Paraliterary text: T-S NS 31.4

Description

Astrological almanac with prognostications regarding the month of Abīb in the Coptic calendar, when the Nile begins to rise. Refers to the heliacal rising of Sirius on 25 Abib (mid-July), with outcomes depending on the moon's zodiacal position. The heliacal rising of a star is its first visible appearance on the eastern horizon just before dawn, following a period when it has been too close to the sun to be seen. The star rises moments before sunrise and is briefly visible in the pre-dawn twilight before the sun's light overwhelms it. For Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, this occurs in mid-July in Egypt, around 25 of Abib in the Coptic calendar. This event was enormously important in premodern Egypt because it roughly coincided with the annual Nile flood. The ancient Egyptian calendar was organized around the first sighting of Sirius (Sopdet, later Greek Sothis), which was also deified and associated with Isis. The tradition of making predictions based on conditions at the heliacal rising of Sirius persisted long after the pharaohs, into the Greco-Roman and Islamic periods. According to this text, if the moon is in Cancer at the start of the Sothic year, there will be a brief period of good winds from the north followed by a litany of disasters, including widespread diseases (inflammation, smallpox, ophthalmia), shipwrecks, lunar eclipses, deaths among leaders, discord among nobles, fighting in Egypt and Syria, threats to the king's life, and displacement of populations from Sudan. Agricultural fortunes will be mixed: there will be abundant fish, figs, grapes, and flax, but scarce olives, blighted legumes, and death of animals in Alexandria and the Maghrib. But "God knows best what is hidden." The crossed-out word קתאל (fighting) at v8, replaced with כלאף (discord) suggests that the scribe may have wanted to soften the prediction. Verso (as conserved) comes first, and recto is the direct continuation of it. The bottom few lines of recto (ll. 14–17) begin a new section of prognostications for when the moon is in Leo. The winds will blow from the west for several days, and there will be drowning or shipwrecks. The continuation is missing. Marina Rustow & Alan Elbaum