Chapter 40 Chapter 42 The Confused Historical Era

In the tomb of Pharaoh Unas, as far as the eye can see, the walls of the gray room, from top to bottom, are filled with hieroglyphs - a kind of text called pyramid scriptures, which are no longer alive.But it is curious that what is mentioned repeatedly in the scriptures is life—everlasting life.After the pharaoh was reborn as a star in the constellation of Orion, he could gain eternal life.As observed in the nineteenth chapter of this book on religious views in Mexico, there are several places in the pyramid scriptures where the desire for rebirth is very clearly expressed: Oh king.You are the great star, the traveling companion in the constellation of Orion... You rise from the eastern sky, you are born new for the right season, and reborn at the right time... ①

Although the realm is extremely poignant, there is nothing special about it.French archaeologist Maspero therefore believes that the pyramid scriptures should be the work of people who "often maintain a semi-barbaric state"②.And, because Maspero was the first ancient Egyptologist to enter the Pyramid of Unas, he is considered an authority on authenticating scriptures.We can understand how his opinion has dominated scholarship since he began publishing translations of these texts in the 1880s.With the help of jackals, Maspero introduced the Pyramid scriptures to the world, but at the same time, he also spread his prejudice against the Pyramid scriptures to the academic circles, making the academic circles always look at this aspect with colored eyes. knowledge, and failed to attempt in time to solve some of the puzzles related to the scriptures.This is extremely unfortunate, because even today when people start to talk about the mystery of the Great Pyramid of Giza from a scientific and technical point of view, scholars of ancient Egyptology are still unwilling to face up to some amazing textual content in the pyramid scriptures, and the meaning they represent.

The content of the scriptures reads quite weirdly, as if trying to explain some complicated scientific and technical issues with a completely inappropriate grammatical structure.But perhaps we can imagine Einstein's theory of relativity explained in Chaucerian English, or supersonic planes described in medieval German, and it's not hard to understand why the scriptures are so weird. Shattered Images of Lost Technology Take some of the equipment and accessories used to help the Pharaoh fly to the eternal star world after death as an example. There is such a passage in the scriptures:

The swarms of the sky descend, and the gods of the earth gather around you.They put their hands under you.They make a ladder for you.You ride a ladder and ascend to the sky.The gates of the sky are wide open for you.A sky full of stars, the door is open for you. An ascended pharaoh, often combined with Osiris, also known as Osiris.As we mentioned earlier, Osiris is often associated with the constellation Orion.Osiris/Orion is regarded as the first person to ascend to heaven by climbing the ladder made by the gods.In other verses of the scriptures, it is also very clearly stated that this ladder is a rope ladder connected to an iron plate suspended in the sky, and it is usually used for descending from the sky to the ground, not from the sky to the sky.

I wonder, do these narrations in the scriptures reflect only the weird ideas of some priests?Or, from these metaphors, can other explanations be found? In verse 261 of the scriptures it is written: "The king is a flame, which floats on the wind, from the sky to the ends of the earth...The king travels in the air, travels on the earth...He ascended by the method of descending from the air... ..." Section 310 writes in a dialogic way: "Oh, you who have the world in your head and the back of your head, bring me this!" "Which ferry can I bring you?" "Give me the flying-landing thing."

Verse 332, which should be the king himself, confided: "I am the one who escaped from the entanglement of the viper. Changing direction, I rose into the sky in a burst of flame. Two skies came after me from behind." In verse 696, the text poses a question: "Where did the king become flying?" The scriptures answer this question again: "They will bring you the Hanupi (Hnwbark, Hnw meaning unknown)... (the scripture is missing) mark bird (hn-bird, hn meaning unknown). You will be with They fly together...you will fly and land." In addition, there are some passages in the scriptures that I think scholars should explore more deeply, such as:

O my father, great king, the entrance of the skylight has been opened for you. The gates of heaven on the horizon are open for you, and the gods are glad to meet you... Please sit on the iron throne, just like the king in Heliopolis. O king, ascend to heaven... for you the sky revolves, the earth shakes, and the immortal stars fear you.I am here for you. Oh, your seat is hidden, I will welcome you to heaven... The earth speaks, the gate of heaven opens, and the gate of the god Gebu opens for you... Please move to the sky.ride on the Iron Throne. Oh, my lord father, when you became a god, you traveled in the sky as a god... You stood where the sky and the earth meet... Sitting on an iron throne that even the gods marveled...

Although often overlooked, we cannot help but mention that the recurring presence of iron seats is bewildering.As far as I know, iron was a very rare substance in ancient Egypt, especially in the era of the pyramids, it was only found in meteorites.However, in the pyramid texts, iron appears so frequently that it is almost embarrassing: in addition to the iron plates in the sky and the iron throne, there are also iron scepters (section 665C) and even iron bones of kings (section 665C). 325, 684, 723), and so on. In ancient Egyptian, iron is called bja, which can be interpreted literally as "heavenly metal" or "sacred metal". a gift...

lost treasure trove of science What other fingerprints did the gods leave in the pyramid texts? In the process of reading the scriptures, I even found metaphors related to the time of precession in some of the oldest chapters.These metaphors use a completely different set of technical terms from the other chapters, that is, the ancient scientific language called "Hamlet's stone mill" by the Spanish poet Santillana and Frankfurt University professor Dai Chengde, and are almost the same as the other chapters. Out of place ④. Readers may recall that the "Cosmic diagram" (Cosmic diagram) with four pillars supporting the sky was one of the basic thinking tools used in the ancient Egyptian language.The purpose of the existence of these four pillars is to visualize the four lines of the worldwide age produced by the precessional movement.Astronomers named these four lines "the equinoxes of the autumnal equinoxes, vernal equinoxes, summer solstices, and winter solstices" and determined that they descended from the north pole of the sky, cutting the constellation into four major chunks.The sun takes these constellations as the background, and every 2160 years is a cycle. The sun rises from the four lines inertially at the equinoxes of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, and the solstices of the summer and winter solstices.

The Pyramid texts seem to endow the Cosmic Pillars with many distortions, and just as many prehistoric myths actually contain a lot of astronomical information, there is also a strong overlap between precession and images of the dramatic collapse of the sky.Pyramid scriptures imply that "the sky is in great chaos", which means that the twelve houses of the constellation will reincarnate once every 2160 years. disaster. So there is a passage like this: He created his own sun god Lei-Yadamu, who was originally the god of gods and humans.But humans began to rebel against his rule, because he began to age, the dog's head turned silver, the muscles turned golden, and the hair turned navy blue.

After discovering the resistance of mankind, the elderly sun god Yatanmu (one cannot help but think of the bloodthirsty fifth sun god Tonatiu in the Aztecs), decided to punish those rebels, so he killed kill most of the humans.He entrusts this task of destruction to Sekhmet, who is characterized by a terrifying lion's head covered in blood, who sometimes breathes fire from his own body, and takes pleasure in killing humans. The period of horrific devastation lasted for quite a long time.In the end, Ray finally intervened and saved the "remnant" creatures; and they are the ancestors of today's human beings.The way the sun god intervened was to unleash a great flood that the thirsty lioness drank and fell asleep.When she woke up, she was no longer interested in pursuing destruction, and peace came to this already destroyed world⑤. Meanwhile, Ray decides to withdraw from the world of his own creation: "I'm tired of being with humans. I've killed most of them. I'm not interested in the few that are left." ..." The sun god Lei then rides on the back of Nut, the goddess of the sky who transformed himself into a cow (Nut exists for the metaphor of the following precession movement), and flies away.Soon after, the cow started "swirling and shaking because she was too far off the ground".This plot is very similar to the story of the Icelandic god Amlodi spinning the stone mill crazily, causing the shaft to vibrate.When the cow complained to the sun god about the restless state, the sun god Lei ordered: "Put my son Shuu under Nut, and become the pillar of the sky to protect me. The spider and the dusk will leave at the same time. Xiu, put Put the cow on your head and stabilize the cow's body." When Xiu put himself under the cow and stabilized her body, immediately, "the sky above and the earth below were formed."At the same time, as the ancient Egyptian scholar Sir Wallace Butch stated in his classic book "The Gods of the Egyptians" (The Gods of the Egyptians), "The four feet of the cow became the four directions of the sky. Four Pillars". Like most scholars, Sir Wallace Butch assumes that the "four directions" mentioned in the ancient Egyptian tradition are only realistic descriptions, and that the so-called "God" has nothing but the sky above you and me. significance.And the four feet of the cow that appear in this plot just mean south, east, north and west.He thought-and even today's ancient Egypt scholars generally agree with him-that the simple-minded priests of Heliopolis seriously thought that there were four corners of the sky, each supported by four cow feet, and repairing the sky. It is even more excellent, standing upright in the center of the world like a pillar, supporting the whole world. However, after the new discoveries of Professor Santirana and Professor Dai Chengde, we must reinterpret these traditional stories.The four feet of Xiuhe's cow in the sky should be the ancient scientific symbols representing the division of time in the precession movement. , summer solstice, and winter solstice). And, it's very tempting to speculate about the era described in this storyline... Since there are cows in the story, it likely happened in the age of Taurus.However, the Egyptians did not even know the difference between a cow and a golden bull.It is therefore more likely - at least in a symbolic sense - to be the age of Leo, 10970 BC to 8810 BC.The reason is that Sekhmet, the goddess who destroys human beings in mythology, has the form of a lioness.There is no better metaphor than a wild lioness to compare the troubled and chaotic beginning of a new century, especially since the Age of Leo coincides with the end of the Ice Age, when a large number of ice cubes melted with majestic momentum. During this period, many animals on the earth suddenly disappeared in large numbers and were extinct.Although human beings have survived earthquakes, large-scale floods and climatic changes, their population has been greatly reduced and their living space has been greatly limited. occupants of sirius The ancient Egyptians not only recognized the precession movement, but also had the ability to explain it in mythology.It can be seen that they understood the operation of the solar system better than any other ancient people, and knew how to observe the celestial phenomena.Moreover, if the ancient Egyptians really had such advanced astronomical knowledge, they must have attached great importance to this knowledge and passed it down from generation to generation, making it one of the important secrets kept by the elite priests of Heliopolis.These priests must be very secretive, and in the form of word of mouth, only award the strict selection of fellow disciples.If they had to write this profound knowledge into the pyramid scriptures due to the needs of the times, they would definitely present this knowledge in the form of allusions, fables, etc. to protect their secrets.Is this impossible? I paced slowly, in the heavy air, through the dusty crypt of Unas.I set my sights on the light blue and gold inscription.These words written in code on the wall explained the movement of the solar system with the theory of earthquakes thousands of years before Copernicus and Galileo were born. For example, the inscription records that the sun god Lei sat on an iron throne, surrounded by some gods with relatively small official positions, as his "retainers", who periodically surrounded him.Likewise, another passage of the inscription reads that the dead pharaoh was encouraged to "stand at the apex of the divided sky, and weigh the words of the gods, who were old and surrounded Ra." If we can prove that the old gods and guardian gods around Ra whom the inscription refers to are the planets of our solar system, then we can be sure that the authors of the pyramid texts must have mastered very advanced astronomical knowledge.They must have known that the planets revolve around the sun, not that the sun revolves around the earth and the planets.The problem raised here is that neither the ancient Egyptians nor the Greeks who continued the ancient Egyptian civilization, nor even the Europeans before the Renaissance, had ever had such advanced astronomical data.However, such and such advanced knowledge appeared in the scriptures before the ancient Egyptian civilization was even civilized.How can we explain this? Another (perhaps related) puzzle has to do with Sirius.Ancient Egypt liked to associate Sirius with Isis.Isis was the sister and consort of Osiris and the mother of Horos.There is a passage in the Pyramid Scriptures that addresses Osiris himself as follows: You rejoice, you love, that your sister Isethe has come.You put her on top of you... Esther grows with children, like Sept (Sirius).Horus-Sept was born as a resident of Sept. This passage can of course be interpreted in many ways.What interests me the most, though, is the hint that Sirius has a "dual identity" from her "growing up with children".Moreover, after the child was born, Horos continued to stay and became a "resident of Sept", which should mean that he was with his mother. Sirius is an unusual star.It is especially bright and shimmering during the northern hemisphere winter nights.As the Pyramid texts suggest, it has the identity of a double star system: Sirius A is the part we see.In addition, there is Sirius B, which surrounds Sirius A, but due to its small size, it cannot be seen with the naked eye. Until 1862, American astronomer Alvin Clark (Alvin Clark) used the largest and newest astronomical telescope at that time. discovered its existence.This is the first time Westerners have seen Sirius B.However, the writers in the pyramid scriptures already possessed the knowledge that Sirius is a double star system.How do they know? In 1976, American writer Robert Temple published an extremely precious book "The Sirius Mystery" (The Sirius Mystery), and tried to answer these questions in the book.Deng Bo found that the Dogon Tribe in West Africa he studied also had Sirius as the center of their religious beliefs.The Dogans not only know that Sirius is actually two stars, but also know that Sirius B revolves around Sirius A every 50 years.Deng Bo strongly advocated that this high-tech information was obtained by the Dogan people through a series of cultural inheritance from the ancient Egyptians.Therefore, to solve the mystery of Sirius, we must start from ancient Egypt.He also came to the conclusion that the ancient Egyptians must have obtained information about the binary star system from aliens from Sirius. Like Deng Bo, I began to believe that the development and sophistication of Egyptian science must have something to do with inheritance from a long time ago.But unlike Temple, I don't think the scientific knowledge of the Egyptians must be inherited from aliens in outer space.The priests of Heliopolis seem to be very knowledgeable about the constellations, and I think we might be able to explain this mystery from the perspective of a lost civilization - once highly technological in the distant past.We can imagine that building a large-scale facility to discover Sirius B would not have been so difficult for the scientists and explorers who produced the amazing maps described in the first part of this book.Moreover, since the unknown astronomers and time measurers of the ancient Mayan tribe were able to make amazingly precise calendars and pass them on to future generations, they would not be very surprised if they knew that the Egyptians had invented a large-scale device for detecting celestial phenomena Bar.The information about celestial phenomena left by the Mayans must be the result of thousands of years of celestial observation and detailed records.However, the astronomical data they obtained seems to be more useful to a country with complex and advanced technology than to a "primitive" Mesoamerican kingdom. journey of millions of years A very large number of astronomical figures appear in the pyramid scriptures, for example: the sun god once traveled "several millions of years" in the dark and airless universe; Famous for his work of surveying), had the power to grant life to the pharaohs after death for hundreds of years. "Eternal god, long ruler" Osiris, spent millions of years of his life traveling.In addition, the words "tens of millions of years" (and the puzzling "one million million years") often appear in the scriptures, which shows that in ancient Egypt, at least some people who held scientific views, Already aware of the long, huge existence of time. From this, we can deduce that since the person who wrote the pyramid texts has such a long-term concept of time, he must have a very correct calendar, and it is a precise and complicated calendar.So it should come as no surprise that the ancient Egyptians had calendars as sophisticated as the Mayans.However, the ancient Egyptians' understanding of the calendar not only did not improve with the years, but instead became more and more regressing⑦.It gives people the impression that their knowledge system was completed in very remote antiquity, but with the passage of time, knowledge is gradually lost.This point of view can be corroborated in the literature of ancient Egypt.The ancient Egyptians openly stated that the calendar was their heritage, and they believed this heritage "from the gods". In later chapters, we will discuss in more detail the true identities of the "Gods".However, no matter who the gods are, they must have spent a lot of time observing the sky, especially in accumulating knowledge about Sirius.The ancient Egyptians had a very convenient concept of the Sirian cycle calendar, which they believed to be given by the gods (the cycle of the ancient Egyptian calendar was 1460 years, and the cycle of the solar calendar was 1461 years).This further supports the above point of view. A Sirian cycle, in technical terms, is "a cycle in which Sirius again rises in the same place as the sun".Sirius will disappear from the sky in a fixed season, and then rise from the eastern sky before the sun rises into the sky and dawn.In terms of time, this period - minus the mantissa of the decimal point - is 365.25 days.The following mantissa is very long, but simply put, it is only 12 minutes of the solar calendar. Curiously, of the 2,000 stars visible to the naked eye, 1 Exactly in a period of 365-days, there is only one star that rises with the sun, 4 And this is the result of the "proper motion" of Sirius (proper motion, the speed at which this planet moves in the universe), plus the precession motion.At the same time, the ancient Egyptian calendar specially designated the day when Sirius rose into the sky before the sun as New Year's Day.And in advance, in Heliopolis, where the pyramid scriptures were compiled, the ancient Egyptians had already calculated the arrival of New Year's Day and notified all the temples up and down the Nile. Pyramid scriptures call Sirius "the name of the new year" (Hernameofthenewyear).Adding some other relevant chapters (e.g. Section 669), I believe the Sirian Ephemeris is at least as old as the Pyramid Texts.And the origins of both of them are surrounded by the distant ancient fog⑧.One of the most puzzling mysteries is, in such a long time ago, who could have such superb knowledge and technology to observe and record the coincident difference of 365.25 days between the cycles of the sun and Sirius?French mathematician R.A. Schwaller deLubicz once said that the cycles of Sirius were "a totally unexpected and unexpected celestial phenomenon". We have nothing but admiration for the great scientist who discovered this purely accidental phenomenon.The double star Sirius was chosen because, out of countless stars, it was the only one that had moved the necessary distance in the correct direction.We have forgotten until recently that in fact, humans have known this phenomenon as early as 4000 years ago, and before we can discover this phenomenon, we need to observe the movement of celestial bodies for a long time. From the pyramid scriptures, we get the impression that observing the astrology correctly for a long time and making scientific records is a heritage inherited by the prehistoric Egyptians. Another mystery arises from this... Is it a rare book or a translation? Wallace Butch, curator of Egyptian antiquities at the British Museum and author of the authoritative dictionary of hieroglyphics, confessed in the year of his death: There are multiple difficulties in the study of pyramid scriptures.There are many words in the book that have unclear meanings... The structure of the article confuses those who try to translate.There are completely unknown words in the sentences, making the words themselves an unsolvable riddle.We can only reasonably surmise that these articles were used in burials.But obviously, the period during which these articles were used was only a hundred or so years.It is completely incomprehensible to us why it suddenly started to be used in the Fifth Dynasty, and stopped using it around the end of the Sixth Dynasty. Why only for a short period of time?The answer may be that the pyramid scriptures are a rare copy of ancient materials. Unas, the last pharaoh of the fifth dynasty, and his successors in the sixth dynasty carved these scriptures on the tombstones of their own pyramids. to try to preserve the scriptures forever.Butch thinks it's highly likely.He felt there was evidence that at least some of the original sources were very old: Some chapters show that the people responsible for copying the rare books and having them carved on the stone tablets by craftsmen did not know the texts.The intention we get is that the priest in charge of copying draws these contents from several documents of different ages and contents... Butch's theory, however, is based on ancient Egyptian sources.He did not think of another possibility, that is, the scriptures written by the priests did not copy the original materials, but translated another language into hieroglyphs, and then made the so-called original materials.Assuming that the truly original text contains many technical terms, concepts and objects that did not exist in ancient Egypt, the translated works, that is, the pyramid scriptures, will naturally give people the impression that the text is weird.Besides, if the work of honoring and translating took place at the end of the Sixth Dynasty, it is not difficult to understand why there were no carved pyramid scriptures later: the mission of the priests was to translate the sacred texts and create a permanent Once the complete hieroglyphic recording work is completed, there is naturally no need to continue this work.And this sacred translation work should have been going on for a long time when King Unas came to the throne in 2356 BC. The last record of "Opening the World"? Sansa and I reluctantly hit the road again.We hope to get to the closest place to Abydos before dark. In fact, we hope to stay at the ancient site at least for a while, but attracted by the serious darkness of the tomb of King Unas and the sounds from ancient times, we no longer know Unconsciously, it stayed for nearly two hours.Bending down, we walked out of the tomb of King Unas, climbed up the steep passage, and walked towards the exit of the monument.Near this exit, we paused to let our eyes adjust to the already strong morning sun.Taking advantage of this spare time, I glanced at the pyramid itself, and found that its appearance was disintegrated, and it was quite barren, leaving only a large amount of rubble, almost to the point where the original shape could not be seen. The original workmanship is quite rough, and it cannot be compared with the exquisiteness of the older Gisha Pyramid.From a general historical perspective, it is difficult for us to explain this phenomenon.Usually we believe that human civilization must have evolved through a certain evolutionary process. Therefore, cultural relics that are close in age are usually more refined and mature than objects built in a long time ago.But this statement cannot be applied to the Egyptian pyramids.Theoretically, the Pyramid of Unas, built in a later period, should be superior to the pyramids of Gisha in terms of design and construction technology; because, according to the views of ancient Egypt scholars of the orthodox school, the latter is at least older than the former. 200 years. but it is not the truth.The pyramid architecture of Giza is better than that of Unas.Most Egyptologists know this well, too, but no one has been able to come up with a satisfactory answer.The core of the problem is: no matter from which angle you look at it, the three major pyramids in Giza seem to be classic works condensed from hundreds of years or thousands of years of construction technology and experience.However, various archaeological evidences show that they are the earliest pyramids built in Egypt.In other words, these three pyramids are not only not models of the mature works of the Egyptians, but the works of the first attempt to build such a large-scale building. There are many more puzzling things.The Fourth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt is immortalized by the three great pyramids of Gesha.Regardless of the weight of the stones, the height of the accumulation, the precision and difficulty of the construction, these pyramids are not only unprecedented, but also unprecedented, and they are unique.Shortly after the completion of these three pyramids, below them, there appeared the pyramids of the fifth and sixth dynasties.Sure enough, in terms of architectural quality, it is much rougher than the three major pyramids, but it has become a palace for the permanent preservation of rare books or translations of ancient documents.These documents, like the three major pyramids, can be said to be unprecedented in the artistic achievements of hieroglyphics, and there will be no one in the future. They look down on the world and are unmatched. Simply put, just like the pyramids in Giza, the pyramid scriptures suddenly appeared in the center of the stage without warning, and served as the protagonist for about 100 years, and then disappeared into nothingness. A relic of its kind is capable of surpassing its achievements. Back then, the kings and sages who first created scriptures and carved them in temples should know why they did it.If the answer is yes, they must have a comprehensive plan in mind. Buildings with a large number of inscriptions) must establish a strong connection. I feel that at least part of the answer can be found in Dasir, a 15-minute drive from Shaqqara.Dasir is famous for having "tortuous" and "red" pyramids.These two pyramids (preserved quite intact) were built by Khufu's father, Snefru. Since the Egyptian government established a military base nearby many years ago, outsiders have been prohibited from entering... We continue to move south.In spite of the bright colors of December, my mind was still on the puzzle of the pyramids: in this valley of the Nile, something very significant happened to man before recorded history.Almost all of Egypt's historical records and traditions tell us that there was a time when gods ruled over mankind.And this legendary "creation of the world", which is also called "the era of creation" (ZepTepi) in Egypt, is the theme we will discuss in the next two chapters. note ① "Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts", lines 882 and 883; at the same time, please see lines 2115-2116 of "InterAlia". The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Textx (trans. R. O. Faulkner), Oxford University Press, 1969. ② He entered on February 28, 1881.See "The Orion Mystery," p. 59. ③ "Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts", p. 70. ④ See Part 5 of this book for details. ⑤ "Mythology and Symbols of Ancient Egypt", p. 181. RTRundleClark, MythandSymbolinAncientEgypt, Thames & Hudson, London, 1991. ⑥ "Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection" (Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection), Volume 1, p. 158. ⑦For a more detailed discussion, please see "The Death of the Ancient Egyptian Gods", especially pages 318-320. Jane B． Sellers, Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt, Penguin, London, 1992. ⑧ Due to some recent developments, the world of archaeology has also been pushed farther into ancient times.In Upper Egypt, for example, a First Dynasty tomb was recently discovered with the inscription "Sothis, Announcing the New Year" (see Death of the Ancient Egyptian Gods, p. 40).