Is this the world’s oldest known protractor?

For over a century, archaeologists have argued over the original purpose of the strange looking object shown above, which was discovered in 1906 in the tomb of the ancient Egyptian architect Kha. Now, an Italian physicist claims to have deduced the artifact's true function:She says it's the world's first known protractor.

If the strange-looking object doesn't immediately bring to mind a protractor — the flat, metal or plastic, typically half-disc drawing tool used to measure angles — don't be alarmed; since its discovery, it hasn't reminded anyone else of one, either. (Ernesto Schiaparelli, the archaeologist who first discovered the artifact, believed it to be the case for a balancing scale.)

But Amelia Sparavigna, a physicist at Turin Polytechnic in Italy, believes that the complex patterns adorning the object – long believed to serve merely as decoration — actually serve a functional purpose, as well. Sparavigna describes the patterns, pictured below, as follows:
The [inner]decoration of the object of Kha is quite complex: it has 16-fold symmetry, looking as a compass rose with 16 leaves. Outside this rose, there is a polygonal line of 18 corners, pointing outwards. They correspond to the same number of corners (pointing inwards). That is we have a [polygonal line] with 36 corners.
The sixteen petals of the inner rose pattern divide the object's circular projection into sixteenths – an important fraction featured prominently in a system of calculation commonly used by ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians also placed great significance in the number 36, which they originally associated with the 36 small groups of stars (now call decans) that they observed appearing over the nighttime horizon throughout every rotation of the earth. According to Sparavigna:
The use of 1/16 fraction, the coincidence of the number of corners with that of decans, and the fact that the decoration was engraved on the instrument of an architect, [suggest] that this object had been used as a protractor instrument with two scales, one based on Egyptian fractions, the other based on decans

However, members of the archaeological community remain skeptical. Kate Spence, a Cambridge archaeologist who specializes in ancient Egyptian architecture, cites the lack of precision of the artifact's decorative markings as proof that the Egyptians would never have used the object as a measuring instrument, stating succinctly: "When the Egyptians want to be precise, they are."

Comments

Tomb of Pabasa (TT279)

Pabasa, who was also called Pabes, has a large tomb at Asasif, just outside the entrance to Hatshepsut’s temple at Deir el-Bahri. Like Ankh-hor, who held this important title after him, he was the ‘Chief Steward of the God’s Wife Nitocris’ (Neitiqert) during the reign of Saite king Psamtek I. Pabasa’s tomb still has a large mudbrick superstructure. A steep flight of stairs leads down to the entrance of the subterranean levels and on the lintel above the doorway is a fine relief of a barque, adored by the souls of Pe and Nekhen, by the God’s Wife, Nitocris and by the deceased. A small vestibule leads to a larger pillared sun court. The vestibule shows scenes of Pabasa’s funeral procession, including mourners and the ‘Abydos Pilgrimage’. There is a long text of Pabasa and depictions of his son, Thahorpakhepesh, who acted as sem-priest at his father’s funeral. On the inner lintel of the entrance to the court, a relief shows Osiris and Re-Horakhty, in the cent...

US authorities return eight stolen ancient Egyptian artifacts

US authorities agreed to return eight ancient Egyptian artifacts stolen and illegally smuggled out of the country. Today, upon his arrival from the United States, Minister of Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim announced that US authorities agreed to return eight ancient Egyptian artefacts stolen and illegally smuggled out of the country. The objects are to arrive next month. The pieces include the upper part of a painted anthropoid wooden sarcophagus from the Third Intermediate period depicting a face of a woman wea ring a wig decorated with coloured flowers. Two linen mummy wrappings covered with plaster and bearing paintings showing winged amulets pushing the sun disc are also among the artefacts. Hieroglyphic text showing the name and titles of the deceased are also found on the plaster cover. The third piece is a cartonage painted mummy mask from the Third Intermediate period while the fourth and fifth items are Middle Kingdom wooden boats. The other three items are lim...

what exactly happened to the Sphinx's nose?

The Sphinx's Nose The nose of the Great Sphinx at Giza is made conspicuous by its absence. What happened to it? The popular story is that the troops of Napoleon Bonaparte used the nose for target practice in 1798. Drawings done for La Description de L'Egypte depict a noseless Sphinx. The Sphinx, 1743. In 1737, British traveler Richard Pococke visited Egypt and made a sketch of the Sphinx that was published six years later. The nose is shown intact, but Pococke likely exercised his poetic license by adding it when it was not there (earlier, in 1579, Johannes Helferich had further taken an artist's liberties by depicting the Sphinx with a nose -- and with decidedly female features). Frederick Lewis Norden, an artist and marine architect, also sketched the Sphinx in 1737. His detailed drawings, published in 1755, were more realistic and showed the Sphinx with no nose. It is very unlikely that Norden would omit the nose if it was present. We can conclude that the...

Search This Blog