Читать книгу The dawn of astronomy. A study of the temple-worship and mythology of the ancient Egyptians онлайн

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Before, then, the yearly apparent movements of the sun had been fully made out, observations of a star rising or setting with the sun at some critical time of the agricultural cycle, say sowing-time or harvest, would be of the highest importance, and would secure the work being done at the right time of the—to the early peoples—still unformulated year.

If a star was chosen in or near the ecliptic, sooner or later the sunlight as well as the starlight would enter the temple, and the use of a solar temple might have thus been suggested even before the solstices or equinoxes had been thoroughly grasped.

There is no doubt that if we are justified in assuming that the stars were first observed, the next thing that would strike the early astronomers would be the regularity of the annual movement of the sun; the critical times of the sun's movements as related either to their agriculture, or their festivals, or to the year; the equinoxes and the solstices, would soon have revealed themselves to these early observers, if for no other reason than that they were connected in some way or other with some of the important conditions of their environment.