Star Maps: A Guide to Religious Astronomy in Ancient Egypt Paperback – January 28, 2026

For Egypt we can say, in terms of astronomy there are three major periods of development. The earliest accessible to us in texts starts from the 9th dynasty, which is about 2150bce. This is after the great pyramid age, only because there are very few surviving astronomical texts from then, but we can assume there would have been same. There may be little textual information but there is archaeology and the decoding of the famous monuments. There is also the prehistoric or pre dynastic of which a surprising amount of archaeology survives.The second age is is found in the famous ramesside monuments, such as the Osireion and the tombs.The third is the Ptolemaic period when foreign influence become dominant, the introduction of the famous zodiac we all know and love, and the final assimilation of Egyptian concepts into the mix.Also time when Nubian kings ruled egypt for several centuries and may have reformed the whole system on mystical lines, with decanal rites and mystery cults. Read more