In the first section the author discusses the origin of the Egyptian 365-day calendar. The original lunar calendar had months of 29-30 days and was based on observation, not calculation. The start of the inundation in June set the beginning of the year. The lunar year had irregularly 12, sometimes 13 months. The reappearance of Sothis marked the imminent coming of the inundation. At the beginning of the historical period this gave rise to a luni-stellar year, with a first month beginning at the new moon after the Sothic rising. In the 29th century B.C. (2874 B.C.?) the 365-day year was installed, with fixed lunar months of 30 days + 5 epagomenal days. Used as the Egyptians were in the lunar year to new year's day shifting with respect to the heliacal rising of Sothis, they became only aware of its new shift in the new calendar after a century, and for various reasons they kept it as it then was.

In the second section the author studies the problem of the popular month names derived from religious festivals in the cultic lunar calendar, which superseded - and never completely replaced - the official name-giving by the three seasons and their month numbers in official documents only as late as the Late Period. Apparently, the integration of the lunar feasts in the 365-day year went by steps and was only completed in the Ramesside Period.

The calendarium on the verso of the medical Pap. Ebers is not only of great importance for the chronology of Egypt, but also for the question of how the Egyptians calculated time. Its first column gives the old month names, the second the dates of the 365-day year, while the second line adds the notice prt-spdt to the entry of day 9 of month 11 (III shemu 9) of year 9 of king Amenhotep I. The author surveys and discusses the opinions, particularly the recent one of Leitz in AEB 91/1.0421, 26-34, where Leitz defends that the notice of a Sothis rising indeed relates to the date of day 9 of month 11.

A general work on the mathematics of the Ancient Egyptians. After a general introduction and a list of the few sources, of which the Mathematical Papyrus Rhind is by far the most important, the author describes the characteristics of Ancient Egyptian mathematics: the numerical system and the numbers, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, fractions etc. The following chs. are devoted to problems of geometry (triangle, rectangle, circle, volumes, pyramids etc.), equation procedures, and some special problems.

Appendixes on the term stwty, the mathematical problem of Pap. Anastasi I (14,2-17,1), the calculation of the psw volume, the use of red in mathematical texts. Conclusion, bibliography, hieroglyphic glossary of Egyptian mathematical terms, and index of sources cited added.

In Egypt, the agrarian year began with the heliacal rising of Sothis, which heralded the beginning of the inundation. Throughout Egyptian history the succession of the year's seasons is depicted in various ways in temples and tombs. Well-known pictorial representations of the calendar are found in the tomb of Senenmut and on the ceiling in the Ramesseum. Both exhibit the same arrangement of the months: the first four months of the new year, Akhet, are followed by the first two months of the next season, Peret. The series is then continued on the opposite side of the representation, with the last two months of Peret and the four months of Shemu. On sarcophagus lids from the Graeco-Roman period, the signs of the Zodiac are arranged in a strikingly similar order. Circular zodiacs, as that of Dendera, may well have been derived from the earlier Egyptian clepsydras. The purpose of these calendrical representations was to assure the survival of the deceased by associating him with the eternal solar and Osirian cycles.

Elements from these Egyptian zodiacs have survived in the decoration of the tympans of Romanesque churches in France, notably those of Vézelay and Autun. W.H.

The author investigates whether and along which ways the Egyptian Medical Papyri may have been transmitted into Classical and early Christian times. The Hermetic tradition may have been instrumental in this, and the work of Clemens of Alexandria, who was occupied with the Corpus Hermeticum, reveals knowledge of true medical treatments and skill, in which conjurations were largely absent.

Of the pharmaceutical plants identified in Egyptian texts and those known through excavation, many came to Egypt from or through Palestine; they were subsequently cultivated in Egyptian gardens. A significant group is formed by spices, apparently because of a high essential oil content. Cumin, coriander, dill, garden cress, and black cumin were all cultivated. Already about 2500 B.C. juniper berries were imported from northern Palestine. Pepper seeds were found in the nose of the mummy of Ramses II. Other important ingredients in the Egyptian pharmacopoeia were coniferous resins and gum resins (frankincense and myrrh), the roots of the pomegranate-tree, a drug called "rotten wood," garlic, onions, wine, raisins, and figs. Plant oils were used for cosmetic purposes. In medicine, however, they were only used as the base for drugs but not as pharmaceuticals themselves. W.H.

Proceeding from a Mesopotamian mathematical text, the author formulates a "Mesopotamian theorem," which abstraction finds concrete shape in the real world, if applied to the pyramid dimensions.

Parkers Ansatz des altägyptischen Tagesbeginns vor Sonnenaufgang wurde in den letzten Jahren von verschiedenen Ägyptologen aufgegeben und durch den Tagesbeginn bei Sonnenaufgang ersetzt. Es lässt sich aber beweisen, dass der altägyptische Kalendertag im Sinne Parkers vor Sonnenaufgang begonnen hat. Author

The author deals with four points: 1. N.K. iconography of the more conspicuous decanal constellations; 2. the controversy about the celestial location of the decanal belt; 3. the probable origins of the sAH hieroglyph; 4. the general conspicuousness of the Egyptian constellations.

The author draws attention to the Egyptian belief of the role of the divine in matters of disease. The protective and healing roles of various deities called in for help by the doctor pass in review.

Brief discussion of surgery in ancient Egypt, based mainly on the Pap. Edwin Smith. W.H.

In 1934 M. Knapp, a Swiss astronomer, suggested the possible relevance of simultaneous heliacal risings of Venus and Sirius to Egyptian chronology. In 1973 this rare and almost forgotten publication was brought again to the attention by Velikovsky. Knapp's suggestion did not receive much attention, probably on the assumption that the ancient sources do not provide any evidence of these events. This, however, is not quite true. When studying the heliacal rising of Sirius the present author came across several indications for the possible role of Venus: 1) A text, discovered by Brugsch at Dendera or Edfu, explicitly referring to the simultaneous rising of Venus and Sirius; 2) The surprising fact that a coin, struck at Alexandria in 139 CE (the 2nd regnal year of Antoninus Pius) to commemorate the rather unique event of the return of the heliacal rising of Sirius to 1 Thoth, was followed by a similar coin in the 6th regnal year; 3) Coins with the inscription FEL.TEMP.REP. from the reign of the Roman emperors Constantius and Constans; 4) A chapter of Geminos' Isagoge, where he is writing about the festival(s?) of Isis; 5) A text of Athenaios' Deipnosophists, implying the visibility of Morning- and Eveningstar on the same day. The present paper will make plausible that these things have a close relation to some special Sirius-Venus configurations. Author

Ch.1, Prolegomena. The introduction primarily addresses general aspects of trephining in both prehistoric and early historical times. After a discussion about the etymology of the term "trephination" the author deals with the following subjects: questions about the relatively late (i.e. starting in the first half of the 19th century) studies on trephining in antiquity; critical approaches to the statement that the degree of mortality by trephining was higher during early modern times than in prehistoric periods; a careful discussion of Broca's "trépanation chirurgicale" and "trépanation posthume," and suggestions to their application. Furthermore, the so-called symbolic trephinations, the sincipital-T and the thermal cauterization have been dealt with shortly, and comments on the motivation and indication of the operation have been included in order to separate the rational from the religious-magical parts in the field of pre-hippocratic medicine. The working definitions of the term "trephination" most currently used were discussed and evaluated in detail. A proposal was subsequently worked out and used as a basis for the evaluation of casuistry. Methods of trephining were introduced both in tabular form and in calotte models. Finally, information on the source material has been included, as well as different opinions on the problem of the custom of trephining in Ancient Egypt.

Ch. 2, on Ancient Egyptian surgery. This chapter focuses on the analysis of surgical aspects of Egyptian medicine, their specification and evaluation. First, the author shows in chronological order the socio-cultural conditions of the rise and the development of Egyptian medicine. He further gives an analysis of specific medical themes. Special attention is also given to the following matters: the progress and decline of medical science and its dependence on religion and theology; the lack of designations for "science" and "scientist"; the impersonality of individual performance; the significance of the writing system; monumental architecture, war conflicts and cultural interaction as a means of development of medicine in Egypt; the importance of the three foundations of medical science: anatomy, physiology and pathology; anatomy in general as well as its significance as a condition for trephining the human skull; and anatomy of the head in particular. Departing from the information gathered in this study, an attempt is made to evaluate Ancient Egyptian surgery. Finally, the author presents a critical view of research activities in this area to the present.

Ch. 3, the analysis of the source material for surgery of the skull in Ancient Egypt. At the beginning of the chapter the author sets the historical boundaries of the theme. Starting with Prehistory, it stretches until the end of the 4th century A.D. There are textual witnesses and objects of art and handicraft among the archaeological findings, which according the criteria of the study, could be analyzed. Due to the importance of reconstruction attempts and the comparison with trephining instruments in antiquity and in the early Middle Ages, special attention was given to an object above the so-called instrument frieze of the Kom Ombo temple in Upper Egypt. The objection has received a different interpretation in Egyptian studies. In addition, a sepulchral find from Germany was looked at, which has repeatedly been related to trephining practices in Egypt and at the place where it was found. Then follow a number of differential-diagnostic case studies. As a result of the large amounts of findings, the author presents an extensive anthropological documentation, which is preceded by explanations on the character of the research material as well as on methodological matters. The possibility of non-invasive examination by means of picture diagnoses was shown along with the form of procedure for embalming, and the nature and kind of substances applied to it according to the historical period of each case. A discussion follows about questions related to the healing of defects of the skull, the character and demonstrability of lesions of the skull in X-rays, the radiological differentiation between intra-vitam and post-mortal defects, and the examination of certain statements related to this subject in specialized literature. Furthermore, a checklist was worked out in order to allow a better identification, judgment and location of the formation of cavities in the skull, and the differential diagnoses of operative skull defects were arranged in a table. The following differential diagnoses, which are subdivided into: skull and brain traumata; pathologica, anomalies, disturbing developments; intra-vitam instrumental defects; defects of postmortem geneses; norm variants; and others were arranged in a uniform scheme: comments on important information of objects are followed by radiological and microscopic findings which are respectively complemented with a detailed photographic documentation. The conclusion presents the general assessment of the case. The chapter ends with cases of trephining. This part of the investigation deals first with the entire scientific literature which was available on the subject of surgery in Ancient Egypt, and to related fields, since the trephining question in Ancient Egypt was first investigated at the beginning of the 20th century. Subsequently, those cases classified as trephinings were examined. The purpose was to make a separation between operations of the skull and defects caused by other reasons, and also to obtain a complete collection of cases. In order to reach this goal, the schemes of procedures successfully applied in the part on differential diagnoses were also applied here. After this follows the documentation of new findings from Egypt and Nubia. In this part, the above-mentioned research scheme was also retained. Further explanations dealt with critical cases which could not be classified according to differential diagnosis criteria, and were not in accordance with the underlying definition of trephining; but on grounds of certain peculiarities, they nevertheless did not exclude the possibility of a manipulation. Altogether 14 defects of the skull could be diagnosed as trephinings.

Ch. 4, on trephining in countries surrounding Egypt. The decisive question in this chapter aims at the existence of a possible connection between Egyptian and non-Egyptian trephining cases for the purpose of the adoption and transmission of procedural technical details. In the comparative study, casuistry was included from the geographical area of ancient North Africa, as well as lower Africa, the Arabian peninsula, Palestine, Phoenicia and Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia-Minor, Greece and the ancient Aegean. The partially unexpected small number of findings from those regions, and also their - to some extent - inaccessibility of lack of documentation (especially in the case of casuistry related to Palestine), did not allow a definite answer to the starting question.

Ch. 5, outlook. Discussed are selected findings which have not yet been examined within the frame of casuistry and related texts to Egyptian trephining. Furthermore, a summary of the contents was integrated, together with a compilation in points of the results of the research. Author

This is an extensive discussion of diseases of the ear, nose and throat in ancient Egypt. After a general introduction on medical practice, the following subjects are dealt with separately: ears, nose, throat, base of skull, oesophagus, salivary glands, neck, endocrine glands, face, neurology. The survey is concluded by a brief section on legal aspects. W.H.

The author analyses the way the Egyptians calculated the number pi by a very close approximation, as it is found in various problems of the mathematical Pap. Rhind. From the procedure followed it is evident that the scribe is well aware of the general applicability of the method used to other measurements of diameter.

A study of honey as used in medicine (500 times out of 900 prescriptions). Its antiseptic and antibiotic qualities are well-known, and it is very effective in salves for the treatment of sore eyes and wounds.

The earliest use of fractions in Egypt occurs in two groups of texts, the jar dockets from the magazines of the Djoser complex, and the Palermo stone. The fractions encountered here are: 1/3, 2/3, 1/2, 3/4, and, as part of the HqAt measure: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8. These fractions may be termed, in Neugebauer's phrase, 'natural fractions.' All could be expressed in commonly used words: 1/2: gs/rmn; 1/3: rA; 2/3: rAwy; 1/4: Hsb; 1/8: sA. This system of measurements and simple fractions would seem to predate the development of writing. The basic operation of the system was division in halves, and it was completed by the introduction of 'real' fractions: 1/3. It is for this reason that fractions were from the beginning always unit fractions. It was in the Pyramid Age that the system was fully developed into its classic form. W.H.

This study of measures of length in Ancient Egypt sprang from the author's engagement in the measuring of the tomb of queen Twosre in the Valley of the Kings (KV 14). In ch. A the author considers the state of the art concerning the royal cubit as the basic measure of length in Ancient Egypt. In ch. B she sets forth her views about the existence of a so-far undetected Ancient Egyptian measuring system, on the basis of measurements found in the tomb of Twosre, and in ch. C she explores the evidence for this system, which was based on the existence of the nbj (Greek naubion?), a measure of length provisionally estimated to be about 65 cm. This measure is known from N.K. ostraca. After pointing out a number of rules to be observed in measuring procedures and the structure of the system, the author presents in ch. D in historical order the evidence for its use. She discusses, i.a., the Narmer palette, the Thinite Wadji stela, the King's Chamber in the Cheops pyramid (incl. the sarcophagus), M.K. palmiform columns from el-Bersha, a N.K. block statue, a N.K. votive block with a Hathor head, a Ptolemaic column from Philae, some crypts in the Roman Period temple of Dendara. The grid of the canon of proportions is the next subject of study (ch. E), including a discussion of scholarly opinion and attention to the change in the canon in the Amarna Period. Here also the nbj system is seen to lie at the basis of the grid; examples of measurements of the human body, seated and standing, are given (see the tables). Since it is believed that the system was already in use in the Archaic Period, the author subjects the early canon of proportions to closer observation in ch. F, dealing with the figures of the king on the Narmer Palette and contemporary representations of human beings. Furthermore, she describes the O.K. canon of proportions, particularly the relief of the running king Djoser in the South Tomb of his complex at Saqqara In ch. G the author investigates how measurements were determined in Ancient Egypt, e.g. with the help of the drawing of a shrine on a grid or the plan of the royal tomb of Ramses IV on a Turin papyrus, and describes its application in sculpture in the round. Ch. H is devoted to the measurement system in the Roman Period temple of Kalabsha. In ch. J the measurement systems of length outside Egypt, in the Ancient Orient and in Greece, are taken in for comparison. The Greek system may well have derived from Egypt. The extensive evidence presented in ch. K is meant to confirm the distribution, the continuity and the application of the nbj measuring system: the tomb of king Den at Abydos; palace facade mastabas; a stela sanctuary east of the Meidum pyramid; the mastaba of Kagemni at Saqqara; the Cheops pyramid and Chefren's valley temple at Giza; the chapel of Sesostris I at Karnak; the temple of Mirgissa; the M.K. rock tombs at Assuan; the tomb of Khnumhotep at Beni Hasan; the temple of Seti I at Wadi Mia; quartzite blocks from royal burial chambers in the Valley of the Kings; the tomb of Neferhotep (TT 50) and Ankh-hor (TT 414) at Thebes-West; the Luxor temple; sarcophagi from the O.K. and N.K.; an O.K. false door; M.K. (Egyptian Museum Cairo CG 20001-20075) and N.K. stelae; papyri; mud bricks and columns (both with extensive tables); the drawing of the construction of an ellipse in the Luxor temple; Amarna talatat; and pillars. Ch. L devotes attention to some detail questions, such as indications of measurements in the autobiography in tomb no. 3 of Khnumhotep in Beni Hasan, measuring systems in the Valley of the Kings, the so-called Egyptian foot measure in various periods, and the Greek Samian cubit mentioned by Herodotus. Ch. M, the conclusion, deals with the royal cubit, the nbj measurement system (length 65 cm), the grid and the canon of proportions, its changes and its being basic in planning, and measuring systems outside Egypt.

Bibliography added.

A re-examination of the corpus of length-measuring instruments reveals the existence of standardized tools and apparently unstandardized ones. It is shown that the latter are inscribed with different scales of the canon of proportion which were intended to draw the preparatory grids for decorated walls. Some of them, found at Kahun, have previously been wrongly interpreted as foreign standards. The word nbi is studied anew and the author demonstrates, with the help of the plan of Senenmut's tomb (TT 71) sketched on an ostracon, that the nbi is a linear measure of 70 cm (divided into seven units of 10 cm), i.e. a wooden rod inscribed with the canon at full scale. In use possibly as early as the O.K., the nbi was certainly employed from the XIIth Dynasty onward in several parts of Egypt, until the reform of the canon during the XXVIth Dynasty made this implement obsolete. Author

The author deals with the following subjects, quoting the appropriate texts. Deities and the human body: Ancient Egyptian perceptions of the body, and the anatomical lists; the goddess Nut and the nightly voyage of the sun. Deities who caused illnesses: Egyptian perceptions of the causation of illness by illness-spirits and symptom-demons; the deities Sakhmet, Isis and Seth. Protective and healing deities: the deities of pregnancy and childbirth; the major healing deities. Deities and therapeutics (sanatoria within temples). It is concluded that the practice of healing was intimately linked to religious beliefs and practices, prayer, magic spells and rituals playing a vital role.

Early Egyptians created a means of measuring time by observing stars which led both to the development of a calendar and to pantheon of religious myths. This paper indicates that the length of time we recognize as the 'hour' unit of the day is the natural consequence of rising star patterns whose distribution also gave rise to the gates of the Duat and subsequent stories related to them. Author

"Gold in Egypt."

The author discusses gold mining in ancient Egypt and the meaning of gold, which, as a symbol of the concept of durability, was seen as a divine material. M.W.K.

In this article the author discusses, on the basis of etymological research, the state of affairs in the study to the problem of the introduction of horses and chariots into Egypt. Further, the author discusses the origin of the "Florentine chariot" which is still uncertain. M.W.K.

It is apparent that ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian stone vessel craftsmen must have adopted the twist/reverse twist manner of driving their tubular drills and stone borers. Egyptian representations of the tool show its extreme simplicity of form; nowhere in Egyptian representations of stone vessel production does the ancient artist ever display a stone borer being driven by a bow. Tomb artists never showed a tubular drill being driven by a bow, although the use of bow-driven tubes must have been well known. Experiments demonstrate that the twist/reverse twist technique provided the only satisfactory method any ancient stone vessel craftsman could have employed for driving tubular drills and stone borers. Author

One of the most important innovations in nautical technology was the invention of brails, specialized lines that Mediterranean sailors employed to shape and furl the square sails, used from some point in the Late Bronze Age until the close of Antiquity. The XXth dynasty Medinet Habu sea battle reliefs yield good evidence, but new study of less well-known representations from the late XVIIIth or early XIXth Dynasties shows that the Egyptians were acquainted with the technology no later than the Amarna Period, though it seems doubtful that they themselves had invented it. The most provocative is an Amarna relief from Hermopolis (AEB 69520, PC 103), showing a riverine boat with its sail braided into a for-and-aft configuration for tacking. A second relief (Berlin (East) 24025) shows a seagoing ship with rigging that parallels the Medinet Habu ships' almost exactly. Two others are on Ramesside illuminated papyrus fragments (Pap. Turin 2032 and 2033). The rigging of these riverine boats closely parallels that of the ships of the Medinet Habu relief with one important divergence: the addition of booms, typical of Pharaonic Egyptian and Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean rigging, but of no obvious use with a braided sail. Finally, a painting of a riverine boat in Theban Tomb 50, of Neferhotep from the reign of Horemheb, is more problematic. The author studies the technological and the historical contexts.

Ancient Egyptian quarrying techniques are briefly discussed on p. 5-7 of this survey. W.H.