Season of the Harvest

or
The Season of the Harvest – Smw in hieroglyphs

The Season of the Harvest (known in Egyptian as Shemu or Shomu - transliterated as Smw) was the third and final season of the Egyptian calendar. The word Shemu literally translates as "low-water", and fell roughly between early May and early September. During this season, the crops of the grain harvest were collected.^[1] Shemu was preceded by the Season of the Emergence (Peret), and was followed by the Season of the Inundation (Akhet).

During Shemu, the Egyptian farmers would harvest their crops - in clear contrast to the practice of their contemporaries in the ancient world, who would be just beginning to plant their crops at this time of the year. Shemu is also known as the Summer Season or the Dry Season^[2] and is occasionally written as Shomu.^[3]

The ancient Egyptians used this name in both their lunar and their civil calendars. The months of the lunar calendar are roughly equivalent to the period from early May to the heliacal rising of Sirius around the beginning of September. Since the civil calendar moved through the seasons over time, losing about one day every four years, this season does not continuously match any part of the modern calendar.

Months

The Season of Harvest consisted of four 30-day months after which followed a period of 5 epagomenal days, which brought the year to 365 days.^[4] These months can be either referred to by number (months 9 through 13) or by names as follows:

• Month 9 = Hnsw
• Month 10 = Hnt-htj
• Month 11 = Ipt-hmt
• Month 12 = Wep-renpet

The Season of Harvest was preceded by the Season of the Emergence and was followed by the Season of the Inundation.^[5]

See also

• Sham Ennesim
• Coptic calendar
• Egyptian calendar
• Temple of Kom Ombo

References