The KTU 1.78 astronomical text is most famous because it is used by David
Rohl to date the 12th of Akhenaten down to 1012 BCE. However, the
translation of the text actually shows Egyptian influence, perhaps thus
being actually written by an Egyptian magistrate assigned to Ugarit.
A more direct translation of the text though clearly would show Egyptian
concepts in cosmology and timing and even assignment of Syrian gods to the
zodiac:
Here's a poor translation of the text:
"The day of the moon of Hiyaru was put to shame: the sun
went in, (with) her gate(keeper), Rashap [Mars?]."
The text is:
BTT.YM.HDT.HYR
RBT.SHPH.TGRH.RSP
Which is
SIX.DAY.NEW MOON.HIYYARU
ENTER.SUN.HER GATE.RESHEP
This astro-shorthand if written by an Egyptian would refer to hour six,
day
of the new moon of Hiyyaru; the sun entered into Hathor's (HER) Gate in
Taurus(Reshep).
The Egyptians did have a concept of the hour, 12 hours for day and 12 at
night which began at midnight. Thus hour six would be the hour from 5-6
a.m. That's an Egyptian concept. And a better concept than "put to
shame"
since the object of putting to shame in reference to an eclipse is
directly
related to the sun or more. This reference reference to the entire day of
the new moon. So it is not a relevant translation here. Why avoid saying
the sun was put to shame if that was actually the reference?
But the very logical: hour, day, month to time this eclipse makes more
sense.
Line 2 is very Egyptian in that their concept of the sun is connected to
GATES, and gates that are feminine. The sun is thought of as being
swallowed by the goddess Hathor at evening and then traveling through 12
gates through her body, then emerging through two cyamore trees,
repressing
the goddess and specifically were vulva. Thus the sun is reborn. So a
common reference to sunrise is synonymous with the sun entering "her gate"
meaning Hathor's gate.
Now of note, the besides the date and time of an eclipe, the next most
common identification reference is the zodiac position of the sun at the
time of the eclipse. This could only be observed just before sunrise, of
course. Thus there is continuity to refer to the zodiac position in which
the sun rose as being Reshep.
RESHEP: Finally, Reshep in the Egyptian pantheon is represented as a bull
and associated with a war god like Taurus. One title of Reshep is also
"Lord of Heaven" which is synonymous with the official title of Taurus,
which is "Bull of Heaven" (Bull/Bell=Lord). As far as Reshep being
"Mars"
as some suggest, the gods were associated with both zodiac constellations
as
well as Platets. Ishtar being associated with Venus, the Moon and Virgo.
So there is no contradictions for Reshep to have been associated with both
Taurus and Mars, both.
WHAT CAN WE PRESUME: Ugarit was under Egyptian suzrainty at the time so
it
wouldn't have been unusual for the Egyptian magistrate in charge of doing
the liver reading or doing an eclipse reading to have been educated in
Egyptian Universities, or to have an Egyptian administrative person
assigned
to the palace who might have written this text.
If so, however, out of four choices, only 1375 BCE, the conventional
dating
would match this reference, since it is the only eclipse that actually
occurs during hour six. The 1012 BCE eclipse occurs near sunset in the
5th
hour.
Using this dating, Akhenaten's 1st year then corresponds with other dating
that point to 1386 BCE for the date of the Exodus, so this text is used to
slightly adjust the early dating for the Dynasties where Akhenaten's 1st
year falls in 1378 BCE. Of course, the also popular Sothic dating where
Akhenaten begins his rule in 1351 BCE would be disputed by this reference.
Coordinating Akhenaten's first year with the Biblical dating for the
Exodus,
now confirmed by RC14 dating from Rehov for ****shak's invasion c. 871 BCE
also adds confidence to this better dating. It certainly is less drastic
than the 363 years that David Rohl proposes. Only now, it is clear that
1012 BC is a misdating for this text since it can only be correctly dated
to
1375 BCE.
Progress and improvements are being made in chronology. Of course, some
people don't like progress and like the comfort of old, comfortable ideas,
though inaccurate.
Lars Wilson
(New!) Corrected Timeline Outline:
http://www.geocities.com/siaxares/709guide.html
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