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7237868 
Journal Article 
The decans of ancient Egypt: Timekeepers for worship, or worshiped beyond time? 
Locher, K; , 
2005 
CAROLINA ACADEMIC PR 
DURHAM 
429-434 
WOS:000232156700030 
The annual rhythm of the decanal phenomena as recorded on ancient Egyptian coffin lids is the world's oldest preserved evidence of a division of nighttime into hours. That is why main investigators, O. Neugebauer, M. Clagett, and C. Leitz called these representations 'clocks' indicating to the hour-priests the times of their nightly rituals. A different opinion, currently shared by most Egyptologists, is that the belt of the 36 decanal constellations had initially been created as a scale of successive harbingers of the rising of Sothis, the heliacal one in particular being a symbol of both the annual revival nature and the entrance into eternal life after death and the days' sojourn of the dead body in the Embalming House. In this view the hour-priests' nightly rituals were to fill the waiting-time before that greater phenomenon, comparable to Christian Advent rituals aimed at bridging time rather than registering it. 
Fountain, JW; Sinclair, RM; 
0-89089-771-9 
5th Meeting on Cultural Aspects of Astronomy 
Santa Fe, NM