Calendars in Antiquity. Empires, States, and Societies

Old Persian and Elamite calendars The most ancient calendars attested east of Mesopotamia are those of Persia and Elam.^4 The ev ...

substantial differences between them, in terms of when exactly the lunar month began and when intercalations were made.^9 But ev ...

(i.e. a second 10th month), whereas in the Babylonian calendar (as attested in Babylonian sources) it was VI 2 , i.e. four month ...

‘shifted’(because subsequent to an intercalation) would have been unique and unparalleled in the ancient world. Thirdly, in a co ...

particular documents were not adapted to the Babylonian calendar. These documents are all accounts of the distribution of ration ...

In contrast to the Old Persian calendar, the Persian Zoroastrian calendar was non-lunar andfixed. It consisted of twelve months ...

further, and perhaps decisive, argument against the historicity of this claim, intimated also by de Blois, is that if the Persia ...

period. This early dating needs further discussion. It seems likely that the Persian Zoroastrian calendar was instituted before ...

and concludes that the institution of this calendar can thus be dated precisely to the reign of Xerxes (486– 465 BCE). Although ...

Sogdian, Choresmian, and Armenian calendars Other ancient calendars that were structurally similar to the Egyptian calen- dar, a ...

correct, at least temporarily, the effect of the drift of the 365-day calendar, and to make the New Year celebrations that were ...

‘Persian Zoroastrian’was primarily religious and Zoroastrian—a question which will be addressed below. There is also more specif ...

calendar. For the Cappadocian calendar, as known in late Antiquity, consisted of twelve 30-day months followed byfive epagomenal ...

Their drifting, 365-day calendar, still in use today, consists of twelve 30-day months withfive epagomenal days inserted at the ...

good reason for such an exchange. The similarity between both calendars is probably the independent result of similar historical ...

diffusion in the Achaemenid period was carried out entirely by Zoroastrian priests.^60 The Zoroastrian character of this calenda ...

instituting a new calendar and disseminating it across their empire; the Zoroastrian priesthood less clearly so.^66 Zoroastrian ...

stretching from the Taurus (northern Syria) to the Zagros (east of Mesopota- mia), and included all the satrapies beyond them to ...

eastern sector of the Empire, as the Babylonian Macedonian calendar became the dominant calendar of the Seleucid rulers (Bickerm ...

the identity of the old Iranian calendar is to be inferred through parallelism, a parallel with the Old Persian calendar—which w ...