An Interview About Shepseskaf

This paper delves into specific claims made in a recent interview (May 26, 2025) concerning King Shepseskaf (Egyptian Fourth Dynasty) and a supposed solar eclipse, claimed to have caused the end of the IV Dynasty, as well as the architecture of his pyramid, the Mastabat Fara'un. As the case of the alleged Shepseskaf's eclipse and his pyramid has been a focus of my interest, I find it necessary to provide further details and clarifications. It's crucial to reiterate that archaeoastronomy was established well before the "late 1960s", as given in the interview. As noted by archaeoastronomer Clive Ruggles, Heinrich Nissen's Das Templum (1869), which examined the orientation of ancient temples and Roman decumani, effectively marks the genesis of modern archaeoastronomy—a century prior to the assertion made by Giulio Magli in the aforementioned May 2025 interview. Regarding archaeoastronomy's insights, I will show that the Pepi II pyramid and the Mastabat Fara'un are astronomically linked: the sun connects them at both sunset on the summer solstice and sunrise on the winter solstice. This observation provides an opportunity to address the role of solstices and equinoxes in ancient Egyptian civilization, particularly as interpreted by scholars such as Mark Lehner, Juan Belmonte, and Giulio Magli. Concurrently, this discussion allows for a re-examination of the Egyptian civil calendar. Discovered in 2013, the Red Sea papyri contain the earliest written evidence of this calendar in human history, clearly illustrating its structure: twelve months of thirty days organized into three seasons, plus five epagomenal days. Lacking a leap year, the calendar is well-known for its "wandering" nature, meaning it was not anchored to the astronomical seasons. The Red Sea papyri also feature the contemporary hieroglyphic spelling of Khufu’s pyramid, 'Akhet Khufu'. This intrinsic 'wandering' characteristic of the civil calendar underscores a long-standing discussions in Egyptology: namely, the precise interplay between fixed astronomical events, such as the heliacal rise of Sothis, and the practical application of a non-anchored civil calendar in ancient Egyptian society.