Abd

ahbd

egyptian: Ꜣbd

Definition

Abd (Egyptian Ꜣbd) is the Egyptian name for the second day of the schematic lunar month — the day the new crescent is first seen (Parker 1950) — and, by extension, the name of the lunar month itself. Belmonte and Lull note that Abd carries three meanings at once: the standard 30-day month of the civil calendar; lunar day 2 (LD2), traditionally first-crescent visibility; and the 12 monthly first-crescent festivals listed in the Khnumhotep II festival list at Beni Hassan (12th Dynasty).

In Tradition

Egyptologists — Clagett, Parker, and Belmonte-Lull — read Abd as the Egyptian name for lunar day 2, and for the month, carried from older lunar reckoning into the schematic 12-feast list of the civil calendar. It is entry (10) of that list and the fourth Feast of the Sky in the Medinet Habu calendar (Document III.5). Belmonte and Lull suggest the name keeps alive a prehistoric way of counting the month from first crescent, though civil months are not lunar.

In Practice

Abd is the lunar marker that bridges old moon-based reckoning and the later fixed civil calendar. Old Kingdom offering-formulas list the "Twelve Feasts of the [First of the] Month (Abd)" as monthly observances; Khnumhotep II at Beni Hassan multiplies this into 12 monthly first-crescent celebrations. From its protective god the feast also bears the name "Feast of Horus, Protector of his Father" (Clagett, Document III.5, Fig. III.91a). Abd is paired with smdt (the full-moon day, day 15) in the standard run of named lunar days — LD1 psḏntyw, LD2 Abd, LD7 dnyt I, LD15 smdt, LD23 dnyt II — which gives Egyptian lunar-festival reckoning its shape across the civil year. Egyptologists use Abd as it appears in Old Kingdom offering-lists and Middle Kingdom tomb inscriptions to anchor the lunar-and-civil chronology.

Historical Origin

Abd is attested from the Old Kingdom offering-formulas onward (Document III.1 in Clagett, Ancient Egyptian Science Vol II), listed as entry (10) of the Old Kingdom 12-feast list. The Khnumhotep II festival list at Beni Hassan (12th Dynasty, Middle Kingdom) preserves the multiplied schema of 12 monthly Abd-feasts. The term is treated in Parker, Calendars of Ancient Egypt (1950); Clagett, Ancient Egyptian Science Vol II (1995); and Belmonte and Lull, In Search of Cosmic Order (2018).

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Further Reading