Ancient Egyptians Knew Algol was a Variable Star

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Article this month by Lauri Jetsu and Sebastian Porceddu in Plos1, where they find observations in a 12th century BCE papyrus.

More popular article here:

I’ve long maintained that the ancients knew about Algol’s variability. The evidence usually cited – Chinese, Indian, and Babylonian records – are completely ambiguous, as is the statement that the name – “Algol” = “The Ghoul” – indicates knowledge that it’s somehow weird. (The name is Medieval Arabic, as well, so it’s not good evidence of ancient knowledge).

My argument, first published in 1995, has been through the mythology of Perseus and Medusa attached to the star. I presented it in articles and lectures, before devoting two chapters to it in my 2000 book on Medusa.
Good to see I have corroboration.

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I thought everybody in the “field” already kinda knew that people knew this stuff for a long time.

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Not judging from the literature. I’ve been through it, and there certainly is no such consensus. You occasionally find statements in popular books or on websites that the variability was known, but they never link to any studies or sources – the authors are apparently simply taking it for granted.

This stuff on Egyptian observations has only been emerging over the past couple of years. they published an earlier paper three years ago:

http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/ancient-egyptians-tracked-eclipsing-binary-star-called-algol-120502.htm