An associate professor of astrophysics at the University of Portsmouth has discovered what he thinks could be the Egyptian visual representation of the Milky Way.
Several Egyptian gods are associated with, directly symbolize or embody certain celestial objects. In his study, Or Graur reviewed 125 images of the goddess of heaven (Pronounced “NUT”), found among 555 ancient Egyptian coffins dating from almost 5000 years, details Europa Press.
Combining astronomy with Egyptology, he analyzed his possible link with the Milky Way, and his findings have been published in Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage.
In scenes that reflect the day and night sky, NUT appears as a naked and arched woman, sometimes covered with stars or solar discs. NUT’s arched posture evokes its identification with heaven and earth protection.
As goddess of heaven, Nut is usually represented as a starry woman, arched on her brother, the god of the Earth Geb. Protect the Earth from being flooded by the invasive waters of the vacuum and plays a key role in the solar cycleabsorbing the sun by getting to dusk and giving life back to dawn.
However, in the outer coffin of Nesitaudjatakhet, a ammon-ra singer who lived about 3000 years ago, NUT’s appearance moves away from the norm. Here, a distinctive and undulating black curve crosses his body from the soles of the feet to the tip of the fingers, With stars painted in approximately equal quantities above and below the curve.
Graur said: “I think the wavy curve represents the Milky Way and could be a representation of the great crack, the dark strip of dust that crosses the brilliant strip of diffuse light of the Milky Way. Compare this representation with a photograph of the Milky Way shows the marked similarity”.
“Similar wavy curves appear in four tombs of the Valley of the Kings. In the tomb of Ramses VI, for example, the roof of the funeral chamber is divided between the book of the day and the book of the night. Both include NUT arched figures, arranged back with back and separated by thick golden curves that arise from the base of the Nu headTy extend above their back to their butt, ”he added.
I did not observe a similar undulating curve in any of the other cosmological representations of NUT, and I consider that the rarity of this curve reinforces the conclusion that I reached in a study of ancient texts last year: that, although there is a connection between NUT and the Milky Way, they are not the same. NUT is not a representation of the Milky Way. Instead, the Milky Way, together with the Sun and the stars, is a more heavenly phenomenon that can decorate NUT’s body in its sky function.
In a study published last year (April 2024), Graur was based on a rich collection of old sources, including The texts of the pyramids, the texts of the sarcophagi and the book of NUTto compare them with sophisticated simulations of the Egyptian night sky and argue that the Milky Way could have highlighted the role of NUT as heaven in Egyptian mythology.
He proposed that, in winter, the Milky Way highlighted NUT’s extended arms, while, in summer, he drawn his spine through heaven. Dr. Graur’s conclusions on NUT and the Milky Way have evolved since that initial article. Said: “The texts, by themselves, suggested a way of thinking about the link between NUT and the Milky Way. Analyze its visual representations in tombs and murals of tombs added a new dimension that literally painted a different image”.
Both the current and previous study are part of a broader graur project to catalog and study the multicultural mythology of the Milky Way.
“I ran into the goddess of the Nut sky when I wrote a book about galaxies and investigated the mythology of the Milky Way. My interest woke up after a visit to a museum with my daughters, where they were fascinated by the image of an arched woman and did not stop asking for stories about her,” he said. (YO)
