Solar Empire--Heavens Above VII

　　But, encouraged by their priests, the people rose u p, refusing to abandon the old gods and goddesses. Soon after Akhenaten's death, the old gods were restored and a new pharaoh, a boy of just nine, came to the throne. His real name was Tutankhaten, again in honor of the su n. But, with the disgrace of the previous pharaoh, the young king would become known instead as Tutandhamen, t he most famous Egyptian king in history.

　　But for the Ancient Egyptians, the sun was even mor e than an object of worship and the foundation of a rel igious sect, it provided the basis of their understandi ng of the seasonal year, a legacy still with us today.

　　Early civilizations in Mesopotamia had noticed how the sun appeared to move eastward in a distinct pattern against the backdrop of stars from day to day.

　　It was a sophisticated discovery. First, they creat ed a map of the stars. Then, they noticed that each day the sun would rise and set in a slight, but discernible interval further along against the background of stars. To complete one full circuit of the entire star field, the Egyptians knew it took the sun roughly three hundre d and sixty days. To this day, a circle is divided into three hundred and sixty degrees, each degree representi ng the distance traveled by the sun against the backgro und of stars in one day. And, yet, the Ancient Egyptian s were well aware that the true year is three hundred a nd sixty-five, not three hundred and sixty days. They c omplicated matters by also using a calendar of twelve t hirty day months, nothing added up. Until some creative arithmetic, their official year still lasted three hund red and sixty days, but they simply declared the other five didn't exist, officially, that is, instead, that t ime was given over to an orgy of merriment and feasting on specially slaughtered animals, revealed to us on car vings at the Temple at Luxor.

　　to be continued