(27-06-2016, 07:31 PM)R. Sale Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Another interesting illustration. Do you think it more likely that the VMs author had knowledge of that Egyptian illustration or had personally seen a starfish?
The thing is that I don't really think MS Beinecke 408 had an "author". It had one or likely several copyists, who copied one or several documents in which the Egyptian illustrations had been preserved.
It's also not a matter of just this illustration. This was just the way stars were drawn in Roman Egypt. The following is a detail from the ceiling of Seti I's tomb - he died in 1279 BCE!
You can already see the stars, but they look much less like the ones in the Voynich. So far, the "starfish with circle" look is most striking in the Greco-Roman period, which is roughly from 300 BCE to 300 CE (no exact dates, but this is the sweet spot).
Such stars were found everywhere in Egypt, and also Greeks or Romans writing there in, say, the second century, would have known them.
The problem is: these stars always have five points, like the starfish. Voynich stars usually have 7 or 8 points. Hence my question if anyone has found stars that offer a better match.
Now what if the stars are not stars at all, but symbolize something else? The following is the goddess Seshat, symbol of wisdom, knowledge, writing and various sciences.
The "star" above her head has seven points, and is connected to her by a "string", which is something she has in common with Voynich stars. Only, this is no star, it's a plant used to make writing materials.
Seshat was often depicted tallying the years, and was associated with the duration of the reign of kings and so on.
What she adds is:
- seven-pointed stars, which in some cases could be interpreted as eight-pointed if the beginning of the "stem" is seen as another leg.
- a line that connects the "star" with the person.
Even more interestingly, given the fact that she is very often seen tallying the years and was associated with the duration of a king's reign, it is not such a stretch to take a the Voynich figures connected to "stars" as representing specific years.
Of course, there are still differences. For example, the line that connects Seshat to the star is straight, while in the Voynich they are bendy. This could be explained by the fact that this material must have been copied a few times in between the time when it was first made and the 15th century copy, but that is impossible to prove.
But for now that is something I keep in mind, until someone finds a better tradition. That the nymphs connected to stars might represent years, and that there is some evidence to be found in (Hellenistic) Egyptian tradition.