Shrines of ram-headed divinities and canopus: shyscaping at Herakleopolis Magna

Abstract

In the first decade of the 21st century, the Egyptian-Spanish Mission on Archaeoastronomy of ancient Egypt performed a detailed statistical analysis of the orientation patterns of the temples of Pharaonic Egypt, resulting in most interesting outcomes such as the justified proposal of seven families of astronomical orientations (Belmonte, Shaltout and Fekri, 2009). A preliminary analysis of what we may dub as cosmic landscapes in certain Egyptian locations, such as the Giza pyramids or Karnak, followed up (Belmonte, 2012: 215-250). On the other hand, the Spanish Archaeological Mission at Herakleopolis Magna has been excavating for several decades in one of the most important ancient sites of Middle Egypt, making extraordinary archaeological discoveries in what once was the capital of Egypt during the 9th and 10th Dynasties and again of a chiefdom for a short period during the Lybian epoch (Pérez Die, 2009). It was hence decided that a new complete survey of the site should be made with an astronomy and landscape perspective in mind. This paper presents the result of such a survey where the relationship between landand skyscape at the main monuments of the city is put in the spotlight. One important outcome has been the possible orientation to Canopus − the second brightest star of Egyptian skies − of the main temple of the city, the one devoted to the patron divinity of Herakelopolis, the ram-headed god Heryshef. Epigraphy is integrated in the analysis and possible mythological relationships are explored, including the connections with other ram-headed deities of the Egyptian pantheon, such as Amun-Re or Banebdjedet. Interestingly, the temples of these divinities at Thebes and Mendes also show alignments that could be related to Canopus, offering a new challenge in the relationship between skyscaping and religion in the civilization of Pharaonic Egypt.