THOTH'S SPINDLE IN THE SKY: THE BIRDS OF THE DUAT

One axis turns the sky over every monument: precession carries each star across the zeniths of the earth in its age, with the Milky Way as the whorl of a spindle and the North Galactic Pole as its axle. This study by Matthew Swann reads the birds of the Milky Way across that turning, as the second work in the series begun by The Eye of the Maiden and ahead of a forthcoming book. Its findings: a zenith dial of seven monuments across eleven epochs from 3000 BCE to A.D. 1500; the North Galactic Pole at the zenith of the Sultzertown mound in A.D. 1200 and of Giza by A.D. 1500; the neck of Cygnus crossing the zenith of the Great Pyramid in 2560 BCE, with eta Cygni 1°43′ north and Albireo 1°56′ south; Cygnus as the bird of the West over Amentet, and as the ibis of Thoth, the author's proposal; the Eagle of Altair over the Muisca Temple of the Sun at Sogamoso and the Crow of Corvus over the Andean temples of the Sun and the condor, with Garuda, the condor, the falcon, the gallinazo and Yutu in their myths; the bird at the hub of the sky in the Younger Dryas and the Eagle at the zenith of Göbekli Tepe across the life of its enclosures; the Emu of the Coalsack and the Birdman of Rapa Nui under the heart of the galaxy; and Thoth, Lord of the Eight, joining the Ogdoad of Hermopolis, the lunar octad, the bird octave and the eight motifs of passerine song. All positions are computed with the Swiss Ephemeris and the long-term precession of Vondrák and colleagues.