Shemu (Harvest)

SHEH-moo

egyptian: Šmw

Definition

Shemu is the third of the three seasons of the Egyptian civil year. It runs four 30-day months — months 9 through 12 — followed by the five epagomenal (year-end) days. Shemu is the harvest-and-drought season of low water, when the fields were reaped before the next Nile flood. In the decanal scheme of the Ramesside Star Clock, Shemu covers Tables 17-24 of the 24-table run. The Egyptian transliteration is Smw, and the name means "harvest" or "low water."

In Tradition

Egyptologists treat Shemu as the third of the three civil-year seasons, beside Akhet (inundation) and Peret (emergence). Belmonte and Lull (*In Search of Cosmic Order*, 2009) and Clagett (*Ancient Egyptian Science* Vol II, 1995) document the seasonal vocabulary and its use in temple day-books, decanal-table headers, and feast-calendars. The months I-IV Shemu carry feast names attested at Karnak — for instance, I Shemu is the Khonsu month, and IV Shemu holds the Birth of Re-Hor-Akhty.

In Practice

Egyptologists use the Shemu marker to date inscriptions that give a civil-calendar position — for example "II Shemu 6" in the Aswan inscription of Ptolemy IV Philopator, the first Egyptian text to mention the Sothic period, recording Sirius rising on II Shemu 6 in 218 BCE. Decanal scholars use the Shemu run of tables — Tables 17-24 of the Ramesside Star Clock — to pick out the canonical harvest-drought decans and the late-Peret-to-early-Shemu transition markers (the Two Feathers of the Giant). Reconstructing the Egyptian calendar depends on tracking the Shemu month-names against the Sothic-rising and inundation observations.

Historical Origin

Shemu is documented from the Old Kingdom through Roman-Egyptian temple inscriptions. Modern references: Neugebauer-Parker, *Egyptian Astronomical Texts* (1960-1969); Belmonte & Lull, *In Search of Cosmic Order* (2009); Clagett, *Ancient Egyptian Science* Vol II (1995), Documents III.10-III.14, the Ramesside Star Clock Tables 17-24. The Aswan inscription of Ptolemy IV Philopator (218 BCE) first attests the Sothic period, anchored to II Shemu 6.

Further Reading

  • Marshall Clagett, Ancient Egyptian Science Vol II: Calendars, Clocks, and Astronomy
  • Juan Antonio Belmonte & José Lull, In Search of Cosmic Order: Selected Essays on Egyptian Archaeoastronomy
  • Otto Neugebauer & Richard A. Parker, Egyptian Astronomical Texts (EAT)