brand. pr nefrt Egypt
raw. stone or polystone
size 40×40 cm
15.7 × 15.7 inches

Replica

Ancient Egypt
The era of the Ptolemies.
Original: sandstone

40 x 40cm

The temple of the goddess of heaven and love Hathor in Dendera is one of the most beautiful complexes of Ancient Egypt. A small sanctuary dedicated to the resurrection of Osiris has been preserved on the roof of the temple. On the ceiling of the sanctuary is a map of the starry sky, known as the Dendera zodiac.

The sculptured Dendera zodiac (or Denderah zodiac) is a widely known Egyptian bas-relief from the ceiling of the pronaos (or portico) of a chapel dedicated to Osiris in the Hathor temple at Dendera, containing images of Taurus (the bull) and Libra (the scales). This chapel was begun in the late Ptolemaic period; its pronaos was added by the emperor Tiberius. This led Jean-Francois Champollion to date the relief to the Greco-Roman period, but most of his contemporaries believed it to be of the New Kingdom. The relief, which John H. Rogers characterised as "the only complete map that we have of an ancient sky", has been conjectured to represent the basis on which later astronomy systems were based. It is now on display at the Musee du Louvre, Paris.

It symbolizes deep knowledge, wisdom, history, tradition.