The Decree of Canopus is a trilingual inscription in three scripts, which dates from the Ptolemaic period of

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

. It was written in three

writing system A writing system comprises a set of symbols, called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which the script represents a particular language. The earliest writing appeared during the late 4th millennium BC. Throughout history, each independen ...

Egyptian hieroglyph Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters. ...

demotic Demotic may refer to: * Demotic Greek, the modern vernacular form of the Greek language * Demotic (Egyptian), an ancient Egyptian script and version of the language * Chữ Nôm Chữ Nôm (, ) is a logographic writing system formerly used t ...

, and

koine Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the koiné language, common supra-regional form of Greek language, Greek spoken and ...

, on several ancient Egyptian memorial stones, or

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

s. The inscription is a record of a great assembly of priests held at

Canopus, Egypt Canopus ( , , ; , ), also known as Canobus (, ), was an ancient Egyptian coastal town, located in the Nile Delta. Its site is in the eastern outskirts of modern-day Alexandria, around from the center of that city. Canopus was located on the wes ...

, on 7 Appellaios (Mac.) = 17 Tybi (Eg.) year 9 of Ptolemy III = Thursday 7 March 238 BC (proleptic Julian calendar). Their decree honoured Pharaoh Ptolemy III Euergetes; Queen Berenice, his wife; and Princess Berenice.

Ancient Copies of the Decree

In 1866,

Karl Richard Lepsius Karl Richard Lepsius (; 23 December 181010 July 1884) was a German people, Prussian Egyptology, Egyptologist, Linguistics, linguist and modern archaeology, modern archaeologist. He is widely known for his opus magnum ''Denkmäler aus Ägypten ...

discovered at

Tanis Tanis ( ; ; ) or San al-Hagar (; ; ; or or ; ) is the Greek name for ancient Egyptian ''ḏꜥn.t'', an important archaeological site in the northeastern Nile Delta of ancient Egypt, Egypt, and the location of a city of the same name. Tanis ...

the first copy of this Decree (this copy was originally known as the 'Şân Stele'). Another copy was found in 1881 by Gaston Maspero at Kom el-Hisn in the western Nile Delta. Later on, some other fragmentary copies were found. In March 2004, while excavating at Bubastis, the German –Egyptian 'Tell Basta Project' archaeologists discovered yet another well preserved copy of the Decree.

Importance for the decipherment of hieroglyphs

This is the second earliest of the series of trilingual inscriptions of the "Rosetta Stone Series", also known as Ptolemaic Decrees. Having a greater number of different

hieroglyphs Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters.I ...

than the Rosetta Stone, the Canopus Stone has proved crucial in deciphering them. There are four such decrees: # The Decree of Alexandria from 243 BC; # The Decree of Canopus of Ptolemy III in 238 BC; # The Decree of Memphis, for Ptolemy IV in 218 BC; # The Memphis Decree (whose best-known copy is the

Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone is a stele of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a Rosetta Stone decree, decree issued in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty of ancient Egypt, Egypt, on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts ...

), inscribed for Ptolemy V in 196 BC.

Contents of the inscription

The inscription touches on subjects such as military campaigns, famine relief, Egyptian religion and governmental organization in

Ptolemaic Egypt Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to: Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty * Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter *Ptolemaic Kingdom Pertaining ...

. It mentions the king's donations to the temples, his support for the Apis and Mnevis cults, which enjoyed huge success in the Macedonian – Egyptian world, and the return of divine statues which had been carried off by Cambyses. It extols the king's success in quelling insurgencies of native Egyptians, operations referred to as 'keeping the peace.' It reminds the reader that during a year of low inundation, the government had remitted taxes and imported grain from abroad. It inaugurates a solar

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...

with 365¼ days per year (the most accurate in the ancient world). It declares the deceased princess Berenike a goddess and creates a cult for her, with women, men, ceremonies, and special 'bread-cakes'. Lastly it orders the decree to be incised in stone or bronze in both hieroglyphs and Greek, and to be publicly displayed in the temples. The Decree of Canopus attested the existence of the ancient city of

Heracleion Heracleion (Ancient Greek: ), also known as Thonis (Ancient Greek: ; from the Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian: ; ) and sometimes called Thonis-Heracleion, was an ancient Egyptian port city located near the Canopic Mouth of the Nile, abo ...

, which is now submerged, and has only recently been excavated. The Decree informs, in its Greek version, that a synod of priests was held in the city of Heracleion during the reign of King Ptolemy I.

Calendar reform

The civil

Egyptian calendar The ancient Egyptian calendar – a civil calendar – was a solar calendar with a 365-day year. The year consisted of three seasons of 120 days each, plus an Egyptian intercalary month, intercalary month of five epagomenal days treated as outs ...

had 365 days: twelve months of thirty days each and an additional five epagomenal days. According to the reform, the five-day ''"Opening of the Year"'' ceremonies would include an additional sixth day every fourth year. The reason given was that ''the rise of Sothis advances to another day in every 4 years'', so that attaching the beginning of the year to the

heliacal rising The heliacal rising ( ) of a star or a planet occurs annually when it becomes visible above the eastern horizon at dawn just before sunrise (thus becoming "the Morning Star (disambiguation)#Astronomy, morning star"). A heliacal rising marks the ti ...

of the star

Sirius Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Greek word (Latin script: ), meaning 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated Canis Majoris, Latinized to Alpha Canis Majoris, and abbr ...

would keep the calendar synchronized with the seasons. This Ptolemaic calendar reform failed, but was finally officially implemented in Egypt by

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

in 26 or 25 BC, now called the Alexandrian calendar, with a sixth epagomenal day occurring for the first time on 29 August 22 BC.Chris Bennett
Egyptian Civil Calendar
an

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Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

had earlier implemented a day year in Rome in 45 BC as part of the

Julian calendar The Julian calendar is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year (without exception). The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts ...

Gallery

File:Kanopos Kararnamesi.jpg, the Decree of Canopus, on display at the

Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, commonly known as the Egyptian Museum (, Egyptian Arabic: ) (also called the Cairo Museum), located in Cairo, Egypt, houses the largest collection of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian antiquities in the world. It hou ...

in Cairo, Egypt File:Decree of Canopus-top.jpg, top portion of the Decree of Canopus, on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt File:Decree of Canopus-middle.jpg, middle portion of the Decree of Canopus, on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt File:Decree of Canopus-bottom.jpg, bottom portion of the Decree of Canopus, on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt

References

Sources

*Budge. ''The Rosetta Stone,'' E. A. Wallace Budge, (Dover Publications), (c) 1929, Dover edition (unabridged), 1989. (softcover, ) *Pfeiffer, Stefan. ''Das Dekret von Kanopos (238 v. Chr.). Kommentar und historische Auswertung eines dreisprachigen Synodaldekretes der ägyptischen Priester zu Ehren Ptolemaios' III. und seiner Familie.'' Munich/Leipzig: K. G. Saur, 2004. *

External links

The Canopus Decree
Hieroglyphic version: full translation by E. A. Wallis Budge (about 1800 words; copied a

)

Greek version: full translation a

)

{{authority control 3rd-century BC steles 1866 archaeological discoveries Multilingual texts Ancient Egyptian stelas Decree Of Canopus

Canopus Canopus is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina (constellation), Carina and the list of brightest stars, second-brightest star in the night sky. It is also Bayer designation, designated α Carinae, which is Rom ...

Egyptian calendar Nile Delta

Tanis Ptolemy I Soter