoscopes. In particular, 

there is a scene with a bull lying on a boat with a woman 

standing behind and shooting an arrow over its head. In spite 

that the woman holds no bow, still there is a small flying 

arrow that could only come from her direction (see Figure 

7.42). On the color annotated zodiac (Figure 7.42) all the figures 

belonging to the partial horoscopes were marked with 

the light blue color. 

In the bottom row, there are also few symbols that were 

marked in red. These are new type of symbols that were not 

present on other zodiacs. We will call them “constellation 

brackets.” We will discuss them later. 

The zodiacal constellations are represented in the middle 

row. On Figure 7.42 they are marked in red. Beside these figures, 

we also find it this row several symbols belonging to the 

partial horoscopes — they are marked on Figure 7.42 in light 

blue, and a supplementary scene located between Aquarius 

and Capricorn, which is marked in green. 

These two rows represent the main area of the Small zodiac, 

where the partition into zodiacal constellations is indicated 

in the middle row. The upper row, which is separated 

from the main area by two horizontal lines, has its own meaning 

that is only loosely connected to the lower two rows. 

The upper row is entirely associated with the symbolism of 

the partial horoscopes. On the color annotated Small zodiac 

(see Figure 7.42), all these figures are marked in light blue to 

indicate that, without exception, they are the symbols of the 

partial horoscopes. However, in this row we do not find pullout 

symbols, which were discussed in section 5.6. The reason 

for this is simple — as this row is already separated from the 

main area of the zodiac, there is no need for using here pullout 

symbols. We can see here the symbols of two equinox and 

two solstice points, which are located on the Small zodiac in 

the following order (moving from the left to the right): 

The symbol of the autumn equinox — a bird (resembling a 

heron) standing on a podium with a diagonal cross. This type 

of a podium on the Egyptian zodiacs symbolizes an equinox 

(see section 5.8). This symbol is located approximately above 

the figure of Leo followed by the secondary Virgo (see subsection 

5.1.5) in the middle row. It is slightly shifted to the 

right. Right over Leo, in the middle row, there is also another 


symbol of the autumn equinox — a self-entwined snake (also 

marked in light blue on Figure 7.42). Let us notice that most 

probably, the main group of the autumn equinox symbols was 

located over Virgo (like it is the case with the Big Esna zodiac), 

in the destroyed part of the zodiac, and the figures 

shown over Leo are just the end of this sequence. 

Next, if we move further to the right in the upper row, we 

encounter the symbol of the summer solstice — a cobra with 

upright fore body on a small podium (see section 5.8). Under 

it, in the middle row, there is a symbol of Gemini symbolized 

by three walking figures (notice that exactly the same 

symbol of Gemini was shown on the Big Esna zodiac). Let 

us recall, that on the Egyptian zodiacs the summer solstice 

point was displayed in Gemini (see subsection 5.8.4 for more 

information). 

Further to the right, there is the symbol of the spring 

equinox — a human figure sitting with bended knees on a 

podium with a diagonal cross. Right under it, in the middle 

row, there is located the symbol of Pisces, which is the 

location of the spring equinox point. 

Finally, we find the symbol of the winter solstice — a 

cobra with upright fore body on a podium, which is exactly 

the same symbol as for the summer solstice point. It is located 

near Sagittarius, but is shifted slightly towards Capricorn. On 

the Egyptian zodiacs, the location of the winter solstice point 

was indicated in Sagittarius. 

After that, we encounter the destroyed part of the zodiac, 

where probably were located the main autumn equinox symbols 

— at the head of the parade of all the figures on the Small 

Esna zodiac. This agree with the variant of the Egyptian year 

beginning in September, i.e. nearby the autumn equinox. 

Around each of the above symbols of the solstice and 

equinox points, are situated the planetary figures belonging 

to the corresponding partial horoscopes. Particularly “abundant” 

in symbols is the partial horoscope of the winter solstice, 

which occupies almost a half of the upper raw on the 

Small zodiac. The symbols of the partials horoscopes will be 

discussed again later in this section. 

7.6.2 “Constellations Brackets” in the Planetary 

Row on the Small Esna Zodiac 

Let us analyze the bottom row of the Small Esna zodiac. 

This is a very important part of the zodiac, because it is here 

where the figures of the main horoscope encoded the date 

of the Small zodiac. The symbolism of this row turned out 

to be rather complicated. Contrary to the upper and middle 

row, where the used symbols were quite standard, we have 

encountered in this row a completely new and unknown to 

us usage of symbols, which caused us a lot of trouble in the 

analysis of the Small zodiac. 

Right in the beginning of the decoding of the Small zodiac 

we noticed that there are exactly five groups of travelers 

with planetary walking sticks. Each of these groups contains


different number of travelers, but all of them are walking in 

the same direction. These five groups are separated by other 

figures — some on the boats, others without walking sticks. 

As we already discussed it in the case of the Big Esna zodiac, 

each of these groups should represent a certain planet of the 

main horoscope. Let us recall that there are five planets of the 

main horoscope, excluding the Sun and Moon, which were 

symbolized on the Egyptian zodiacs by figures of travelers. 

The Sun and Moon were usually shown as discs. Moreover, 

one of the group of travelers is composed of female figures. It 

is located under the figures of Gemini in the middle row, and 

slightly extended into the direction of Taurus. That’s exactly 

how it should be. In the old astronomy there was only one female 

planet — Venus. However it was somehow strange that 

Venus was represented here not, as usual, by two, but four figures. 

In addition, two of these figures were larger, while two 

other were definitely smaller. At that moment it was not clear 

what possibly it could mean. Nevertheless, without doubt it 

was a representation of Venus. The identification of the other 

planets was less evident, but still possible based on our understanding 

of the planetary symbolism in the main horoscope 

on the Egyptian zodiacs (see section 5.4). 

Unfortunately, when we tried to date the Small zodiac 

based on the planetary locations on the ecliptic indicated by 

the positions of these groups with respect to the zodiacal 

symbols, we didn’t succeed to get any full solution. We looked 

under what constellation symbol (or symbols) in the middle 

row were located the figures of the planetary procession in 

the bottom row. We considered all the possible variants of 

identification of these groups with the planets, as well as the 

variants for the Sun and Moon. In spite of all these efforts, we 

were not able to find any solution satisfying the symbolism of 

the partial horoscopes. 

Only later, after spending some time on thinking and analyzing 

the Small zodiac, we turned our attention to some 

“non-planetary” figures in the bottom row. One can easily 

notice there two special symbols usually associated with the 

constellation of Aquarius. The first one was a male figure 

located right under Pisces. Its head is decorated with an ornament, 

which is on Egyptian zodiacs particular for Aquarius 

(see subsection 5.1.11). Exactly the same ornament is shown 

on the figure representing Aquarius in the middle row. The 

second symbol, in the bottom row, is composed of nine beheaded 

human figures surrounded by series of knifes arranged 

a rectangular shape. This symbol is located slightly to the 

right under the figure of Aquarius in the middle row. This 

is again a familiar symbol on the Egyptian zodiacs, which is 

associated with Aquarius (see subsection 5.1.11). The most 

interesting was the fact that these two symbols were separated 

with one group of planetary symbols placed in between 

them. It looked like this group was in some way enclosed 

in between two Aquarian brackets. At that moment, an idea 

emerged that the Egyptian artist, who created this zodiac, 

tried in this way to point out that this planet was actually 

located in Aquarius. Without this indicator, it was possible 

to relate this planetary symbol not only to Aquarius, but also 

to Pisces. However, the presence of the Aquarian brackets for 

this particular planet didn’t produce any significant change in 

the decoding process. In any way, we were obliged to consider 

all variants with this planet located in Aquarius as well as in 

Pisces. 

Nevertheless, this simple observation of the existence of 

the Aquarian brackets in the bottom row of the Small zodiac 

brought us to a suspicion that there may be more similar Zodiacal 

Brackets present on the bottom row. This could possibly 

result in more substantial shifts of the actual locations of 

the planets on the zodiacal belt. We were asking ourselves if 

the reason for not getting a complete solution for the Small 

zodiac was caused by the wrong identification of the planetary 

positions among the zodiacal constellations. If there was 

in fact a significant “displacement” of the bottom row with 

respect to the middle one, the resulting error could lead to 

an incorrect decoding of the main horoscope. In this case the 

obtained solutions naturally disagree with the symbolism of 

the partial horoscopes, so no complete solution couldn’t be 

found. 

As it turned out, indeed this was exactly the case. In the 

bottom row on the Small zodiac, there is another pair of zodiacal 

brackets. We have to recognize the craftiness of the 

Egyptian artist, who did not use for this purpose the same 

symbol of Gemini as it appears in the middle row of the Small 

zodiac, but adopted its standard form. Let us recall that on 

the both Esna zodiacs, the symbol of Gemini is rather unique. 

It is composed of three figures, while on the majority of other 

Egyptian zodiacs the symbol of Gemini is shown as an astronomical 

hieroglyph composed of two figures endowed with 

the attributes of the minimal partial horoscope of the summer 

solstice (see subsection ??). One of these figures is a male 

symbolizing Mercury, and another one is a female denoting 

Venus. On the head of the male figure there is a feather — an 

attribute of Mercury, while on the head of the female there 

is always a disk with a snake (see Figure 5.72). On the Small 

zodiac, one can localize such a pair of figures in the bottom 

row in the area under symbols of Leo, Cancer and Gemini in 

the middle row. They are the Gemini brackets on the Small 

zodiac. These figures are marked on the color annotated zodiac 

in red (see Figure 7.42). This bracket encloses exactly 

one planetary group composed of two figures together with a 

p pair of symbols on a boat, which in this case are the symbols 

related to the partial horoscope (see section 5.6). 

Consequently, the planet shown in between the Gemini 

Brackets was located in Gemini, while the other planets were 

not in Gemini. This observation changes significantly the decoding 

of the main horoscope. Notice that the planet surrounded 

by the Gemini Brackets is located right under Cancer. 

If there were no brackets around these planetary symbols, 

it would be very questionable to associate this planet with the 

Gemini constellation. In addition, without these brackets, it 

would be impossible to consider the group of Venus, which is 

located exactly under Gemini, as belonging to Taurus. Notice 

that Venus is quite far from the symbol of Taurus in the middle 

row. But now, as it is indicated by the brackets, it becomes

clear that Venus was either in Taurus or on its boundary with 

Gemini, outside Gemini. Indeed, Venus is located outside the 

Gemini brackets, on the side of Taurus. 

Now it become understandable why in the group of Venus, 

in which we initially included four female figures with the 

planetary walking sticks, there were two larger and two 

smaller figures, while on all the previously analyzed zodiacs 

Venus was always represented by two figures of the same size. 

In fact, as it turned out, in the case of the Small zodiac, it 

wasn’t different. Simply, two female figures of the larger size 

were not related to Venus, but they were a part of the Gemini 

brackets. Their similar to Venus appearance was caused by the 

association of this symbol with the astronomical hieroglyph 

of the summer solstice in Gemini, where such a female figure 

symbolizes Venus (see subsection 5.8.4). On the Small zodiac, 

this hieroglyph is divided into two parts, which are the Gemini 

brackets in the bottom row. 

On the color annotated zodiac, two female figure corresponding 

to the Gemini brackets are marked in red, while 

two other, which symbolize Venus, are marked in yellow. 

7.6.3 Planetary Figures in the Main Horoscope 

on the Small Esna Zodiac 

Let us begin with the Sun and Moon. On the Small zodiac 

there are only two discs, which could be considered as representations 

of the Sun and Moon, present. Both discs can 

be found in the middle row — the first one is located in between 

the horns of Taurus, and the second one is over Aries. 

We had a similar situation on the Big Esna zodiac, although 

on the Small zodiac the two discs are completely identical. 

Therefore, as it was also a case with the Big zodiac, we have 

to consider two possibilities: 

(1) The Sun in Taurus and the Moon in Aries, or 

(2) The Moon in Taurus and the Sun in Aries. 

In the full solution, we’ve obtained later that the Sun was 

located in Taurus and the Moon in Aries. 

All the other planetary symbols, as we already discussed 

it the previous subsection, are placed in the bottom row of 

the zodiac. They are arranged in groups of travelers holding 

walking sticks. It was the most fortunate that all these planetary 

symbols were located in the preserved part of the Small 

zodiac. Among these groups only Venus can be recognized 

without any trouble. For the remaining male planets we had 

to consider all the possible cases in order to avoid eventual 

mistakes caused by our subjective judgment in recognizing the 

male planets symbolized by these groups of travelers. Nevertheless, 

in the final full solution, we found out that many of 

ours initial ideas were confirmed. We’ve already discussed in 

section 5.4 several specific attributes of the planetary symbols 

in the main horoscope on various Egyptian zodiacs, which can 

be used to identify these planets. In particular, we discussed 

there the planetary figures on the Small Esna zodiac. 


Let us list the planetary groups in the bottom row on 

the Small zodiac and indicate their identification, which was 

obtained in the final full solution. We begin at the left end 

of the zodiac, and move gradually to the right side till we 

reach the destroyed part of the zodiac. On the color annotated 

zodiac, all these groups are marked in yellow. 

The First Planet — the group composed of two travelers 

holding planetary walking sticks. Both of them wear high 

hats. According to the full solution, this group represent Mars 

in the main horoscope. Following them is the male figure, 

with falcon’s head with a feather, holding a planetary walking 

stick. This figure is the left Gemini bracket. That implies 

that this planet was in Gemini. A small star is placed in front 

of the face of the first traveler in this group. This is the usual 

attribute of visibility, which means that this planet was visible. 

It is quite clear, because according to its location among 

zodiacal constellations, it was very far from the Sun. 

A little further to the right, the same planet (again represented 

by two similar male travelers) is shown in a boat. 

That means, this is a symbol of the partial horoscope. We 

will discuss it later. Further, there is the right Gemini bracket 

symbolized by a pair of female figures holding planetary walking 

sticks. The Gemini brackets were already explained in the 

preceding subsection. After that, we reach the next planetary 

procession on the Small zodiac. 

The Second Planet — two female figures holding planetary 

walking sticks. The leading female has the lioness head. This is 

clearly a symbol of Venus (for more information about Venus 

symbols see subsection 5.4.8). This pair is located on the right 

site of the right Gemini bracket, i.e. it was not located in 

Gemini. That means, Venus was either in Taurus or between 

Gemini or Taurus. There is again a small star in the front of 

the first female’s face, which means that Venus was visible. 

However, here this is a rather important information, because 

the Sun could be located in Taurus as well. 

The Third Planet — a single male figure with human face 

holding a planetary walking stick. According to the obtained 

full solution — this planet was Mercury. It was located under 

Taurus and Aries, thus Mercury was in Taurus or in Aries. 

There is no small star around it, so Mercury was not visible. 

The Forth Planet — three male travelers, two of them with 

ram’s heads and one with ibis head. According to the full 

solution — this planet was Saturn (see subsections 5.4.2 and 

5.4.3, where we discussed in detail the symbolism of Saturn 

in the main horoscope on the Egyptian zodiacs). This planet 

is located in between Aquarian brackets, therefore it was in 

Aquarius. In front of the middle traveler’s face there is a small 

star — an attribute of visibility for this planet. However, it is 

clear that with such a large distance from the Sun, this planet 

had to be visible, so even without this attribute (which is 

could be omitted here) the visibility of this planet is obvious. 

The Fifth Planet — the long procession, composed of seven 

male travelers at the right end of the preserved part of the


Small zodiac. Among them, there are figures with heads of 

falcon, ram, crocodile, lion, and human. At the very end of 

this procession there is a goose. Consequently, we can see in 

the suit of this planet the elements of symbolism related to 

Jupiter (the lion’s head and the characteristic for Jupiter’s 

head decorations), Mars (the falcon’s head and goose) and 

Mercury (the human face and the crocodile’s head). According 

to the final solution this planet was Jupiter (see subsection 

5.4.6 for a discussion related to this identification). 

Notice that there is no small star near any of the seven 

figures in this procession. However, it is quite possible that 

in fact such a star was originally there. The damaged area in 

front of the second figure could be the place of its location. 

On the other hand, with such a large distance from the Sun it 

is clear that this planet was visible, so it is not surprising that 

in such cases the attributes of visibility could be omitted. We 

have seen such cases before. 

Since this procession is located in the area under the symbols 

of Capricorn and Sagittarius (standing in the middle 

row), we have to conclude that this planet was either in Sagittarius 

or Capricorn. 

In this way, the decoding of the Small Esna zodiac, which 

led to the complete solution, is the following: 

The Sun in Taurus. 

The Moon in Aries. 

Mars in Gemini (it is enclosed in between the Gemini brackets). 

It was visible. 

Venus in Taurus or possibly on the boundary of Gemini, from 

the side of Taurus. It was visible. 

Mercury in Taurus or possibly in Aries. It was invisible. 

Saturn in Aquarius (it is enclosed in between the Aquarian 

brackets). 

Jupiter in Capricorn or in Sagittarius. 

For this decoding of the Small Esna zodiac we have obtained 

the full solution: May 6–8, 1404 A.D. 

7.6.4 Partial Horoscopes and Supplementary 

Scenes on the Small Esna Zodiac 

[A] Partial Horoscope of the Autumn Equinox: On the 

Egyptian zodiacs the partial horoscope of the autumn 

equinox is located in Virgo and in the neighboring constellations 

of Leo and Libra (see section 5.8). The fragment 

of the Small zodiac containing Virgo and Libra was 

destroyed, however the part with Leo and the secondary 

Virgo standing on its tail was well preserved (see subsections 

5.1.5 and 5.1.6 for more details on representations of 

Leo and Virgo on the Egyptian zodiacs). Therefore, the 

partial horoscope of the autumn equinox on the Small zodiac 

seems to be incomplete (see Figures 7.41 and 7.42). 

In the upper row, at the left end of the zodiac, there 

are six figures standing on the both sides of the symbol of 

the autumn equinox, which is the podium with a diagonal 

cross and a heron standing on it. There is only one male 

figure there. It has a small disc on its head. These female 

figures ought to represent Venus, while the male figure the 

most probably is Mercury. Indeed, this male figure has a 

human face — a usual symbol of Mercury on the Egyptian 

zodiacs (see subsections 5.4.9 and 5.4.10). Further to the 

right, there are two figures in the upper row — a lion and a 

beetle resembling scarab — both on small podiums. Right 

above the lion, there is a small star probably to indicate 

that on the autumn equinox day that there was a well 

visible planet in Leo. All these figures basically describe 

the minimal partial horoscope of Venus and Mercury, but 

there is also a “suggestion” that another bright planet 

could also be at that time in Leo. 

In the middle row, right above Leo and the secondary 

Virgo, there is a plate with a self-entwined snake — a 

symbol of the autumn equinox. A little further to the 

right, between Leo and Cancer, there is a male figure (the 

size of the step is too long for a female figure) of a warrior 

holding a raised sword in one hand and some arrows 

in another. This is most likely a representation of Mars. 

Since the location of this planet is in the same distance 

from Virgo as from Gemini, this planet could also belong 

to the partial horoscope of the summer solstice. There 

are no other planetary symbols from partial horoscopes 

in this fragment of the zodiac. 

In the bottom row, right under the figures of Leo and the 

secondary Virgo, there is a boat with a male standing in 

between two female figures, holding their hands. The most 

probably, this is a symbolic representation of a meeting 

between Venus and another “male” planet, or even with 

the Sun. In the last case, this scene wouldn’t give us any 

sufficient information that could be useful in the verification 

process of solutions, because it is already known that 

in this astronomical situation Venus was close to the Sun. 

In fact, such scenes of meetings on the Egyptian zodiacs, 

may only be supplementary without any relation to the 

partial horoscopes. This was the reason for marking these 

three figures on the color annotated zodiac (see Figure 

7.42) partially in light blue and green. 

Now, we are in a position to conclude that in the preserved 

part of the Small zodiac only the presence of Venus and 

Mercury in the partial horoscope of the autumn equinox 

can be for sure recognized. The figure of Mars, which is 

located in between Cancer and Leo, may or may not be 

related to this partial horoscope, because it could very 

well belong to the partial horoscope of the summer solstice. 

However, on the day of the autumn equinox, there 

was a bright planet in Leo. The fragment of the Small 

zodiac with Virgo and Libra was destroyed and it is possible 

that it contained additional information about other 

planets in the proximity of the Sun on that day.

[B] Partial Horoscope of the Winter Solstice: This partial 

horoscope is located in Sagittarius and in the neighboring 

constellations of Capricorn and Scorpio. The fragment 

of the Small zodiac with the constellation of Scorpio 

did not survived. However, the constellations of Sagittarius 

and Capricorn were preserved. In addition, in the upper 

row, the area of the Small zodiac, which is devoted to 

the partial horoscope of the winter solstice, is exceptionally 

large. All the other remaining partial horoscopes in 

the upper row occupy much less space than this one, and 

the size of their symbols is also smaller (see Figures 7.41 

and 7.42). 

In the upper row, around the symbol of the winter solstice 

— a cobra with upright body standing on a podium, 

there are three walking figures holding planetary walking 

sticks. In the case of the first figure standing at the right 

end of the preserved part of the zodiac, we can guess by 

the gesture of its hand that it is holding something — possibly 

a walking stick. We have no idea what was displayed 

on the destroyed fragment of the zodiac, but it is possible 

that it contained other figures with walking sticks. 

The three walking figures are accompanied by sitting figures 

also holding planetary walking sticks. There are also 

several figures representing fantastic creatures like snakes 

with legs and arms or snakes standing in vertical position 

on their tails. All together, this conglomerate of figures in 

the upper row resembles the symbolism of the main horoscope 

on the Big Esna zodiac. The experience that we 

acquired by analyzing the Big zodiac, can now be used to 

decode the meaning of this partial horoscope. Let us point 

out that all these figures are located in the upper row of 

the Small zodiac, which is clearly separated by a double 

horizontal line from the area of the zodiac containing the 

main horoscope. 

Using the already decoded Big Esna zodiac, we can now 

attempt to understand the meaning of this scene in the 

upper row. It is not too complicated. 

Let us begin with the last figure located on the right inside 

the preserved part of the zodiac. Behind this male figure 

there is a small animal sitting at its feet. On the Big 

zodiac, we have seen such small animals accompanying 

a walking male figure, which was identified as Mercury 

(see the color annotated Big Esna zodiac on Figure 7.33, 

where this figure is located on the right from Aquarius). 

By comparing the symbols on the both Esna zodiacs, it 

becomes clear that we are dealing here with Mercury. 

There are three sitting on chairs figures in the upper row 

occupied by the winter solstice partial horoscope. Each of 

them holds a planetary walking stick. Except possibly of 

the sitting figure on the left, it is easy to distinguish in 

their postures shapes of female breast. Notice that one of 

the hands holding the stick covers the view of the breast 

of that figure (see Figure 7.41 and 7.42). In this way, we 

can identify these figures, with possibly one exception, 

as female. Consequently, they represent Venus, or in the 


case one of them is male — also Mercury (see subsection 

??). Mercury however, as we noticed earlier, is located at 

the right end of the preserved part of the zodiac, where 

it is accompanied by its typical attribute — a vertical 

snake. In addition, the last walking figure in this sequence, 

located right behind the sitting figure of unclear gender, 

has a lion head. This is an attribute of Venus. Let us 

point out that similar figures accompanied Venus on the 

Big Esna zodiac and on the Long Denderah zodiac as 

well. On the Big zodiac, a very similar figure with lion 

head, also standing behind a sitting female figure, was 

identified as a representation of Jupiter. Therefore, all 

three sitting figures are indeed females, and most likely 

all of them represent Venus, while the figure holding a 

planetary walking stick, is Jupiter. Indeed, on the Big 

zodiac Jupiter in the main horoscope was shown by a 

very similar loin-headed figure following Venus. 

Let us analyze the middle and lower rows in this area of 

the Small zodiac. 

In the middle row, between the figures of Capricorn and 

Sagittarius, there is a symbol of the spring equinox. It is 

represented by two figures standing on a snake. There is 

no contradiction here — the snake is a pull-out symbol 

(see section 5.6) indicating that this is not the correct location 

for the spring equinox. The right place for it should 

be in Pisces. The meaning of this significant shifting to 

the right is rather clear. It probably indicates that the 

area of the spring equinox extends almost to Sagittarius. 

The pull-out symbol signals that the spring equinox 

penetrated to that location, which is usually occupied by 

the winter solstice. Consequently, the winter solstice was 

completely pushed out from the middle row in this area. 

We still should remember that the destroyed fragment 

of the zodiac could contain other elements of the partial 

horoscope of the winter solstice. 

Let us look now at the boom row. Notice that there are 

no symbols of the the partial horoscopes in that area (see 

Figure 7.42). 

Let us summarize our decoding of the partial horoscope 

of the winter solstice: Mercury, Venus and another planet, 

the most probably Jupiter, were at that time located in 

Sagittarius or not far from it. There could be one or more 

planets located in Scorpio or between Scorpio and Sagittarius, 

but this information is not available because of the 

damage to the Small zodiac. 

[C] Partial Horoscope of the Spring Equinox and 

the Supplementary Scene between Aquarius and 

Capricorn: Let us recall that on the Egyptian zodiacs, 

the Sun on the day of the spring equinox was shown in 

Pisces (see subsection 5.8.3). So, the region of the partial 

horoscope of the spring equinox was usually spread between 

the adjacent to Pisces constellations of Aries and 

Aquarius. However, in the middle row on the Small zo-


diac, the area of this partial horoscope is extended up to 

the figure of Sagittarius (see Figures 7.41 and 7.42). 

We begin with the upper row in that fragment of the zodiac. 

Notice the symbol of the spring equinox — a figure 

sitting on a podium marked with a diagonal cross. It is 

located right above Pisces. Around that symbol we find 

the figures of the minimal partial horoscope, i.e. Mercury 

and Venus (see Figure 7.42). Of course, Venus and Mercury 

always appear near the proximity of the Sun, so this 

information has no real value for the verification of admissible 

solutions. 

In the middle row of this area of the zodiac we find many 

figures belonging to the partial horoscope. Between the 

symbols of Pisces and Aquarius there is a male figure. 

It has two faces and holds a snake. These attributes are 

typical for Mercury (see subsections 5.4.9 and 5.4.10). It 

is an indication that Mercury on the spring equinox day 

was located either in Pisces or in Aquarius. 

In between the symbols of Aquarius and Sagittarius, there 

is shown a gathering of planetary figures standing on 

boats or snakes. There are exactly six such figures in 

this location. On the color annotated zodiac (see Figure 

7.42), all these figures are marked in green, because 

most probably they indicate a supplementary astronomical 

scene. In fact, there are too many planetary symbols 

for just one partial horoscope. On the other hand, and this 

is important, all the planetary symbols from the partial 

horoscopes are shown in the middle row without pull-out 

attributes. Since the planets of the main horoscope are 

shown in the bottom row, there is no need for using special 

symbols to distinguish them form the planetary symbols 

of the partial horoscopes. The same arrangement was 

also used in the case of the Big Esna zodiac. Nevertheless, 

all the figures in this astronomical scene (except one 

small male figure located under the left end of Capricorn) 

are placed on pull-out symbols of snakes or boats. 

In the upper part of this scene, we see three figures placed 

on a long snake. The fist one is a walking male figure with 

jackal’s head, followed by another male figure with a disc 

replacing its head, and the last figure is shown in a sitting 

position. It is possible that this is a symbolic representation 

of a half-revolution of Mercury around the Sun. 

Indeed, it could symbolize Mercury that was visible, then 

when it disappeared behind the Sun, and finally when 

it came to rest (the sitting position), before it begins to 

move backward towards the Sun. This is exactly how the 

real motion of Mercury appears on the sky. 

Under the snake, there is a large male figure in a horizontal 

position. It is also standing on a snake. On its right, 

there is a small female figure on a boat — probably a 

representation of Venus. Further to the right and slightly 

down, there is a male figure with cat’s or lion’s head. It 

walks in the opposite to the other figure direction (i.e. 

to the left). We can conclude, that in this supplementary 

scene, three other planets were also involved, among them 

Venus. 

In summary, in this supplementary scene, there are shown 

four planets, among them Venus and Mercury. Since this 

configuration of planets is located between Aquarius and 

Capricorn, the Sun at that time was either in Aquarius 

or Capricorn. That means, this astronomical event 

took place in January or February. Let us point out that 

this scene appears next to the symbol of Aquarius, right 

above the aquarian bracket in the bottom row. As we conjectured 

it earlier (see subsection 5.1.11), the symbol of 

Aquarius was probably a representation of John the Baptist. 

Let us notice that on January 6, according to Julian 

calendar, the Christian Church celebrates Epiphany, 

which is one of its oldest festival commemorating Baptism 

of Jesus Christ. It is interesting to check if on this particular 

day, indicated by the astronomical solution, there 

were indeed four planets in the proximity of the Sun. In 

our check-up list we will reserve a spacial place for this 

supplementary scene. 

Let us return to the partial horoscope of the spring 

equinox. In the middle row there is only one figure left 

about which we didn’t comment anything yet. It is a male 

figure holding a stick with a high ornament on his head. 

Clearly, it indicates one more planet of the partial horoscope 

which was either located between Capricorn and 

Sagittarius. 

In the bottom row there are no symbols of partial horoscopes. 

In this way we have obtained the following decoding of the 

partial horoscope of the spring equinox: Mercury, which 

was in Pisces or Aquarius, Venus, and one more planet 

located in Capricorn. 

[D] Partial Horoscope of the Summer Solstice: The Sun 

on the summer solstice day was usually shown on the 

Egyptian zodiacs in Gemini (see subsection 5.8.4). On 

the Small zodiac, the symbol of the summer solstice is 

located in the upper row above Gemini. It is a figure of a 

cobra with upright fore body, standing on a podium (see 

Figure 7.42) located in between two sitting female figures 

(the shapes of female breast can be easily distinguished). 

The female figure on the left holds a typical planetary 

walking stick. The other sitting female figure, the one on 

the right from the summer solstice symbol, holds in her 

hand an object resembling a loop in a shape of an eye. 

There are three wavy lines marked across this object. It 

is clear that it is a representation of Venus. 

A little further to the right, there is an accumulation of 

snakes, snakes with wings and a bird. Similar symbols 

were also present in the summer solstice area on the Big 

zodiac (on the left from Gemini). Among those symbols 

we are able to recognize only one planetary symbol. It is 

a two-headed snake representing Mercury. In this way, in

the upper row of the summer solstice area on the Small 

zodiac, there is only a minimal partial horoscope composed 

of Venus and Mercury. There are no other planets 

indicated there. 

In the middle row, there is a typical for the Egyptian zodiacs 

symbol of the summer solstice — a man with a raised 

hand standing on a boat (see subsection 5.8.4, where we 

discussed this symbol on the Small Esna zodiac). Right 

next to it, there is a two-headed animal and a crocodile. 

These are again the symbols of the minimal partial horoscope: 

Mercury and Venus near the summer solstice point. 

On the left from Cancer, there is a figure of a warrior. It 

holds a raised sword in one hand and arrows in another. It 

is definitely a representation of Mars, but it is not completely 

clear to which partial horoscope it belongs: the 

one of the summer solstice or the autumn equinox. 

In the bottom row, on the right from Gemini, there is 

a familiar symbol of the summer solstice — a boat with 

a bull and a female figure. Notice a small arrow over the 

bull’s head. Even though the female holds no bow, we still 

can think that the arrows come from her (see subsection 

5.8.4). Furthermore, right behind the “Gemini Brackets,” 

there is a pair of male travelers standing on a boat. An 

almost identical pair of two male figures with hawk faces, 

which is a planetary symbol in the main horoscope, is 

following it. One can assume that the pair on the boat 

— a pull-out symbol, represents the same planet in the 

partial horoscope (see section 5.6). As it turned out, this 

planet was identified in the obtained complete solution 

as Mars. We will see later, when we will be checking out 

this solution, that Mars in the partial horoscope of the 

summer solstice was indeed in Gemini. This identification 

agrees with the symbol of the warrior with a raised sword 

located between Leo and Cancer in the middle row. If this 

figure indeed represents Mars in the partial horoscope of 

the summer solstice, then Mars could be located on the 

boundary between Gemini and Cancer. 

In this way we have obtained the following decoding of 

the partial horoscope of the summer solstice: besides the 

minimal horoscope composed of Venus and Mercury, there 

was also Mars in the surroundings of Gemini. Mars was 

either located in Gemini, or, in the case the symbol of the 

warrior belongs to this partial horoscope, on the boundary 

between Gemini and Cancer. 

7.6.5 Final Solution for the Small Esna Zodiac: 

May 6—8, 1404 AD. 

A complete solution that was found for the Small Esna zodiac 

turned out to be unique. It was May 6–8, 1404 A.D., exactly 

10 years after the date indicated on the Big Esna zodiac! 

During that time the configuration of the planets on the sky 

was as follows: 

SUN – in Taurus; 


MOON – in Aries, appearing as a shrinking moon crescent; 

MARS – in Gemini; 

VENUS – in Taurus, near its border with Gemini; 

MERCURY – in Taurus, near its border with Aries; 

SATURN – in Aquarius;. 

JUPITER – in Capricorn. 

It is clear that these locations perfectly fit the planetary 

data contained in the main horoscope (see subsection 7.6.3). 

In Appendix ??, we include the input date that was used to 

find this solution. 

Julian day (JD) = 2233995.00 



1.29 11.95 10.13 9.81 2.28 1.88 1.16 

Taurus Pis/Ari Aquarius Capricorn Gemini Taurus Taurus 

Julian day (JD) = 2233996.00 



63.4 o 

238.5 o 

331.7 o 

324.4 o 

98.2 o 

86.4 o 

57.3 o 

1.31 0.48 10.13 9.82 2.30 1.92 1.15 

Taurus Aries Aquarius Capricorn Gemini Taurus Taurus 

Julian day (JD) = 2233997.00 



64.3 o 

52.4 o 

331.8 o 

324.5 o 

98.9 o 

87.6 o 

56.8 o 

1.34 1.02 10.13 9.82 2.32 1.95 1.14 

Taurus Aries Aquarius Capricorn Gemini Taurus Taurus 

Table 7.16: Planetary Positions in the Period May 6–8, 1404 

On Figure 7.43, we show the final decoding of the Small 

zodiac, corresponding the computed complete solution. In Table 

7.16, we list the planetary positions on the main date: May 

6–8, 1404 AD. As usual, we indicate the locations of planets 

in degree on the ecliptic J2000, as well as by using the coordinates 

on the constellation scale (see section 6.10). 

The planetary configuration that fits in the best way the 

astronomical data shown on the Small zodiac, occured on 

May 7, 1404. On that day, Moon in a shape of a shrinking 

narrow crescent was located in Aries. At that time, the 

mean distance from the best points was only 8 o , which can be 

compared with a quarter of the length of an average zodiac 

constellation. Since even the mean discrepancy from the best 

points of magnitude 15 o can be considered as acceptable (see 

section 6.11), this result should be considered as very good.


Figure 7.43: Final decoding of the Small Esna zodiac, which led to a unique full solution.

7.6.6 Checkup list for the Small Esna Zodiac 

Final Solution 

In this subsection we will discuss the verification process applied 

to the final solution for the Small Esna zodiac, which 

was May 6–8, 1404. We will compare the real astronomical 

pictures occuring on these dates with the situation shown on 

the Small zodiac. In particular, we are interested in the presence 

of the visibility attributes and the information included 

in partial horoscopes. On Figure 7.44, we show the complete 

check-up list for the final solution. Let us recall that we call 

a solution complete or full, if we are able to confirm the full 

agreement between the solution and all the astronomical information 

decoded from the zodiac. On Figure 7.44, we used 

the sign plus to confirm good correspondence between the solution 

and the specific items from the check-up list (see section 

6.14). 

In regards to the visibility of planets, we need to make 

verifications only for Mercury, Venus and Mars. Only those 

planets could turned out to be invisible because of their proximity 

to the Sun. The visibility attributes were not sometimes 

even marked on the Egyptian zodiacs for those planets which 

were located far away from the Sun. 

Column 1: VISIBILITY OF PLANETS. Let us discuss first 

the visibility of Venus. According to its representation on the 

Small zodiac, Venus should be visible on the main date, and 

indeed, it was located in very good evening visibility position. 

At the moment Venus was disappearing behind the horizon 

on May 7, 1404, the submersion of the Sun was SUH= 20 o , i.e. 

Venus was descending already in a complete darkness. In addition, 

the brightness of Venus was also very high M = −3.5. 

Regarding the visibility of Mercury, its attributes on the 

Small zodiac indicate that it shouldn’t be visible on May 7, 

1404. On that day, Mercury raised in Cairo when the submersion 

of the Sun was only SUH= 2 o , and its brightness 

was also very low — only M = +3.6, which can be compared 

with the brightness of faint stars. It is clear that in such situation 

Mercury could not be visible neither in Cairo nor Luxor. 

The Mars attributes on the Small zodiac indicate that it was 

visible. This fact can be also confirmed in the case of our solution. 

On the main date, Mars was located in Gemini, not 

far from Venus — only 10 o further from Venus. Its brightness 

was rather high M = +1.8, which can be compared with 

the brightness of the second magnitude stars. In the evening 

on May 7, 1404, at the moment Mars descended on the horizon, 

the submersion of the Sun was SUH = 30 o , which simply 

means that it was already night. Therefore, Mars was 

clearly visible at that time. In this way, we obtain that the 

visibility information included on the Small zodiac is confirmed 

by our solution, and consequently we annotate the 

first column with the plus sign to show that these conditions 

are satisfied. 


EQUINOX. As in the case of other zodiacs, we consider the 

variant of the year beginning in September, i.e. the year of 

our solution started in September 1403 and ended in August 


1404. The exact date of the autumn equinox in that year was 

on September 10, 1403. Since even during the Middle Ages 

the computations of the exact autumn equinox date were not 

at all accurate, we should admit a possibility for an error of 

5-6 days. Let us indicate the positions of the planets on the 

ecliptic on September 10, 1403 (see Table 7.17). 

Julian day (JD) = 2233756.00 



183.7 o 114.8 o 

313.9 o 

281.2 o 

319.2 o 

5.22 2.87 9.44 8.42 9.63 4.16 5.72 

148.5 o 1204.2 o 

Virgo Gemini Capricorn Sagittar Capricorn Leo Virgo 


In the first row,under the names of the planets, we indicated 

in degrees the positions of the planets on the ecliptic 

J2000. In the next row, the locations of the planets are expressed 

using their coordinates on the constellation scale (see 

section 6.10). Notice that, according to Table 7.17, the Sun 

was in Virgo, in its proximity were only Venus and Mercury. 

All other planets were far away from the Sun. 

Let us recall the autumn equinox horoscope on the Small 

zodiac. On the preserved part of the Small zodiac that is related 

to the autumn equinox area, one can recognize only 

Mercury and Venus. The representation of Mars, which is located 

between Cancer and Leo could be related to this partial 

horoscope, but it could also be a part of the partial horoscope 

of the summer solstice. In Leo, on the autumn equinox day, 

there was indicated a certain bright star. The portion of the 

partial horoscope related to Virgo and Pisces was destroyed. 

Let us observe that on the day of the autumn equinox, on 

September 10, 1403, Venus was in Virgo. It was the brightest 

celestial object on the sky at that time. In order to solve the 

question related to Mars, we need to verify (see below) that 

on the day of the summer solstice Mars was in Cancer, or 

not far from it (what is in fact the case). Besides that, we 

have a full agreement between our solution and the partial 

horoscope of the autumn equinox on the Small zodiac. So, we 

also placed the sign plus in this column to indicate that the 

required here conditions are satisfied. 


SOLSTICE. In the year indicated by the solution the winter 

solstice took place on December 10, 1403 (see Appendix ??). 

As usual we admit a possibility of an error — 5–6 days. At 

that time the Sun was in Sagittarius, where was also located 

Mercury and Jupiter — the both planets were visible in the 

evening. Venus was located on the other side of the Sun, in 

Aquarius. It was visible in the morning. Moreover, Saturn was 

in the next to Sagittarius constellation of Scorpio — just 5 o 

from its border. Its distance from the Sun was rather large


Figure 7.44: Check-Up List for the final solution for the Small Esna Zodiac: May 6–8, 1404 AD.

— about 42 o . Jupiter and Mercury, which were located on 

the same side of the Sun, were much closer to the Sun — 

Jupiter was 21 o and Mercury was 15 o from the Sun along the 

ecliptic. The closest to the Sun was Venus — just about 14 o 

from the Sun. All the other planets were even much further 

from the Sun than Saturn. Consequently, on December 10, 

1403, in the proximity of the Sun there were three planets: 

Venus, Mercury and Jupiter (see Table 7.18). 

Julian day (JD) = 2233756.00 



275.1 o 224.5 o 317.3 o 296.2 o 362.2 o 261.2 o 

290.9 o 

8.25 6.43 9.56 8.85 11.39 7.82 8.69 

Sagitta Pisces Capric Sagitta Pisces Scorpio Sagitta 

Table 7.18: Planetary Positions on December 10, 1403 

Let us recall the decoding of the horoscope of the winter 

solstice on the Small zodiac. In this partial horoscope, besides 

the Sun, we have recognized in Sagittarius Mercury, Venus, 

and one more planet — the most probably Jupiter. Moreover, 

some other planets could also be located in Scorpio, or even in 

Sagittarius from the Scorpio side, but unfortunately this part 

of the zodiac was damaged. Notice that this information fully 

agrees with the computed solution. Again we annotate this 

column with a sign plus, to signal that the required conditions 

are satisfied. 


EQUINOX. In the year of our solution, the spring equinox 

occured on March 12, 1404 (see Appendix ??). As usual, we 

allow 5-6 days as the margin of error. Let us describe the positions 

of the planets on the ecliptic on March 12m 1404 (see 

Table 7.19). 

Julian day (JD) = 2233940.00 



368.9 o 380.8 o 

327.9 o 

317.0 o 

62.4 o 377.6 o 365.7 o 

11.56 311.86 9.94 9.95 1.28 11.78 11.48 

Pisces Pisces Cap/Aqua Capric Taurus Pisces Pisces 


On that day of the spring equinox, the Sun was in Pisces. 

In Pisces there were also Venus and Mercury. Moon was also 

in Pisces, but on the Small zodiac Moon was shown on the 

partial horoscopes 


Let us now compare these locations with the situation 

shown on the partial horoscope of the spring equinox on the 

Small Esna zodiac. Besides Mercury and Venus there was 

one more planet either in Capricorn or on its border with 

Sagittarius. The location of Mercury was either in Pisces or 

in Aquarius. Our solution agrees well with this partial horoscope. 

Indeed, Mercury on March 12, 1404 was in Pisces — 

as it is indicated on the Small zodiac. On that day, in Capricorn, 

there was a very bright planet — Jupiter. Around the 

Sun there were no other planets except Mercury and Venus. 

However, it is somehow strange that Saturn is missing from 

this partial horoscope, while Jupiter, that was also quite far 

from Pisces, is present there. One can guess from the design 

of the Small zodiac that its author, for some unknown to 

us reasons, decided to extend this partial horoscope by one 

planet located in Capricorn. In our solution, this planet is 

Jupiter. Notice that besides that planetary figure, the author 

of the zodiac included, in the area between Capricorn and 

Sagittarius, also the symbol of the spring equinox placed on 

a snake — a pull-out symbol. We do not know what was the 

exact idea behind this design, which is very unusual for the 

Egyptian zodiacs. Maybe, Saturn is missing from this partial 

horoscope because it was already too far from Pisces, so 

there is no reason to consider this detail as significant. Consequently, 

we can confirm that our solution agrees with required 

here conditions, and we can annotate the column 4 with the 

plus sign. 


SOLSTICE. In the year 1404, the summer solstice occurred on 

June 11 (see Appendix ??). In Table 7.20 we list the planetary 

positions on the ecliptic on the summer solstice day on June 

11, 1404. 

Julian day (JD) = 2234031.0 



96.8 o 

137.6 o 331.8 o 324.7 o 

120.4 o 

128.6 o 

78.8 o 

2.25 3.76 10.13 9.83 3.07 3.40 1.72 

Gemini Cancer Aquar Capric Can/Gemi Gemini Taurus 


The Sun was in Gemini, accompanied, as usual, by Venus 

in Gemini and Mercury in Taurus. Moreover, Mars was located 

on the border between Gemini and Cancer. There were 

no other planets around this area. We do not consider Moon, 

because on the Small zodiac it was not included in the partial 

horoscopes. 

Let as recall the partial horoscope of the summer solstice 

represented on the Small zodiac. Besides the minimal horoscope, 

composed of Venus and Mercury, around Gemini is 

also shown Mars. It was located either in Gemini or between


Cancer and Gemini. The second possibility would occur if 

the warrior with raised sword located ext to Cancer was also 

representing Mars. We should, however, remember that this 

figure of the warrior was excluded from the partial horoscope 

of the autumn equinox for our solution. That gives us another 

reason to include it in the partial horoscope of the summer 

solstice. In this way, Mars in this partial horoscope is shown 

on the border between Gemini and Cancer. Consequently, we 

get a perfect match and we can annotate this column with 

the plus sign. 

Column 6: SYMBOLIC DESCRIPTION OF THE 

PASCHAL FULL MOON. On the Small Esna zodiac a 

special attention is devoted to the Paschal Full Moon and 

the festival of Pascha. We have already discussed this topic 

in subsection 5.9.1. Let us point out that on the Small 

zodiac the festival of Pascha is shown as a celebration of the 

Resurrection, exactly in the Christian tradition. 

The festival of Pascha takes place in the spring when the 

Sun is in Aries or closed to it. The symbolic description of 

the Paschal Full Moon on the Small zodiac is located in its 

bottom row, under the figures of Aries and Taurus. On the 

color annotated zodiac (see Figure 7.42) these symbols are 

marked in green. They include: 1) appearance of the new 

Paschal Moon, 2) occurrence of the full Paschal Moon on 

the 15th day, 3) the symbol of dead Osiris — the Egyptian 

Christ, in this grave, before the resurrection, and finally, 4) 

the symbol of the seven day celebration of its resurrection. 

All these symbols were already discussed in subsection 5.9.1. 

The first astronomical spring full moon in 1404, which can 

be computed using the Gauss’ formulas, occured on March 

27. However, the paschal moon, according to the calculations 

of the Easter date, which not necessarily coincide with the 

astronomical full moon, occured on March 29. On this day, 

according to the Christian Easter tradition, there was also 

Jewish Pascha. The Christian Easter in 1404 was celebrated 

on March 30. That means, May 8, 1404, which is the date 

indicated by our solution, was exactly 40 days after Easter, 

and May 7, 1404, which is also the date of our solution, was 

40 days after Jewish Pascha (according to the Christian tradition). 

Let us point out that the Orthodox church celebrates 

the Feast of Ascension, exactly 40 days after Easter. Consequently, 

the date commemorated on the Small zodiac turns 

out to be the date of the Feast of Ascension in 1404. This 

could be probably the reason why on this zodiac there is so 

much place devoted to the festival of Pascha. In this way, 

we are able confirm that our final solution fits well the symbolic 

description of the Pascha on the Small zodiac, so we can 

annotate the sixth column by the sign plus. 

In this way, we are getting additional reasons to suspect 

that the supplementary scene with four planets, which is located 

in the middle row in Capricorn, is related to one of 

the principal Christian festival — Epiphany, which commemorates 

the Baptism of Jesus Christ. Let us point out that 

Epiphany, according to the Julian calendar is celebrated on 

January 6th, when the Sun is in Capricorn. On the other 

hand, as we’ve already mentioned it earlier, the symbol of 

Aquarius standing next to Capricorn, probably symbolizes 

John the Baptist on the Egyptian zodiacs. Epiphany is a festival 

dedicated to John the Baptist who baptized Jesus Christ. 

Let us look closely what was happening in Capricorn on 

January 6, 1404, on the day of celebration of Epiphany. Were 

there located four planets on that day? It turns out that yes, 

they were! 

Column 7: SUPPLEMENTARY SCENE BETWEEN 

AQUARIUS AND CAPRICORN. The chart of the sky observed 

from Cairo on January 6, 1404 is shown on Figure 7.45. 

We can see that on that day there were indeed four planets in 

Capricorn: Saturn, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter. All the other 

planets were far away from Capricorn — Mars was in Pisces 

and Moon in Virgo. Moreover, among these four planets only 

Saturn was well visible in the evening on January 6th. At 

the moment Saturn descended on the horizon, the Sun was 

submerged behind the horizon about 16 o , i.e. it was almost 

complete darkness at that time. When the Sun is 18 o behind 

the horizon, we can consider it as the beginning of the night. 

Let us point out that the brightest stars are already visible 

when the Sun is submerged only 6 o . The brightness of Saturn 

on January 6, 1404 was M = +1.1, which can be compared 

to the brightness of stars of the first magnitude. Therefore, 

Saturn was very well visible on this day. 

The remaining planets in Capricorn — Mercury, Jupiter 

and Venus — were not visible, because of their proximity to 

the Sun (see Figure 7.45). Jupiter almost coincided with the 

Sun. Mercury, which was located close to the Sun, had on 

that day very low brightness — M = +3.4. Consequently, we 

have to exclude the visibility of Jupiter and Mercury. Actually 

Venus could be visible for a very short moment, in the 

morning on January 6, just before the sunrise. Venus was rising 

in Cairo, when the Sun was submerged behind the horizon 

only 6 o . At that moment the sky was becoming illuminated 

by the raising Sun and even the brightest stars were already 

invisible. Venus with its very high brightness M = −3.4 could 

be visible, but only for a very short time. 

This situation agrees well with the supplementary scene 

shown between Aquarius and Capricorn. In this scene on 

“snakes and boats” the three planets, including the groups 

of Mercury and Venus, are shown as small figures. The forth 

planet has significantly larger size. Since in our solution, the 

three planets disappeared in the rays of the Sun, while the 

forth one — Saturn, was well visible, we can confirm that 

this solution agrees well with the supplementary scene on the 

Small zodiac. 

The exact locations of the planets on the ecliptic on January 

5–7, 1404, are shown in Table 7.21. We consider here 

two additional days before and after the day of Epiphany, to 

find out what were the movements of the planets on the sky 

on that day.


the Sun on January 6, 1404 — the day of Epiphany. 

Julian day (JD) = 2233873.00 



301.6 o 206.9 o 320.2 o 302.2 o 378.9 o 

293.9 o 

303.0 o 

9.00 5.79 9.66 9.02 11.81 8.78 9.05 

Capric Virgo Capric Capric Pisces Sagitt Capric 

Julian day (JD) = 2233874.00 (EPIPHANY) 



302.7 o 219.6 o 320.3 o 302.5 o 379.5 o 

295.1 o 

301.8 o 

9.04 6.19 9.67 9.03 11.82 8.82 9.01 

Capric Pisces Capric Capric Pisces Sag/Capr Capric 

Julian day (JD) = 2233875.00 



303.7 o 232.7 o 320.4 o 302.7 o 380.2 o 

296.4 o 

300.5 o 

9.08 6.81 9.67 9.04 11.84 8.85 8.97 

Capric Pisces Capric Capric Pisces Sag/Capr Capric 

Table 7.21: Planetary Positions in the Period January 5– 7, 

1404. 

In this way we can annotate the seventh column with the 

sign plus to indicate the full agreement with the supplementary 

scene. 

In this way we concluded the verification of our checkup 

list for the Small Esna Zodiac Final Solution, and we can 

confirm that in all columns there are only plus signs, so this 

solution is complete. No other complete solutions, using 

all possible variants of decoding, were found. 

CONCLUSION: The Small Esna zodiac represents the date 

May 6–8, 1404 AD. It was the Feast of Ascension. The best 

correspondence with the Small zodiac was achieved on May 

7, 1404.

Chapter 8 

The Dates Shown on the Zodiacs form 

Ancient Egyptian Tombs and Sarcophagi

8.1 The Athribis Zodiacs of Flinders 

Petrie 

8.1.1 Decoding of the Main Horoscopes: Six 

Variants for Identification of Planets 

In Chapter 2 (see section 3.3), we have already discussed the 

Athribis zodiacs and the previous attempts of their astronomical 

dating. Drawings of these zodiacs are shown on Figure 

2.19 (see also Figure 3.9). Let us recall that the Athribis zodiacs 

were painted on a ceiling of an ancient Egyptian burial 

cave. These two zodiacs were located one beside the other. 

They were discovered in 1901, near the city Athribis in Upper 

Egypt (not far from Sohag), by the famous Egyptologist 

W. Flinders Petrie 1 . Let us point out that inside the city of 

Athribis there was an ancient temple of a similar type to the 

temples in Denderah 2 . We should not exclude such a possibility 

that a zodiac could also be placed in this temple. Unfortunately, 

we were unable to find any detailed description of this 

temple. If there was indeed a zodiac inside the Athribis temple, 

it could be extremely interesting to decode its date and 

compare it with the dates on the other two Athribis zodiacs. 

Since the two Athribis zodiacs were found in a burial cave, 

their dates are most likely related to the occupants buried in 

this tomb. In the 19th and 20th centuries there were two 

attempts of the astronomical dating of these zodiacs, undertaken 

by Knobel and Morozov. In section 3.3, we have 

discussed the flaws and mistakes in Knobel’s and Morozov’s 

decodings. In particular, we have demonstrated that their decodings 

couldn’t be correct because the same symbols on the 

upper and lower zodiacs were identified as different planets. 

For these reasons, we have to start the identification process 

right from the beginning. Nevertheless, our final decoding 

turned out to be very close to the one that was initially 

proposed by Flinders Petrie. 

On Figures 8.1 and 8.2, we present a detailed reproduction 

of the Flinders Petrie drawings of the Athribis zodiacs. The 

color annotated Athribis zodiacs are shown on Figures 8.3 

and 8.4. 

Let us now analyze the symbolism of these two zodiacs: 

the symbols of zodiacal constellations, planetary figures and 

elements on the partial horoscopes. 

Zodiacal Constellations on the Athribis zodiacs are easy to 

identify. They are arranged in the sequence of usual symbols 

in the correct order. All the individual zodiacal symbols on 

the Athribis zodiacs were already discussed in section 5.1 (see 

Figures 5.1, 5.3, 5.4, 5.6, 5.10, 5.11, 5.13—5.16, 5.18, 5.19). 

Let us point out that on the Athribis zodiacs, the female figure 

holding the Leo’s tail is the main representation of Virgo. 

Usually, on the Egyptian zodiacs, such a figure represents the 

secondary Virgo. However, on the Athribis zodiacs there is a 

single representation of Virgo. On the color annotated zodiacs 

1 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 731. 

2 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 731. 

(see Figures 8.3 and 8.4) the constellation figures are marked 

in red. 

All the Planetary Symbols on the Athribis zodiacs, except 

the Sun, Moon and Mercury, are represented by figures of 

birds. N.A. Morozov was well aware of this particularity of 

the Athribis zodiacs. Even before Morozov, this fact was also 

noticed by Egyptologists. Our analysis confirms the correctness 

of this identification. The only problem here is how to 

assign the “roles” to these birds, i.e. exactly what planet is 

represented by each bird? We will discuss this question, but 

first let us identify the symbols of the Sun, Moon and Mercury. 

SUN: On each of the Athribis zodiacs, there is a disc representing 

the Sun. On the Upper zodiac, such a disc is located 

in Taurus. On the Lower zodiac, it is placed under Capricorn 

and Aquarius. 

MOON: On the Lower Athribis zodiac, Moon is shown under 

Sagittarius. A color picture of this fragment is presented 

in Figure 3.9. Moon is represented there by a dark-red disc 

standing on a narrow but quite tangible greenish crescent. 

Therefore, it is rather straight forward observation that it 

has to be Moon. Nevertheless, because of this red color of the 

disc, we have also considered the other variants, where this 

symbol was the Sun, while the other disc without a crescent, 

was assumed to be Moon. We did not get even a one pair 

of solutions for these decodings. Consequently, on the Lower 

Athribis zodiac Moon is shown in Sagittarius. Notice that on 

the both Athribis zodiacs there is also another disc in Libra, 

with a bird inside. This one is not Moon in the main horoscope 

but a symbol of the Paschal Full Moon. In subsection 5.9.1, 

we’ve already explained that this symbol represents Moon reflecting 

the light of the Sun-bird. On the color fragment of the 

Lower Athribis zodiac (see Figure 3.9), the disc is red and the 

bird inside is yellow. 

On the Upper zodiac, a crescent representing half Moon is 

shown under Gemini. It is possible to recognize that this crescent 

was also accompanied by a disc (see Figure 8.1). Unfortunately, 

this fragment of the zodiac was partially damaged. 

Nevertheless, knowing Moon’s representation on the Lower 

zodiac we can guess that a similar symbol was also used on 

the Upper zodiac. In this way we can conclude that on the 

Upper zodiac Moon is shown in Gemini. 

MERCURY: On the both Athribis zodiacs we can recognize 

a similar male figure with a planetary walking stick. There 

are no other figures holding walking sticks, except one figure 

in the partial horoscope area on the Upper zodiac. On the 

Upper zodiac, this male figure is located under Taurus, and 

on the Lower zodiac it is under Pisces. On the Lower zodiac, 

it is easy to recognize that this figure has two faces, but on 

the Upper zodiac this fragment was damaged and the head 

of that figure is missing. We are already familiar with such a 

male symbol with a planetary walking stick — it is Mercury 

in the main horoscope (see subsection 5.4.9). Consequently, 

Mercury on the Upper zodiac is shown in Taurus.

Figure 8.1: Flinders Petrie drawing of the Upper Athribis zodiac. 

Figure 8.2: Flinders Petrie drawing of the Lower Athribis zodiac. 

8.1 The Athribis Zodiacs of Flinders Petrie 213

214 8 The Dates Shown on the Zodiacs form Ancient Egyptian Tombs and Sarcophagi 

Figure 8.3: Color Annotated Upper Athribis zodiac. 

Figure 8.4: Color Annotated Lower Athribis zodiac.

8.1 The Athribis Zodiacs of Flinders Petrie 215 

Figure 8.5: One-to-one correspondence between the planetary symbols on the Upper and Lower Athribis zodiacs. 

On the Lower zodiac, Mercury is most likely shown in 

Pisces. Let us remark that on that zodiac, Mercury is a part 

of a group of planetary symbols located under the constellations 

of Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. Thus, it should 

not be excluded that the whole group was located somewhere 

among these constellations, so, in such a case, Mercury could 

be located in a different place than Pisces. Therefore, additional 

variants with Mercury in Capricorn and Pisces should 

also be considered. However, in this variant we will simply 

assume that Mercury was exactly in the constellation under 

which it is shown on the Lower zodiac, i.e. Mercury was in 

Pisces. Below, we will also consider the variant with free distribution 

of these four planets in Capricorn, Aquarius and 

Pisces. 

Now, we have to identify the four remaining planets of 

the main horoscope: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Venus. Notice, 

that on each of the Athribis zodiacs there are shown exactly 

four fantastic birds. Some of those birds have horns, snakelike 

tails, spread wings, etc. It is clear that these four birds 

represent the four remaining planets of the main horoscope. 

This fact was already known to Knobel and Morozov, so we 

are not making any new claim here. However, it turns out 

that the birds on the Upper and Lower zodiacs have similar 

features allowing us to establish one-to-one correspondence 

between them. There is only one way this correspondence 

can be made (see Figure 8.5). 

Indeed: 

(1) On the Upper Athribis zodiac, there is a bird shown under 

Pisces. Exactly the same bird, with horns in a shape of 

a crescent, is located on the Lower Athribis zodiac under 

Gemini. There are no other birds with this type of horns 

on the Athribis zodiacs. Except for the horns, these two 

birds do not possess any other special features. Clearly, 

they have the same symbolic meaning, i.e. they symbolize 

the same planet on the Upper and Lower Athribis zodiacs. 

Since at this point we still do not know exactly what 

planet it could be, we will simply call it planet #1. 

(2) On the Upper zodiac, right above Cancer, there is a bird 

with horns pointing sharply up. These horns are also 

slightly curved at the top, in a similar way to the horns 

of an antelope, which are spirally twisted. One can find 

on the Lower zodiac a bird with very similar horns under 

Aquarius and Pisces. There are no other birds with this 

type of horns on the Athribis zodiacs. Since there are no 

other features associated with these birds, this is the only 

common characteristic, which allows us to identify them 

as symbols representing the same planet. We will call it 

planet #2. 

(3) On the Upper zodiac, under Capricorn, there is a bird 

with a snake-like tail, folded wings, and strong sharply 

pointed beak. A very similar bird is located on the Lower 

zodiac also under Capricorn. It has curved snake-like tail, 

folded wings and sharply pointed beak. Notice that there 

are no other birds with folded wings in the main area 

of the Athribis zodiacs. Notice that on the Lower zodiac 

there is a bird with snake-like tail, but its wings are spread 

and the beak is curved. Therefore, it is definitely a different 

symbol,. On the other hand, the two birds, which are 

located on both zodiacs under Capricorn, have all similar 

characteristics and look exactly alike. Therefore, they 

represent the same planet. We will call it simply planet 

#3. 

(4) There is exactly one bird left on each of the Athribis zodiacs. 

On the Upper zodiac this bird is located under 

Taurus, next to the Sun, and on the Lower zodiac, it is 

under Leo. Since the bird figure on the Upper zodiac is


extensively damaged, it is impossible to establish strong 

similarities between these two symbols. Only one spread 

wing and legs of the bird are clearly visible on the Upper 

zodiac. In this situation, we can identify only one 

common characteristic for these two birds — the spread 

wings. However, on the Lower zodiac, the bird under Leo 

was well preserved and all the details are visible. One can 

easily distinguish a snake-like tail and the beak also in a 

shape of a snake. Its wings are spread. Among all the birds 

on the two Athribis zodiac, there is no another bird that 

is similar to this one. In this way, this symbol can possibly 

correspond only to the partially destroyed bird under 

Taurus on the Upper zodiac. In addition, all their visible 

details can be matched, so these two symbols represent 

the same planet in the main horoscope on the Upper and 

Lower zodiacs. We will call it planet #4. 

No other fantastic birds with horns or snake-like tails are 

shown on the Athribis zodiacs. However, on each of these 

zodiacs there is a representation of one more “usual” bird 

— inside the discs over Libra. These two birds are almost 

identical. As we’ve already explained it in subsection 5.9.1, 

these are the symbolic representations of the Paschal Full 

Moon. In the case of each of the Athribis zodiac, this symbol 

is a part of a supplementary astronomical scene located at the 

bottom of the zodiac. On the color annotated zodiacs (see 

Figures 8.3 and 8.4), these scenes are marked in green. In 

addition, let us point out that the bird in the circle is shown 

over the symbol of Libra, while all the 

planets are always shown under the constellation symbols. 

This could be an indication that the symbol of a bird inside 

the circle is not related to the main horoscope. 

Consequently, we’ve obtained the following pictures of the 

main horoscopes on the two Athribis zodiacs (see Figures 8.3 

and 8.4): 

UPPER ATHRIBIS ZODIAC: 

In Capricorn — the planet #3. 

In Pisces — the planet #1. 

In Taurus — the Sun, Mercury and the planet #4. 

In Gemini or Cancer — the planet #2. 

LOWER ATHRIBIS ZODIAC: 

In Capricorn — the planet #3. 

In Capricorn or Aquarius — the Sun (notice that the Sun is 

shown here on the border between these two constellations). 

In Aquarius or Pisces — the planet #2. 

In Pisces — Mercury. 

In Leo — the planet #4. 

In Sagittarius — Moon. 

Notice that all the planetary symbols on the Athribis zodiacs 

are placed under corresponding to them constellations. 

In this way, there is no misunderstanding how to interpret 

a planetary symbol located in between two constellations — 

one above it and another one below it. Nevertheless, in order 

to avoid any possibility for a mistake, we also considered the 

variants with the planetary symbols above the corresponding 

constellations. 

Let us discuss now all the possible identifications of the 

fantastic four birds on the Athribis zodiacs with the planets 

Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Venus. For each of those variants of 

decodings we computed all the astronomical solutions. Next, 

we looked among them for a pair of solutions such that their 

dates could be covered by a human lifespan. Let us explain 

that on the Athribis zodiacs , the most probably are commemorated 

the dates of the birth and death of the buried in 

that cave person, or possibly, the dates of death of two close 

relatives. In the both cases, the difference between these two 

dates shouldn’t be too large — for example, it should be less 

than 100 years. 

In order to reduce the number of possible cases for the 

identifications of the four planets on the Athribis zodiacs, 

we use the following simple astronomical observation. Venus 

should be located not more than 40 o from the Sun, i.e. they 

shouldn’t be separated by more than one full constellation. 

Then, it is easy to check that only the planet #2 can be 

Venus. Indeed: 

• On the Lower zodiac, the Sun and the planet #1 are 

separated by at least three full constellations (Taurus, 

Aries, Pisces). Thus, the planet #1 is not Venus. 

• On the Upper zodiac, the Sun and the planet #3 are separated 

by at least three full constellations (Aries, Aquarius, 

Pisces). Thus, the planet #3 is not Venus. 

• Between the Sun and the planet #4, on the Lower zodiac, 

there are at least four full constellations (Sagittarius, 

Scorpio, Libra, Virgo). Again, the planet #4 can not 

be Venus. 

• Finally, the Sun and the planet #2, on the both Athribis 

zodiacs, are separated by at most one constellation. In 

the Upper zodiac, the Sun is in Taurus, while the planet 

#2 is in Cancer, and in the Lower zodiac, the Sun and 

the planet #2 are both in Capricorn. 

In this way, the only possible choice for Venus is the planet 

#2. It is represented by a figure of a bird with two antelopelike 

horns pointing upwards. Notice that none of the “ferocious” 

birds, with snake-like attributes or with big beaks, 

couldn’t be considered as Venus. The bird representing the 

planet #2 has a “gentle” look, and it fits well Venus. 

We will identify the three remaining planets by considering 

all the possible combinations. There are exactly 6 possible 

way the planets #1, #3 and #4 can be identified with 

Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. We use the codes A1, A2, A3, A4, 

A5, and A6, to denote the variants for these decodings, which 

are listed in Table 8.1. 

Let us explain the contents of Table 8.1. All the possible 

variants of identification the planets #1, #3 and #4 with 

Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, are listed in 6 rows of Table 8.1. 

For example in the variant A3 the planet #3 is identified as 

Jupiter, the planet #1 as Saturn, and the planet #4 as Mars.

Code Jupiter Saturn Mars 

A1 1 3 4 

A2 1 4 3 

A3 3 1 4 

A4 3 4 1 

A5 4 1 3 

A6 4 3 1 

Table 8.1: Possible Identifications of the Planets on the 

Athribis Zodiacs. 

8.1.2 Partial Horoscopes and Supplementary 

Scenes on the Athribis Zodiacs 

On the Athribis zodiacs, the symbols of the partial horoscopes 

are located in a sequence of figures surrounding the zodiacs. 

The only exceptions are the supplementary scenes of the Full 

Paschal Moon. On the color annotated Athribis zodiacs (see 

Figure 8.3 and 8.4) this fringe of figures surrounding the zodiacs 

is marked in lightblue. The symbolism of these figures 

was already discussed in Chapter 5. 

In principle, this encircling arrangement of figures is composed 

mainly of the equinox and solstice symbols. On the 

Upper zodiac, in its right upper corner over the symbol of 

Gemini, there is a figure with four faces holding a planetary 

walking stick. On the other Egyptian zodiacs, similar figures 

with four heads were used in connection to the solstice and 

equinox points, but not as planetary symbols in the partial 

horoscopes (see section 5.8). Nevertheless, there is one partial 

horoscope with planetary figures. It is the partial horoscope of 

the summer solstice on the Lower zodiac. This partial horoscope 

was already discussed in subsection 5.8.3, so we only 

recall its contents (see Figure 5.61). 

This partial horoscope contains five figure of birds with 

human faces, which clearly symbolize the planets Mercury, 

Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. Let us recall that planets 

on the Athribis zodiacs are almost always shown as birds. The 

Sun is shown here as a figure of a man with a raised hand. 

This is a standard representation of the Sun on the Egyptian 

zodiacs in the summer solstice partial horoscopes (see section 

5.8). There is no symbol of Moon in this partial horoscope. On 

the Egyptian zodiacs Moon was usually shown as a crescent 

or a disc, and it is clear that there is no such symbol here. 

Notice that two of the birds-planets are placed on the left 

side of the Sun (represented by the figure of a man with a 

raised hand) and three other birds-planets are on its right 

side. The two birds on the left are accompanied by hieroglyphic 

inscriptions. H. Brugsch translated them as Meri-Gor 

and Ab-Ne-Mani. 3 In addition, the bird on the far left has 

female face, so it is probably Venus. The whole partial horoscope 

of the summer solstice on the Lower zodiac is arranged 

in such a way that it is facing Gemini, so it is exactly like it 

3 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 729. 


should be on the Egyptian zodiacs (see section 5.8). Let us 

recall that the Sun on the summer solstice day was in Gemini. 

In this way, on the day of the summer solstice Mercury, 

Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars should be located in Gemini, 

or around it. Moreover, two of these planets (one of them 

Venus — represented by the bird with female face) are shown 

over the head of the Sun. That position indicates that these 

two planets were located in the morning visibility side of the 

Sun. The three other planets were on the other side of the Sun 

(under its feet), i.e. in the evening visibility side. Let us recall 

that the planets, which we can observe before or at the dawn, 

appear to be ahead of the Sun, while those planets that are 

visible after the dusk seem to follow the “steps” of the Sun. 

In summary, according to the partial horoscope of the 

summer solstice on the Lower zodiac, on that day Mercury, 

Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, were located in the proximity 

of the Sun, which at that time was in Gemini. Two 

planets were “above the head” of the Sun, i.e. in its morning 

visibility side. Among these two planets, the one that was 

more distant from the Sun, was Venus. Three other planets 

were in the evening visibility side of the Sun. 

There are no other partial horoscopes on the Athribis zodiacs. 

There are only typical symbols of the solstices and 

equinoxes surrounding the zodiacs, which of course are not 

useful for the astronomical dating. However, there is another 

detail that can provide us with some additional information. 

It is a “meeting” scene, where two figures are shown holding 

hands on the top of a lion. It is located near the left 

bottom corner of the Upper zodiac. The lion has a human 

head. It is possible, it’s a female head, so it could be a lioness. 

The two figures on the lion’s back are of male gender. 

One of them is two-faced — possibly it represents Mercury. 

We have discussed it earlier, that on the Egyptian zodiacs, 

Mercury is very often shown as a male figure with two faces. 

On the other hand, a lion or lioness symbolized Venus in the 

constellation of Leo (or close to it). Therefore, in our opinion 

this whole scene could symbolize a meeting of Mercury and 

another male planet in in Leo. Moreover, Venus at that time 

was also in Leo. Certainly, our interpretation of this symbol 

on the Upper zodiac should not be considered as unique or 

conclusive. It is possible that other explanations could also 

be presented. In any case, the final solutions for the Athribis 

zodiacs will clarify the meaning of this scene and provide us 

with the needed explanation. Notice that the presence of the 

two-faced figure in this meeting scene, is already sufficient to 

determine that it is dedicated to a certain planetary configuration 

involving Mercury and the constellation of Leo. 

8.1.3 Results of Computations for the Six 

Variants of Decoding 

In this subsection we present the results for all six possible 

decodings of the main horoscopes on the Athribis zodiacs. 

These results are presented in Table ??23. The corresponding 

data files for the program HOROS are listed in Appendix 

?? under the codes AN1, AN2, . . . , AN6 — for the Lower


zodiac, and AV 1, AV 2, . . . , AV 6 — for the Upper zodiac. 

As usual, we consider only these solutions for which the order 

of planets on the ecliptic is exactly the same as shown on 

the Athribis zodiacs. However, exceptions were made in the 

case when two planets were in a distance smaller than 1 o . In 

such a case, the order of planets may not be recognized by 

the naked eye. We were looking for the solutions in the time 

interval from 500 B.C. to 2000 A.D. 

Let us list the exact dates of all the obtained solutions 

shown in Table 8.2. Below, we will call the mean discrepancy 

from the best points simply by the mean discrepancy: 

Decoding variant A1. Upper zodiac: May 21–23, −244, the 

mean discrepancy 14 o ; May 21–22, 1962, the mean discrepancy 

13 o . Lower zodiac: no solutions. 

Decoding variant A2. Upper zodiac: May 13, 408, the mean 

discrepancy 17 o . Lower zodiac: February 2, 1125, the mean 

discrepancy 11 o . 


mean discrepancy 14 o . Lower zodiac: no solution. 

Decoding variant A4. Upper zodiac: April 11, −327, the 


16 o . Lower zodiac: no solution. 

Upper AV 1 

-244 

A1 

Lower AN1 NO SOLUTIONS 

Upper AV 2 

A2 

Lower AN2 1125 

Upper AV 3 

-447 

A3 


Upper AV 4 

-327 

A4 


Upper AV 5 

A5 

Lower AN5 237 

Upper AV 6 

A6 

Lower AN6 -452 

Table 8.2: Astronomical solutions for the Upper and Lower 

Athribis zodiacs for all six variants of decoding A1, A2, A3, 

A4, A5 and A6, of the main horoscopes. Only the years of the 

dates are listed. 

79 

256 

225 

408 

1262 

1230 

1962 

1962 

Decoding variant A5. Upper zodiac: May 15–16, 1230, the 

mean discrepancy 7 o . Lower zodiac: February 7–8, 237, the 

mean discrepancy 14 o . 


mean discrepancy 15 o ; May 12, 256, the mean discrepancy 

19 o ; June 2–3, 1847, the mean discrepancy 15 o . Lower zodiac: 

January 10–11, −452, the mean discrepancy 9 o ; January 21– 

23, 225, the mean discrepancy 8 o . 

It is clear from Table 8.2 that there is only one pair of 

solutions, corresponding to the decoding variant A6, which 

are relatively close one to the another. These solutions are: 

May 12, 256 — for the Upper zodiac, and January 21–23, 225 

— for the Lower zodiac. There is no other pair of solutions 

that could be considered as acceptable from this point of view. 

The other pair of solutions, for which the difference is around 

150 years (also for the variant A6) are the years 79 and 225. 

All the remaining pairs of solutions are no closer than 600 

years. 

However, it turned out that this pair of solutions does not 

lead to full solutions for the Athribis zodiacs. The problem 

here is that the year 225, which is the solution for the Lower 

zodiac, does not satisfy the conditions specified above for the 

partial horoscope of the summer solstice. Let us recall, that 

on the summer solstice day in the proximity of the Sun there 

should be five planets: Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and 

Mars. For the solution: January 21–23, 225, there are two 

possible choices of the corresponding summer solstice day. 

The first one depends on the assumption that for the author 

of the Athribis zodiacs, the year began around the autumn 

equinox or winter solstice day. In this case, it would be either 

in September or January, and the summer solstice day corresponding 

to this solution, would take place in June 225. The 

second possibility would be, if for the author, the year began 

around the spring equinox or summer solstice day. Then, the 

corresponding to this solution the summer solstice would take 

place in June 224. In order to avoid potential mistakes, both 

possibilities were taken into account. Nevertheless, in either 

case no satisfactory result was obtained. 

In the case, the beginning of the year was assumed to take 

place in September or January, on the summer solstice day of 

June 20, 225, there were only four planets (without counting 

the Sun and Moon) in Gemini and the neighboring constellations 

of Leo, Cancer, Taurus and Aries. Those planets were: 

Jupiter and Mars in Leo, Mercury in Gemini, and Venus in 

Taurus (close to Gemini). The Sun was of course in Gemini. 

In the same time, Saturn was in Capricorn — on the opposite 

side of the ecliptic, so there was no way it could be included 

in the partial horoscope of the summer solstice. In summary, 

the astronomical picture associated with the solution January 

21–23, 225, doesn’t agree with the partial horoscope of the 

summer solstice. On the summer solstice day, there should be 

five planets located in the proximity of the Sun, but for this 

solution there were only 4 planets there. Since the symbol of 

Moon (a crescent or a disc) is missing from this partial horo-

scope, it would be a mistake to consider Moon as the fifth 

planet. 

In the case the beginning of the year was assumed be in 

March or June, there are the same problems related to the 

solution of January 21—23, 225. On the summer solstice day, 

which was on June 20, 224, Saturn was also in Capricorn. In 

this way there couldn’t be five planets near the Sun on that 

day. Clearly, the conditions specified in this partial horoscope 

are not satisfied. 

Consequently, we have to acknowledge that, as far as the 

above variants of decoding are concerned, we were not able 

to find full solutions for the Athribis zodiacs. However, let 

us notice, that our computations were based on very strict 

requirements expected from the astronomical solutions. The 

problem may be related to the fact that on the both Athribis 

zodiacs there are shown clusters of planets in the proximity 

of the Sun. This situation is particularly visible on the Lower 

zodiac, where three planets around the Sun are present. It 

is clear that the proximity to the Sun could result in invisibility 

of some of those planets. In such a case, the order of 

these planets couldn’t be determined by a direct observation. 

Of course it was still possible to speculate, based on the observed 

relative velocities and the positions of the planets, how 

the order of planets was changing, even if some of them were 

already invisible. However, the exact computations in such a 

case would require a lot of work and time. Therefore, if the 

Athribis zodiacs were created based on the direct astronomical 

observations, then the order of some, invisible at the time 

of observations, could be incorrect. This possibility should be 

definitely considered. 

8.1.4 Results of Computations for the Six 

Variants of Decoding with Arbitrary 

Order of Invisible Planets 

In this subsection we present the results for all six possible 

decodings of the main horoscopes on the Athribis zodiacs. 

This time, we do not require from solutions that the order of 

the planets in the proximity of the Sun is necessarily the same 

as on the main horoscopes. These results are presented in 

Table 8.3. The corresponding data files, used for the program 

HOROS, are listed in Appendix ?? under the codes ANA, 

ANB, ANC, AND, ANE and ANF – for the Lower zodiac, 

and AV A, AV B, AV C, AV D, AV E and AV F – for the 

Upper zodiac. We were looking for the solutions in the time 

interval from 500 B.C. to 2000 A.D. 

Since the program HOROS can not verify the visibility 

conditions for planets, the computations were carried on in 

several steps. 

In the first step, we used the program HOROS to find the 

all possible astronomical solutions, regardless of the order of 

those planets that were close to the Sun. On the Upper zodiac, 

this group of planets included the Sun and two other planets, 

and on the Lower zodiac — it was the Sun and three other 

planets. 


Upper AV A 

-244 

A1 

Lower ANA NO SOLUTIONS 

Upper AV B 

408 

A2 

Lower ANB 448 

Upper AV C 

-447 

A3 

Lower ANC NO SOLUTIONS 

Upper AV D 

-327 

A4 

Lower AND NO SOLUTIONS 

Upper AV E 

A5 

Lower ANE 237 

Upper AV F 

A6 

Lower ANF -452 

Table 8.3: Astronomical solutions for the Upper and Lower 

Athribis zodiacs for all six variants of decoding A1, A2, A3, 

A4, A5 and A6, of the main horoscopes with the arbitrary 

order of the invisible planets. Only the years of the dates are 

listed. 

In the second step, for every solution obtained in the first 

step, we were checking if the order of the planets is the same 

as on the Athribis zodiacs, except for those planets that were 

invisible at that time. The invisibility was roughly determined 

based on the distance from a planet to the Sun. We were 

assuming that a planet was invisible if the difference of the 

longitudes of the planet and the Sun was smaller than 12 o . In 

this step we were simply trying to eliminate all those solutions 

for which the order of the visible planets was incorrect. 

In the third step, we were looking for all the pairs of solutions 

for the Upper and Lower zodiacs, for which the difference 

between the dates was not larger than 150 years. For 

every of those pairs we were verifying the visibility conditions 

in more precise way, using the program Turbo-Sky. The 

results were calculated for an observer located in Cairo or 

Luxor. Notice that observation made from a further to the 

North location, could lead to a mistake. For an observer in 

the North, the angle between the ecliptic and the horizon is 

smaller than in the South, and consequently the visibility of 

the planets close to the Sun is worse there. 

The final results of the two first steps are collected in Table 

8.3. This table is arranged in the same way as was Table 8.1. 

Let us list all the dates specified in Table 8.3. Again, we will 

call by the mean discrepancy, the mean discrepancy from the 

best points. We would like to point out that in order to relax 

the requirements on the order of the planets, the best points 

for these calculations were modified. That means, the mean 

79 

256 

225 

459 

1227 

1125 

1262 

1230 

1268 

1962 

1962


discrepancies for the solutions obtained here may be different 

from those calculated in the subsection 8.1.3. All the input 

data for our calculation is included in Appendix ??. 



13 o . Lower zodiac: no solutions. 

Decoding variant A2. Upper zodiac: May 13, 408, the mean 

discrepancy 19 o . Lower zodiac: January 18–20, 448, the mean 

discrepancy 10 o ; February 2, 1125, the mean discrepancy 10 o . 


mean discrepancy 14 o . Lower zodiac: no solution. 

Decoding variant A4. Upper zodiac: April 11, −327, the 


16 o . Lower zodiac: no solution. 


mean discrepancy 7 o . Lower zodiac: February 7–8, 237, the 

mean discrepancy 13 o ; February 8–11, the mean discrepancy 

6 o (for February 9–10). 

Decoding variant A6. Upper zodiac: May 21–22, 79, 

the mean discrepancy 15 o ; May 12, 256, the mean discrepancy 

19 o ; May 18, 459, the mean discrepancy 12 o ; June 2–3, 

1847, the mean discrepancy 15 o . Lower zodiac: January 10– 

11, −452, the mean discrepancy 10 o ; January 21–23, 225, the 

mean discrepancy 8 o . 

As it is clear from the Table 8.3, there are only three 

pairs of solutions that are close enough to be acceptable for 

the dating of the Athribis zodiacs: 

(1) The years 408 and 448. The corresponding mean discrepancies 

for these solutions are 19 o and 10 o respectively; 


for these solutions are 7 o and 6 o respectively; 


for these solutions are 19 o and 9 o respectively. 

However, the third pair of solutions (the years 256 and 

225) was already rejected. Let us recall (see subsection 8.1.3) 

that the date 225, which was obtained for the Lower zodiac, 

was incompatible with the partial horoscope of the summer 

solstice. In fact, replacing of the date 225 with the date 79 

does not help either. 

In this way we have to analyze the two remaining pairs of 

dates: the years 408 and 448, and the years 1230 and 1268. As 

we are going to see it in a moment, the first of these two pairs 

will be also rejected, while the second one will turn out to be 

an ideal pair of final solutions for the Athribis zodiacs. In the 

subsequent subsections, we will investigate these solutions in 

a detailed and complete manner. In Appendix ??, we included 

supplementary computations to demonstrate that even in the 

case of less restrictive variants of decoding, it is not possible 

to find another pair of full solutions. 

Let us begin with the pair of solutions: May 13, 408 — for 

the Upper zodiac and January 18–20, 448 — for the Lower 

zodiac. The planetary positions on these days are presented 

in Table 8.4. 

Julian day (JD) = 1870213.00 UPPER ZODIAC 



Pl. #4 Pl. #1 Pl. #3 Pl. #2 

75.1 o 

96.6 o 

38.6 o 

338.4 o 

298.6 o 

98.3 o 

91.2 o 

Taurus Gemini Aries Aquar Sag/Cap Gemini Gem/Tau 

Mean Distance from the Best Points = 19 o 

Variant of Decoding: A2, Code of Data: AV B or AV 2 

Julian day (JD) = 1884708.00 LOWER ZODIAC 



Pl. #4 Pl. #1 Pl. #3 Pl. #2 

322.1 o 286.0 o 

175.0 o 

91.6 o 

315.7 o 

319.1 o 

336.9 o 

Capric Sagitt Leo/Vir Gemini Capric Capric Aquar 


Variant of Decoding: A2, Code of Data: ANB 

Table 8.4: Solutions: May 13, 408 and January 18–20, 448 

for the Upper and Lower Atribis zodiacs 

Let us point out that the planetary positions, in the obtained 

for the Upper zodiac solution, do not satisfy all the 

specified earlier requirements (see subsection 8.1.1). Indeed, 

the planet #4, which in this identification is representing Saturn, 

is shown on the Upper Athribis zodiac under Taurus, 

right below the Sun, while the space under Aries is clearly 

empty. There is no doubt that the author of the Athribis zodiacs 

could easily place this planet under Aries, if it was really 

the proper place for it. Instead, the planet #4 was placed under 

Taurus, in a cluster with the Sun and Mercury. Since 

Saturn was in Aries, 12 o from the border with Taurus and 

its distance from the Sun was 36 o , it is not possible to accept 

this solution. In addition, the “meeting scene in Leo” 

does not match this solution either. In the summer of the 

year 408, Venus was passing through the constellation of Leo 

completely alone. Mercury, which at that time was returning 

towards the Sun, was located in Gemini and Cancer. Mars was 

between Capricorn and Aquarius, i.e. on the opposite side on 

the ecliptic, Jupiter was in Aquarius, and Saturn in Aries. In 

other words, all these planets were far away from Leo (according 

to the computations done using the program Turbo-Sky). 

Thus, during the year 408, Mercury did not meet any other 

male planet in Leo. Consequently, this solution do not agree 

at all with this astronomical scene on the Upper zodiac. Of 

course, it is always possible to come up with some mysterious 

explanations in order to justify the “correctness” of a solution. 

Such practices are not unusual even in the present times. However, 

based on our experience with the Egyptian zodiacs, we 

do not see any evidence that symbols with non-astronomical 

meaning were ever depicted in these zodiacs. On the contrary,

we found out that the symbolism of the Egyptian zodiacs was 

always strictly connected with a precise description of certain 

astronomical events. Therefore, we expect that a full solution 

should be a key to clarify the hidden astronomical meaning 

of the symbolic scenes shown on the zodiac. This is clearly 

not the case for this solution. 

Let us now consider the solution: January 18–20, 448, 

which was obtained for the Lower zodiac. We are interested in 

how well this solution matches the information decoded from 

the Lower zodiac. This date wasn’t consider in the previous 

calculations. That means, some of the invisible on this date 

planets were not in the same order as the planets shown on 

the Lower zodiac. The listed on that date planetary positions 

in Table 8.4 indicate that the location of Venus on the ecliptic 

was on the other side of the Sun than it is indicated on 

the Lower zodiac. At that time Venus was very close to the 

Sun — the longitude distance between them was less than 3 o . 

That means, Venus was completely invisible in the rays of the 

Sun. In such a situation, it was impossible for an Earth-based 

observer to determine the exact order of these two celestial 

objects on the ecliptic. Therefore, in this case this is not a 

sufficient reason to reject this solution. In fact, the locations 

of all the other planets are exactly as they are shown on the 

Lower zodiac. 

As we explained it earlier, there are two possible choices 

for the summer solstice date related to the solution of January 

18–20, 448. The first one, is the summer solstice day in 

the year 448 — corresponding to the beginning of the year 

in September or January. The second choice is the summer 

solstice day in the year 447 — corresponding to the beginning 

of the year in March or June. Let us point out that all 

the previously analyzed by us Egyptian zodiacs turned out 

to be based on the beginning of the year in September, i.e. 

around the autumn equinox day. Nevertheless, we should not 

exclude a possibility that there are some zodiacs using a different 

convention for the beginning of the year, for example, 

the spring equinox day in March or the summer solstice day in 

June. Consequently, we will continue to verify all the possible 

variants in this respect. 

The calculations done by the program Turbo-Sky, indicate 

that in June of 447 as well as in June of 448, on the day 

of the summer solstice, all five planets gathered around the 

Sun in Gemini. This planetary configuration was very similar 

to the partial horoscope of the summer solstice shown 

on the Lower zodiac. In the year 448 this agreement was not 

complete. However, in the year 447, the planetary positions 

on the summer solstice day perfectly fit the picture on the 

Lower zodiac. 

Let us discuss these two cases in a more detailed manner. 

On the summer solstice day in the year 448, which occured on 

June 19, the planets were located in the following positions: 

Saturn and Venus — in Leo; Jupiter, the Sun and Mercury — 

in Gemini; Mars — in Taurus. These positions indicate that 

Venus at that time could only be visible in the evening, so it 

was located “under the Sun’s feet.” Nonetheless, in the partial 


horoscope on the Lower Athribis zodiac, Venus is shown above 

“the Sun’s head” in a company of another planet. It is clear 

that basically we do have an agreement between the solution 

and the zodiac, but still it is not perfect. 

On June 19, 447, just a day earlier before the summer 

solstice day, the planetary configuration fits perfectly well the 

picture of the partial horoscope of the summer solstice on 

the Lower zodiac. On that day the order of the planets was 

as follows (calculations were done using the program Turbo- 

Sky): Mars, Saturn, Mercury appeared in the evening in Leo 

and Cancer, i.e. they were “under the Sun’s feet”; the Sun 

was in Gemini; Jupiter and Venus were in Taurus — visible 

in the morning, i.e. “over the Sun’s head.” These planetary 

locations match exactly the partial horoscope of the summer 

solstice on the Lower zodiac. 

Let us summarize our analysis of this pair of the solutions 

for the Athribis zodiacs: May 13, 408, — for the Upper zodiac, 

and January 18–20, 448, — for the Lower zodiac. Among these 

two dates, only the second one completely satisfies all the requirements 

expected from a full solution. For the first date, 

the position of Saturn does not agree with the situation 

shown on the Upper zodiac. In addition, it contradicts the 

“meeting scene in Leo” on the Upper zodiac. Consequently, 

this pair of solutions (the year 408 and the year 448), is not 

full. In the case there is no better pair of solutions, this two 

dates could be called conditional solutions for the Athribis 

zodiacs. However, as we are going to see it in the next subsection, 

a unique pair of full solutions indeed exists. 

8.1.5 Final Solutions for the Athribis Zodiacs: 

the Lower Zodiac — May 15-16, 

1230 AD, the Upper Zodiac — February 

9-10, 1268 AD. 

It turned out that the second pair of solutions (see subsection 

8.1.4 is complete. It fully satisfies all the requirement related 

to the order of the visible planets and it also fulfills all the additional 

information decoded from the Athribis zodiacs. This 

pair of solution was: 

May 15–16, 1230 AD. — for the Upper zodiac, with the mean 

discrepancy from the best points was only 7 o , and 

February, 1268 AD. – for the Lower zodiac, with the mean 

discrepancy from the best points only 6 o . Let us point out 

that such small mean discrepancy values occurs very rarely. 

They can be viewed as an indication that apparently there 

is an extremely good match between the solutions and the 


In Table 8.5 we list the exact planetary locations on the 

ecliptic J2000 for these two solutions. For each of these dates, 

we indicate in degrees the positions of the planets on the 

ecliptic J2000. In the next row below, we show the same locations 

using their coordinates on the constellation scale (see 

section 6.10). Finally, for each of the listed planets we specify 

its corresponding zodiacal constellation.


Julian day (JD) = 2170451.00 UPPER ZODIAC 



Pl. #1 Pl. #4 Pl. #3 Pl. #2 

72.6 o 

104.9 o 

4.4 o 

81.0 o 

329.6 o 

116.3 o 

87.8 o 

1.55 2.53 11.45 1.77 10.01 2.92 1.95 

Taurus Gemini Pisces Taurus Cap/Aq Ge/Cap Ge/Tau 


Variant of Decoding: A5, Code of Data: AV E 

Julian day (JD) = 2184234.00 LOWER ZODIAC 



Pl. #1 Pl. #4 Pl. #3 Pl. #2 

337.9 o 278.9 o 

104.2 o 

144.3 o 

322.9 o 

328.2 o 

339.0 o 

10.49 8.35 2.50 4.02 9.76 9.95 10.55 

Capric Sagitt Leo/Vir Gemini Capric Capric Aquar 

Mean Distance from the Best Points = 5.5 o 

Variant of Decoding: A5, Code of Data: ANE 

Table 8.5: Solutions: May 16, 1230 and February 9, 1268 for 

the Upper and Lower Atribis zodiacs 

With help of the Turbo-Sky program we were able to verify 

for each of the planets its visibility conditions. 

VISIBILITY CONDITIONS for the Upper Zodiac: 

All the planets, except Jupiter, were well visible. On the 

evening on May 16, 1230, when Jupiter was descending behind 

the horizon in Cairo, the submersion of the Sun was SUH 

7 o . At that time the brightness of Jupiter was (M = −1.4), 

so practically, it could not be visible even if its fade light appeared 

for few moments on the horizon. However, Mercury, 

which was not very far from Jupiter, was already visible. At 

the time, when Mercury was disappearing behind the horizon, 

the submersion of the Sun was already SUH14 o . On the same 

evening, the new moon just reappeared on the sky in Gemini. 

It was only two days old and it looked like a narrow crescent. 

VISIBILITY CONDITIONS for the Lower Zodiac: On 

February 9–10, 1268, Mercury and Venus were not visible because 

of their proximity of the Sun. At that time, the distance 

from Mercury to the Sun was only one or two degrees, so Mercury 

completely disappeared in the rays of the Sun. On the 

other hand, Venus was located in the morning visibility side 

of the Sun. Before the dawn on January 9–10, 1268, Venus 

raised in Cairo, when the Sun was submerged only 5 o under 

the horizon. It was much too close to the Sun to be visible, 

although its brightness was M = −3.4. All the other planets 

were well visible, even Mars, which was closest to the Sun 

planet. When Mars appeared on the horizon in the morning 

of January 9–10, 1268, the submersion of the Sun was SUH 

9 o . The brightness of Mars was M = +1.4, which was already 

sufficient for its visibility. Of course, Mars was only visible for 

a short time before it dissolved completely in the morning ray. 

8.1.6 Validation of the Solutions with Respect 

to the Planetary Positions 

For the above pair of solutions, we will now compare the exact 

positions of the planets with the locations of the corresponding 

planetary symbols on the Athribis zodiacs. Let us 

recall, that these solutions were found using the variant A5 

for the identification of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars (see subsection 

8.1.1 for more details). The exact positions of all the 

planets on May 16, 1230 and February 9–10, 1268, are listed 

in Table 8.5. 

PLANETARY POSITIONS ON THE UPPER ZO- 

DIAC according to the decoding variant A5: 

• SUN — in Taurus; 

• Jupiter — in Taurus, located right under the Sun; 

• Mercury — in Taurus near the border with Gemini, close 

to Jupiter; 

• Mars — in Capricorn; 

• Saturn — in Pisces; 

• Venus — in between Gemini and Cancer; 

• Moon — in Gemini, not far from Venus. 

PLANETARY POSITIONS on May 15–16, 1230 (AC- 

CORDING TO THE SOLUTION): 

• SUN — in Taurus, Jupiter – the closest to the Sun planet; 

• Jupiter — in Taurus, almost side by side with the Sun. 

Could be seen only on the horizon during the morning 

ray; 

• Mercury — in Taurus next to the border with Gemini; 

• Mars — on the border between Capricorn and Aquarius; 

• Saturn — in Pisces; 

• Venus — on the border between Gemini and Cancer; 

• Moon — in Gemini, not far from Venus. It was the first 

re-appearance on the sky of the new moon. It was 2 days 

old. 

PLANETARY POSITIONS ON THE LOWER ZO- 

DIAC according to the decoding variant A5: 

• SUN — in between Capricorn and Aquarius; 

• Venus — in Aquarius or Pisces, close to Mercury and the 

Sun; 

• Mercury — in Pisces or Aquarius, close to Venus; 

• Mars — in Capricorn, it touches the Sun with its snakelike 

tail; 

• Saturn — in Gemini; 

• Jupiter — Leo; 

• Moon — in Sagittarius. 

PLANETARY POSITIONS on February 9–10, 1268 (AC- 

CORDING TO THE SOLUTION): 

• SUN — in Aquarius; 

• Venus — in Aquarius, near the border with Capricorn;

• Mercury — in the middle of Aquarius, not far from Pisces 

(Aquarius occupies only 17 o on the ecliptic); 

• Mars — in Capricorn from the side of Aquarius, not far 

from the Sun, but visible; 

• Saturn — in Gemini; 

• Jupiter — on the border between Leo and Virgo; 

• Moon — in Sagittarius, it looks like a crescent, it is 25 

days old. 

After comparing the planetary positions corresponding to 

the obtained solutions with the locations of the planets on the 

Athribis zodiacs, we have arrived to the following conclusion: 

the Upper zodiac perfectly matches the astronomical solution 

and the Lower zodiac almost perfectly fits the astronomical 

solution with the exception for Venus, which was invisible on 

the date indicated by the solution. Since Venus disappeared 

in the morning ray, the author of the zodiacs was not able 

to observe on which side of the Sun it was located at that 

time. In order to obtain this information, it was necessary to 

accomplish additional tasks. However, it is not reasonable to 

assume that the author of these zodiacs performed astronomical 

computations in order to determine the exact locations 

of the planets. In other words, we simply assume that the 

Athribis zodiacs were designed based on the astronomical observations 

only. From this point of view, the match between 

the planetary configurations on the both zodiacs and the corresponding 

astronomical solutions is ideal. 

Consequently, we need only to verify if the astronomical 

solution for the Upper zodiac provides us with an explanation 

for the “meeting scene” in Leo, and for the Lower zodiac, 

to check if the solution satisfies the partial horoscope of the 

summer solstice. 

Regarding the supplementary scenes illustrating the 

Paschal Moon on the Athribis zodiacs, they should not be 

considered as an argument for rejecting astronomical solutions. 

On the color annotated zodiacs, these scenes are marked 

in green. Their meaning was already discussed in subsection 

5.9.1 

8.1.7 Validation of the Solutions According 

to the Partial Horoscope of the Summer 

Solstice 

Let us show the exact planetary locations on the ecliptic 

J2000 for the summer solstice days on June 12, 1268, and 

on June 12, 1267. The first of these dates, should be considered 

in the case the beginning of the year was assumed to 

take place in September or January, while the another one is 

according to the convention that the beginning of the year 

was in March or June. 

Let us analyze the first date: June 12, 1268. In Table 8.6, 

we present for this date the positions of the planets on the 

ecliptic J2000 using degrees, as well as, the coordinates on the 

constellation scale (see section 6.10). In addition, for each of 

the listed planets we indicate the corresponding zodiacal constellation. 

Just by looking at these numbers, we can already 


say that our astronomical solution fits quite well the partial 

horoscope of the summer solstice on the Lower zodiac. On the 

summer solstice day, all the planets gathered indeed around 

the Sun in Gemini. Nevertheless, this correspondence with the 

partial horoscope is not perfect. The planetary configuration 

on that day was clearly different than the one depicted on 

the partial horoscope of the summer solstice on the Lower zodiac. 

Recall that on the Lower zodiac, there were three planets 

shown on one side of the Sun, while there were two more on 

the other side. But, on the June 12, 1268, there were four 

planets on the one side of the Sun (without counting Moon) 

and only one — Mars, on the other side. It is clear that these 

two configurations are different, so it is hard to consider them 

as matching. 

Julian day (JD) = 2184358.00 — Summer Solstice 


Beginning of the Year in September or January 

Mars Sun Moon Saturn Mercury Venus Jupiter 

57.1 o 

98.6 o 

101.6 o 112.4 o 

117.4 o 

1.15 2.31 2.41 2.79 2.96 3.10 4.15 

Taurus Gemini Gemini Gemini Gemini Cancer Leo 

121.0 o 148.1 o 6 


Let us look now on the second date: June 12, 1267. This is 

the date of the summer solstice (with accuracy of 1–2 days) in 

the year indicated by the solution (February 8–11, 1268) according 

to the convention that the beginning of the year was 

in March or June. We should remember that in the present 

times the beginning of the year is in January, that’s why we 

got here two different years. In Table 8.7, we list the positions 

of the planets on June 10, 1267, i.e. two days before the summer 

solstice day. The planetary configuration on that day was 

very close to the picture shown on the Lower zodiac. In fact, 

even two days later, on June 12, 1267, these similarities still 

remained very strong. The only difference was that Mercury 

managed to move on the other side of the Sun. Since at all 

that time Mercury was located in close proximity to the Sun, 

it was not visible, so it is clear that these changes couldn’t be 

observed with a naked eye. Thus, the author of the Athribis 

zodiacs could only speculate what was the appropriate side 

of the Sun to show Mercury. We should also remember that 

in this epoch, there were no yet available precise timekeeping 

devices. Even in the 14th century books, the dates of the solstices 

and equinoxes were determined with errors up to 5–6 

days. 

It is clear that we have here a perfect match, up to the 

smallest detail. 

Indeed, on June 10, 1267, all the five planets: Mercury, 

Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, gathered around the Sun. 

Their configuration was exactly the same as shown on the


Julian day (JD) = 183990.00 — Summer Solstice 


Beginning of the Year in March or June 

Venus Mercury Sun Saturn Jupiter Mars Moon 

76.5 o 

95.0 o 

96.0 o 

99.7 o 

122.6 o 151.6 o 

301.3 o 

1.66 2.19 2.22 2.35 3.16 4.26 8.99 

Taurus Gemini Gemini Gemini Cancer Leo Capricorn 


partial horoscope of the summer solstice on the Lower zodiac. 

Two planets — Venus and Mars, were located above the “head 

of the Sun,” i.e. they were in the morning visibility side of the 

Sun. The remaining three planets were under the “feet of the 

Sun,” i.e. in the evening visibility side of the Sun. Surprisingly, 

the location of Venus with respect to Mercury and the Sun, 

was precisely as it is illustrated on the Lower zodiac. It was 

further from the Sun than Mercury. Let us point out that 

Moon was missing from this partial horoscope, and indeed, 

on the day of the summer solstice in 1267, Moon was far 

away from the Sun. It was located almost on the opposite 

side of the ecliptic in the constellation of Capricorn. On the 

other hand, all the planets, except Moon, because of their 

proximity to the Sun, were included in this partial horoscope. 

Mercury and Saturn were in Gemini, next to the Sun, Venus 

was in Taurus, not far from Gemini, Jupiter was in Cancer 

close to its border with Cancer, and Mars was in the beginning 

of Leo, a little further from the Sun than other planets. The 

distance from Mars to the Sun was around 50 o and its position 

was almost at the middle point between the summer solstice 

point and the autumn equinox point. Therefore, the inclusion 

of Mars in the partial horoscope of the summer solstice seems 

completely justified and, in fact, it was necessary from the 

consistency point of view of the Egyptian zodiacs. 

In summary, the astronomical solution of February 9– 

10, 1268, surprisingly well agrees with the partial horoscope, 

which we can easily call a perfect match. There is no even one 

detail that could be questioned in any way. 

To conclude our verification, let us make some comments 

about the hieroglyphic inscriptions shown on the Lower zodiac 

near the figures of birds, which were identified by us to 

represent Venus and Mercury in the partial horoscope of the 

summer solstice. H. Brugsch translated them as Meri-Gor and 

Ab-Ne-Mani. Notice that these two inscriptions resemble the 

names Mercury and Venus. Indeed, 

MERI–GOR = MERI–KOR = Mercury or 

MER(cury)–GOR 

AB–NE–MANI = BNE–MANI = VNE–MANI = 

VEN(us)–MANI 

Let us recall that Egyptian names were written using consonants 

only, and in most of cases in an arbitrary way. The 

sounds B and V were often interchangeable, in particular in 

names. Hence, the contracted consonants BN in the word 

AB-NE(MANI) could in fact signify VENE. The Latin 

word VENus, with the usual for this language ending us, 

could be simply written as VN or BN. This is exactly what 

we see in this inscription. 

However, it makes no difference if we know the exact interpretation 

of these hieroglyphic inscriptions or not. We can 

already say with full confidence that this astronomical solution 

perfectly agrees with the partial horoscope of the summer 

solstice on the Lower Athribis zodiacs. What is particularly 

interesting about this solution, is the fact that the beginning 

of the year was considered to take place either in March or 

June. In the case to the previously analyzed zodiacs, the beginning 

of the year was always in September. In subsection 

8.1.9, we will return to the questions related to the convention 

of the beginning of the year on the Athribis zodiacs. 

8.1.8 Verification of the “Meeting Scene 

above the Lion” 

We will now verify if the astronomical solution of May 15-16, 

1230, agrees with the “meeting scene” above the figure of lion. 

This scene, which is shown in the surroundings of the Upper 

zodiac above its left lower corner, was already discussed in 

subsection 8.1.2. There are two male figures, holding hands 

on the top of a lion, shown in this scene. One of them has 

two faces — it is possibly Mercury. The other figure could 

represent Saturn, Jupiter or Mars. The lion, or lioness has a 

human head — possible female. As we have seen previously 

on the other Egyptian zodiacs, such a figure of a lion or lioness 

symbolizes Venus in Leo. 

Let us check what was happening in the constellation of 

Leo at the time Venus and Mercury were passing through it in 

the year of the solution. Since these two planets stay always 

in the proximity of the Sun, it is easy to approximate the 

time of such an event: June–September, i.e. when the Sun is 

crossing the constellations of Gemini, Cancer, Leo and Virgo. 

There are again two possible cases, depending on the beginning 

of the year. If the beginning of the year took place in 

the spring, winter or autumn, then we should look into the 

period from June till September, 1230. On the other hand, if 

the beginning of the year was in the summer, what could be 

around the summer solstice day, then we should consider it 

in 1229. Notice that the confirmation of one of these possibilities 

can clarify the convention of the new year in the case 

of the Athribis zodiacs. Since we already know from the previous 

subsection (see subsection 8.1.7) that the beginning of 

the year was either in March or June, the “meeting scene” in 

Leo may help us to eliminate one of these months. 

Notice, that the Athribis zodiacs are different from other 

Egyptian zodiacs. Except for the partial horoscope of the 

summer solstice on the Lower zodiac, there are no other partial 

horoscopes indicated on the Athribis zodiacs. None of the 

constellations corresponding to the other three solstice and 

equinox points, i.e. Virgo, Pisces, and Sagittarius, is distinguished 

in any way. The symbolism of the solstice and equinox

points appear only in the fringe of figures surrounding the zodiacs. 

It is the most striking that among all these points, only 

the summer solstice point was given such a great deal of attention. 

It is not very usual for the Egyptian zodiacs. 

Let us try to locate the “meeting scene” in Leo either 

in the year 1229 or 1230. Using the program Turbo-Sky, we 

were able to determine that from June till September 1230, 

when Venus and Mercury were passing through Leo, all three 

other planets – Mars, Saturn and Jupiter, were not far from 

them. Mars was in Aquarius, Saturn in Pisces near the border 

with Aquarius, Jupiter in Gemini. However, this configuration 

excludes the possibility of a meeting between Mercury 

and another male planet in Leo during that period of 

time in the year 1230. However, such a “meeting scene” was 

almost immediately found in the year 1229, and the match 

was literally perfect. Indeed, on August 24, 1229, before the 

dawn in Cairo, the constellation of Leo raised on the sky, 

where three planets — Mercury, Mars and Venus, were visible. 

At that time, Mercury and Mars were side by side, in 

a distance of one degree one from another, and Venus was 

2 o from Regulus (Alpha Leonis) — the brightest star in that 

part of the sky. Notice that Regulus is located in the head 

of the lion — the symbol of Leo. All these planets were well 

visible in Cairo at 3:00 AM (GMT). The submersion of the 

Sun behind the horizon at the moment Mercury and Mars 

were rising in Cairo, was SUH=12 o . In that time, Venus and 

Regulus were already above the horizon (see Figure 8.6). The 

brightness of Mercury was M = +0.1 and for Mars it was 

M = +2.1, which can be compared with the brightness of the 

star of the first magnitude. Consequently, on August 24, 1229, 

the planets: Mars, Mercury and Venus, were very well visible 

by daybreak in Cairo. Let us recall that the brightness stars 

become visible with the submersion of the Sun behind the 

horizon of SUH = 7 o –8 o (see subsection 6.7.3). On the other 

hand, fade stars become invisible with the Sun’s submersion 

of SUH = 9 o . 

In summary, before dawn on this day in Cairo, Mercury 

and Mars could be observed side by side just above the horizon 

in Leo. A little higher, there was Venus next to Regulus 

— it was also well visible. All the other stars in that part of 

the sky already became invisible because of the rising Sun. 

This picture fits exactly the symbolic scene of a “meeting” 

between Mercury and another male planet. These two figures 

are shown standing over a lion, what simply means that the 

whole event took place in Leo. The fact that they hold each 

other hands indicates that it was a very “close meeting” — 

Mercury was “touching” the other planet. The lion has a female 

face, what is a usual way on the Egyptian zodiacs to 

represent Venus in Leo, when it is not far from Regulus. 

In this way we were able to confirm that all the conditions 

expressed on the Athribis zodiacs, are perfectly satisfied by 

the pair of the astronomical solutions: May 15–16, 1230 AD. 

— for the Lower Zodiac, and February 9–10, 1268 AD. — for 

the Upper Zodiac. Consequently, these solutions are full. In 

what follows, we will demonstrate that there are no other full 


Figure 8.6: Planets around the Sun on August 24, 1229 AD. 

solutions for the Athribis zodiacs, even when admitting much 

larger margins for the planetary positions. 

8.1.9 Archaic Beginning of the Year in June 

on the Athribis Zodiacs 

As an immediate corollary from our previous conclusions, we 

obtain that the beginning of the year on the Athribis zodiacs 

was considered to take place around the summer solstice 

day, i.e. in June — according to the Julian calendar. Indeed, 

based on the information included in the partial horoscope of 

the summer solstice shown on the Lower zodiac, the beginning 

of the year took place either in the spring or summer. 

Only in this case we get a perfect correspondence with our 

astronomical solutions. On the other hand, during the verification 

of the “meeting scene” in Leo, we got a confirmation 

that the author of the Athribis zodiacs was using a convention 

of the new year starting in the summer, i.e. in June. In 

this situation, there is no other choice for the beginning of 

the year. 

This fact can provide us with some explanations clarifying 

why on the Athribis zodiacs there so much attention given to 

the summer solstice partial horoscope, while all the other partial 

horoscopes are completely ignored. Indeed, if the beginning 

of the year was assumed to happen around the summer 

solstice day, then the special distinction given to this partial 

horoscope becomes completely understandable. In fact,it 

would be strange if it wasn’t. 

Nevertheless, on all the other Egyptian zodiacs that we 

analyzed, the beginning of the year turned out to be always 

in September — around the autumn equinox day. This particularity 

can be an indication that the Athribis zodiacs are the 

oldest zodiacs that we are aware of. They used and archaic 

convention for the beginning of the astronomical year in the


summer — around the summer solstice day. This claim can be 

confirmed by the actual dates obtained for the Athribis zodiacs. 

Our full solution points out at the second half of the 13th 

century. This was probably the creation time of the Athribis 

zodiacs. The burial cave containing these zodiacs remained 

for a very long time covered with sands, till it was discovered 

in the beginning of the 20th century by the famous British 

archaeologist and Egyptologist Flinders Petrie. 

It is probable that the other Egyptian zodiacs, were created 

later than the Athribis zodiacs. Although, in some cases, 

the dates represented on these zodiacs indicate an earlier 

epoch (for example the Denderah zodiacs show the dates from 

the 12th century), it is still possible that their actual construction 

took place much later. Let us point out that the Athribis 

zodiacs, contrary to the other zodiacs, which were discussed 

in Chapter 7, exhibit evidence that they were based on direct 

astronomical observations rather than computations. Notice 

that the pictures of the visible portion of the sky shown on the 

Athribis are very precise. On the other hand, in the case of 

invisible planets located in the proximity of the Sun, they are 

less exact and even contain some mistakes. None of the zodiacs 

from the temples in Denderah or Esna, had such a drastic 

difference in precision related to the visible and invisible parts 

of the sky. In the case of the Denderah and Esna zodiacs, the 

collected from the observations data was definitely completed 

by the astronomical computations. However, on the Athribis 

zodiacs we do not see any evidence of such computations, 

what brings us to the conclusion that they must be much 

older than the other zodiacs. 

8.1.10 Final Identification of the Last Three 

Planets 

Let us look more closely at the final identification of the birdsplanets 

on the Athribis zodiacs. According to the decoding 

variant A5, which brought us to the final solution, the planets: 

Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, are represented on these zodiacs as 

follows: 

• Jupiter - the bird with a snake-like tail and snake-like 

head. On Figure 8.5, this symbol corresponds to the number 

2; 

• Saturn - the bird with horns in a shape of crescent. On 

Figure 8.5, this figure is denoted by the number 1; 

• Mars - the bird with folded wings, a snake-like tail and 

strong beak. On Figure 8.5 it has the number 3. 

We can easily conclude that none of the above attributes disagree 

with typical planetary characteristics observed on the 

other Egyptian zodiacs. The crescent on the head of a planetary 

figure is clearly an attribute of Saturn. We have seen 

such figures on the Denderah and Esna zodiacs. Ferocious look 

of the bird representing Mars agrees well with the “martial” 

aspect of this planet. Notice that, according to the ancient 

mythology, Mars was the god of war. F. Petrie, who was the 

first to study the Athribis zodiacs, associated the snake-like 

attributes of the bird #2 with Jupiter. He suggested that it 

symbolizes throwing thunders shaped in form of snakes. 4 Of 

course, such a statement can hardly be considered as a proof 

that this bird indeed represents Jupiter. Nevertheless, this argument 

can be seen as a reconfirmation of our identification. 

In this way we arrive to the claim that the planetary symbols 

of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, which were identified based 

on the decoding version A5, are the symbols used originally 

by the authors of the zodiacs to represent these planets. According 

to our knowledge of the Egyptian planetary symbolism, 

it could be predicted how to identify these birds with 

the planets. Nevertheless, this identification was obtained automatically 

as a result of our computations leading to the 

final solutions. This beautiful agreement with the symbols on 

other Egyptian zodiacs, is just another confirmation of the 

correctness of our method. 

8.1.11 Stability of the Obtained Solutions 

In order to ascertain that no other full solutions for the 

Athribis zodiac exist, we carried on additional computations 

by allowing additional modifications of the decoding variants. 

At first, we considered all the six decoding variants A1– 

A6 with the symbols of the Sun and Moon interchanged. As 

we have seen in Chapter 7, on some of the Egyptian zodiacs 

the symbols representing the Sun and Moon were not easy 

to identify. In the case of the Athribis zodiacs they could be 

identified without much trouble, nevertheless, we continued 

to look for solutions for all the reasonable variants of decoding, 

even those that were quite unlikely. It turned out that 

not even one pair of new solutions was found. For the Upper 

zodiac, there were only two solutions June 6–9, 1108 AD, and 

June 14–16, 1962 AD. for the decoding variant A1, and one 

solution June 19–22, 1522 AD, for the decoding variant A3. 

For the Lower zodiac no solution was found. In this way, we 

can considered the problem of the identification of the Sun 

and Moon on the Athribis zodiacs as closed. 

Next, we relaxed the requirements on the expected planetary 

locations among the zodiacal constellations. Namely, 

for the cluster of planets located on the Upper zodiac under 

Taurus, and another cluster under Capricorn, Aquarius and 

Pisces — on the Lower zodiac, we allowed an arbitrary order 

of planets. In addition, for the individual planets their locations 

were no longer restricted to the suggested by the zodiacs 

positions. Since in the case of clusters of planets, it is not always 

possible to show exactly their relative positions, thus 

checking out these variants of decoding was fully justified. 

All the results of our computations are included in Appendix 

??. In summary, there was no new pair of full solutions found 

in this case either. 

Consequently, we can confirm that the pair of solutions: 

May 15-16, 1230 AD. — for the Lower Zodiac, and February 

9-10, 1268 AD. — for the Upper Zodiac, are the unique 

complete solutions for the Athribis zodiacs. 

4 See [4], Vol. 6, p. 731).

8.1.12 Conclusions 

Our astronomical solutions passed successfully all the verifications 

of their agreement with the information shown on the 

both main horoscopes and in other scenes on the Athribis zodiacs. 

In particular, under the assumption that the beginning 

of the year was in June, they perfectly matched the partial 

horoscope of the summer solstice on the Lower zodiac and 

the “meeting scene” in Leo on the Upper zodiac. There are 

also strong indications that the zodiacs were created based on 

the direct observations, without help of astronomical computations 

to find locations of the invisible planets. 

The date encoded in the Upper zodiac was May 15–16, 

1230 A.D. 

The date is encoded in the Lower zodiac is February 9–10, 

1268 A.D. 

Consequently, the Athribis zodiacs were created not earlier 

than the second half of the 13th century A.D. 

The year on the Athribis zodiacs was considered to begin 

in June, right before the summer solstice day, or possibly 

on the summer solstice day. This feature makes the Athribis 

zodiacs unique among the other Egyptian zodiacs, where the 

beginning of the year was assumed to take place in September, 

on the autumn equinox day. The reason for such distinctiveness 

could be that the Athribis zodiacs are much older than 

other analyzed by us zodiacs. 

8.2 Brugsch’s Zodiac 

Brugsch’s zodiac was already discussed in section 3.4, including 

its story of discovery in the second half of the 19th century. 

It was painted on a wooden coffin excavated from an “ancient” 

Egyptian tomb. The tomb and the coffin were discovered by 

the famous German Egyptologist — Henri Brugsch. This “ancient” 

coffin was made using contemporary techniques of carpentry 

and was in a perfect condition. On its cover, there was 

a painting of a zodiac (see Figure 2.13). 

In the center of the zodiac there is a figure of the goddess 

Nut wearing an embroidered long dress surrounded by zodiacal 

symbols and other figures. There is also a sequence of 

several Demotic inscriptions nearby some of the constellation 

figures on the left hand side of the goddess Nut. Brugsch was 

very excited by this discovery. In 1868, he published the first 

description of this zodiac in his book. 5 

H. Brugsch found out that the Demotic inscriptions on 

the zodiac were in fact the names of the planets, so there 

was a horoscope described on this zodiac. In section 3.4, this 

horoscope was simply called Demotic horoscope on Brugsch’s 

zodiac. N.A. Morozov attempted the astronomical dating of 

the Demotic horoscope. 6 He performed a huge amount of work 

connected to the dating of this horoscope. Let us point out 

5 See [14]. 

6 See [4], Vol. 6. 


that the Demotic horoscope was decoded without any difficulty 

— the names of all the planets were simply written near 

the constellations where their locations were supposed to be 


The results of Morozov’s computations were appalling. In 

the whole historical time interval, beginning with the deep 

antiquity till our present times, there were only two solutions 

for the Demotic horoscope: 

November 17, 1682 AD – the first solution of the Demotic 

horoscope; 

November 18, 1861 AD – the second solution of the 

Demotic horoscope. 

In respect of quality, these two solutions could be considered 

as equivalent (see section 3.4 for more details). In fact, besides 

these two, there was not even one less qualified solution found 

for this horoscope. N.A. Morozov accepted the first solution 

— the year 1682, and he assessed the second one as being too 

late. It would be really strange to admit that the date on the 

Demotic horoscope was just one year earlier than the date of 

publication of Brugsch’s zodiac. 

Let us recall (see section 3.4) that we were able to identify 

two other complete horoscopes on Brugsch’s zodiac. These 

horoscopes were not just annotations, which could be added 

much later, but they were integral parts of the whole design 

of the zodiac. Neither H. Brugsch nor N.A. Morozov realized 

their existence on this zodiac. Each of them carries encoded 

inside certain date. It is an ideal situation for the purpose of 

astronomical dating — they are three complete horoscopes 

included on a single zodiac. Consequently, we expect that in 

the case of a successful dating, their three dates should refer 

to the same epoch. 

We call these two new horoscopes the horoscope in Boats 

and the horoscope without Walking Sticks. We refer to section 

3.4 for a more detailed presentation of this subject. 

Now, we are passing to the dating of the horoscopes on 

the Brugsch’s zodiac. 

8.2.1 Annotated Demotic Horoscope on the 

Brugsch’s Zodiac 

There is nothing else that we could add to the Morozov’s 

analysis of the Demotic horoscope. We have reproduced all 

his calculation and found out that his results were correct 

(see section 3.4 for more details). There were indeed only two 

solutions: the year 1682 and 1861. We postpone our discussion 

of these solutions till we find the dates of all the other 

horoscopes on Brugsch’s zodiac. We assume that these three 

horoscopes are connected to the tomb where they were found, 

so all the three dates should be close one to another. It is very 

interesting to find out which one of the two solutions: 1682 or 

1861 will turn out to be final. Clearly, getting the date of 1861 

would be a rather unexpected and shocking. Nevertheless, we 

should be ready for all kinds of surprises resulting from the 

present version of the chronology, and the based on it history.


Figure 8.7: Fragment of Brugsch’s zodiac containing the horoscope “Without Walking Sticks”. 

8.2.2 Horoscope “Without Walking Sticks” 

on Brugsch’s Zodiac 

The horoscope “Without Walking Sticks” is located in the 

sector on the left from the goddess Nut (see Figure 3.15), 

right behind the zodiacal symbols annotated with Demotic 

inscriptions. An enlargement of this fragment is presented on 

Figure 8.7 (see also the color annotated Brugsch’s zodiac on 

Figure 8.8, where it is placed on a light purple background). 

All the planetary symbols in this horoscope were already discussed 

section 5.4, which was devoted to the symbolism of the 

main horoscope. Let us recall the results of this analysis. 

In the sector of Brugsch’s zodiac occupied by the horoscope 

“Without Walking Sticks” there are shown the following 

scenes and symbols of the main horoscope (starting from 

the far left): 

1. Stabbing of a Bull — a “bullfighting”. See subsection 

5.9.5; 

2. Symbol of Venus — a lioness and a crocodile underneath. 

See subsection 5.4.8; 

3. An ape sitting on its tail, which is curved into a circle — 

a supplementary symbol, probably related to Venus; 

4. Symbol of the Sun — large bird. On the Egyptian zodiacs 

bird was used very often as a symbol of the Sun. See 

subsection 5.4.13; 

5. Figure of Mercury – a man with a human head. See subsections 

5.4.2, 5.4.3, and 5.4.9; 

6. Figure of Jupiter – a man with monkey head. See subsections 

5.4.2 and 5.4.6. 

7. Figure of Saturn – a man with jackal head. See subsections 

5.4.2 and 5.4.3. 

8. Figure of Mars – a man with falcon head. See subsections 

5.4.5 and 5.4.2. 

By looking at the locations of these figures with respect to 

the symbols of the zodiacal constellations shown on the right 

in the central sector of the zodiac (see Figure 8.7), we obtain 

the following decoding of the horoscope “Without Walking 

Sticks”: 

The Horoscope “Without Walking Sticks” 


SUN — in Leo or Libra; 

MOON — not shown; 

SATURN — in Scorpio; 

MERCURY — in Libra or Scorpio. It is in Libra, but it is 

possible that the horoscope shows a cluster of the four planets: 

Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars — in this case it would 

be in Scorpio; 

MARS — in Sagittarius or Scorpio; 

VENUS — in Leo or on the border of Leo and Virgo (a baboon); 

JUPITER — in Libra or Scorpio. 

The file with the exact data, that was used for the program 

HOROS, is included in Appendix ??. 

For this horoscope, we found only three solutions: the year 

73 AD, 250 AD, and 1841 AD. Is not surprising to see here 

the date 1841, which is very close to the second solution for 

the Demotic horoscope. 

In Table 8.8, we list the planetary positions on October 

18, 1841 AD, expressed in degrees on the ecliptic J2000 and, 

in the next row below, we thee same locations specified using 

their coordinates on the constellation scale (see section 6.10). 

Before making any conclusion about Brugsch’s zodiac, we 

should look first for the solutions of the horoscope in “Boats.” 

8.2.3 Horoscope in “Boats” on Brugsch’s 

Zodiac 

The planets belonging to the horoscope in “Boats” are located 

in the sector on the right from the goddess Nut (see


Figure 8.8: Color annotated Brugsch’s zodiac “BR”. All the three horoscopes are marked in yellow.


Figure 8.9: Fragment of the Brugsch’s zodiac containing the horoscope in “Boats.” 

Horoscope without Walking Sticks 

Julian day (JD) = 2393762.00 



207.2 o 254.1 o 270.5 o 259.4 o 271.1 o 174.5 o 

229.9 o 

5.80 7.58 8.11 7.76 8.13 5.00 6.69 

Virgo Scorpio Sagitt Scorpio Sagitt Vir/Leo Libra 


(without Moon) 

Table 8.8: Planetary Positions on October 6, 1841 

Figure 3.15). An enlargement of this fragment is presented 

on Figure 8.9. On the color annotated Brugsch’s zodiac (see 

Figure 8.8) they are marked in yellow. On Figure 8.8. the 

horoscope in “Boats” is shown on a green-yellow background. 

Notice that these two horoscopes: without “Walking Sticks” 

and on “Boats,” are arranged symmetrically on the opposite 

sites of the goddess Nut. Since their figures are clearly separated, 

there is no danger of confusing them with the wrong 

horoscope. 

All the figures from the horoscope on “Boats” were already 

discussed in Chapter 5, where we have explained the principles 

for the identification of planets. Section 5.4 was devoted 

to the symbolism of the main horoscope on the Egyptian zodiacs. 

In this subsection we will only present the final results. 

On the horoscope in “Boats” (see Figure 8.9), there are 

shown the following planets from the main horoscope (starting 

from the far left): 

1. The first symbol in this sector is a figure of a tall bird with 

a long beak. This is probably a supplementary symbol, 

which does not represent any planet. 

2. Mercury — a male figure with a human head standing on 

a boat with a planetary walking stick; 

3. Saturn — a male figure with a head of a bull, with 

crescent-like horns, holding a walking stick; 

4. Second figure of Mercury — it is exactly the same figure 

as the one that is standing on the other side of Saturn, 

which was identified as Mercury. That means, Mercury is 

shown here twice around Saturn, which may imply that 

Mercury was “passing” Saturn on these days. 

5. Sun — a bird on a podium. A very similar bird, but without 

a podium, symbolized the Sun in the horoscope without 

“walking sticks,” on the other side of the goddess 

Nut; 

6. Mars — a male figure with a falcon head standing on a 

boat and holding a planetary walking stick; 

7. Venus — a female figure on a boat, holding the usual 

walking stick. This figure is moved slightly away from the 

other symbols. It is placed over the forearm of the goddess 

Nut. The reason for this shifting could be the fact that 

Venus has already “moved” to the another half of the zodiac, 

which is located on the left side of the goddess Nut. 

In this case, it could signify that Venus was in Sagittarius, 

but we should not exclude the possibility that Venus was 

still in Capricorn. 

8. Jupiter — a male figure with a high hat on his head, 

standing on a boat and holding a planetary walking stick. 

His arm is outstretched towards Venus. It is also located 

above the forearm of Nut. 

By comparing the locations of these figures with respect 

to the zodiacal constellations in the central sector of the zodiac 

(see Figure 8.9), we get the following decoding of the 

horoscope in “Boats”: 

The Horoscope in “Boats” 


SUN — in Aquarius or Capricorn; 

MOON — not shown; 

SATURN — in Aries; 

MERCURY — is shown twice: in Pisces and Taurus. It is 

“passing” Saturn; 

MARS — in Capricorn; 

VENUS — in Capricorn or Sagittarius, already in the another 

half of the zodiac; 

JUPITER — in Capricorn or Sagittarius.

The file containing the input data for the program 

HOROS, which is based on the above decoding, is included 

in Appendix ??. There were two solutions found for this remarkable 

zodiac: the year 999 A.D. and 1853 A.D. 

In this way we have arrived to a conclusion that the 

Brugsch’s zodiac refers to the 19th century! There is no other 

way we could possibly explain the fact that the solutions of 

the three horoscopes gathered only once around practically 

the same date: 1841, 1853 and 1861. Moreover, the date of 

the Demotic zodiac, which was probably annotated later, it 

the most recent — the year 1861. 

Let us point out that there are not many solutions for 

any of those horoscopes on the Brugsch zodiac — from one 

to three in the whole historical time interval. Therefore, the 

probability of having three random solutions ping-pointing 

the same date is extremely small. The fact that we were able 

to find such three solutions is a strong indication that the 

Brugsch’s zodiac was indeed created in the second half of the 

19th century. 

The exact positions of the planets on February 27, 1853, 

which is our solution for the horoscope in “Boats,” are presented 

in Table 8.9. 

Horoscope in “Boats” 

Julian day (JD) = 2397912.00 



340.9 o 210.2 o 45.0 o 

263.9 o 

333.9 o 

321.7 o 

341.9 o 

10.67 5.87 0.74 7.91 10.25 9.72 10.73 

Aquar Virgo Aries Scorpio Aqu/Capr Capric Aqu/Pisc 



Table 8.9: Planetary Positions on February 27, 1853 

Let us describe the planetary configuration on the day of 

solution: February 27, 1853 A.D. 

1. Mercury turned out to be in Aquarius. It was located just 

5 o from the border with Pisces. Since the boundaries between 

zodiacal constellations are not precisely defined, we 

are allowing 5 o margin of tolerance for their locations (see 

section 6.4). From this point of view, the position of Mercury 

satisfies the conditions described in the horoscope in 

“Boats.” On the other hand, a closer look on the location 

of Mercury in the horoscope in “Boats” (see Figure 

8.9) allows us to suggest that Mercury in fact could be in 

Aquarius, near the border with Pisces. Let us point out 

that at Mercury was not visible at that time — it was 

too close to the Sun. The configuration of the Sun, Mercury, 

Mars and Venus, on the sky on February 27, 1857, 

is shown on Figure 8.10. 


Figure 8.10: Configuration of the planets in the surroundings 

of the constellation of Aquarius on February 27, 1853 A.D. 

2. The obtained results suggest that the second figure of 

Mercury, located on the left from Saturn, is not included 

in the horoscope. Nevertheless, there is some astronomical 

meaning associated with it. The most probably it symbolizes 

the “meeting” between Mercury and Saturn, which 

indeed took place on May 30, 1853. At that time the dis- 

tance between Saturn and Mercury was only 1 

/ 2o and the 

both planets were well visible in Cairo before the dawn. 

When Mercury and Saturn were rising above the horizon, 

the submersion of the Sun was SUH = 9 o –10 o and their 

brightness was high (M = +0.2), which wis comparable 

with the brightness of the first magnitude stars. Consequently, 

these two planets could be observed clearly, one 

next to another, on the sill dark sky before the sunrise. 

3. The mean discrepancy from the best points turned out 

to be relatively large — about 27 o . However, it is still 

acceptable. Let us recall that the average precision of an 

Egyptian zodiac is not higher than 15 o — i.e. one half of 

the length of an average zodiacal constellation. Therefore, 

the mean discrepancy from the best points can sometimes 

reach 20 o or even 30 o . In such a case, we can say that 

the zodiac’s design was not very accurate. Of course, the 

precision of some Egyptian zodiacs could vary remarkably. 

For the sake of completeness, we present in Table 8.10 the 

planetary positions for the second solution for the horoscope 

in “Boats:” February 14, 999 AD. 

It is clear that this solution fits better the arrangement 

of the planetary symbols in the horoscope in “Boats” on 

Brugsch’s zodiac, but its date is too faraway in time from 

the solutions of the other two horoscopes. The time difference 

is more than 600 years. For the burial horoscopes found 

on the cover of a single sarcophagus, such a time interval is 

definitely unacceptable. The dates shown in these horoscopes 

should be close one to another, so they could be related in 

some way to the occupant of that tomb. In this situation, we 

have no other choice than just to accept the solution pointing 

to the year 1853. Notice that this solution also completely 

agrees with the horoscope in “Boats.”


Horoscope in “Boats” 

Julian day (JD) = 2085987.00 



344.9 o 

289.1 o 49.0 o 

265.7 o 322.6 o 

301.6 o 

0.4 o 

10.67 5.87 0.74 7.91 10.25 9.72 10.73 

Aqu/Pisc Sagit Aries Sco/Sag Capric Cap/Sag Aqu/Pisc 



Table 8.10: Planetary Positions on February 14, 999 

Now it becomes clear, why in the both horoscopes without 

“Walking Sticks” and in “Boats,” which are the parts of the 

original design of the zodiac (in contrast to the annotated 

later Demotic horoscope), there is no Moon. If indeed, this 

zodiac was created in the 19th century, at that time it was 

already a common knowledge that Moon is not a planet, but 

just a satellite of the Earth. In the ancient astronomy, Moon 

was considered as a planet and it was always included in ancient 

Egyptian zodiacs. However, on the 19th century zodiac, 

Moon could be simply “omitted” from its design. 


In this way we are forced to admit that Brugsch’s zodiac was 

created in the second half of the 19th century. It was not long 

before the zodiac was shown to Henry Brugsch, who in good 

faith accepted it as an ancient Egyptian funerary relic. The 

Demotic inscriptions were probably made on the zodiac just 

before it was presented to Brugsch. Ironically, it seems that 

the date of the Demotic horoscope was calculated to be few 

years in advance. In 19th century, astronomical tables were 

widely available so such information could be easily obtained. 

On the other hand, the “ancient” Demotic inscription could 

be copied, for example, from Henri Brugsch’s or other Egyptologists’ 

works. 

By the way, many of the so-called “ancient” Egyptian sarcophagi, 

very similar to the one found by Henri Brugsch, are 

displayed in almost every major museum. However, only in 

exceptional cases the interior sides of the covers are shown to 

the public. Incidentally, the inside on the coffin’s cover was 

the place, where the funeral horoscopes were usually painted. 

No need to say that each of those horoscopes encodes a date 

that can be deciphered, so their true age could be determined. 

Unfortunately, the horoscopes are hidden from the 

public view. Maybe somebody realized how important this 

information could be, and in order to prevent questioning the 

Scaliger version of the chronology and protecting the quiet 

life of Egyptologists, the horoscopes are safeguarded outside 

the public view. 

8.3 Zodiac of Ramses VII —“Color 

Thebes Zodiac” 

In this section we will analyze the Color Thebes zodiac, which 

we denote by the symbol (OU). This zodiac was discovered in 

the Valley of the Kings by the members of the Napoleonic expedition. 

It was a color mural, painted on the ceiling inside the 

tomb. A color drawing of this zodiac was published in the famous 

Napoleonic Album 7 (see Figure 2.3 or the same picture 

enlarged on Figure 8.11), where it is described as “Tableau 

astronomique peint au plafond du 1-er tombeau de Rois à 

l’Ouest. This reproduction of the Color Thebes zodiac was 

used in our analysis. 

In Chapter 7 (see section 7.1), we have described the gigantic 

burial complex located in the Valley of the Kings, 

where the Color Thebes zodiac was discovered. Let us recall 

that the temples in Denderah and Esna were also located not 

far from this valley. The dates of the zodiacs found in these 

temples pointed out to the epoch between the 12th and 15th 

centuries. It is very interesting to find out what date is encoded 

in the Thebes zodiac. This date could provide us with 

important clues related to the real age of the burial grounds 

in the Valley of the Kings. Of course, it is also a question 

if this date would be compatible with the dates of the other 

zodiacs from Denderah and Esna. 

We are not aware of any previous attempt of astronomical 

dating of the Color Thebes zodiac. It seems to us that we are 

the first who analyzed it from the astronomical point of view 

and used the obtained information to compute the date shown 

on this zodiac. 

The Color Thebes zodiac is composed of two symmetric 

parts. In each half of the zodiac, there is a sequence of figures, 

arranged in a row, which is surrounded from the inside by the 

goddess Nut (see Figure 8.11). Notice that the figures shown 

in the right half of the zodiac have small discs over their 

heads. In order to distinguish between these two parts, we 

will call the part with these small discs (which on Figure 8.11 

is shown on the right hand side) — the upper half, while the 

other part (it is the left hand side on Figure 8.11) will be 

called the lower half of the Thebes zodiac. As we are going to 

explain it in a moment, it turns out that the main horoscope 

on this zodiac is located in the central section of the lower 

half. The upper half does not seem to contain any additional 

information for the main horoscope. In its central area, it 

shows a familiar scene of “killing the bull” (a “bullfighting”), 

which was already discussed in subsection 5.9.5. There is also 

a repetition of some elements of the horoscope from the lower 

half. 

8.3.1 Constellation Figures on the Thebes 

Zodiac 

There is a cluster of figures located in the central area of the 

lower half of the zodiac. Among these figures we can easily rec- 

7 See [2], plate 82.

Figure 8.11: The Color Thebes Zodiac. 

8.3 Zodiac of Ramses VII —“Color Thebes Zodiac” 233


ognize those which represent the constellations of Leo, Scorpio 

and Taurus. Notice that very similar symbols were used for 

the zodiacal constellations on the other Egyptian zodiacs. Leo 

is shown as a figure of a lion lying down on its stomach with 

the tail stretched out away from its body. Right under its 

tail, there is a small figure of Scorpio. The both symbols are 

easy to identify. In front of the lion’s head there is a standing 

male figure with a raised up hand holding a large tray. On 

the tray, there is a standing figure of a bull — Taurus. Those 

are the only three zodiacal figures that can be identified in 

this section of the Thebes zodiac. It seems that the remaining 

nine other zodiacal figures are not present on this zodiac. In 

fact, there is not even one familiar figure, which could be considered 

as a zodiacal constellation. We have to acknowledge 

that these figures are not present here, or maybe, some other 

symbols are used to replace them. 

Indeed, the remaining nine zodiacal constellations, although 

they are not important for the astronomical dating, 

there are in fact present on the Color Thebes zodiac. They 

are represented in very unusual for the Egyptian zodiacs way. 

Notice the nine human figures standing on the left hand side 

from the center in the lower half of the zodiac. Among those 

figures, we can easily recognize one female figure. The bodies 

of all the male figures are covered with small dots. If we think 

about the shapes of the constellations, which appear on the 

sky filled with small shining dots — the stars, we realize that 

these figures could represent the remaining nine zodiacal constellations 

of Libra, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, 

Aries, Gemini, Cancer and Virgo. Moreover, the female figure 

could very well symbolize Virgo. Nevertheless, as we already 

stated it earlier, this identification of the “constellation sequence” 

is not important at all for the astronomical dating. 

There are no additional planetary figures shown among these 

nine constellations, so there is no additional information that 

could be useful for the dating. 

8.3.2 Planetary Figures on the Thebes Zodiac 

Let us proceed to the identification of planetary symbols on 

the Thebes zodiac. These figures should be located among 

the symbols of constellations. In a meaningful design of a 

horoscope, the figures representing the planets can not be 

too much apart from the constellations, so a spacial relation 

between them could be established. Consequently, we should 

look for the planets in the area already occupied by the identified 

above constellations of Leo, Scorpio and Taurus. Indeed, 

among the nine figures, which represent the remaining constellations, 

there are no additional symbols at all, except a 

small hieroglyphic inscription near the female’s figure head. 

This inscription could simply be an indication that it is a 

symbol of Virgo (see Figure 8.11). On the other hand, several 

additional symbols can indeed be found among these three 

“standing out” constellations of Leo, Scorpio and Taurus. 

First of all, we notice three male figures standing right behind 

the lions tail in the lower half of the zodiac. The hands of 

all the three figures express some gestures, and there are small 

hieroglyphic inscriptions placed next to their heads. These 

figures are followed by seven other male figures, but there is 

nothing distinctive about them. They hold the hands to their 

sides and one find no more inscriptions among them. This 

scene is clearly showing to us that the first three men are 

trying to “say” something, while the all others are “saying” 

nothing. The hieroglyphic inscriptions near the three leading 

figures contain probably their messages. Maybe, they are 

simply the names of these male planets. So, it is indeed a symbolic 

representation of a horoscope. We can deduct from it, 

that in Leo or near by, for example in Virgo, there were three 

male planets. In addition, we can guess that the hieroglyphic 

annotations, next to these planetary figures, were their actual 

names. This is also an important indication for us, that when 

looking for the other planetary symbols, we should pay a particular 

attention to occurrence of inscriptions accompanying 

these symbols. 

There is no problem in recognizing the only female figure 

in this area of the Thebes zodiac. This figure, which is located 

over figure of lion, definitely represents Venus. Notice that 

there is something particular about its location. Although 

it is close to Leo, it was moved away from the other three 

male planets. Venus appears hovering over Leo in a location, 

which was shifted forward with respect to the three other 

male planets. In this moment it is impossible to figure out the 

exact meaning of this scene, but we should remember that for 

the previously analyzed Egyptian zodiacs, the computed final 

solutions provided us with convincing explanations of similar 

astronomical scenes. Thus in this case, we will also expect that 

the final solution will help us to clarify the interpretation of 

this astronomical picture. 

The appearance of Venus in Leo can be also confirmed 

by another symbol — a crocodile, which is located under 

the figure of lion. A similar pair of symbols was also present 

on Brugsch’s zodiac, in the horoscope without “the Walking 

Sticks,” where it was identified as a symbol of Venus in Leo. 

Therefore, we can assume that they have the same meaning 

as on the Thebes zodiac. 

One of our most important claims related to the symbolism 

of the Egyptian zodiacs, is that it always follows the same 

set of rules. The correctness of this postulate was confirmed 

by our success in finding the unique and full solutions for all 

the studied Egyptian zodiacs. It turned out that these zodiacs 

were using the same astronomical conventions. Since an astronomical 

object can be shown in many ways, the symbolic 

language of zodiacs is rather complex. Nevertheless, closely 

similar symbols on two different Egyptian zodiacs always carried 

the same meaning. 

Consequently, we can conclude that on the Color Thebes 

zodiac, Venus is shown in Leo. Besides Venus, in Leo or Virgo, 

but not far from Leo, there were three other planets. Let us 

discuss shortly, what possibly these planets could be.

Let us look again at the figures standing behind the lion 

in the lower half of the zodiac. This sequence is stretching 

almost to the right end of the zodiac. As we have noticed 

it earlier, this procession is led by three male figures. Each 

of them has a hieroglyphic inscription next it. They are followed 

by another male figure without particular attributes, 

with hands on its sides and with no inscriptions around. The 

procession is closed by three other completely identical figures. 

It is not clear what could be their meaning, but the lack 

of any distinctiveness among them may suggest that their 

role is probably to fill the empty space on the zodiac. It is 

possible, they are simply an entourage of the main planetary 

symbols. If we exclude these four figures, then besides the 

planetary symbols (three leading figures with inscriptions) 

there are three male figures with the usual for Egyptian zodiacs 

planetary attributes. The first of these figures has a jackal 

head, the second has an ibis head (a bird with a long curved 

down beak), and the third one has a falcon head. We have discussed 

these attributes in subsections 5.4.2, 5.4.3, 5.4.4, and 

5.4.7. The jackal or ibis head are typical symbols for Mercury 

or Saturn. For example, on the Small Esna zodiac, Saturn 

was represented by a figure with ibis head, and on the Big 

Esna zodiac, Mercury was shown with jackal head (see the 

related to these issues discussion in subsection 5.4.3). On the 

other hand, the falcon head is an attribute of Mars frequently 

used on the Egyptian zodiacs (see subsection 5.4.7). In this 

way, in Leo or in Virgo but close to the Leo’s tail, there are 

shown Mercury, Saturn and Mars. Let us point out that in 

the case of the Thebes zodiac, a possible mixup of Mercury 

and Saturn, because of their similar symbolism (see subsection 

5.4.4), does not create additional problems. These two 

planets are shown together in the same constellation — in 

Leo. 

At this moment we only need to locate the remaining three 

planets: the Sun, Moon and Jupiter. Right under the lion, 

which represents Leo, there is a symbol of Scorpio. The presence 

of Scorpio in this area of the Thebes zodiac is an indication 

that there was indeed another planet (or possibly planets) 

in this constellation. The design of the Thebes zodiac was 

based on the idea of displaying only those constellations that 

contained some of the planets. All the other constellations, 

without any planet inside, were shown in a very simplified 

way (or simply omitted). Consequently, we expect that near 

Scorpio there should be a symbol of another planet. Indeed, 

right next to it, there is a small hieroglyphic inscription that 

looks like two dots, which is followed by a symbol of a small 

crescent. This is clearly a symbol of a half-moon. The location 

of this half-moon and its relatively small size with respect to 

the figure of Scorpio (but not to Leo), indisputably hints that 

Moon, in its half-moon stage, was located in Scorpio. A more 

precise examination of this symbol reveals that in fact it is 

not exactly a half-moon, but a lizard shaped in a form of a 

half-moon. In this way, we obtain that Moon on the Thebes 

zodiac is shown in Scorpio. 

Since the most of the planets are already located, it is 

not very complicated to find the Sun and Jupiter. Again, the 

8.3 Zodiac of Ramses VII —“Color Thebes Zodiac” 235 

presence of Taurus, in this area of the zodiac, indicates again 

that either the Sun or Jupiter was there. But it is impossible, 

because of purely astronomical reasons, that the Sun was in 

Taurus. Notice that Mercury and Venus were already identified 

in Leo, which is two constellations further from Taurus — 

a distance of about 50 o . Since Mercury and Venus are never 

getting so far away from the Sun, the Sun could not be in 

Taurus at that time. Consequently, Jupiter was in Taurus. 

It is shown on the Thebes zodiac as a male figure holding 

high above his head a tray with a bull. The corresponding to 

Jupiter inscription is located on the same level as the bull, 

noticeably to the left, just in front of the two fantastic figures 

separating the area of the main horoscope from the “constellation 

sequence.” This inscription consists of three hieroglyphs 

and a bird underneath. 

Finally, we need to localize the Sun. It is easy to notice 

that there is only one more inscription on the zodiac. It consists 

of several hieroglyphs and a small figure of bird, which 

are located near the head of a female figure at the right end of 

the “constellation sequence” (see Figure 5.51). We recognized 

this sequence of figures, which are filled with small dots, as the 

symbols of “empty” zodiacal constellations. The only female 

symbol in this sequence was identified as Virgo. In this way, 

we obtain that the Sun was in Virgo. For some reasons, Virgo 

was moved into the group of the sequence of “empty constellations,” 

instead of being included in the area of the main 

horoscope. However, the female figure representing Virgo is 

not filled with small dots, as the all other figures in the “constellation 

sequence,” and it stands clearly out of this sequence. 

On the other hand, the position of the Sun in Virgo, is compatible 

with the locations of Venus and Mercury in Leo. The 

other variants for the location of the Sun — in Leo or Cancer, 

were not confirmed by the results of the computations, and 

consequently, were rejected. In addition, on the Color Thebes 

zodiac, there is another indication that the Sun was in Virgo, 

or not far from it. If we look carefully on the figure representing 

Taurus, we realize that its elevated position on a tray may 

symbolize that at that time the constellation of Taurus was 

in its culmination point, i.e. it reached its highest altitude on 

the sky. It was already explained in section 5.4.13, that the 

culmination of Taurus means that the Sun was on the opposite 

side of the ecliptic, in either one of the constellations of 

Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, or Sagittarius. However, it could not 

be neither in Cancer or Leo. In summary, we can conclude 

that on the Color Thebes zodiac, the Sun is shown in Virgo. 

8.3.3 The Main Horoscope and Additional 

Conditions 

Since we have found all the planets — the Sun, Moon, Mercury, 

Saturn and Jupiter, we can complete the decoding of 

the Color Thebes zodiac. All the planets were accompanied 

by hieroglyphic inscriptions, which allowed us to recognized 

them without too much trouble. There were exactly seven inscriptions 

corresponding to the seven planets. It turned out 

that the main horoscope was located in the central part of 

the lower half of the Thebes zodiac. The upper half does not


contain any hieroglyphic inscription. The figures and the symbols 

in the upper half of the zodiac basically repeat the same 

scenes that are in the lower half. For example, Mercury, Saturn 

and Mars are shown there in the symmetric position to 

the figures of Mercury, Saturn and Mars in the lower half. 

There are symbolized by exactly the same male figures with 

similar hand gestures, but only without any inscription. Venus 

in the upper half is represented simply by the pair of lion and 

crocodile, without additional female figure. Jupiter is shown 

as a male figure with only one hand standing next to Taurus 

represented by a rather “exotic” symbol. The lizard symbolizing 

Moon, was moved under a paw of the fantastic animal 

separating this area from the “constellation sequence.” The 

Sun is not present here, neither the constellation of Virgo, 

where it was located in the lower half. However, in general, 

there is a clear correspondence between the symbols of the 

upper and lower halves of the zodiac. Thus, there is nothing 

essentially new in the upper half that could provide us with 

additional information. In this way we have to use for the 

astronomical dating only the main horoscope, which we were 

able to decode completely. 

The Main Horoscope 

on the Color Thebes Zodiac 

SUN — in Virgo; 

Moon — in Scorpio; 

Mercury, Saturn, Mars, and Venus — in Leo, or in Virgo close 

to the border with Leo, i.e. near the “tail of Leo;” 

Jupiter — in Taurus. 

There is almost no additional astronomical information on 

the Thebes zodiac. There are no partial horoscopes or visibility 

attributes on this zodiac. The order of planets can not be 

determined completely in a unique way. The supplementary 

scene of “killing the bull” (or “bullfighting”) can not be helpful 

for the selection of solutions. Nevertheless, there is still 

some supplementary information that can be extracted from 

the Thebes zodiac. Namely: 

1. The three planets — Mercury, Mars and Saturn, are 

shown in a one cluster clearly separated from Venus. In 

this way, we should expect that in an astronomical solution 

all these three planets should appear as a group located 

in one row, and Venus should be clearly separated 

from these three planets. 

2. The design on the Thebes zodiac strongly suggests that 

Venus was not aligned with the other planets, what is 

indicated by its position outside the row containing the 

other planetary symbols. From the astronomical point of 

view, it probably means that Venus drifted significantly 

from the ecliptic, while in the same time all the other 

planets were very close to the ecliptic. In this way, Venus 

appeared on the side of the direction followed by the other 

planets. 

So, there is not really much additional information that 

could be useful for the verification of solutions for the Thebes 

zodiac. We were able to formulate only two supplementary 

conditions for this purpose. In this way, there are very weak 

chances of finding a unique solution for this zodiac. The input 

file for the program HOROS, which we used for these calculations, 

is included in Appendix ??. As before, we have applied 

the usual restrictions of the computed preliminary solutions. 

The obtained results are discussed in the next subsection. 

8.3.4 Preliminary Solutions for the Main 

Horoscope 

Our astronomical computations proved that there are very 

few solutions for the Color Thebes zodiac in the historical 

time interval from the year 500 B.C. till 1900 A.D. We have 

found only three such solutions: 

• (i) August 16, −349 (i.e. 350 B.C.); 

• (ii) August 30, 268 A.D.; 

• (iii) September 6, 1182 A.D. 

For simplicity, we included in the above list only one date 

for each solution. In fact, there were two or even three days 

around each of these days, which still could be considered as 

preliminary solutions as well. We will also relax our convention 

of using the “Anno Domini” and “Before Christ” years, 

and instead we will adopt the so-called “astronomical system” 

of counting the years. More precisely, we will assume 

that there is the zero year of our era, which correspond to the 

year 1 B.C. In the so-called “historical system” of counting the 

years, there is no year zero. Our era starts right from the year 

1 A.D. In this way, in order to convert a date n B.C. from the 

“historical system” to the “astronomical system” we simply 

need to write it as the year −n+1. For example, the year 350 

B.C. will correspond to the year −349 in the “astronomical 

system.” Of course, in usual books only “historical system” is 

used. However, in books dealing with the astronomical computations, 

the “astronomical system” of counting the years is 

used instead. That can lead to some confusion, in particular 

when using computer programs for the astronomical computations. 

For example, the program Turbo-Sky, which we were 

using for the verification of our results presented in this book, 

applies the “historical system.” That means, the date −350 

denotes in this program the year 350 B.C., so it is the year 

−349 according to the “astronomical system.” Therefore, before 

using a computer software for the verification of the solutions, 

we would like to advice our readers to check out in 

advance what kind of system it uses — the “historical” or “astronomical.” 

This can be done very easily; just try to assign 

a date corresponding to the year zero and if the program will 

also display it in the same form, the “astronomical system” is 

used. Otherwise, it would be the “historical system” of counting 

the years. In this book, we were using the “astronomical 

system” for all the computations. For example the program 

HOROS is also using this system. 

Let us return to the Color Thebes zodiac. We have found 

only three preliminary solutions in the historical interval from 

the year 500 B.C. till 1900 A.D., which were the years: −349, 

268, and 1182. Clearly, with such a small number of preliminary 

solutions we can expect there is a good chance to identify 

a unique final solution for this zodiac. Let us emphasize

that all these three solutions are only preliminary solutions. 

They were not yet scrutinized with respect to the additional 

requirements. Only those solutions, which satisfy all the requirements 

will be considered as the final solutions. In the 

case there is only one final solution, we will obtain that the 

date shown on the Thebes zodiac is unique. Indeed, we will 

find out in a moment, that for the Color Thebes zodiac there 

is only one final solutions, which is September 5–8, 1182 A.D. 

First of all, let us show the exact positions of the planets 

on the ecliptic J2000, for all three preliminary solutions (see 

Table 8.11). For each of these dates, we indicate in degrees the 

positions of the planets on the ecliptic J2000 as well as their 

locations using the coordinates on the constellation scale (see 

section 6.10). Finally, for each of the listed planets we specify 

its corresponding zodiacal constellation. For example, an 

abbreviation Sag/Scor means that the corresponding planet 

was located near the border between Sagittarius and Scorpio. 

Julian day (JD) = 1593813.00 THEBES ZODIAC 


Sun Moon Jupiter Venus Saturn Mars Mercury 

170.0 o 

267.0 o 

58.0 o 

143.0 o 

160.0 o 160.0 o 163.0 o 

4.8 8.0 1.2 4.0 4.5 4.5 4.6 

Leo/Vir Sag/Sco Taurus Can/Leo Leo Leo Leo 



180.7 o 

247.2 o 

64.5 o 

141.8 o 

148.8 o 168.0 o 176.7 o 

5.15 7.35 1.34 3.93 4.17 4.79 5.05 

Virgo Scorpio Taurus Can/Leo Leo Leo Vir/Leo 



Sun Moon Jupiter Venus Saturn Mars Mercury 

181.4 o 

258.3 o 

86.4 o 

151.2 o 

170.2 o 169.8 o 173.2 o 

5.17 7.72 1.92 4.25 4.86 4.85 4.96 

Virgo Scorpio Taurus Leo Leo Leo Vir/Leo 

Table 8.11: Preliminary solutions for Thebes Zodiac 

In the next step we will verify which of these solutions 

satisfies the additional conditions, which were formulated in 

subsection 8.3.3. Let us recall them: 

1. Mercury, Mars and Saturn should be located in one row 

on the ecliptic. Venus should appear outside this group of 

three planets. 

2. Venus should not be aligned with the other planets, but 

it should be on the side of the direction followed by the 

other planets. 

8.3 Zodiac of Ramses VII —“Color Thebes Zodiac” 237 

8.3.5 Checking the Supplementary Conditions 

Let us consider the first solution: August 16, -349 (i.e. 350 

B.C. — according to the “historical system”). On Figure 8.12, 

we show the positions of the planets in morning on that day, 

the way they were observed from Luxor. At the moment Mercury 

was rising above the horizon, when the submersion of the 

Sun was SUH = 7 o . The other planets — Venus, Saturn and 

Mars, were already above the horizon. At the time of their 

rising, the sky was still dark, so, they were very well visible. 

The brightness of Mercury was M = +0.2, so possibly it was 

also visible from Luxor. It turns out that the location of an 

observer is important for the visibility of Mercury, since in 

Cairo it was not visible on that day (Mercury was rising in 

Cairo with the submersion of the Sun 5 o ). We refer the reader 

to section 5.11 for more details on conditions of visibility. 

Figure 8.12: Planets around the Sun on August 16, 350 B.C. 

The solution: August 16, −349, does not satisfy all the 

conditions specified for the Thebes zodiac. As a matter of fact,


the Sun that was supposed to be in Virgo, is on the border 

of Leo. It will reach Virgo only after few days. Notice that on 

the Thebes zodiac, the location of the Sun was indicated in 

Virgo. Since the figure of Leo is present on the zodiac, and 

the Sun is not marked there, we have to assume that the Sun 

was not in Leo. 

Let us now check if the supplementary conditions are satisfied 

by this solution. The first condition that Mercury, Mars 

and Saturn should be located on the line on the ecliptic, is 

indeed satisfied (see Figure 8.12). However, the second condition 

that Venus is not aligned with Mercury, Mars and Saturn, 

is not fulfilled. Venus is located exactly on the ecliptic, as well 

as all the other planets. There is no reason why we should 

consider Venus to be located here outside the line showing 

the general direction of the motion of the other planets. Notice 

that the position of Venus on the Thebes zodiac is undoubtedly 

shifted to a side from the row containing the other 

planetary symbols. Consequently, we reject this preliminary 

solution as incompatible with the second supplementary condition. 

Let us point out, that this solution was much too early, 

even from the point of view of Scaliger’s chronology. According 

to this chronology, there were no “Greeko-Roman” zodiacs 

in Egypt before the 2nd century B.C. (see our discussion of 

this issue in Chapter 2), but on the Thebes zodiac there are 

such “Greeko-Roman” symbols of zodiacal constellations of 

Leo, Scorpio and Taurus. 

Let us now discuss the second solution: August 30, 268 

A.D. It follows immediately from Table 8.11, that this solution 

does not satisfy the first supplementary condition. Since 

Venus is located in between Saturn and Mercury, it can not be 

considered to be apart from the group of planets containing 

Saturn, Mercury and Mars. Moreover, we have the following 

order of planets in this solution: Saturn, Venus, Mercury, 

Mars and the Sun. It is clear that this configuration does 

not agree with the situation shown on the Color Thebes zodiac, 

where Venus is clearly separated from the other planets. 

Therefore, this solution should be rejected as well. 

The last preliminary solution — September 5–8, 1182 

A.D., satisfies perfectly all the conditions specified for the 

Thebes zodiac. Although, the best correspondence with the 

zodiac occured on September 6–7, 1182, the dates September 

5, and September 8, 1182, can also be accepted as satisfying 

all the requested requirements. Therefore, the final solution 

for the Color Thebes zodiac is September 5–8, 1182 A.D.. 

The positions of the planets near the Sun in the morning 

on September 6, 1182 A.D., are presented in Figure 8.13. 

We have chosen Luxor as the location for an observer. It is 

clear that on that day the Sun was indeed in Virgo, as it is 

shown on the Thebes zodiac. Mercury, Mars and Saturn, as it 

is required, were in Leo (see Figure 8.13). Venus at that time 

was at the end of Leo, almost on the border between Leo and 

Virgo, and its position is shifted to a side from the ecliptic. 

It is definitely not aligned with the other planets, which are 

very close to the ecliptic — not more than 1 o . The distance 

from Venus to the ecliptic is around 5 o . Of course, this con- 

figuration is a perfect match with the situation shown on the 

zodiac. 

Figure 8.13: Planets around the Sun in the morning on 

September 6, 1182 AD. 

Let us summarize our observations about the solution: 

September 5–8, 1182 A.D. 

1. The first supplementary condition is satisfied, because 

Venus is clearly outside the group of three planets — 

Mercury, Saturn and Mars. It is slightly shifted towards 

Virgo. 

2. The second supplementary condition is also satisfied. 

Venus is definitely located outside the ecliptic, which is 

the direction followed by all the other planets in this area. 

Consequently, we can confirm that the solution — September 

6, 1182 A.D., is in a perfect agreement with the Color 

Thebes zodiac.

8.3.6 Conclusion: the Date Encoded in the 

Color Zodiac was September 5–8, 1182 

AD 

In this way we are in the position to make a claim that the 

“ancient” Egyptians encoded on the Color Thebes zodiac the 

date: September 5–8, 1182 A.D. Notice that this date falls 

into the same epoch as the dates shown on the Denderah 

zodiacs. In fact, this date is right in-between the dates of the 

Long and the Round Denderah zodiacs. 

The following question arises: what important occurences 

of the 12th century are reflected in these remains of the Egyptian 

tradition. Possibly, at that time some significant events 

took place. Since they were commemorated on the ceilings 

of large Egyptian temples, these events could be of religious 

nature. Still, the dates, which were decoded from the zodiacs, 

could be much older than the actual zodiacs. Consequently, 

the “ancient” authors of these zodiac could made their creations 

not earlier than at the end of the 12th century, but the 

most probably, even much later. 

By the way, our solution for the Thebes zodiac coincides 

with one important Christian holiday — Nativity of the Virgin 

Mary. This festival is celebrated by the Orthodox Church 

on September 8 according to Julian calendar. It is possible 

that it is just a coincidence, but in this royal tomb, which 

was located in the Valley of the Kings, could be commemorated 

a Christian festival. After seeing so many revelations 

about the “ancient” Egypt, this could be not so strange. 

8.4 Two Zodiacs from the Petosiris 

Tomb 

In this section we will analyze for the purpose of the astronomical 

dating the two “ancient” Egyptian burial zodiacs 

found in the Petosiris tomb. The photographs of these zodiacs 

were published in [5]. They were painted on the ceilings of the 

inner and the outer chambers inside the tomb. Let us recall 

(see section 2.5) that we denote by (P1) the zodiac from the 

outer room and by (P2) the zodiac from the inner room. Since 

these two zodiacs were well preserved, there is a good chance 

to discover the exact age of the Petosiris tomb. Of course, this 

date could be another important milestone in establishing the 

most probable chronology for history of Ancient Egypt. 

We will explain later in this section how it was possible 

to compute the dates encoded in the Petosiris zodiacs. Right 

now, let us present the final results of our computations. It 

turned out, that because of the absence of the additional astronomical 

information (eg. partial horoscopes or supplementary 

scenes), it was impossible to obtain unique solutions for 

these two zodiacs. Nevertheless, there were only three admissible 

pairs of solutions found: two medieval pairs and the one 

that seemed to us the most probable, in the 17th and 18th 

centuries. These exact dates are as follows: 

8.4 Two Zodiacs from the Petosiris Tomb 239 

First Variant: August 5, 1227 AD, for the outer room zodiac 

(P1), and March 24–25, 1240 AD, for the inner room 

zodiac (P2). We can not exclude the possibility that the 

Petosiris tomb was built in the 13th century. However, in 

this case, the buried in the tomb person was only 13 years 

old (1227 − 1240 = 13), but we do not find on the walls of the 

tomb any picture showing a young teenager, circumstances of 

his death, or anything related to his burial (see [5]). On the 

other hand there is a scene showing the killing of an adult 

man with a beard. His body is pierced with arrows, while he 

is kneeing with one hand raised up. Right above this scene 

there is a painting of a mummified body (see Figures 8.14 and 

8.18). Therefore, it seems that the man buried in the Petosiris 

tomb was a warrior killed in a battle and he was definitely 

older than 13. Nevertheless, we will consider this solutions as 

possible even if it is very improbable. 

Second Variant: August 10, 1430 A.D. for the outer room 

zodiac (P1), and April 17, 1477 A.D. for the inner room zodiac. 

Let us point out that this solution does not completely 

agree with the inner room zodiac (P2). However its flaws are 

rather minimal, so this pair of solutions should also be taken 

into account. Notice that according to the obtained dates, the 

age of the buried man was 47 years. From this point of view, 

the obtained solutions correspond well to the scenes painted 

on the tombs walls (see Figures 8.14 and 8.18). 

Third Variant: August 2, 1667 AD for the outer room zodiac 

(P1), and April 2, 1714 A.D. for the inner room zodiac. The 

age of the man buried in the tomb would be 47 years in this 

case. Notice that these dates are rather late. It is already the 

18th century! Nevertheless, these two dates are the most probable 

solutions for the Petosiris zodiac. Indeed, in our opinion 

the design of the tomb looks more like the 18th century style 

than the 13th century creation. Moreover, at that time in the 

18th century, Egypt was ruled again by Mameluks, who regain 

the control of Egypt from the Ottoman Empire (see [53], p. 

745). It is possible that the Petosiris tomb was a Mameluk 

burial place from this epoch. After the eradication of the 

Mameluks in the year 1811 (see [53], p. 745), as a form of 

a deception, some of those tombs were possibly revealed as 

“very ancient” graves. Such falsification of the history are not 

unusual. 

In every case, all the possible variants for the dating of 

the Petosiris zodiacs, perfectly agree with the dates obtained 

for the other Egyptian zodiacs. All these dates belong to the 

epoch from the 12th to 19th centuries, during which the real 

history of ancient Egypt was taking place. For the record, all 

these results constitute one more independent confirmation 

of the new mathematical chronology of the ancient world (see 

[105]). 

We were very fortunate to have two zodiacs located in the 

same tomb. From the astronomical dating viewpoint this is 

an important factor. We expect that the dates shown on the 

both zodiacs should be close one to another. It is rather obvious 

that they are related to the buried in the tomb person.


Figure 8.14: Fragment of the mural inside the inner chamber of the Petosiris tomb. 

On the other hand, the probability of having close dates for 

two independent zodiacs is very small (see section 6.5). Therefore, 

if the Petosiris zodiacs were only based on the fantasy 

of their creators without any connection to the real astronomical 

events, exactly like it is suggested by the authors of 

[5], it would be very unlikely to expect any pair of solutions 

belonging to the historical time interval. Our computations 

show that such pairs of solutions indeed exist. Therefore, the 

astronomical meaning of the Petosiris zodiacs can be decoded 

and their dates revealed. 

8.4.1 Story of the Discovery and Analysis of 

the Petosiris Zodiacs. 

Based on the material in [5], let us present a short story of 

the Petosiris zodiacs, how they were discovered and analyzed. 

The Petosiris zodiacs were excavated in the Egyptian oasis 

of Dahla — the largest oasis in the “Northern desert” of Nile. 

It is located about 350 km North from Luxor (see [98], p. 95.). 

The zodiacs were painted on the ceilings inside of an old crypt, 

which was carved in a rocky hill-side (see Figure 8.16). It is 

believed that there was buried a man with the name Petosiris 

(see [5]). The tomb was composed of two chambers — one 

connected to the passage leading outside the tomb, which we 

call the outside room, and another one, which we call the 

inside room (see Figure 8.15). The zodiacs were painted in 

color and they were well preserved. Each of them contained 

a horoscope (see Figures 8.16 — 8.18). 

In 1973 the Petosiris zodiacs were brought into attention 

of Egyptologist by the Egyptian archaeologist Ahmed 

Fakhry, who showed their photographs to the prestigious experts 

in the ancient Egyptian astronomy: O. Neugebauer, 

R.A. Parker, and D. Pingree. He requested from them to analyze 

these two zodiacs (see [5], p. 96). In 1982, these three authors 

published an elaborated article devoted to the Petosiris 

zodiacs (see [5]). The article contained a detailed descriptions 

and many photographs of the zodiacs. Let us state it clearly 

that O. Neugebauer, R.A. Parker, and D. Pingree presented in 

[5] a complete decoding of these zodiacs, including the identification 

of all the planets on each of them. As it was confirmed 

by our analysis (see below), their decoding was correct. 

The unique identification of all the planetary symbols on 

these zodiacs can be done in a routine way without any problem. 

As a consequence, O. Neugebauer, R.A. Parker, and D. 

Pingree were clearly in a position to complete the proper astronomical 

dating of the Petosiris zodiacs. For this purpose, it 

would suffice to identify the planetary locations and to make 

the appropriate astronomical computations. By using special 

programs for astronomical computations, or even, with a help 

of professional astronomers, these tasks could be easily accomplished. 

Unfortunately, O. Neugebauer, R.A. Parker, and 

D. Pingree were not interested in carrying out any attempt

Figure 8.15: Plans of the of the Petubastis tomb (above) and 

the Petosiris tomb (below). 

to date these two zodiacs astronomically. On the contrary, 

right in the beginning they exclude any idea of the astronomical 

dating by saying that: “The positions of the planets 

seems to be inspired by Mithraism 8 .” That means, they simply 

assumed that the zodiacs were just imaginary pictures inspired 

by primitive believes related to the worship of Mithra. 

Of course, by assuming fictitiousness of the zodiacs, the astronomical 

dating became completely pointless for them. Instead 

of astronomical computations, they plunge into an obscure 

deliberation of the religious symbolism of these zodiacs. 

For example, they claimed that Venus and Saturn represent 

“generative forces in the two spheres” and etc. For Neugebauer, 

Parker, and Pingree, the fact that Venus and Saturn 

are shown in specific locations on the Petosiris zodiacs, has 

no astronomical but only a Mithraic meaning 9 . 

8 See [5], p. 100 

9 See [5], p. 100 


In the first chapter of this book we have already explained 

the possible reasons why contemporary Egyptologists 

are strongly opposed to any attempt of astronomical dating 

of the ancient Egyptian zodiacs. The paper [5] by O. Neugebauer, 

R.A. Parker, and D. Pingree, is a very typical example 

of this attitude. Nevertheless, we have to acknowledge that 

their decoding of the planetary symbols on the Petosiris zodiacs 

is correct and rather complete. 

Figure 8.16: A photograph showing the entrance to the 

Petosiris and Petubastis tombs. 

8.4.2 General Description of the Petosiris 

Tomb and Its Zodiacs 

On Figure 8.16, we show a photograph of the hill, in the 

slope of which was carved the Petosiris tomb. On this photograph 

one can distinguish two rectangular holes in the hill 

slope, which are the entrances into the Petosiris tomb and 

the Petubastis tomb. The Petubastis tomb was carved right 

next to the Petosiris tomb. It is also described with all the 

details in above mentioned work [5] of Neugebauer, Parker, 

and Pingree. A zodiac was also found in the Petubastis tomb, 

but it did not contain any horoscope, so it is impossible to 

date it astronomically. Nevertheless, since these two tombs 

were located one next to the another, it is very probable that 

they were constructed during the same epoch. As the both 

tombs were definitely constructed during the same time, the 

astronomical dating of the Petosiris zodiac can also provide 

us with the information about the age of the Petubastis tomb. 

The zodiac found in the Petubastis tomb was shown on Figure 

2.22 in Chapter 2. 

Plans of these two tombs — the Petosiris and Petubastis 

tombs are shown on Figure 8.15. On this drawing, it is clearly 

shown that the Petosiris tomb consisted of two chambers — 

the outer chamber I and the inner chamber II. The zodiacs 

(P1) and (P2) were painted in color (see Figures 8.19 and 

8.20) on the ceilings of these two rooms. The zodiac (P1), 

which was located in the outer chamber of the Petosiris tomb, 

is shown on Figure 8.17. We call it simply the outer Petosiris 

zodiac. The zodiac (P2) painted on the ceiling of the inner


Figure 8.17: The zodiac from the outer chamber in the Petosiris tomb.

Figure 8.18: The zodiac from the inner chamber in the Petosiris tomb. 

8.4 Two Zodiacs from the Petosiris Tomb 243


chamber, which is shown on Figure 8.18, is called by us the 

inner Petosiris zodiac. 

Figure 8.19: Few details of the zodiac from the outer chamber 

in the Petosiris tomb. 

On Figures 8.21 and 8.22 we present the contour drawings 

of the outer and the inner Petosiris zodiacs. From these pictures 

it is clear that both Petosiris zodiacs are of the round 

type, and from that point of view they are similar to the 

Athribis zodiacs and the Round Denderah zodiac. Moreover, 

the dimensions of the Petosiris zodiacs are also comparable 

with the size of the Round zodiac. These dimensions are: the 

outer Petosiris zodiac (P1) (see Figure 8.17) 2.34 × 2.63 meters, 

and the inner Petosiris zodiac (P2) (see Figure 8.18) 

2.12 × 2.62 meters 10 . 

One can immediately notice that the inner Petosiris zodiac 

(P2) contains more details than the outer zodiac (P1). 

Therefore, it seems that it is the main zodiac for this tomb, 

probably commemorating the date of the death of the person 

buried there. On the other hand, the outer zodiac (P1) most 

likely contains the date of the birth or another secondary date 

related to that person. Notice that from the point of view of 

religious rituals the death of a person (and not the birth) is 

considered as the main event. Since the birth date precedes 

the date of the death, we expect that the outer Petosiris zodiac 

(P1) should indicate an earlier date than the inner zodiac 

(P2). However, we should point out that in our computations 

we did not introduce any additional requirement related to 

this issue, and in fact, we have considered all the possible 

pairs of solutions regardless which one is earlier than other. 

Since the both zodiacs were found in the same tomb, the 

difference of their dates should not be loo large. For the pur- 

10 See [5], pp. 96-97. 

Figure 8.20: Few details of the zodiac from the inner chamber 

in the Petosiris tomb. 

pose of our computations we allowed 150 years difference between 

those dates. This restriction was motivated by the assumption 

that the both zodiacs are related to the life of a one 

person, which was buried in this tomb. Therefore, the difference 

between the two dates encoded into the Petosiris zodiacs 

shouldn’t be larger than a human lifespan. In order to make 

sure that we do not omit any admissible pair of solutions, we 

extended this time by some margin to 150 years. At the end of 

our computations, we found out that for any possible variant 

this difference was always smaller than 50 years. In addition, 

the dates for the outer zodiac (P1) were always earlier than 

the dates for the inner zodiac (P2). 

It is clear that (see Figures 8.21 and 8.22) the both 

Petosiris zodiacs are very similar one to another. On the both 

zodiacs, the zodiacal constellations are arranged around a circle, 

inside which are located the planetary symbols. All the 

planets are represented in an unusual for traditional Egyptian 

zodiacs way — in a form of human busts. The outer zodiac 

(P1) is partially damaged, but still it is possible to recognize 

that the same planetary symbols — human images, are shown 

on the both zodiacs. In this situation, it is completely natural 

to expect that these two zodiacs are in fact only the parts of a 

larger artistic composition painted on the walls and ceilings of 

the Petosiris tomb. The symbolism of the entire composition 

should be the same in all its fragments and parts. On Figures 

8.21, 8.24–8.26, we included a series of photographs showing 

the murals from the Petosiris tomb. On Figure 8.27 we show 

for comparison a photograph from the Petubastis tomb. The 

design of this tomb is much simpler than in the case of the 

Petosiris tomb, but the style and symbolism are very similar.


Figure 8.22: A contour drawing of the zodiac (P1) from the outer chamber in the Petosiris tomb.


Figure 8.23: A contour drawing of the zodiac (P2) from the inner chamber in the Petosiris tomb.

Figure 8.21: Murals inside the Petosiris tomb. 

We should mention that we have seen a very similar situation 

in the case of the two Athribis zodiacs. These zodiacs 

were also painted inside a tomb and their planetary symbolism 

was also exactly the same. Let us recall that for the 

Athribis zodiacs the difference between their dates was exactly 

38 years, what could be the age of the person that is 

buried there. So, it is most likely that the Athribis zodiacs 

contain the dates of the birth and the death of the occupant 

of the tomb. Regarding the Petosiris zodiacs, their purpose 

was probably the same as in the case of the Athribis zodiacs 

— to record the dates of the birth and death. 

Let us notice that although we allowed at most 150 years 

difference between the dates for the Petosiris zodiacs, for all 

the results that we obtained, this difference was much smaller. 

We can consider it as one more indication that there was no 

other purpose of the zodiacs. For example, it could be possible 

that these zodiacs were associated with two, instead of 

one, occupants of the tomb — for example two close relatives. 


Figure 8.24: Another fragment of murals inside the Petosiris 

tomb. 

Nevertheless, based on our experience with the Egyptian zodiacs 

(the Athribis, Brugsch’s and Petosiris zodiacs) it seems 

to us that two zodiacs or, two horoscopes on one zodiac, were 

used by “ancient” Egyptians for the birth and the death of 

the tomb’s owner. We should also clarify that our hypotheses 

can be helpful in explaining the obtained results, but they do 

not have any implications on the computations of these dates. 

8.4.3 Planetary Symbols on the Petosiris 

Zodiacs 

Let us present the decoding of the planetary symbols on the 

Petosiris zodiacs that were described in the work [5] by O.


Figure 8.27: Murals from the Petubastis tomb.

Figure 8.25: Fragment of murals inside the Petosiris tomb. 

Figure 8.26: One more fragment of murals inside the Petosiris 

tomb. 

Neugebauer, R.A. Parker, and D. Pingree 11 . We do not have 

any objection regarding the correctness of this decoding. It 

is conformed to the general principles of the Egyptian astronomic 

symbolism, which were presented earlier in the previous 

chapters. However, we should point out that this decoding 

contains a small flaw leading to a possibly different planetary 

identification. We have to acknowledge that the authors of 

[5] were aware of this weakness of their decoding. From this 

perspective, it is necessary to consider additional decoding 

variants. Fortunately, there exists only few such variants — 

two for each of the Petosiris zodiacs. All together, there are 

just four possible combinations. 

11 See [5], pp. 96-98 


For the convenience of using the citations from the work 

[5], we preserved on Figures 8.22 and 8.23 the annotations 

A, B, C, D, E, F, and M, made by O. Neugebauer, R.A. 

Parker, and D. Pingree. They are placed on the zodiacs right 

next to the planetary figures represented by human busts. 

Notice that the same letters indicate very similar figures in 

both Petosiris zodiacs. For example the letter A stands by 

the busts of a bearded man in the center of the zodiacs, and 

the letter B are placed near the busts of a woman. We will use 

these annotations in order to present several citations form 

[5]. 

With respect to the zodiac (P1), which was located in the 

outer chamber of the Petosiris tomb, O. Neugebauer, R.A. 

Parker, and D. Pingree writes the following (see Figures 8.22 

and 8.23): 

“Planets:... 

A: Bust of bearded male, wearing a tunic (probably Saturn, 

...). 

B: Bust of female, therefore Venus, wearing a cloak (palla, 

...). 

C: Bust of male, only upper part of head preserved (probably 

Jupiter). 

D: Probably a double-faced male bust, with only the part facing 

right preserved (Mercury). 

E: Nothing preserved of Mars. 

F: Moon — Bust of female in Greek style, long hair falling 

over shoulders, Egyptian garment, -eye on head, crescent 

below. 12 

Regarding the zodiac (P2) from the inner room, the authors 

of [5] make a correct connection between the same or 

similar planetary symbols on the zodiac (P2). Let us quote 

from [5]: 

“Planets: ... 

A: Similar to A in outer room but without beard and mustache 

and with the toga closed in front, dark garment, in 

central area (Saturn, ...). 

B: Similar to outer room figure, in central area (Venus, ..). 

C: Bust of male, apparently the same as in the outer room, 

wearing a toga, above Leo (Jupiter, ...). 

D: Bust, two-faced, bearded male (on right) and female (on 

left), above Taurus (Mercury). 

E: Bust of male, wearing a scarf knotted under the chin and 

above a crest with tail, shoulders protected by armor under 

garment(?), with spear, above Aries (Mars). 

F: Moon — As in outer room but without -eye. 13 

If we compare the above identifications of Venus, Mercury, 

Moon and Mars, with their representations in the tables of 

the Egyptian astronomical symbols in section 5.4, then we 

have to conclude that O. Neugebauer, R.A. Parker, and D. 

Pingree identified these planets correctly. Indeed: 

12 See [5], page 96. 

13 See [5], page 98.


Venus — the only “female” planet except Moon. It can be 

easily recognized on the both Petosiris zodiacs. Since the female 

bust with a crescent below can be conclusively identified 

as Moon, the only remaining female bust is definitely Venus. 

Mercury — it can be easily recognized by its two-faced head. 

Mars — on the zodiac (P2), it is shown as a warrior with a 

spear and helmet. It fits perfectly the role of Mars as the god 

of war. On the zodiac (P1), figure of Mars is missing — it was 

probably located in the destroyed fragment of the zodiac. 

With respect to the above identifications of Jupiter and 

Saturn, it is not possible to know, without carrying out astronomical 

computations, which of the remaining busts exactly 

symbolize these planets. The authors of [5] are not completely 

sure about their identification either. In the case of Jupiter 

and Saturn on the zodiac (P1) they consider their identifications 

only as probable. 14 Indeed, the male busts of Jupiter and 

Saturn are almost identical on the both Petosiris zodiacs (see 

Figures 8.22 and 8.23). No specific particularity or attribute 

exists in those busts which could help to distinguish their essential 

differences. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the 

both variants of identification of those planets for each of the 

zodiacs (P1) and (P2). 

However, the authors of [5] didn’t bother to consider other 

variants of identification of Saturn and Jupiter. They simply 

arbitrarily choose only one variant for their identification on 

each of the zodiacs and reject the other possibilities. In fact, 

while talking about the inner Petosiris zodiac, they simply 

make identification of Saturn and Jupiter without mentioning 

that it is only probable. They do not support their claims with 

any additional information. 

In order to avoid the unnecessary presuppositions, in our 

research we did consider all the possible combinations for the 

identification of Saturn and Jupiter on each of the Petosiris 

zodiacs. As it is easy to check, there are exactly four variants 

of identifications for these planets. 

The only remaining planet on the Petosiris zodiacs that 

has not been yet identified is the Sun. On the inner zodiac 

(P2) it is clearly symbolized by the circle located on the head 

of a boy M standing in the middle of the Central Circle (see 

Figure 8.23). The boy clenches two snakes in both hands. Very 

similar pictures appear on other Egyptian monuments, where 

they obviously symbolize the Sun. Let us notice that the two 

vertical snakes in the boy’s hands clearly symbolize Mercury 

(see subsection 5.4.10). With respect to two crocodiles under 

his feet, we have seen similar symbols on the other Egyptian 

zodiacs (for example the Thebes and Brugsch’s zodiacs) in 

connection to Venus. This whole scene has a very clear meaning: 

the boy-Sun is surrounded by two always close to him 

planets — Venus and Mercury. Each of those planets has double 

nature related to their morning or evening visibility, what 

is indicated here by two copies of each of the related symbols 

(i.e. two snakes and two crocodiles). Consequently, besides 

14 See [5], page 96 

the Sun we can recognize here a minimal partial horoscope. 

We will see it in a moment that this is a partial horoscope of 

the spring equinox. 

In this way we can conclude that on the inner Petosiris 

zodiac (P2) the Sun is shown inside the Central Circle. 

On the preserved part of the outer Petosiris zodiac (P1), 

the symbol of the Sun is most likely missing. Thus, the representation 

of the Sun was probably located in the fragment 

of the zodiac that was destroyed, i.e. somewhere around the 

constellations Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio or Sagittarius. 

However, it shouldn’t be excluded that the Sun could still 

be symbolized by another symbol inside the preserved part of 

the zodiac. For example by the symbol of -eye above the female 

bust representing Moon (see Figure 8.22). Nevertheless, 

our computations proved that this particular identification 

did not lead to any final solution for the Petosiris zodiacs. 

We can consider these results as a kind of confirmation of our 

hypothesis that the symbol on the Egyptian zodiacs did 

not stand for any particular planet, but it was a way to indicate 

that a particular planet was in a proximity of the star 

Eye of Aries (Alpha Aries) (see subsection 5.4.12). 

8.4.4 Constellations Symbols. Equinoctial 

Break on the Zodiac (P2) 

The constellation symbols on the Petosiris zodiacs are completely 

standard and easy to recognize. However, the orders of 

the zodiacal constellations on these two zodiacs are essentially 

different (see Figure 8.22 and 8.23). Let us try to understand 

what it is about. 

Figure 8.28: Unusual Order of the Zodiacal Constellations on 

the Inner Petosiris Zodiac (P2)

On the zodiac (P1) the order of the constellations is the 

same as observed on the real sky. However, on the zodiac (P2) 

the zodiacal constellations are arranged in a very unusual 

way. The ecliptic on the zodiac (P2) is cut in half through 

the equinox points and then the order in one of the halves 

is reversed (or simply it is reflected) before they are again 

put together (see Figure 8.28). In this way Virgo becomes 

a neighbor of the another equinox constellation — Pisces, 

while at the top of the zodiac, Libra follows Aries. Notice 

that there is a large supplementary scene on a boat inserted 

between Libra and Aries. It is clear that the correct order of 

the zodiacal constellations was twice violated. 

The idea behind this unusual transformation is rather obvious 

— to put the two equinox constellations together in 

the main spot on the zodiac. In this way Virgo (the autumn 

equinox) and Pisces (the spring equinox) appear on the zodiac 

(P2) one next to the other (see Figure 8.28). 

Regarding the “main” place on the zodiac (P2), let us 

point out that there is a clear vertical direction. In other 

words, the composition of the zodiac gives us an impression 

that there is a top and a bottom of the zodiac. For example all 

the planetary busts on the both zodiacs appear like “standing,” 

with the same orientations of their bodies (see Figures 

8.22 and 8.23). On the other hand, the symbols of constellations 

are placed around a circle with their feet pointing out 

from its center. Since the orientations of these figure are not 

the same, they do not look like “standing” together — there 

is no common for them vertical direction. There is only one 

place on each of the Petosiris zodiacs, where the zodiacal constellations 

are lined-up with the same orientation as indicated 

by the vertical axis of the zodiac. This place is the bottom 

of the picture, where we can say that the constellations are 

“standing” up. At any other place the constellation figures 

are either slanted or in upside-down positions with respect to 

the bottom and the top of the zodiac. 

On the outer zodiac (P1), this “main” location corresponds 

to the constellation of Virgo. The autumn equinox 

is located at that place as well. Unfortunately, the figure of 

Virgo is missing because of some damages in this area of the 

zodiac. However, the fragment with the next to Virgo figure 

of Scorpio was preserved, from which it is clear that Virgo 

indeed was there (see Figure 8.22). 

On the inner zodiac (P2), at this “main” location we find 

the usual symbols of equinoxes — a figure with four heads 

and a chain of snakes, all looking in the same direction (see 

section 5.8). On each of their sides, there are placed Pisces 

and Virgo — the two equinoctial constellations. 

We can conclude that on the zodiac (P2), there is a particular 

emphasis made on the both equinox points. In the same 

time on the zodiac (P1), at this “main” location there is only 

one equinox point — the autumn equinox. For the creator of 

the Petosiris tomb this was the most important equinox — it 

was the beginning of the Egyptian new year (see section ??). 


On the zodiac (P2), the both halves of the zodiacal circle 

are disconnected. In particular they are considerably split 

apart at the top. The important elements that are located in 

the Equinoctial Break are: 

1. the symbols of equinoxes (at the bottom of the zodiac); 

2. the central circle containing the Sun and two other planets; 

3. some other symbols in the upper part of the zodiac, including 

the boat and located in it figures (see Figure 8.23). 

All the above symbols are encircled by the two halves of 

the zodiacal constellation circle. 

The most crucial for the astronomical dating is the fact 

that the central circle with the Sun and two other planets 

is entirely contained inside the Equinoctial Break on the zodiac 

(P2). There are also included inside the Break the usual 

equinox symbols. The most probable interpretation of this design 

would be that the Sun, together with two other planets 

of the main horoscope (shown as human busts) were located 

near the equinox point. In particular, it is not hard to imagine 

which one of the equinox points it should be. Notice that 

Mercury on this zodiac is doubtlessly shown in Aries or Taurus 

(see Figure 8.23). On the other hand the Sun could not 

be too far from Mercury (at most 2 zodiacal constellations), 

therefore we have to exclude the autumn equinox point as its 

location. Notice that the distance from Mercury to the autumn 

equinox point, to Aries or to Taurus, is not less than 

5 zodiacal constellations. Therefore, the Sun and two other 

planets of the main horoscope were located near the point of 

the spring equinox. 

Let us conclude this section with a remark that a similar 

breaking of the zodiacal circle into two symmetric halves we 

have already seen in the case of Brugsch’s zodiac. The only 

difference is that the zodiacal circle was split into two parts at 

the solstice points near Sagittarius and Gemini, instead of the 

equinox points (see Figures 2.17 and 3.15). That means, that 

on Brugsch’s zodiac the emphasis was made on the solstice 

points, while on the inner Petosiris zodiac the equinox points 

were given a special status. Otherwise, in both cases the idea 

was the same. 

We begin with a description of our astronomical computations 

for the inner Petosiris zodiac, which was better preserved. 

8.4.5 Constellations Figures on the Inner 

Petosiris Zodiac P2 

As we have explained in the previous subsection, the ecliptic 

on the zodiac P2 is split into two halves. In its left half there 

are shown the following constellations (clockwisely from the 

bottom to the top — see Figures 8.23 and 8.28): 

Pisces — shown as a couple of fish; 

Aquarius — represented by a figure of a naked man holding 

Pisces on strings coming out from their mouths;


Capricorn — is featured as a fantastic animal, which is its 

typical symbol; 

Sagittarius — is shown in its usual form – a centaur; 

Scorpio — as a scorpion; 

Libra — is symbolized by a figure of a woman holding a scale 

with two weights in her hands (a similar symbol of Libra was 

also used on the Big Esna zodiac). 

In the right half of the ecliptic on the zodiac (P2) are 

shown the following constellations (counter-clockwise from 

the bottom to the top): 

Virgo — a female figure (its central part is missing); 

Leo — a lion standing on a snake; 

Cancer — a cancer, which is its typical representation on 

the Egyptian zodiacs; 

Gemini — two naked boys holding their hands; 

Taurus — a charging bull; 

Aries — a ram. 

We can conclude that on the inner Petosiris zodiac all 

the symbols of the 12 zodiacal constellations were sufficiently 

preserved so they can be easily identified. 

8.4.6 The Main Horoscope on the Inner Zodiac 

(P2) 

On the inner Petosiris zodiac (see Figure 8.23) the locations 

of Mars (annotated with the letter E), Mercury (annotated 

with D) and one more planet (annotated with the letter C) 

are shown clearly and conclusively. By elimination, the planet 

C can only be Saturn or Jupiter. Mars holding a spear is 

shown in Aries or in Pisces. Two-faced Mercury is located in 

Aries or in Pisces, and the third (not yet identified) planet C 

is in Cancer or Leo (see Figure 8.23). 

There remaining planets — the Sun, Venus and the third 

planet annotated with the letter A (see Figure 8.23) are 

shown inside the small circle in the center of the zodiac. Depending 

on a chosen variant of decoding, the planet A is 

either Jupiter or Saturn. Let us recall that we call this small 

circle the Central Circle of the zodiac (P2). It is clear that a 

special consideration was given to the location of these three 

planets inside the Central Circle. They occupy the central position 

inside the zodiac. In addition they are encircled by a 

thick line which separates them from the other planets in the 

zodiac. 

Finally, Moon is shown in the upper sector of the equinoctial 

break (it is annotated by the letter F). Notice that the 

crescent, on which the bust of Moon is standing, is slightly 

overlapping with the thick oval line surrounding the Central 

Circle. Possibly, it could mean (but not necessarily) that 

Moon was close to the Sun and two other planets inside the 

Central Circle. 

In this way, the planetary configuration of the Sun, the 

planet A (Jupiter or Saturn), and the most probably Moon 

on the zodiac (P2), clearly depends on the meaning assumed 

by the artist-astronomer, who designed this zodiac (see Figure 

8.29) of the Central Circle. There are two possible interpretations 

of the Central Circle. 

1. The Central Circle could simply signify that enclosed inside 

it planets were not far one from another. In this case 

the corresponding configuration of these planets should 

be exactly like it is portrayed on the zodiac (P2). Let us 

point out that independently of our interpretation of the 

Central Circle, it is clear that the planet denoted on Figure 

8.29 by the letter A (the bust on the left from the 

boy representing the Sun), was not far from the Sun and 

Venus, i.e. it was in the proximity of the spring equinox 

point. This planet could not be in the proximity of Libra 

or Scorpio, in spite of the fact that on the zodiac (P2) 

they are shown as the closest to the planet A constellations. 

Indeed, if the actual location of the planet A was 

among the constellations shown in the left half of the zodiac 

(i.e. Libra, Scorpio, etc.), then it would also be on 

the opposite side of the ecliptic from the Sun and Venus. 

In such a case, enclosing this planet inside the Central 

Circle, together with the Sun and Venus, would not make 

any sense. Moreover, since the other planets shown on the 

right half of the zodiac were placed outside the Central 

Circle, it would be appropriate to expect that a planet 

located near Libra or Scorpio should be portrayed in a 

similar way. However, this is not the case on the Petosiris 

zodiac (P2). It is clear that the author of the zodiac (P2) 

ostensibly separated this planet from the constellation figures 

on the left and put it inside the oval-circle shown in 

the center of the zodiac, side by side with the Sun and 

Venus. Since Mercury is shown in Aries or Taurus, it is 

not astronomically possible that this planetary configuration 

would be close to any of the constellations in the left 

half of the zodiac (see Figures 8.23 and 8.29). We should 

remember that the Sun and Venus always appear not too 

far from Mercury, which is on the Petosiris zodiac (P2) 

shown exactly on the opposite from Libra and Scorpio 

side of the ecliptic. 

With such interpretation of the meaning of the Central 

Circle, we should also admit arbitrary order of Venus and 

Mars on the ecliptic. Although Venus is shown on the zodiac 

(P2) closer to the Sun than Mars, all these figures 

are related to the same location on the ecliptic with respect 

to the zodiacal constellations. Notice that on the 

zodiac (P2), Venus is located slightly lower than Mars 

(but still this difference is negligible), what could eventually 

be considered as an indication that Venus was more 

distant from the Sun. In addition, the inclusion of Venus 

inside the Central Circle could be dictated by the fact that 

it is much brighter than Mars (see Figure 8.29). For these 

reasons we gave the same consideration to all solutions 

regardless of the order of Venus and Mars. 

2. The second possible interpretation: the Central Circle indicates 

a distinguished group of three planets (the Sun, 

Venus and one more planet), for which their positions on 

the ecliptic are indicated by the location of the circle.

Figure 8.29: Color Annotated Inner Petosiris Zodiac (P2). 

8.4 Two Zodiacs from the Petosiris Tomb 253


Since the Central Circle is shown on the zodiac P2 inside 

the Equinoctial Break, the astronomical explanation of 

its meaning could be as follows: 

The group of three planets, which included the Sun 

and Venus, was located in a proximity of one of the 

two equinox points. It was closer to that equinox point 

than any other planet. As we have explained earlier, this 

equinox point could only be the spring equinox. Otherwise 

we would get a contradiction with the location of Mercury. 

These planets are encircled by an oval in order to 

separate them from the constellation symbols. With this 

interpretation of the zodiac (P2), the order of Venus and 

Mars, contrary to the previous one, is well determined. 

Venus, together with the whole Central Circle, was closer 

to Aquarius and further from Taurus than Mars (see Figure 

8.29). 

We will refer to the first possible interpretation of the 

zodiac (P2) as the Dispersed Central Circle, and we will call 

the second one as the Clustered Central Circle. In this way we 

have obtained two essentially different decodings of the main 

horoscope on the zodiac (P2). 

The Case of Dispersed Central Circle 

Based on our discussion in the preceding subsection, we have 

the following decoding of the main horoscope on the zodiac 

(P2): 

• Sun — in Aries or Taurus. 

• Moon — near one of the equinox points (Aquarius-Pisces- 

Aries or Leo-Virgo-Libra) 

• Jupiter (or Saturn) — in Aries or Pisces. In our computations 

we have also included the locations of Jupiter in 

Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarius, i.e. in all the constellations 

shown in the part of the zodiac on the left from 

the Central Circle. However, for those additional locations 

we found no solution in the whole historical time interval 

from the year 500 B.C. till 1900 A.D. 

• Venus — in Aries or Cancer. 

• Mars — in Aries or Cancer. 

• Mercury — in Aries or Taurus. 

• Saturn (or Jupiter) — in Cancer or Virgo. 

In the case the third planet in the Central Circle was 

Jupiter, we have the following order of the planets on the 

ecliptic: 

Jupiter–(Moon?)–Sun–Venus=Mars–Mercury–Saturn– 

(Moon?) 

In the case the third planet in the Central Circle was Saturn, 

we have the following order of the planets on the ecliptic: 

Saturn–(Moon?)–Sun–Venus=Mars–Mercury–Jupiter– 

(Moon?) 

We have used the sign ‘=’ in between of those planets (i.e. 

Venus and Mars) for which any possible order was considered. 

The position of Moon could be either near the spring or the 

autumn equinox point. 

If Moon was located in a proximity of the spring equinox, 

then it would also be not too far from the planets of the 

Central Circle. In this case we required the same order of the 

planets as it is shown on the zodiac (P2). In other words, 

Moon should be in between the Sun and the planet denoted 

by the letter A — what is indicated on the zodiac by a small 

overlapping of the figure representing Moon with the Central 

Circle (see Figure 8.23 and 8.29). 

On the other hand, a possible location of Moon on the 

opposite side of the ecliptic, near the autumn equinox point, 

does not contradict the idea of the Dispersed Central Circle 

either. Since Moon was not included among the planets inside 

the Central Circle it could be an indication that it was 

located far away from them. As Libra is the closest to Moon 

constellation on the zodiac (P2), consequently the location of 

Moon could be there — near the point of the autumn equinox 

located in the next to Libra constellation of Virgo (see Figures 

8.23 and 8.29). Let us recall that in the planet C is also 

shown in Virgo (see Figure 8.23). 

According to this interpretation, the purpose of the Central 

Circle on the zodiac (P2) could be to separate the planet 

A (which is located inside this circle) from Libra, and associate 

it with the Sun and Venus. Since the overlapping of 

Moon with the Central Circle is almost negligible, it is possible 

that its there is no relation between them. In this case the 

Moon’s location is near Libra, between the planets A and C. 

Although Moon appears on the zodiac far from the planet C, 

its actual position is closer to C than to A. The order of the 

planets on the zodiac can be determined following the rules 

from right to left and upward: first, the planets on the right 

side from the Central Circle upward, next, the planets from 

the Central Circle from right to left, and finally Moon, which 

is shown at the highest position among all the planets. Let us 

point out that Mars is also shown on the zodiac (P2) slightly 

higher than Venus, thus it could symbolize that its position 

on the ecliptic was behind Venus. Because of this ambiguity, 

the order of Mars and Venus in the case of Dispersed Central 

Circle is uncertain. In our calculations, we’ve allowed for the 

positions of these two planets to be interchangeable. Notice 

that, on the one hand, Venus is placed inside the Central Circle 

beside the Sun, while Mars is shown outside the Central 

Circle. On the other hand, if we compare the projections of 

these planets on the external circle, which could be considered 

as an “ecliptic,” it becomes clear that Venus may be further 

from the Sun than Mars. Therefore, in order to avoid any unjustified 

pre-assumption, we gave the equal consideration to 

all solutions regardless to the order of these two planets. In 

the final solution, it turned out (exactly how it was expected) 

that Venus was indeed closer to the Sun. 

Let us present the input data for the program HOROS. Let 

us notice that the third and fourth variants of decoding (their 

codes P52 and P53) are simply obtained from the first two 

variants (their codes P52 and P51) by interchanging Jupiter

and Saturn. Let us recall that the planet A on the zodiac 

(P2) is shown as a male bust inside the Central Circle (see 

Figure 8.23). 

ZODIAC: Inner Petosiris (P2) 

DECODING VARIANT: Dispersed Central Circle, Planet A = 

Jupiter, Moon near the spring equinox point. 

CODE OF THE DECODING VARIANT: P50 

ORDER OF PLANETS ON THE ECLIPTIC: JUPITER, MOON, SUN, 

VENUS MARS, MERCURY, SATURN 

Venus is interchangeable with the Mars. 

-----------------------DATA------------------------- 


# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

11.0 10.0 3.0 8.0 11.0 11.0 0.0 

# TO: ---------------------------------------------# 

1.0 1.0 5.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------# 

11.5 11.4 4.0 11.2 11.9 11.9 1.0 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 

---------------------------------------------------- 



Jupiter, Moon near the autumn equinox point. 


ORDER OF PLANETS ON THE ECLIPTIC: JUPITER, SUN, VENUS 

MARS, MERCURY, SATURN, MOON 


-----------------------DATA------------------------- 


# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

11.0 5.0 3.0 8.0 11.0 11.0 0.0 

# TO: ---------------------------------------------# 

1.0 8.0 5.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------# 

11.6 6.5 4.0 11.2 11.9 11.9 1.0 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 

---------------------------------------------------- 



Saturn, Moon near the spring equinox point. 


ORDER OF PLANETS ON THE ECLIPTIC: SATURN, MOON, SUN, 

VENUS MARS, MERCURY, JUPITER 


-----------------------DATA------------------------- 


# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

11.0 5.0 8.0 3.0 11.0 11.0 0.0 

# TO: ---------------------------------------------# 

1.0 8.0 1.0 5.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------# 

11.6 6.5 11.2 4.0 11.9 11.9 1.0 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 



Saturn, Moon near the autumn equinox point. 


ORDER OF PLANETS ON THE ECLIPTIC: SATURN, SUN, VENUS 


MARS, MERCURY, JUPITER, MOON 


-----------------------DATA------------------------- 


# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

11.0 5.0 8.0 3.0 11.0 11.0 0.0 

# TO: ---------------------------------------------# 

1.0 8.0 1.0 5.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------# 

11.6 6.5 11.2 4.2 11.9 11.9 1.0 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 

---------------------------------------------------- 





The Case of Clustered Central Circle 

In this subsection, we’ll dicuss the second variant of decoding 

of the main horoscope on the zodiac (P2) — the variant with 

the Clustered Central Circle, i.e the Central Circle will be 

considered as a representation of a separate cluster of planets 

around the Sun. In this case, contrary to the previous 

variant of decoding, we will assume that the author of the zodiac 

depicted inside the Central Circle a distinguished group 

o planets and described its position instead of the locations of 

individual planets. Consequently, we do not need to analyze 

the locations of individual planets inside the Central Circle 

with respect to the “outside” constellation figures, but only 

the position of the whole group. In other words, the picture 

shown inside the Central Circle on the zodiac (P2), could simply 

be a representation the configuration of planets belonging 

to this group, without connection to the outside. As we already 

noticed, inside the Central Circle there is shown the 

Sum, Venus and one more male planet — possibly Jupiter or 

Saturn (see Figure 8.23). 

In this way, by adopting this approach, we obtain the following 

decoding of the main horoscope on the zodiac (P2). 

• Sun — in Aries or Pisces. 

• Moon — near one of the equinox points (Aquarius-Pisces- 

Aries or Leo-Virgo-Libra) 

• Jupiter (or Saturn) — in Aries or Pisces, next to the Sun. 

• Venus — in Aries or Pisces, next to the Sun. 

• Mars — in Aries or Pisces. 

• Mercury – in Aries or Taurus. 

• Saturn (or Jupiter) — in Cancer or Leo. 

In the case the third planet in the Central Circle was 

Jupiter, we have the following order of the planets on the 

ecliptic: 

Jupiter=(Moon?)–Sun–Venus=Mars–Mercury–Saturn– 

(Moon?) 

In the case the third planet in the Central Circle was Saturn, 

we have the following order of the planets on the ecliptic:


Saturn=(Moon?)–Sun–Venus=Mars–Mercury–Jupiter– 

(Moon?) 

Since Moon is shown inside the equinoctial break on the 

zodiac (P2), in this case, similarly to the case of the Dispersed 

Central Circle, there are two possible locations of Moon — 

near the spring or autumn equinox points. 

In the case of an astronomical solution with Moon close to 

the spring equinox point, we relaxed the order requirements 

and allowed for the planet A, from the Central Circle) to 

be interchangeable with Moon. Since Moon is a fast moving 

planet, the loosening its order requirements didn’t have a significant 

impact on generating new solutions. It only caused 

shifting of already obtained dates by few days. 

On the other hand, if Moon was located near the autumn 

equinox point, we required that its position should be between 

the planet A and the planet C (see Figures 8.23 or 8.29). In 

other words, Moon should be between Saturn and Jupiter. 

Let us recall that in any variant of decoding , the planets A 

and C are Jupiter or Saturn, or vice versa. 

In the previous variant, Venus and Mars were considered 

to be interchangeable. In the case of Clustered Central Circle, 

we assume that the closest to the Sun planets are shown in 

the Central Circle, so their respective order is uniquely determined. 

Venus is located inside the Central Circle, while Mars 

is not there. Consequently, Venus should be closer to the Sun 

than Mars (see Figures 8.23 or 8.29). 

Let us present the input data for the program HOROS 

— the four additional variants of decoding. In this way we 

have the total of possible eight variants. Let us notice that 

the third and fourth variants of decoding (in the table below 

— their codes P63 and P64) are simply obtained from the 

first two variants (their codes P61 and P62) by interchanging 

Jupiter and Saturn. 


DECODING VARIANT: Clustered Central Circle, Planet A = 



ORDER OF PLANETS ON THE ECLIPTIC: JUPITER MOON, SUN, 

VENUS, MARS, MERCURY, SATURN 

-----------------------DATA------------------------- 


# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

11.0 10.0 3.0 8.0 11.0 11.0 0.0 

# TO: ---------------------------------------------# 

1.0 12.0 5.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------# 

11.5 11.4 4.0 11.2 11.9 11.7 1.0 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 





ORDER OF PLANETS ON THE ECLIPTIC: JUPITER, SUN, VENUS, 

MARS, MERCURY, SATURN, MOON 

-----------------------DATA------------------------- 


# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

11.0 5.0 3.0 8.0 11.0 11.0 0.0 

# TO: ---------------------------------------------# 

1.0 8.0 5.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------# 

11.5 6.5 4.0 11.2 11.9 11.7 1.0 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 

---------------------------------------------------- 





ORDER OF PLANETS ON THE ECLIPTIC: SATURN MOON, SUN, 

VENUS, MARS, MERCURY, JUPITER 

-----------------------DATA------------------------- 


# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

11.0 5.0 8.0 3.0 11.0 11.0 0.0 

# TO: ---------------------------------------------# 

1.0 12.0 1.0 5.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------# 

11.5 11.2 11.2 4.0 11.9 11.7 1.0 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 





ORDER OF PLANETS ON THE ECLIPTIC: SATURN, SUN, VENUS, 

MARS, MERCURY, JUPITER, MOON 

-----------------------DATA------------------------- 


# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

11.0 5.0 8.0 3.0 11.0 11.0 0.0 

# TO: ---------------------------------------------# 

1.0 8.0 1.0 5.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------# 

11.6 6.5 11.2 4.0 11.9 11.7 1.0 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 

---------------------------------------------------- 





8.4.7 Symbols of Equinoxes, Solstices, Partial 

Horoscopes and Supplementary 

Scenes on the Petosiris Zodiac (P2) 

In the lower part of the equinoctial beak on the zodiac (P2), 

there are shown two symbols of equinoxes (see subsections 

5.8.1 and 5.8.3).

(1) A figure of an eye with wings, walking on human legs. It 

carries a familiar symbol of the spring equinox — a row 

of cobras looking into one direction. It is located, as it is 

supposed to, near the constellation of Pisces (see Figure 

8.23). Let us recall that the spring equinox point is located 

in Pisces. 

(2) Another symbol of equinox — a creature with four heads, 

is located near the constellation of Virgo. Notice that the 

autumn equinox point is also located there (see Figure 

8.23). 

Partial Horoscopes, with possible exception for the minimal 

partial horoscope of the spring equinox, are missing on 

the zodiac (P2). That means, we do not have additional information, 

which could be helpful for the astronomical dating 

of the zodiac (P2). Fortunately, we are dealing here with two 

zodiacs — (P1) and (P2), with the dates that should be close 

one to another. This situation creates better chances for finding 

a pair of complete solutions for these zodiacs. 

Partial Horoscope of the Spring Equinox on the zodiac 

(P2) was already discussed above. It is the scene inside 

the Central Circle: a figure of a boy with a crescent and a 

disc over his head, that symbolizes the Sun in the main horoscope. 

The boy holds two vertical snakes in his hands and 

stands on two crocodiles. This scene most probably symbolizes 

the minimal horoscope of the spring equinox: the boy — 

the Sun, two vertical snakes — Mercury, and two crocodiles 

— Venus (see subsection 8.4.3). Moreover, double representations 

of Mercury and Venus are quite common on Egyptian 


Let us point out that this interpretation has no impact 

on the actual astronomical dating of the zodiac (P2). As we 

mentioned it earlier, minimal partial horoscopes do not contain 

any nontrivial astronomical information (see Chapter 5 

for more details). We have discussed these issues here just for 

the purpose of completeness. Let us conclude that on the zodiac 

(P2), where the equinoctial constellations are clearly in 

the center of focus, and the main date (because of the Sun’s 

position) is close to the spring equinox, the appearance of the 

partial horoscope (although minimal) on the zodiac seems to 

be very natural. 

Finally, on the zodiac (P2), there is a supplementary Scene 

in a Boat. Unfortunately, it contains only a little of information 

that could be used for the astronomical dating purposes. 

In this scene, which is located above the top of the Equinoctial 

Break, we see a scarab beetle with spread out wings standing 

in the center of the boat. The beetle probably represents here 

the Sun (see Figure 8.23). At the stem of the boat there is 

shown a figure of lion with a human face (on the photograph 

included in [5], one can see clearly that this is a human face, 

but it is difficult to recognize if it is female of male). This figure 

most probably symbolizes the constellation of Leo. At the 

stern of the boat, there is standing a human figure. It is hard 

to recognize from the photograph included in [5] what kind 

of a head it has — is it a falcon’s head or two-faced head? 

The boat is surrounded from each side by four monkeys walk- 


ing towards the boat with raised arms. Because of the Leo’s 

presence in the boat, and the fact that it is placed inside the 

Equinoctial Break, this scene is most probably related to the 

autumn equinox. It could signify that on the autumn equinox 

day, when the Sun was in Virgo, Venus was on one side of the 

Sun in Leo, while on the other side was Mars (or Mercury). 

Let us recall that the figure of lion with human face on the 

Big Esna zodiac was identified as Venus in a partial horoscope; 

falcon’s head usually symbolized Mars, and two-faced 

head — Mercury. 

If it is a case, then this scene agrees well with one of the 

obtained by us solutions for the zodiac (P2) — the year 1714 

(see for more details below). Since the beginning of the Egyptian 

year was in September (what presently is in January), in 

the year corresponding to that solution, the autumn equinox 

occured in September 1713. On that day Venus was in Leo 

and Mars was in Libra — on the opposite side of the Sun. 

This astronomical situation matches well our interpretation 

of the Scene in a Boat. However, because of the poor quality 

of the picture showing the Scene in a Boat, we are not able 

to identify with certainty the figures in this scene, therefore 

we did not use this information in the dating process. 

In this way, we’ve completed our discussion of all the figures 

inside the large circle of the zodiac (P2), which contains 

the essential part of the zodiac (see Figure 8.23). The figures 

standing outside the large circle-oval, namely the female figures 

with wings, birds and stars, are not related to the main 

date encoded in the zodiac. Therefore, we did not use them 

for the astronomical dating of the zodiac (P2). Let us point 

out that these four girls look similar to the female figures surrounding 

the Round Denderah zodiac. It is possible that the 

Denderah zodiac was in some sense used as a model for the 

Petosiris zodiacs. 

8.4.8 Astronomical Solutions for the Inner 

Petosiris Zodiac P2 

For the computations of the possible dates shown on the zodiac 

(P2), we need to consider all the eight variants of decoding 

for this zodiac. More precisely, there are two variants of 

interpretation of the Central Circle: the variant of Dispersed 

Central Circle and the variant of Clustered Central Circle. For 

each of these two variants, there are two possible variants of 

identification of Jupiter and Saturn with the planets denoted 

by letter s A and C (see Figure 8.23). In addition, there are 

also two variants, independent of the previous identifications, 

for the location of Moon — either at the spring or autumn 

equinox point. Consequently, we obtain exactly 2 3 = 8 possible 

variants of decoding, for which we were using in our 

computations the codes P50, P51, P52, P53, P60, P61, P62, 

and P63. 

The corresponding to these variants input data for the 

program HOROS was listed above. Let us now present the results 

of our computations. For each of the solutions, we show 

only one date from the acceptable interval consisting of several 

consecutive days. This date corresponds to the minimal


mean discrepancy from the best points. This minimal mean 

discrepancy, which we denote by d, is measured in degrees. 

1) Variant P50: Dispersed Central Circle. A = Jupiter, C 

= Saturn. Moon near the spring equinox point. 

SOLUTIONS: 

April 6, 563 AD., d = 13.8 o 

April 2, 1714 AD., d = 11.4 o 

Positions of planets (in degrees) on the ecliptic J2000 



37.9 o 7.6 o 

131.3 o 357.4 o 49.1 o 44.4 o 

52.1 o 

Aries Pisces Cancer Pisces Aries Aries Tau/Ari 






27.1 o 

15.0 o 158.9 o 

6.6 o 

33.7 o 27.4 o 

44.4 o 

Pis/Ari Pisces Leo Pisces Aries Pis/Ari Aries 



2) Variant P51: Dispersed Central Circle. A = Jupiter, C 

= Saturn. Moon near the autumn equinox point. 

SOLUTIONS: 

April 9, 55 B.C., d = 6.1 o 

March 27, 563 AD., d = 9.3 o 

3) Variant P52: Dispersed Central Circle. A = Saturn, C 

= Jupiter. Moon near the spring equinox point. 

NO SOLUTIONS 

4) Variant P53: Dispersed Central Circle. A = Saturn, C 

= Jupiter. Moon near the autumn equinox point. 

SOLUTIONS: 


Year/Month/Day = -54/4/9 


14.7 o 225.5 o 152.2 o 

347.3 o 

20.4 o 22.8 o 

31.9 o 

Pisces Libra Leo Aqu/Pis Pisces Pisces Aries 


Table 8.14: Planetary Positions on March 9, -54 




28.2 o 227.9 o 131.1 o 355.2 o 41.9 o 32.1 o 

47.9 o 

Aries Libra Cancer Pisces Aries Aries Aries 



March 30, 418 B.C., d = 18.2 o 

April 7, 275 B.C., d = 15.2 o 




37.1 o 221.6 o 30.8 o 

122.2 o 37.2 o 41.6 o 

56.6 o 

Aries Libra Aries Cancer Aries Aries Taurus 


Table 8.16: Planetary Positions on March 30, -417 




44.2 o 225.0 o 340.9 o 

142.1 o 

49.4 o 

46.7 o 

56.7 o 

Aries Libra Aquar Can/Leo Ari/Tau Aries Taurus 


Table 8.17: Planetary Positions on April 7, -274

5) Variant P60: Clustered Central Circle. A = Jupiter, C 

= Saturn. Moon near the spring equinox point. 

SOLUTIONS: 

April 5, 563 AD., d = 14.5 o 

March 23, 1240 AD., d = 12.9 o 

April 2, 1714 AD., d = 14.2 o 




36.9 o 353.3 o 131.3 o 357.2 o 48.4 o 43.2 o 

52.1 o 

Aries Pisces Cancer Pisces Aries Aries Ari/Tau 


Table 8.18: Planetary Positions on April 5, 563 




20.8 o 

1.2 o 

124.1 o 

17.7 o 424.6 o 23.9 o 

36.1 o 

Pis/Ari Pisces Leo Pisces Aries Pis/Ari Aries 



6) Variant P61: Clustered Central Circle. A = Jupiter, C 

= Saturn. Moon near the autumn equinox point. 

SOLUTIONS: 




28.2 o 227.9 o 131.1 o 355.2 o 41.9 o 32.1 o 

47.9 o 

Pis/Ari Libra Cancer Pisces Aries Aries Aries 



7) Variant P62: Clustered Central Circle. A = Saturn, C 

= Jupiter. Moon near the spring equinox point. 

NO SOLUTIONS 


8) Variant P63: Clustered Central Circle. A = Saturn, C 

= Jupiter. Moon near the autumn equinox point. 

SOLUTIONS: 




44.2 o 225.0 o 340.9 o 

142.1 o 

49.4 o 

46.7 o 

56.7 o 

Aries Libra Aquar Can/Leo Ari/Tau Aries Taurus 


Table 8.21: Planetary Positions on April 7, -274 

In this way, we have obtained several solutions for the zodiac 

(P2), which are scattered all over the historical time interval. 

It was not an unexpected outcome — in the case of the 

zodiac (P2), we did not have partial horoscopes or additional 

astronomical information that could be used for validation 

of solutions. The astronomical contents of the zodiac P2 is 

rather “poor.” Moreover, its decoding is not unique. In the 

case of multiple variants of decoding there is also increase in 

the number of possible astronomical solutions. 

Therefore, in order to choose the correct date from the 

set of obtained solutions, we will need to compare them with 

the astronomical solutions for the zodiac (P1). The fact that 

the both zodiacs (P1) and (P2) were found in the same tomb, 

allows us to expect that their dates should be close one to 

another. It is possible that the dates commemorated in these 

zodiacs are related to the birth and death of the buried in the 

tomb person. In the case of the Petosiris tomb, based on the 

pictures painted on its walls, it is reasonable to expect that it 

contains a body of a middle-age man, who was probably killed 

in a battle (see beginning of the section 8.4). That means the 

difference between the dates of the zodiacs P1 and P2 should 

be in the interval from 20 to 60 years. 

Let us proceed with the decoding of the date on the zodiac 

(P1). 

8.4.9 Constellations and Planetary Figures 

on the Outer Petosiris Zodiac P1 

A detailed drawing of the Outer Petosiris zodiac (P1) was 

shown on Figure 8.22. The planets on this zodiac are represented 

by the same symbols as on the zodiac (P2) (see subsection 

8.4.3). Unfortunately, a large portion of the zodiac 

(P1) was destroyed. On Figure 8.22, which was taken from 

[5], there are the annotations A, B, C, D, G, F around 

the preserved fully or partially planetary symbols. They were


made by the authors of [5]. From these annotation it follows 

clearly the following identification: 

Venus — the planet B. It is a bust of a female, exactly the 

same as on the zodiac (P2). It is located the area that can be 

associated with Taurus and Gemini, but also possibly with 

Aries. 

Moon — the planet F. It is a bust of a female on a crescent, 

which is exactly the same as on the zodiac (P2). It is located 

between Aries and Taurus. In contrast to the other planets, 

it is placed among the constellation figures. 

Jupiter and Saturn — the planets A and C. There are 

shown as male busts, wearing tunics, which are very similar 

to the representations of Jupiter and Saturn on the zodiac 

(P2). We have the same problem with the identification of 

these two planets as it was in the case of the zodiac (P2). It 

is impossible to determine definitely which one of the planets 

A and C is Saturn and which one is Jupiter. They look very 

similar. Therefore, we have to consider again two possible 

variants of identification of these two planets. The planet A 

is shown in Aries, Pisces or Aquarius, while the planet C is 

in Capricorn, Sagittarius or Scorpio (see Figure 8.22). 

The only bust shown in profile is the planet D. It should be 

Mercury — exactly like it was on the zodiac (P2). This figure 

on the zodiac (P1) is almost completely destroyed. Only 

a small portion of the head, most probably two-faced, survived 

15 . On the drawing shown on Figure 8.22, it is very clear 

that figure representing the planet C is shown from profile. 

It is also clear that is located on the right from Scorpio, i.e. 

either in Libra or Virgo. 

The place on the zodiac (P1), where the figure representing 

Mars should be located, was annotated by the authors of 

[5] by the letter G. It is just in front of Gemini (see Figure 

8.22). The authors of [5] wrote: “Nothing preserved of Mars,” 

but according to the drawing of the zodiac P1 (see Figure 

8.22) the symbol of Mars could be located not only in Gemini, 

but also in Virgo, Leo or Cancer. It is clear that this figure 

couldn’t fit into the space near other constellations. 

The symbol of the Sun is missing on the zodiac (P1). 

We have to assume that it was located somewhere in the destroyed 

part of the zodiac, i.e in the area of the constellations 

Scorpio, Libra, Virgo, Leo, Cancer, and Gemini. 

8.4.10 The Main Horoscope and the Supplementary 

Scenes on the Outer Zodiac 

P1 

Consequently we obtain the following decoding of the main 

horoscope on the zodiac (P1): 

• Venus — in Aries, Taurus or Gemini. The “Best Point” for 

this planet is on the boundary between Aries and Taurus. 

The order of this planet is interchangeable with Moon. 

15 See [5], p. 96. 

• Moon — in Aries or Taurus. The “Best Point” is on 

the boundary between Aries and Taurus. Moon is interchangeable 

with Venus. 

• Jupiter (or Saturn) — the planet A in Aries, Pisces, or in 

Aquarius. The “Best Point” — the border between Aries 

and Taurus. 

• Saturn (or Jupiter) — the planet C in Capricorn, Sagittarius 

or Scorpio. The “Best Point” — the border between 

Sagittarius and Scorpio. 

• Mercury — in Libra or Virgo. The “Best Point” — the 

border between Libra and Virgo. 

• Venus — in Aries or Cancer. 

• Mars — in Virgo, Leo, Cancer or Gemini. The “Best 

Point” — in the middle of Gemini (also confirmed by 

the authors of [5]). 

• Sun — in Scorpio, Libra, Virgo, Leo, Cancer or Gemini. 

However, in our computations we did not impose any 

restriction on the Sun location. As the matter of fact, 

the position of the Sun can not be too far from Venus 

and Mercury, so it is clear that its location should be 

somewhere in between these two planets. Otherwise, the 

distance between the Sun and Venus, or between the Sun 

and Mercury would be too big to be astronomically possible. 

Consequently, we obtain that the location of the Sun 

on the zodiac (P1) should be somewhere in its destroyed 

portion, exactly where we expected it to be (see subsection 

8.4.9). In fact, it is not possible that the Sun to be 

located in a different location, thus it was not even necessary 

to verify that its location was in the appropriate 

constellation listed above. 

In this way, we obtain two variants of decoding for the 

main horoscope, which was using as the input data for the 

program HOROS: 

ZODIAC: Outer Petosiris (P1) 

CODE OF THE DECODING VARIANT: PSR 

PLANET A = JUPITER 

-----------------------DATA------------------------- 


# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

0.0 0.0 7.0 10.0 2.0 0.0 5.0 

# TO: ---------------------------------------------# 

12.0 2.0 10.0 1.0 6.0 3.0 7.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------# 

200 1.0 8.0 11.0 2.5 1.0 6.0 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 

---------------------------------------------------- 

ZODIAC: Outer Petosiris (P1) 

CODE OF THE DECODING VARIANT: PSS 

PLANET A = SATURN 

-----------------------DATA------------------------- 


# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

0.0 0.0 10.0 7.0 2.0 0.0 5.0 

# TO: ---------------------------------------------# 

12.0 2.0 1.0 10.0 6.0 3.0 7.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------#

200 1.0 11.0 8.0 2.5 1.0 6.0 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 





There are no other supplementary astronomical scenes on 

the zodiac (P1). The astronomical content of the zodiac (P1) 

is limited to its main horoscope. 

Let us notice that the Egyptian symbol of -eye that is 

located above the female bust representing Moon (see Figure 

8.22) can not be helpful either in the selection process 

of the admissible solutions. As we have mentioned it earlier, 

this symbol was used to annotate the planets that were not 

far from the star Alpha Aries, called also Eye of Aries. By 

the way, the location of this symbol agrees very well with 

the astronomical picture shown on the zodiac. Indeed, Moon 

with the symbol of -eye is located exactly at the border 

between Aries and Taurus. That means that, because of its 

relatively fast motion, Moon during the days corresponding 

to the astronomical solution had to pass by the star Eye of 

Aries. 

8.4.11 Astronomically Possible Dates for 

the Zodiac P1 

Let us list all astronomically possible solutions for the date 

encoded in the zodiac (P1). For each of the obtained solutions, 

which usually corresponded to several consecutive days, we 

have selected only one date for which the mean discrepancy 

from the best points was minimal (see section 6.11). The mean 

discrepancy (distance) d from the best points is specified (in 

degrees) for each of the listed below solutions. 

The First Variant of Decoding (the code of decoding — PSR). 

The planet A = Jupiter. 

SOLUTIONS: 

August 4, 459 B.C., d = 38.1 o 

July 17, 457 B.C., d = 49.8 o 

July 28, 339 B.C., d = 24.5 o 

August 8, 76 AD., d = 25.3 o 

August 14, 279 AD., d = 26.4 o 

August 1, 693 AD., d = 27.9 o 

July 26, 813 AD., d = 33.3 o 

August 5, 1227 AD., d = 29.6 o 

August 11, 1430 AD., d = 29.4 o 

August 2, 1667 AD., d = 34.7 o 

August 21, 1844 AD., d = 29.5 o 

The Second Variant of Decoding (the code of decoding — 

PSR). The planet A = Saturn. 

SOLUTIONS: 


July 30, 845 AD., d = 18.2 o 

August 14, 1641 AD., d = 35.6 o 

August 27, 1876 AD., d = 29.4 o 

August 6, 1878 AD., d = 35.9 o 

8.4.12 Astronomical Dating of the Pair of 

the Zodiacs (P1) and (P2) 

Let us list, in the ascending order, all the obtained in subsection 

8.4.8 dates for the zodiac (P2). We will compare them 

with the just obtained dates for the zodiac (P1) and we will 

select those pairs for which the difference is smaller than 100 

years (i.e. could be considered as a lifespan of a certain person). 

However, as we have explained it earlier, a particular 

attention will be given to the pairs with the difference that 

can be related to a lifespan of a middle-aged man, i.e. between 

20 and 60 years. 

All the possible dates for the zodiac P2 are the following 

(see subsection 8.4.8 for more discussion related to the 

computations of these dates): 

March 30, 418 B.C., d = 18.2 o 

April 7, 275 B.C., d = 15.2 or d = 16.9 o 

April 9, 55 B.C., d = 6.1 o 

March 27, 563 AD., d = 9.3 o or d = 11.0 o 

April 5, 563 AD., d = 14.5 o 

April 6, 563 AD., d = 13.8 o 

March 23, 1240 AD., d = 12.9 o 

April 2, 1714 AD., d = 14.2 o or d = 11.4 o 

By comparing this list with the list of all possible dates 

for the zodiac (P1) (see subsection 8.4.11), we realize that 

there are possible only three pairs of the dates with the difference 

between them smaller than 100 years. Among those 

three pairs, there is only one pair with the difference larger 

than 20 years and smaller than 60 years. That means, there 

is only one ideal pair of solutions for the Petosiris zodiacs: 

August 2, 1667 AD., for the zodiac P1, and 

April 2, 1714 AD., for the zodiac P2 

The difference between these two dates is 47 years, which 

fits very well the possible age of the killed in a battle warrior 

shown on the walls in the Petosiris tomb (see Figures 8.21 

and 8.26). 

The positions of planets on the ecliptic J2000 for the solution 

April 2, 1714, which was obtained for the zodiac (P2), 

were presented in Table 8.13. Let us list the positions of planets 

for the solution August 2, 1667 for the zodiac (P1). Notice 

that there is a very good correspondence between these positions 

and the astronomical picture shown on the zodiac (P1) 


Let us point out that in the case of the zodiac (P1), the 

mean distance from the best points can only serve as a rough



Zodiac (P1), Code of Decoding — PSR 



144.2 o 

62.5 o 

301.6 o 

40.0 o 

120.1 o 

118.0 o 

169.9 o 

Can/Leo Taurus Sag/Cap Aries Gem/Can Gem/Can Leo 


Table 8.22: Planetary Positions on April 2, 1714 

indicator of the quality of the obtained astronomical solution. 

As a matter of fact, the locations of the planetary symbols 

with respect to the constellation figures on the zodiac (P1) are 

only indicated approximatively, so it is not surprising that the 

“best points” are determined with accuracy about 1–2 zodiacal 

constellations. For the same reason the mean discrepancy 

from the best points for this solution is rather large — 34.7 o , 

which is about to times larger than in the case of other Egyptian 

zodiacs (for example the zodiac (P2)). 

For the purpose of completeness, let us also present two 

other pairs of solutions, for which the difference between the 

dates was less than 100 years. 

August 4, 459 B.C., or July 17, 457 B.C., or July 28, 339 

B.C. 

(for the zodiac (P1)) 

March 30, 418 B.C. (for the zodiac (P2)) 

Nevertheless, this solution is much too early, even from 

the point of view of the Scaliger chronology, which claims that 

the symbols of zodiacal constellations (such as they appear 

on the both Petosiris zodiacs) appeared in Egypt not earlier 

than the 1st century B.C. In addition, this dates contradict 

the all obtained by us dates for the other Egyptian zodiacs. 

Consequently, this pair should be rejected. 

August 5, 1227 A.D. (for the zodiac (P1)) 

March 23, 1240 A.D. (for the zodiac (P2)) 

The positions of the planets on the ecliptic on the date 

March 23, 1240 A.D. were as follows: 

From the astronomical point of view, this solution is ideal. 

On the other hand, this pair matches the dates obtained 

for the other Egyptian zodiacs. Therefore, in principle those 

could be the true dates for the Petosiris tomb. However, there 

is a problem with the age of the person buried inside the tomb. 

According to the dates obtained for this solution, this could 

be a teenage boy only 13 years old. Since the murals inside the 

Petosiris tomb clearly indicate that this was a burial place of 

a warrior, from this point of view the pair of dates 1667–1714 

is a better one. 


Zodiac (P1), Code of Decoding — PSR 



149.8 o 56.4 o 325.1 o 356.7 o 135.1 o 104.6 o 

176.2 o 

Leo Taurus Capric Aquar Cancer Gemini Leo/Vir 


Table 8.23: Planetary Positions on August 5, 1227 

8.4.13 Dating of the Petosiris Zodiac Under 

Weaker Requirements 

Let us return to the decoding of the zodiac (P2) in the case 

of the Clustered Central Circle, and consider it again, but 

this time, under weaker requirements. Let us point out some 

particularities in the design of the small oval, which we call 

the Central Circle (see Figure 8.22). The Sun is shown here in 

the center as the main source of light, while two other planets 

(its “subordinates”) are shown on its sides. This type of a 

picture is typical for many “ancient” Egyptian monuments. 

That means, this could be a symbolic representation of an 

astronomical situation, where the real order of planets was 

not necessarily the same as it appears. 

In this way, we should consider one more variant, in which 

the order of the planets inside the Central Circle on the zodiac 

(P2) can be arbitrary. For this purpose, we will modify the 

input data with the codes P60–P63, so the constrains on the 

order of the planets inside the Central Circle and Moon (in 

the case when it is located near the spring equinox point) are 

removed. These modified input files for the program HOROS 

are presented below. We annotated them with the codes P40– 

P43. 





ORDER OF PLANETS ON THE ECLIPTIC: JUPITER MOON 

SUN VENUS, MARS, MERCURY, SATURN 

-----------------------DATA------------------------- 


# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

11.0 10.0 3.0 8.0 11.0 11.0 0.0 

# TO: ---------------------------------------------# 

1.0 12.0 5.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------# 

11.5 11.5 4.0 11.5 11.9 11.5 1.0 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 

---------------------------------------------------- 




CODE OF THE DECODING VARIANT: P41

ORDER OF PLANETS ON THE ECLIPTIC: JUPITER SUN 

VENUS, MARS, MERCURY, SATURN, MOON 

-----------------------DATA------------------------- 


# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

11.0 5.0 3.0 8.0 11.0 11.0 0.0 

# TO: ---------------------------------------------# 

1.0 8.0 5.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------# 

11.5 6.5 4.0 11.5 11.9 11.5 1.0 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 

---------------------------------------------------- 





ORDER OF PLANETS ON THE ECLIPTIC: SATURN MOON SUN 

VENUS, MARS, MERCURY, JUPITER 

-----------------------DATA------------------------- 


# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

11.0 5.0 8.0 3.0 11.0 11.0 0.0 

# TO: ---------------------------------------------# 

1.0 12.0 1.0 5.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------# 

11.5 11.5 11.5 4.0 11.9 11.5 1.0 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 





ORDER OF PLANETS ON THE ECLIPTIC: SATURN SUN 

VENUS, MARS, MERCURY, JUPITER, MOON 

-----------------------DATA------------------------- 


# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

11.0 5.0 8.0 3.0 11.0 11.0 0.0 

# TO: ---------------------------------------------# 

1.0 8.0 1.0 5.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------# 

11.5 6.5 11.5 4.0 11.9 11.5 1.0 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 

---------------------------------------------------- 





As before, we will be looking for the pairs of dates for the 

zodiacs (P1) and (P2), such that their difference is not larger 

than 100 years. 

By applying the modified input files we obtain the following 

three additional, to the previously obtained, pairs of 

solutions: 

July 28, 339 B.C., (for the zodiac (P1)) 


March 18, 292 B.C. (for the zodiac (P2)) 

August 14, 279 A.D., (for the zodiac (P1)) 

April 4 or 15, 326 A.D. (for the zodiac (P2)) 

and 

August 11, 1430 A.D., (for the zodiac (P1)) 

March 31 or April 11, 1477 A.D. (for the zodiac (P2)) 

The first two pairs of solutions are much too far away from 

the other dates obtained for the Egyptian zodiacs, so we decided 

to reject them. In the case of the third pair of solutions, 

which points out at the 15th century, such dates are possible 

in general. However, let us recall that these solutions were 

obtained under much weaker order requirements, and from 

this point of view they should be considered as less acceptable 

than the other solutions. We will consider this pair as 

conditional solutions for the zodiacs (P1) and (P2). 

Let us list the position of the planets on the ecliptic on 

August 11, 1430 (compare it with the planetary position on 

the zodiac (P1) shown on Figure 8.22): 


Zodiac (P1) 



154.6 o 69.8 o 285.7 o 

48.0 o 

125.1 o 

110.2 o 

181.4 o 

Leo Taurus Sagitt Aries Cancer Gem/Can Virgo 


Table 8.24: Planetary Positions on August 11, 1430 


In this way we can conclude that the Petosiris Tomb was 

most probably created in the year 1714 A.D. (i.e. in the 18th 

century) as the burial place for a an important warrior (of the 

age 47 years), which was killed in a battle. Let us recall that in 

the 18th century Egypt was ruled by Mameluks. So, it is quite 

possible that this place was a grave of a Mameluk. Moreover, if 

the Petosiris tomb was indeed build in the 18th century, than 

this could clarify why its so-called “late” style that does not 

resemble typical “ancient” Egyptian compositions — because 

it belongs the 18th century. Let us point out that from the 

astronomical point of view this pair of solutions fits perfectly 

the pictures shown on the zodiacs (P1) and (P2). 

The second pair of solutions, which we consider much less 

probable, indicates that the Petosiris Tomb could be built in 

the year 1240 A.D. (i.e. during the 13th century). But in this 

case, the person buried there was just a teenage boy of the age


13 (born in 1227). In this case, there would be a no relations 

to the paintings decorating the walls of the tomb. However, 

from the astronomical point of view this solutions are also 

ideal. 

Finally, the third possibility (under relaxed astronomical 

requirements) could be the pair of solutions referring to the 

15th century. In this case the occupant of the Petosiris tomb 

would be a person of the age 47, that was born in 1430 and 

died (or was killed) in 1477 A.D. However, from the astronomical 

point of view these solutions are not as good as the 

previous ones. 

Figure 8.30: The burial chamber in the tomb of Ramses VI 

with the zodiac on the ceiling. 

8.5 Dating of the Zodiac from the 

Tomb of Ramses VI 

In this section we will analyze for the purpose of the astronomical 

dating the Egyptian zodiacs found in the tomb of 

Ramses VI. 

8.5.1 The Tomb of Ramses VI and Its Zodiac 

The tomb of Ramses VI is located in the Valley of the Kings. 

Right in the middle of this valley there is an isolated rocky 

hill looking by coincidence like a mound constructed over a 

burial site. Inside this hill, there were several tombs hewn in 

the rock, among them — the tomb of Ramses VI. In Chapter 

7, on Figure 7.2 included a photograph of this site and on 

Figure 7.3 we show the entrance to the tomb of Ramses VI. 

It is believed that the tomb of Ramses VI was already 

well-known during the “ancient” times, and it was attracting 

many visitors 16 . However, this tomb was excavated again in 

the year 1888 — its chambers were blocked by rubble and 

rock debris. Presently, for some reasons this tomb is closed for 

visitors. On Figure ?? we show the plan of this magnificent 

tomb. 

It is assumed that initially this tomb was designated for 

the previous Pharaoh Ramses V, who eventually was buried 

there. Later the tomb was expanded and Ramses VI was also 

buried there as well 17 . In this tomb, there was discovered one 

of the most impressive Egyptian zodiacs, which was painted 

on the ceiling of the burial chamber right above the sarcophagus 

of the pharaoh. A color photograph of this zodiac was 

shown on 2.36. A general view of the burial chamber inside 

the Ramses VI tomb, with the zodiac on its ceiling, is shown 

on Figure 8.30, and the zodiac itself on Figure 8.32. Let us 

recall that we denote this zodiac by the symbol (RS) and we 

will simply call it the Ramses VI zodiac. 

As we are going to explain in this section, the Ramses VI 

zodiac (RS) contains a main hororoscope, which can be decoded 

and dated astronomically. The horoscope is contained 

in the part of the zodiac, which is shown on Figure 8.32. We 

will call it the Lower Part of the zodiac. Inside the Lower 

Part, on the left half of it shown on Figure 8.33, one can find 

symbols of almost all the planets from the main horoscope, 

except Moon, which is shown in the right half of the Lower 

Part. In fact, the Sun and Moon on the Ramses VI zodiac are 

indicated by colors only. 

Let us present the details of the analysis of the zodiac 

(RS). 

8.5.2 Zodiacal Constellations Symbols on 

the Zodiac (RS) 

We will discuss in this subsection the Lower Part of the zodiac 

(RS) only, which contains the sufficient information needed 

for the decoding of the Ramses VI zodiac (RS). The Upper 

Part of the zodiac, does not contain any element of the main 

horoscope. Moreover, it seems that on the zodiac (RS) there 

are no partial horoscopes present as well, at least we were not 

able to identify them. 

16 See [180] page 64. 

17 See [180], page 64.

8.5 Dating of the Zodiac from the Tomb of Ramses VI 265 

Figure 8.31: Plan of the tomb of Ramses VI located in the Valley of the Kings. (The picture was taken from [180]) 

In order to explain the structure of the zodiac (RS), let 

us point out that the Lower Part of the zodiac is divided into 

12 sectors,which are separated by vertical “lines.” It comes 

immediately to mind that we have here a symbolic representation 

of the ecliptic divided into 12 zodiacal constellations. 

All these constellations are shown as the vertical sectors in 

the Lower Part of the zodiac (RS). Of course, we need to 

recognize for each zodiacal constellation, what is the corresponding 

sector on the zodiac. Since we do not find here even 

one usual symbol of a zodiacal constellation, which waqs used 

on the other Egyptian zodiac, it is not a trivial problem. Nevertheless, 

it is possible to give the answer to this question. In 

fact, there is only one way the constellations on the Ramses 

VI zodiac can be recognized. 

Notice that in the first 11 sectors of the zodiac, beginning 

from the head of the goddess Nut, all the figures are arranged 

in sequences indicating the same common direction. In each of 

these sector there is a large boat. However, the 12th sector, 

which is the sector right next to the goddess Nut legs, is 

different. Instead of one large boat, there are two small boats 

in vertical positions — contrary to the boats in the other 

11 sectors, which are shown horizontally (see Figure 8.32). 

These 11 boats are most probably the symbols of the zodiacal 

constellations, and since the 12th sector contains two identical 

boats, it comes to mind that it could be Gemini. Of course, 

we would like to have a confirmation for this identification of 

Gimini. Notice that in the 12th sector, under the symbols of 

two boats, there are two human figures holding hands. There 

is also a disc resting on their hands. It is not hard to see 

that it is a typical symbol of Gemini, which is in fact very 

similar to the figure of Gemini on the Long Denderah zodiac 

(See Figures 5.4 and 5.5). On the other hand, above the boats 

there is a typical symbol of the summer solstice — the Sun 

on the pole. We have seen similar symbols on other Egyptian 

zodiacs. For example, on the Denderah zodiacs, there was a 

bird sitting on a pole (see section 5.8.4). Here, the Sun is 

symbolized by a beetle sitting on the pole 18 , which can be 

interpreted as the point of the heighest elevation of the Sun. 

It is clear that it has to be the summer solstice point. 

18 See [182], p.84. 

Figure 8.34: Symbols of the zodiacal constellations on the 

Ramses VI zodiac (RS). 

As we have already explained in Chapter 5, on the Egyptian 

zodiacs, the summer solstice was always shown in Gemini. 

Consequently, the last sector of the zodiac could be indeed 

Gemini, which implies that the other 11 sectors should symbolize 

the remaining 11 zodiacal constellations. There more 

arguments in support of this claim. 

Let us continue our analysis of the Ramses VI zodiac. If 

Gemini is indeed the last sector on the right, then there are 

exactly two possible ways all the remaining 11 constellation


Figure 8.32: The Lower Part of the Ramses VI zodiac containing the main horoscope. The zodiac was cut in the middle to 

fit better this page. (The picture was taken from [181])


Figure 8.33: The left hand side of the Lower Part of the Ramses VI zodiac containing the main horoscope. In this part there 

are shown all the planets of the main horoscope. (The picture was taken from [181])


can be identified. In fact, the sector preceding it should correspond 

to neighboring with Gemini constellation, which in this 

case would be Taurus or Cancer. Consequently, there are exactly 

two variants of identification that can be applied here. 

In order to obtain a definite and unique identification, we 

need to recognize one more constellation on the zodiac (RS). 

Notice that in the same time we will also obtain a confirmation 

of the correctness of the identification of Gemini in the 

far right sector on the zodiac. 

It turns out that this task can be achieved. In fact, all 

the needed for this analysis information was already obtained 

in the case of the Small Esna zodiac (EM) (see subsection 

??). Noticed kneeling beheaded figures on the Small Esna 

(see right Aquarian bracket on Figures 7.43 and 7.42). These 

were the symbols associated with Aquarius. Exactly the same 

symbols we find on the Ramses VI zodiac, in its Lower Part 

(see Figure 8.33). These figures are located at the bottom 

of the forth from the left sector of the zodiac (RS). Therefore, 

it would be either the forth or eight constellation from 

Gemini, which was recognized earlier. But this is exactly how 

the constellations of Gemini and Aquarius are placed on the 

real sky, and we can consider this as a confirmation of our 

identification. 

Consequently, we have obtained the following unique identification 

of the zodiacal constellations on the Ramses VI zodiac: 

(1) The boats on the zodiac (RS) symbolize the twelve zodiacal 

constellations, 

(2) In the 12th sector, the constellation of Gemini is symbolized 

by a pair of identical boats and two human figures 

holding hands (see Figure 8.32), 

(3) The boat in the forth sector from the left symbolizes the 

constellation of Aquarius. 

Based on the above identification, we can recognize in a 

unique way all the remaining zodiacal constellations symbolized 

on this remarkable Egyptian zodiac. Let us point out, 

that we are not aware of any earlier research devoted to decoding 

of the astronomical symbolizm on the Ramses VI zodiac. 

The astronomical symbolizm of the Ramses VI zodiac 

is new to us. On Figure 8.34 we show the symbols related to 

the zodiacal constellations. Let us shortly describe their main 

featutes: 

• Taurus — there are three hieroglyphs in the upper left 

corner of the Taurus area (see Figure 8.34), which look 

like human figures about to “lay down on a bed.” There 

are also nine hieroglyphs — “laying dead bodies,” and six 

walking figures. 

• Aries — there are three hieroglyphs in the upper left 

corner of this area, shown as human figures “getting up 

from a bed,” below them there are three figures “sitting on 

beds,” and three dead bodies. In the upper right corner, 

there are three figures-hieroglyphs, “braiding their hair.” 

• Pisces — there are six hieroglyphs composed of “beheaded 

sitting figures,” which are located in the upper left 

Figure 8.35: Symbols of Venus and Mercury in the sector of 

Aquarius on the Ramses VI zodiac (RS). A non-planetary 

figure is shown in Capricorn. 

corner of this area (these figures shouldn’t be mistaken 

for symbols of Aquarius — they are sitting instead of 

kneeling), then there are nine figures-hieroglyphs “braiding 

their hair,” and finally a large hieroglyph in a shape 

of a “trident.” 

• Aquarius — on the left there are four “kneeling figures,” 

one of them is beheaded, which is a familiar symbol associated 

with Aquarius. In the lower right corner, there are 

two more “kneeling beheaded figures.” Further to the left, 

there are three hieroglyphs represented by three ‘bended 

forward” male figures, about “being beheaded.” Finally, 

there are nine looking like Sphinx figures laying on beds, 

and three figures “sitting in the air” (in the top right 

corner). 

On Figure 8.34 we also show the representations of the other 

constellations from the zodiac (RS), including Capricorn, 

Sagittarius, Scorpio, Libra, Gemini, Cancer, Leo and Virgo, 

which are simply indicated by the numbers shown in the bottom 

of the zodiac. These numbers, which specify the position 

with respect to Aries, are the four identical figures for Cancer, 

five for Leo and six for Virgo. 

It turns out that there is sufficient information on the 

Ramses VI zodiac to decode its main horoscope.


Figure 8.36: Figures of travelers symbolizing the planets on the Ramses VI zodiac.. 


Ramses VI Zodiac 

All the planets of the main horoscope on the Ramses VI zodiac 

can be identified directly from Figures 8.32 and ??, where 

we the zodiac is truncated after Capricorn. 

In the left half of the zodiac (which is truncated after 

Capricorn) there are shown five groups of travellers holding 

walking sticks. Namely: 

• In the upper row of the Aquarius sector, there is a group 

composed of two female travelers holding planetary walking 

sticks (see Figure ??). It is clear that this is a representation 

of Venus shown in Aquarius (see Chapter 5); 

• In the second row of the Aquarius sector, there is a twofaced 

male traveler holding a planetary walking stick (see 

Figure ??). It is not hard to recognize that it must be a 

representation of Mercury (see Chapter 5). Consequently, 

Mercury was also in Aquarius; 

• In the middle of the upper row in Taurus, there is a 

male figure with a planetary walking stick. This figure 

has the head of a ram with particular horns, which are 

twisted and pointing opposite directions. There is a small 

disc over its head (see Figure ??). We have already encountered 

similar figures on other Egyptian zodiacs, for 

example on the Denderah zodiacs. See subsections 7.5.6 

and Figure 7.12. On the Long Denderah zodiac, Jupiter 

also had horizontal horns and there was a small disk in- 

between. Consequently, on the Ramses VI zodiac Jupiter 

is shown in Taurus. 

• Notice that next to the representation of Jupiter in Taurus, 

there is a sitting figure on a chair. There are exactly 

two such sitting figures on the Ramses VI zodiac (RS). 

The second one is in Pisces, in the second row from the 

top. Notice that the sitting figure in Pisces hold a planetary 

walking stick. It is most probably that these two 

symbols indicate that in the constellations of Taurus and 

Pisces there were two slowely moving planets — Saturn 

and Jupiter. 

• As it is indicated by the sitting figure in Pisces, we expect 

to find there Saturn. Indeed, in the second from the top 

row, besides the sitting figure, there is a male figure holding 

a planetary walking stick (see Figure ??). Therefore, 

on the Ramses VI zodiac Saturn was in Pisces. 

• In the top row in Pisces, above Saturn, there is another 

male figure holding a planetary walking stick. The only 

option left is that it must represent Mars (see Figure ??). 

In this way, we obtain that on the Ramses VI zodiac, 

Mars was in Pisces. 

Notice that interchanging the symbols of Mars and Sturn 

does not affect the decoding of the main horoscope on the 

zodiac (RS) — both planets are located in Pisces. Since all 

the other planets were uniquely identified by their planetary 

attributes, we can say that the main horoscope on the Ramses 

VI zodiac is decoded.


Let us point out that on the zodiac (RS), in the upper 

rows, which are reserved for the planetary symbols, there are 

other figures holding planetary walking sticks. More precisely, 

in Capricorn in its upper row, there are two male and one 

female figures holding sticks (see Figure ??). Since there is 

a female figure among these symbols, it is most likely that 

this sequence may be associated with Venus. Let us recall 

that we have already identified the main figure of Venus in 

Aquarius, but it is still possible that Venus was in Capricorn. 

Therefore, it is appropriate to consider that all the possible 

locations of Venus, including both constellations of Aquarius 

and Capricorn. Our computations were based on all possible 

variants. However, in the final solution Venus turned out to 

be located in Aquarius — as we expected. On the other hand, 

notice that the walking sticks held by by the female travelers 

in Aquarius are equipped with a specific handles on their 

tops. One can not say this about the walking sticks, which 

are held by figures accompaning the “additional Venus” in 

Capricorn. Let us recall that on the Egyptian zodiacs the 

planetary walking stick is not just a simple stick, but it always 

has a special handle on its top (see subsection 5.4.1). However, 

these figures could definitely belong to the procesion of Venus. 

Notice that in the sector of Capricorn, there is another figure 

holding something like a walking stick (See Figure 8.35). 

However, this sticked is curved and there is a cobra placed 

over its top. But, a snake-like-stick and a feather are the attributes 

of Mercury (see section 5.4.10). It seems that this 

figure belongs to the procession of Mercury, which is extending 

to Capricorn. 

Finally, we have to identify on the Ramses VI zodiac the 

symbols of the Sun and Moon. On Figure 8.37 we show the 

Lower Part with the redish strip its bottom. It could be indicated 

by this color that the Sun was present in this area, i.e. 

in Aquarius, Capricorn, Sagittarius, Scorpio or Libra. There 

is no other syblo that could be considered as a pointer to the 

location of the Sun. Notice that this identification agrees with 

the location of Mercury and Venus in Aquarius. 

On the other hand, it is logical to expect that the presence 

of Moon could be symbolized on the Ramzez VI zodiac in way 

indicating that it reflects the light from the Sun. Indeed, the 

presence of the sun was marked in red, so a similar change of 

colors could apply to Moon. Indeed, there is one sector on the 

zodiac, which is different from the other constellation sectors 

— Cancer. The boat symbolizing Cancer is white, while all 

the other boats are yellow or even yellow-redish in the area 

where we assumed the presence of the Sun. This can be a 

clear indication of the silver light of Moon. Therefore, we can 

conclude that Moon is shown in Cancer. 

8.5.4 Main Horoscope on the Ramses VI Zodiac 

In this way we have obtained the following decoding of the 

main horoscope on the Ramses VI zodiac (RS): 

Figure 8.37: Marking on the Ramses VI zodiac indicating the 

presence of the Sun and Moon.

• SUN — in Aquarius, Capricorn, Sagittarius, Scorpio or 

Libra; 

• MOON — in Cancer; 

• MERCURY — in Aquarius; 

• VENUS — in Aquarius or Capricorn; 

• SATURN — in Pisces; 

• MARS — in Pisces; 

• JUPITER — in Taurus. 

Let us present the input data for the program HOROS, which 

was used for this decoding of the main horoscope. The input 

files used for the computations is presented below: 

ZODIAC: Ramses VI (RS) 

CODE OF THE DECODING VARIANT: RS1 

---------------------------------------------------- 

-----------------------DATA------------------------- 


# FROM: -------------------------------------------# 

6.0 3.0 11.0 1.0 11.0 9.0 10.0 

# TO: ---------------------------------------------# 

11.0 12.0 12.0 2.0 12.0 11.0 11.0 

# BEST POINTS: ------------------------------------# 

10.5 3.5 11.5 1.5 11.5 10.5 10.5 

--------------------END OF DATA--------------------- 

---------------------------------------------------- 

8.5.5 Final Solution for the Ramses VI Zodiac 

After completing the calculations, we found that there were 

only two solutions for the Ramses VI zodiac belonging to the 

historical time interval from the year 3000 B.C. to 2000 A.D. 

These solutions are listed in Table 8.25 below. 

Year of Solution Date of the Solution Mean Distance from 

the Best Points (in degrees) 

1289 A.D. February 4–5 8.8 o 

1586 A.D. February 20–24 9.8 o 

Table 8.25: Final solutions for the Ramses VI zodiac (RS). 

Let us point out that these two solutions fit perfectly the 

astronomical data shown on the Ramses VI zodiac, what is 

indicated by very low value of the mean discepancy from the 

best points. The exact planetary positions on the ecliptic on 

the days indicated by these two solutions are presented in 

Table ?? . 



Ramses VI Zodiac (RS) 


Julian day (JD) = 2191900.00 


333.5 o 

125.3 o 354.4 o 

52.9 o 

1.4 o 343.1 o 

349.1 o 

10.2 3.3 11.2 1.0 11.4 10.8 11.1 

Aquar Cancer Pisces Tau/Ari Pisces Aquar Pis/Aqu 



Ramses VI Zodiac (RS) 


Julian day (JD) = 2300395.00 


347.4 o 

126.0 o 23.0 o 

69.1 o 

349.3 o 327.6 o 

329.4 o 

11.0 3.3 11.9 1.5 11.1 9.9 10.0 

Pis/Aqu Cancer Pisces Taurus Pisces Aquar Cap/Aqu 


Table 8.26: Planetary Positions on February 4, 1289 A.D. 

and on February 20, 1586 A.D. 

In conclusion, on the zodiac discovered in the tomb 

of Ramzez VI there is encoded the date February 4–5, 

1289 A.D. or February 20–21, 1586 A.D.

Chapter 9 

Summary of the Astronomical Dating of the 

Egyptian Zodiacs

9.1 General Picture of the Dates on 

the Egyptian Zodiacs 

On Figure 9.1, we show the graph representing the time axis 

on which we marked the dates of all the Egyptian zodiacs 

that were analyzed in this book. 

On Figure 9.1, we applied colors to distinguish between 

different zodiacs on the graph. On the left we show the dates 

of the zodiacs from the Egyptian temples, i.e. the Denderah 

and Esna zodiacs. Let us recall that the obtained dates for 

these zodiacs were unique in the whole historical time interval. 

On the right of the graph, we have placed the dates for all the 

analyzed zodiacs from the Egyptian tombs. We have marked 

their coordinates on the time line with color dots — each 

tomb with a different color. In order to indicate that a pair 

of dates should be considered as one solution for two zodiacs 

form the same tomb, we connected the color dots with a small 

arc. Notice that some of the zodiacs found in the Egyptian 

tombs have multiple solutions, i.e. more than one final date 

was found for them. This was the case with some of the zodiacs 

having relatively small astronomical content, where the 

partial horoscopes were missing and there was no other astronomical 

information that could be used for the verification of 

the solution. For a single decoding of the main horoscope, it 

is possible sometimes to obtain several solutions in the whole 

historical time interval. If, in addition, there was more than 

one variant of decoding considered, even more admissible solutions 

could be found. Consequently, because of the absence 

of the additional astronomical information, in such cases, the 

elimination process couldn’t be applied to incomplete solutions, 

and therefore multiple dates were obtained. This was 

the case of the Petosiris and Ramses VI zodiacs. However, 

in the case of the Athribis zodiacs the obtained dates were 

unique. 

It is clear that the distribution of the dates on Figure 9.1 

strongly contradicts Scaliger’s chronology of ancient Egypt. 

It can not be true, what is presently preached by Egyptologists, 

that Egyptian history lasted for many thousand years 

before the Christian era. The astronomical evidence strongly 

indicates that it was in fact the epoch from the 10th to 16th 

century A.D. Moreover, the pyramids and great temples of ancient 

Egypt couldn’t be constructed earlier than in the 14th 

century A.D. Notice that the dates encoded in the zodiacs 

found in the Egyptian temples point to epoch from the 12th 

to 15th century. However, this evidence can not be considered 

as a proof that the temples were build around the same time 

as it is indicated by the dates on the zodiacs. It is most probable 

that the temples were build much later then the events 

commemorated by these zodiacs took place. It could be even 

few hundreds years later. 

Regarding the zodiacs that were painted in the “ancient” 

Egyptian tombs, based on the dating of Brugsch’s zodiac, 

we can say that this “ancient” tradition was still present in 

Egypt even during the 19th century. Therefore, it is possible 

that many artifacts from the “ancient” Egyptian tombs, 

Dates On the Egyptian Zodiacs 

Temples Tombs 

Small Esna EM 1404 

Big Esna EB 1394 

 

Round Denderah 

DR 

1185 

Long Denderah DL 1168 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 

1861 

1853 

1841 

Brugsch’s 

zodiac 

(three horoscopes) 

BR 

1 

BR 

3 

BR 

2 

1714 Petosiris P2 


(Demotic) 

1586 Ramses VI RS 

1289 Ramses VI RS 

1268 Athribis AN 

1230 Athribis AV 


1227 P1 

Petosiris 

1182 Ramses IV OU 

(Thebes) 

Figure 9.1: Distribution of the dates encoded in the Egyptian 

zodiacs

which are proudly displayed in the renowned museums, are 

simply paintings from the 19th century. 

Let us summarize the dates obtained for the Egyptian 

zodiacs: 

1. Round Denderah Zodiac (DR): the morning of March 

20, 1185 A.D. 

2. Long Denderah Zodiac (DL): April 22–26, 1168 A.D. 

3. Big Esna Zodiac (EB): March 31 – April 3, 1394 A.D. 

4. Small Esna Zodiac (EM): May 6–8, 1404 A.D. 

5. Athribis Zodiacs of Flinders Petrie: 

• Upper Athribis Zodiac (AV): May 15–16, 1230 

A.D. 

• Lower Athribis Zodiac (AN): February 9–10, 1268 

A.D. 

6. Brugsch’s Zodiac (BR) containing three main horoscopes, 

each of them showing different date: 

• Demotic Horoscope: November 18, 1861 A.D. 

• Horoscope without Walking Sticks: October 6–7, 

1841 A.D. 

• Horoscope in Boats: February 15, 1853 A.D. 

7. Thebes zodiac of Ramses VII (OU): September 5–8, 

1182 A.D. 

8. Petosiris Zodiacs (P1) and (P2): 

• First Solution: 

Outer Petosiris Zodiac (P1): August 5, 1227 A.D. 

Inner Petosiris Zodiac (P2): March 24–25, 1240 

A.D. 

• Second Solution (conditional for (P2)): 


Inner Petosiris Zodiac (P2): April 17, 1477 A.D. 

• Third Solution: 


Inner Petosiris Zodiac (P2): April 2, 1714 A.D. 

9. Ramses VI Zodiac (RS): 

• First Solution: February 4–5, 1289 A.D. 

• Second Solution: February 20–21, 1586 A.D. 

Notice that, although there are three final solutions possible 

dates for the Petosiris zodiacs, all of them are late medieval 

dates. 

It is estimated by Egyptologists that the burial tradition 

in the Valleys of the Kings lasted for about 400–500 years 1 . 

Based on our astronomical dating of the zodiacs from the 

tombs, this period should be shorten to about 250–300 years. 

On the other hand, the epoch these burials should be shifted 

in time much closer to the present times. 

Conclusion: We can claim with high probability that the 

events of the pharaohs epoch described in “ancient” history of 

Egypt took place not many thousand years before the Christian 

era, but during the epoch from the 11th to 15th centuries 

A.D. That means, “only” 400–1000 years ago. However, in the 

case of the great Egyptian temples, the dates encoded in the 

zodiacs indicate the epoch from the end of the 12th century 

till beginning of the 15th century A.D. 

1 See [180]. 

9.2 Stability of the Obtained Dates 275 

9.2 Stability of the Obtained Dates 

The most important property of the obtained from the Egyptian 

zodiacs dates is their stability. 

Firstly, all the astronomical solutions for the main horoscopes 

are “locally stable,” i.e. for a given main horoscope, 

small modifications of its decoding did not cause any change 

of the calculated solution. We made sure to verify that for 

every considered variant of decoding, all the preliminary solutions 

remained stable for reasonable variations of the initial 

data, based on the reasonable interpretations of the zodiac. 

The admissible intervals for the planetary positions were always 

indicated with a large margin. In the case one planetary 

figure was standing next to another one, and their order 

didn’t seem to be definite, all their possible configurations 

were always included in the initial data. In other words, at 

this stage of the astronomical dating, we tried not to miss 

even one preliminary solution for any reasonable interpretation 

of the considered variant of decoding. 

Secondly, all the obtained final astronomical solutions are 

also “stable in large,” i.e. even significant variations of decoding 

of the zodiac did not result in occurrence of any other 

final solution for this zodiac. In particular, this was exactly 

the case with the two Denderah and two Esna zodiacs. On 

these zodiacs the symbolism of the partial horoscopes was 

particularly plentiful, and it was very useful to eliminate all 

random solutions. In our opinion, all the complete solutions 

for the zodiacs from the Egyptian temples, are highly reliable 

and we are strongly convinced about their correctness. In addition, 

the obtained pairs of the dates for the Denderah and 

the Esna temples, indicate almost the same period of time. 

In the case of the Denderah zodiacs, the difference between 

the calculated dates was 17 years, while for the Esna zodiacs 

it was only 10 years. It is impossible to claim that such close 

distributions of the dates occured two times randomly. 

The basis for the reliability of the obtained dates, for 

other, less splendorous, zodiacs relies on the fact that their designs 

were “linked” with other zodiacs. We had two such pairs 

of zodiacs, which were found in the same tomb: the Athribis 

and Petosiris zodiacs. In the case of Brugsch’s zodiac, we there 

were three horoscopes encoded into one design. In such cases, 

the link between the related dates provided us with a highly 

reliable criterium to eliminate all the pairs of random solutions. 

There is a high probability, that the obtained in this 

way the final solution indicates the real dates encoded in the 


Notice that all the dates for the Egyptian zodiacs are medieval. 

There is no way, they can be explain in the frames of 

Scaliger’s chronology. If our computations simply resulted in 

“random” dates, why we didn’t get any “random” date from 

the earlier epoch, for example, around the first century A.D. 

We are sure such a result would be welcome by Egyptologists, 

who persistently relay on Scaliger’s chronology, but this is not 

the case. Notice that all the obtained dates belong to the time

276 9 Summary of the Astronomical Dating of the Egyptian Zodiacs 

interval, which perfectly fits the chronology postulated by the 

mathematical and statistical analysis (see section 1.9). 

9.3 Unsolved Problems Related to 

the Dating of the Egyptian Zodiacs 

When in the beginning of 2003 we succeeded in decoding 

of the zodiacs of Thebes type, we were able to obtain the 

dates for several other Egyptian zodiacs from the Valley of 

the Kings. However, we do not include these results in this 

book yet, except for the Ramses VI and Thebes (Ramses IV) 

zodiacs. The symbolism and the conventions of these type of 

zodiacs require a separate detailed study that goes beyond the 

format of this book. In fact, all the time we discover “new” 

Egyptian zodiacs, which we are now able to decode and date 

astronomically. 

Many problems related to the symbolism on Egyptian zodiacs 

still remained unsolved. However, the achieved progress 

in the dating provides us with the astronomical pictures, 

which may hold the key to the complete understanding of 

the Egyptian conventions used on the zodiacs. It is clear that 

the research on the astronomical dating of ancient zodiacs 

will continue, and more unexpected results may be obtained. 

9.4 Astronomical Dating of the 

Sumerian Tablets 

Let us conclude our book on the astronomical dating of 

the Egyptian zodiacs with the following remark: not even 

one date that was obtained for the Egyptian zodiacs, agrees 

with the conventional chronology of Egypt. In fact all these 

dates strongly contradict the Scaliger version of chronology 

of Egypt. 

In the context of the astronomical dating, a question arises 

in connection to the so called Sumerian Tablets, which are 

considered to be even more ancient than the Egyptian zodiacs. 

How the obtained for the Egyptian zodiacs dates agree 

with the dating of the Sumerian Tablets? It is commonly believed 

that the Sumerian Tablets were dated astronomically 

and, in fact, their dates confirm the correctness of Scaliger’s 

chronology (see [184] and [183]). Is it really so? 

We looked at the fundamental publication [184] of the 

Sumerian Astronomical Tablets, which contains English 

translations of several hundreds tablets. These tablets are 

dated from 652 B.C. to 165 A.D. 

On the Sumerian tablets one finds descriptions of the 

planets and their locations among the zodiacal constellations. 

That simply means — they contain horoscopes. In the book 

[184], there is listed a large number of the dates, presumably 

obtained through the astronomical computations from 

the horoscopes on the tablets. 

Let us point out that according to the published in [184] 

Sumerian tablets, there is not even one complete horoscopes 

described there. In order to expect a unique date during the 

historical time interval, a complete horoscope is required. 

However, all the Sumerian horoscopes are partial. In many 

cases, they simply talk about three or four planets only. Such 

horoscopes, as our readers can easily verify using the program 

HOROS, will produce a multitude of dates — in almost every 

century. With such a collection of choices, it is always possible 

to find a desired date belonging to the “expected” time interval, 

i.e. the epoch postulated by Scaliger’s chronology. It is 

very difficult to consider this dating as a proof that Scaliger’s 

chronology is correct. 

In addition, on many Sumerian tablets some of the names 

of planets are missing. Sometimes thy are omitted, or there 

is simply a reference to a “certain” planet only. In such 

cases we can only guess what was the planet the ancient 

Sumerians had in mind. In particular, such “guesses” can be 

conveniently made based on the “requirements” related to 

Scaliger’s chronology. It is clear that any chronology could be 

supported by this type of astronomical dating. Let us point 

out, that these datings based on “guessing” have nothing to 

do with the independent astronomical dating. 

Figure 9.2: The Sumerian Tablet No. 418. (Taken from [184]) 

Let us point out that the dates associated by historians 

with the Sumerian tablets have nothing to do with their astronomical 

contents. Strangely, the astronomical data is ignored 

exactly in the case of those tablets, which contain more or less

complete horoscopes. It is probably disturbing for historians 

that these horoscopes refuse to confirm the epochs postulated 

by them. 

Let us present an example — the tablet No 418 (see Figure 

9.2) related to the 5th year of Darius II: 2 

“The date ... adopted here is based on the planetary statements 

(Jupiter was in Leo, Venus and Mercury were in Taurus, 

Saturn was in Cancer). ... This date is unfortunately 

not confirmed by the few remaining observations. ... To make 

things worse, Venus was unvisible on VII 6, while she is reported 

as morning star on that date in obv. 2. In obv.3, the 

remark about the “northern horn” shows that the moon is to 

be restored at the beginning of the line; unfortunately ... moon 

had a latitude at about +3 o when passing δ Capricorni which 

has a latitude of less then −2 o . ... In view of this conflicting 

evidence the text should be used with caution; . . . ” 

One can see from the above citation how incompatible is 

the astronomical data described in the tablets with the dates 

associated with them according to Scaliger’s chronology. In 

fact, the “precision” of these astronomical verifications can 

hardly be called satisfactory. Notice that in the tablet No. 

418 there was described a horoscope composed of only four 

planet: Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and Venus. With such incomplete 

horoscope usually one can associate a lot of dates, 

from which usually it is easy to choose the date that is the 

most “convienient.” Nevertheless, in this “convienient” solution 

Venus turned out to be invisible contrary to the statement 

made in the Sumerian tablet. In addition, on the table 

No. 418, there was even more precise astronomical information 

describing the location of Moon with respect to the star δ 

Capricorni. Here again, the confirmation of the Scaliger date 

couldn’t be obtained. 

In general, it follows clearly form the work [184] that the 

astronomical “dating” of the Sumerian Tablets provides no 

confirmation for the correctness of Scaliger’s chronology. In 

fact, these tablets call for an independent dating according 

to scientific requirements based on their astronomical content. 

However, it is doubtful that such astronomical dating 

is possible at all. The available in [184] descriptions of the 

astronomical events on the Sumerian Tablets are not precise 

enough to produce a set of unique solutions. The dates obtained 

for the tablets are always multiple and scattered all 

over the historical time interval. 

Of course, there is also another problem. How well the 

contemporary translators of the Sumerian Tablets understand 

the astronomical terminology used by “ancient” Sumerians. 

It is also possible that the true astronomical meaning of the 

Sumerian Tablets is completely different than it is portrayed 

by the specialist in this area. 

2 See [184], Volume 1, page 61.

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