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The 'Decree of Canopus (Stone of Canopus)' is the memorial stone, stele inscribed by the Pharaoh Ptolemy III Euergetes in 239 BC.
This is the earliest of the series of bilingual inscriptions of the "Rosetta Stone Series", the next being the Decree of Memphis (Ptolemy IV), for Ptolemy IV, and the third, final stone, being the Rosetta Stone, inscribed for Ptolemy V, in 196 BC.
Having a greater representation of hieroglyphics than the Rosetta Stone, the Canopus Stone has proved crucial in deciphering them. The stone also shows examples of famine relief, military campaigns, Egyptian religion and governmental organization in Ptolemaic Egypt. Furthermore, the stone describes the most accurate ancient solar calendar known to the modern world, one with 365¼ days per year. Every fourth year, the ''"Opening of the Year"'' ceremonies would include an additional sixth-(6th) day.^[1] (The three-season, 120-day seasons required a yearly 5-day festival to be added to the 360 day year.) This calendar was officially implemented in Egypt by Augustus in 26/25 BCE, now called the Alexandrian calendar, with a sixth epagomenal day occurring for the first time on 29 August 22 BCE.^[2] Julius Caesar had earlier implemented a 365¼ day year in Rome in 45 BCE as part of the Julian calendar.
See Ptolemy III, and a discussion under Intercalation (first mention of leap year on the Stone of Canopus).

See Ptolemy IV, and the Decree of Memphis (Ptolemy IV), for Stone #2.

Contents

References

See also

External link

References

★ Budge. ''The Rosetta Stone,'' E.A.Wallace Budge, (Dover Publications), c 1929, Dover edition(unabridged), 1989. (softcover, ISBN 0-486-26163-8)
1. Canopic reform
2. Egyptian Civil Calendar

See also

★ Ptolemaic Decrees

★ Canopus, Egypt

★ Rosetta Stone

★ Season of the Inundation, Emergence, Harvest

External link

★ Full translation (about 1800 words)(25 paragraphs): The Canopus Decree

★ Steel of Canopus and the Rosetta Stone