How Did Astronomy Affect Ancient Egyptian Culture

Egyptian science and mathematical practices, particularly astronomy, were highly impacted by religion and therefore highly impacted people's daily lives and cultural practices. From architectural masterpieces such as the great pyramids of giza to items and ideas practiced by almost every ancient egyptian such as the calendar, astronomy impacted people’s daily lives and cultural practices by being at the root of every important thing the Egyptians thought of. Egyptian astronomer- priests practiced astronomy by taking many accurate measurements of the stars using a market, a small instrument that used a plumb line in order to focus on stars. These measurements would then be used to align important structures such as the pyramids and many important

temples. The pyramids of giza in particular, show the amazing precision that ancient Egyptians practiced astronomy with. The pyramids were aligned with the four cardinal points on earth (North, East, South, West) within a margin of error of less than half a degree! That was incredibly accurate for the time.

Additionally, many historians think that the pyramid complex, consisting of 3 pyramids, the Sphinx and the nile river, was a mirror of the Duat, a place that Egyptians thought the gods lived. Infact, this type of worshipping of gods was not too uncommon in ancient civilizations. The Egyptians believed that by aligning grand structures with the cardinal points, divine energy was brought to Earth and therefore prevented the world from falling into chaos. A product of the Egyptian study of astronomy, one with more common use to the people of the ancient Egyptian society, was the calendar. The ancient Egyptian calendar had many similarities and differences to our own. For example, the ancient Egyptian calendar was based on 365 days with 12 months, just like our own, modern day calendar. The differences however, were that the ancient Egyptians only recognized 3 seasons and did not use leap years. The 3 season had a lot of significance and practical use for the Egyptians. New Years day was on July 19th and marked the beginning of the season Akhet. During Akhet, the nile flooded and allowing farmers to plant crops in the newly irrigated soil. Akhet lasted until November 16th when the next season, Peret

began. Peret was between November 16 and March 17 during which crops started to sprout but were not quite ready for harvest. The final season, lasting from March 17th to July 14th, was Shemu. Shemu was the harvest season where all of the crops planted during Akhet were gathered to provide food for the ancient Egyptians. July 14th to July 18th were considered unlucky in the ancient Egyptian religion because those days were considered the birthdays of the five major deities, Osiris, Isis, Horus, Seth and Nephthys. All of the seasons greatly impacted people's daily lives because people used the calendar to know when it was time to plant/ harvest food so that the civilization would not starve. Ancient Egypt, being theocratic, also incorporated their religion into this calendar. As a result of the Ancient Egyptian calendar not recognizing leap years, the calendar was only ever truly right every 1460 years. This differs from our modern day calendar which synchronizes every 4 years. In conjunction to the seasons calendar, there was a religious calendar that highly impacted the cultural practices of ancient egyptians. This calendar had marked on it the festivals, cultural events, and ceremonies of the ancient Egyptian religion and was based on a 29.5 day month. This calendar, being based on a 29.5 day month was actually believed to be more accurate with respect to agricultural and seasonal event however, the civil calendar was used for those things. Ancient Egyptian science, particularly astronomy which led to the creation of the calendar, was all based on religion and had a big impact on people's daily lives and cultural practices. Astronomy was used to position pyramids and temples in alignment with the cardinal points on Earth. This was done because the Egyptians believed that in this way, divine energy would be transmitted to Earth which would prevent chaos in the world. The calendar was invented as a result of astronomical discoveries and had a big impact on both the daily lives and cultural practices of the Egyptian people. The 3 seasons had an impact on daily lives because they dictated when the nile would flood and therefore dictated when the people of ancient Egypt should plant their crops. Also, the last 5 days of the civil calendar were dedicated to the birthdays of the gods and were therefore considered unlucky. This impacted people's beliefs because certain things would not want to be done on unlucky days. Finally, the religious calendar of ancient Egypt impact cultural practices as it told people when certain festivals were to be celebrated. Egyptian astronomy and the creation of the calendar were rooted in religion and therefore had a big impact on the daily lives and cultural practices of the people of ancient Egypt and impacted the development of the Egyptian civilization because of their influence and importance within the ancient Egyptian society.