A Fixed Point in Coptic Chronology: The Solar Eclipse of 10 March, 601
Author(s): Gerry Gilmore and John Ray
Source: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, Bd. 158 (2006), pp. 190-192
Published by: Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn (Germany)
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20191169 .
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190
A Fixed
The
At
the very beginning
Point
Solar
in Coptic
of
Eclipse
Chronology:
10 March,
in the Coptic Encyclopedia
the dating of Coptic
speaking,
of his article
601
on the dating of inscriptions,
Pierre Du
monuments
and artifacts
is one of the
remarked,
"broadly
one of the
in this archaeological
field".1 The purpose of this paper is to reconsider
problems
a fixed point in the Coptic record - and in Coptic palaeo
rare exceptions
to this gloomy generalisation,
- which has received
in the years since it was first published, well
little attention
surprisingly
graphy
over a century ago.
Bourguet
thorniest
a short note on a Coptic ostracon
in the Egyptian
In 1878, Ludwig
Stern published
runs
as follows:
an
a
text
to
of
the
This
sun.2
which
clear
reference
Turin,
eclipse
gives
t
m
2? coy
M?T^qTe
<|>^HeNcr>&THC
f
in
xycu 2? TepoMne
eTepe
n\AOy
exHMe
TGT^pTHC INAIK/
\ npH p K?d<e ?xn
qTO Mne20oy
Museum
m
neTpoc
O ?AMp\Ne
?2htc
t
the sun went dark at the
of the fourth (year of the) indiction,
"On the fourteenth
day of Phamenoth
- and in the
was
over Dj?me."
son
of
when
Palou
fourth hour of the day
Petros,
year
magistrate
was clear to the original
editor. The inscription
and its meaning
itself is straightforward,
an eclipse of the sun on a specific day at as specific
time and in a particular place, Dj?me
the year, since this account,
(Medinet Habu) on the west bank at Thebes. The problem lies in identifying
an
scale. The
dated
instead
of any absolute
is
like many other Coptic
by
indiction-cycle
inscriptions,
a
new
a
covers
itself.
This
indiction
system is
cycle repeats
fifteen-year
period, whereupon
cycle
text
The
records
for the use
it was
the payment of taxation and
put, namely calculating
originally
a
more
cannot
that
it
it
is
obvious
records,
precise date. This may well
provide
keeping
who would act as
be the reason why the second part of the text adds the name of a particular magistrate,
our knowledge
at
of the magistrates
an eponym for the year or years when he held office. However,
adequate
to which
but
short-term
near complete,
of a name does nothing to identify the year in
and the mere mention
on the other records which have survived
was
to
back
fall
therefore
Stern
obliged
question. Ludwig
was
to
to
the late seventh or the eighth centuries AD, the
date
inclined
from the site of Dj?me, which he
can be assigned.3
period to which many of the papyri found at the site
is nowhere
Dj?me
as Stern readily admitted.
modern
Fortunately,
way of dating can only be approximate,
and
the text
to be identified with great accuracy,
enables historical
astronomical
eclipses
knowledge
turns out to be no exception. By far the best candidate for the Dj?me eclipse is the solar one
from Dj?me
1902 by the astronomers H. H. Turner and J. K.
of 10 March, AD 601. This was first suggested before
This
the latter of whom
Fotheringham,
1
Coptic
Encyclopedia
(ed. A.
devoted
S. Atiyah),
much
of his career
to ancient
and its implications
astronomy
III, 693-4.
2 Z?S 16
(1878), 11-12. There is also a brief treatment by F. Rossi inAtti d?lia R. Accademia dette Scienze di Torino
30
(1895),
Ostraca
reference
in A. Mallon,
Grammaire
801. The text was
copte,
reprinted
as number
is identified
1902), xvi the ostracon
(EEF, London
and W. E. Crum, The Monastery
in H. E. Winlock
ofEpiphanius
(4th edn., Beirut
38 in the Turin
at Thebes
1956),
collection.
I (New York
143.
In W.
There
1926),
E. Crum,
is also
103. A
Coptic
a concise
short paper
by E. B. Allen appeared in JAOS 67 (1947), 267-9.
3 W.
1912).
(Chicago
The
aus Dj?me
Jahrhunderts
des achten
Rechtsurkunden
and G. Steindorff,
(Theben)
Koptische
V: Post-Ramessid
Habu
The Excavation
is the subject
of U. H?lscher,
of Dj?me
of Medinet
and 58-78
45-57
(on the object-finds).
(on the architecture)
E. Crum
site
1954),
(Leipzig
Remains
A Fixed
Point
in Coptic
191
Chronology
on historical
to confirm
is now available
this
More
detailed
information
for chronology.4
eclipses
it.
and to supplement
suggestion,
The eclipse of 10 March
601 was the only total eclipse visible over the lower Nile valley in the
and the
period from 570 until 738. It was total at the latitude of modern Cairo, just north of Memphis,
totality lasted for 2 minutes
convenient
anachronism),
extended
roughly
46 seconds,
which
the maximum
is substantial
occurred
(to continue a
time. Totality
for a solar eclipse. At Cairo
in the morning,
local
at 09:55:57
of present-day Minya.
At the latitude of Dj?me
the eclipse was not
a coverage of 93% the event would
still have been very noticeable. Maximum
at 09:57:13.
than at Memphis,
Local
sunrise was at a few
later in the morning
to the latitude
with
quite total; however,
at Luxor fell slightly
on the conditions
so that this agrees perfectly with the
of the horizon),
minutes
after 06:00 (depending
to
reference
the fourth hour of the day in the Turin ostracon. The day in question,
10 March,
similarly
we
to
text.
The
the
14
Phamenoth
of
the
is
also
with
what
know of
year
Coptic
corresponds
compatible
the 15-year indiction-cycle.
This practice was instituted in AD 312/3, and a new cycle will have begun in
in AD 582 there was a
597/8. The fourth year of this cycle was 600/601. On the same day, 10 March,
sun
in
of
but
this
would
have
been
far
the
visible
less
and 582 was not
Egypt,
partial eclipse
impressive,
the fourth year of an indiction, but rather the first. The
for our Coptic eclipse.5
event
of 601
therefore
remains
by far the best
candidate
that records of eclipses are almost entirely absent from ancient Egyptian
texts.6
the state of affairs from Mesopotamia
to eclipses
and China, where references
are well attested. (One of the cuneiform examples,
the solar eclipse of 15 June 763 BC, has become one
of the essential
The reason for the scarcity of eclipses
in Egyptian
points of Assyrian
chronology.)
This
It is a commonplace
is in contrast with
is that eclipses were
and therefore not
ill-omened,
possibility
comes. The one
suitable to be recorded in temples or tombs, from where
the majority
of our evidence
we
a
a
even
which
mention
that
have,
negative
exception
catastrophe happened
though there had not
to herald
were
been an eclipse
the idea that eclipses
This
is the
it, fully supports
dangerous.
is not known.
records
convulsion
of an eclipse could be mentioned
be significant
that the eclipse
absence
in a hieroglyphic
text, even if an actual eclipse could not be.7
never
to be a lunar one. Lunar
which
is envisaged
happened
have been marginally
less unmentionable
than solar ones, since they do not normally carry
can
which
solar
convey.
quality
eclipses
itmay
eclipses may
the awesome
An
obvious
in the 9th-century
BC Chronicle
of Prince Osorkon
which
remarks
that a
passage
of some kind broke out in the land "even though the sky did not swallow up the moon". The
controversial
Here
One
is that eclipses were written down by the Egyptians,
but these accounts were kept in
either in temples or in private hands. Very
few collections
of this sort have
a work on eclipses
from Pharaonic
times, and none of these is likely to be complete. However,
alternative
or archives,
libraries
survived
in general does survive from the Roman period. This is a demotic papyrus, possibly
from the Fayy?m,
omens
on
which derives
from eclipses both solar and lunar, depending
the hours when they are seen, the
months of the year, or particular features of their appearance. The text bears the very strong influence of
where
that the underlying
and it is possible
scheme of the
Mesopotamia,
astrology
originated,
4
5
Besselian
Crum,
The
Coptic
data
on
elements
solar day with
times
xvi n. 3, with
Ostraca,
visible
eclipses
from NASA-JPL
taken
from F. R.
further
references.
are derived
in Egypt
from calculation
current
standard methods,
using
orbital
with
corrections
for the change
in the length
DE406,
ephemeris
Historical
and the Earth's
Rotation
Stephenson,
(1997).
Eclipses
astronomical
of
the mean
6 The brief
entry in L? V, 1087, based on notes by W. Barta, makes the best of a thankless task. To the short biblio
graphy given in this entry should be added the article by M. Smith inOLP 22 which is quoted in n. 9 below.
'
R. A.
Caminos,
The Chronicle
in Urk. VI,
123,7-12:
parallel
the moon".
Here
the mechanisms
lunar eclipse,
the disk of
the Turin Coptic
example,
Osorkon
88-9. Caminos
also
(An. Or. 37, Rome
1958),
of Prince
... and
itn ... ?mi (m3 pt i(h "May the sun-disk
not grow dark
may
were
which
to lie behind
are clearly
the two kinds of eclipse
thought
imi knh
the moon
the sun
was
to be devoured
thought
as going dark.
is described
by
the sky.
In a solar
eclipse,
both
the negative
quotes
the sky not swallow
In a
distinguished.
in Egyptian
sources
and
in
192
G. Gilmore
- J.
Ray
has been adapted to an Egyptian
goes back as early as the 6th century BC.8 This material
composition
we at least have proof that
but
the
is
from
still
undeniable.
Here
context,
Mesopotamia
borrowing
were
observed
and reported by the Egyptians
in the Roman
if not earlier, and that
eclipses
period,
It may be that the practice was known considerably
of such phenomena
could be preserved.
we
no
at
but
moment
have
the
earlier,
way of knowing how far back this might have gone.
Some confirmation
of the idea that eclipses were
important in the Pharaonic
period can be found
an eclipse as taking place. This too is contained
from the one passage which directly mentions
in a
studies
and further studied by Mark
papyrus, P. Berlin 13588. This was first published by W. Erichsen,
The text takes the form of an appeal by a young priest from Daphnae,
in the north-east Delta,
who lays claim to a share of certain priestly
incomes. He strengthens his case by referring to an act of
some
which
he
time
to this as
and he explains
the historical
previously,
piety
performed
background
...
the disk
follows: "I heard in Daphnae, my home town, that the sky had swallowed
after the sun when
demotic
Smith.9
it was
to its rest
going
in the evening.
The
death
of Pharaoh
(P. Berlin 13588, iii, 1-3). As the second
Na'amepinhas."
a lunar eclipse which occurred
is describing
immediately
been
previously
thought. This is most
likely to have been
two very baleful
in the lands
to the east of
showed, the narrator here
convincingly
after sunset, and not a solar eclipse as had
the lunar eclipse of 22 March 610 BC, which
editor
The same
sunset, and was visible from Daphnae.
text
in
and
and
the
Berlin
the
the
death are
I,
eclipse
are
we
a
a
events. Here too
record of
lunar eclipse
dealing with
took place around 18:12:0, one or two minutes
year saw the death of the Pharaoh Psammetichus
clearly linked, as being
rather than a solar one.
occurred
after
a secular document,
is essentially
rather than a religious
the
record, although
papyrus
since it seems to have acquired some kind of literary status. All the same,
narrative has been elaborated,
a mention
in such a context. The narrator feels justified in
of an eclipse may well have been acceptable
The Berlin
it serves
to an event of this kind, because
referring
to show his piety
in a moment
and trustworthiness
of
crisis.
supernatural
At Alexandria
eclipses were certainly
these were of interest
and a couple were recorded by Ptolemy
in his
observed,
as a means of calibrating
to the astronomer
the length of the
events. They are part of the history of Greek
to individual
However,
year, and they are not related
as generally understood,
and they are therefore omitted from this paper.
science, rather than Egyptology
text in Turin. The fact that was written on an ostracon,
rather than on the
To return to the Coptic
more
This modest
of papyrus, may be significant.
formal medium
inscription, written
quickly on a
Almagest.
Egyptian
potsherd,
a homily,
one. It is not part of an epitaph, or
record, rather than a liturgical or theological
or an encomium
of a saint. We do not know why the scribe at Dj?me made his record, but he
in an attempt to invoke divine
felt the need to surround the text with
signs of the Cross,
is an informal
clearly
took place at
protection. He may have been uneasy in view of the numerical pattern of an event which
in the fourth year of an indiction. All this makes our
the fourth hour on the fourteenth of Phamenoth
a datable solar eclipse from
more
text
it
that mentions
since
the
all
the
is
valuable,
only example
Coptic
length of Egyptian
the entire
Institute
Faculty
the coming
of the Islamic
era.*
Gerry Gilmore
John Ray
of Astronomy,
Cambridge
of Oriental Studies, Cambridge
8 R. A.
describe
before
history,
Parker,
eclipses
9W.
Erichsen,
A Vienna
are different,
Eine
on Eclipseand
Papyrus
the term ir 3b3 is used for both
Demotic
Lunar
and
solar
neue
demotische
Erz?hlung,
AAW Mainz,
Omina
and
1959).
(Providence
Here
the
terms
to
used
lunar examples.
Geistes-Sozialw.
Kl.
1956,
49-81;
M.
Psam
Smith,
Did
Both
authors
metichus I die abroad?, OLP 22 (1991), 101-9.
The
astronomical
details
in
this
paper
are
by
Gilmore,
and
the Egyptological
ones
by
Ray.
responsible for the finished text, which was inspired by a joint visit toEgypt to see the total eclipse of 29 March 2006.
are