Illustrative model — an approximation, not a scan of the original object.
c. 50 BCE
The Dendera Zodiac
The date used by the Louvre, based on Sylvie Cauville and Éric Aubourg’s study of the planetary positions.
- Material
- Sandstone
- Dimensions
- c. 255 × 253 cm
- Findspot
- Ceiling of a chapel of Osiris on the roof of the temple of Hathor at Dendera
- Discovery
- Cut out of the ceiling with saws and gunpowder and taken to France in 1821; shown in the Royal Library in Paris, it moved to the Louvre in 1922. A cast now fills its place in the temple.
- Held by
- Musée du Louvre, Paris
- Inventory number
- D 38
A circular map of the sky, held up by four women and eight falcon-headed spirits, combining zodiac signs of Babylonian and Greek origin with Egyptian stars and gods.
Certainty: Established
In the early nineteenth century the relief sparked a fierce debate about its age — some dated it thousands of years BCE — before it was shown to belong to the first century BCE.
- Wikipedia “Dendera zodiac — Wikipedia” en.wikipedia.org
Certainty: Probable
The relief is dated to around 50 BCE from the planetary positions and two eclipses shown on it.
Scholarly note: This is Cauville and Aubourg’s dating, used by the Louvre; estimates have differed in the past.
- Wikipedia “Dendera zodiac — Wikipedia” en.wikipedia.org