least, the 25-year lunar cycle in this Greek document is likely to have had some
relevance to the Macedonian lunar calendar.^103
This does not mean, however, that the 25-year cycle that arose in Egypt
during the Ptolemaic period was essentially Macedonian or (as some have
argued) a Hellenistic import. Besides the fact that the early Macedonian
calendar was not cyclical (see above), a lunar cycle of 25 years is not attested
anywhere in Hellenistic tradition, where only eight-year and 19-year cycles (or
their multiples) are known.^104 In actual fact, unlike the 19-year cycle or even
the less accurate eight-year cycle, the 25-year cycle is not suitable for synchro-
nizing the lunar calendar with the solar year or the seasons, but only for
synchronizing it with the Egyptian civil calendar, together with which it
gradually drifts away from the seasons;^105 there would have been no need,
therefore, for such a cycle outside Egypt. The 25-year cycles of pap. Carlsberg
and pap. Rylands, both tied to the Egyptian civil calendar, belonged thus
firmly to the Egyptian calendrical tradition, even if the Greek authors of
pap. Rylands adopted this tradition and applied it, in some way, to their own
calendar. The Egyptian identity of these cycles is further evident in their
lunar months’beginning atfirst invisibility of the old moon (at least in pap.
Rylands—the case of pap. Carlsberg is more debatable), following Egyptian
tradition; for in Greek tradition, as well attested even in the double-dated
documents of third-century Ptolemaic Egypt, the lunar month began atfirst
visibility of the new moon.
This makes all the more plausible a brief suggestion by Clagett (1989–99) ii.
299 that the 25-year cycle was not the result of Perso-Babylonian or Ptolemaic
Macedonian influence, but the result of a long-standing native Egyptian
tradition, which had always been distinctive for its proclivity towards sche-
matic calendars. This proclivity is evident, above all, in the civil calendar itself,
which for millennia remained unique, as a schematic calendar, throughout the
ancient world. But we have also seen a document from the Illahun archive
(nineteenth centuryBCE) suggesting, already then, the existence of a lunar
calendar that was schematic and, like the Ptolemaic-period 25-year cycles, was
(^103) Lehoux (2007) 179–80 suggests as another possibility that the purpose of this document is
astrological (i.e. to track lunar days for purely astrological purposes), perhaps because of its self-
designation as aparapegma(see above, n. 100), which in a Greek context usually has an
astrometeorological connotation. However, there is no reference in this document to astronomy
or the stars; this does not suggest any other purpose than calendrical.
(^104) See Ch. 1. 3. A 25-year period is used for lunar computations by Ptolemy in theAlmagest
(6. 2–3, Toomer 1984: 276–9), but he was based, not insignificantly, in 2nd-c.CEEgypt, and
moreover, his main time-scale in theAlmagestwas the Egyptian civil calendar, in conjunction
with which the 25-year cycle was most suited for lunar computation (see next n.).
(^105) This is because the 309 lunar months in the cycle are much closer in length to 25 Egyptian
civil years than to 25 solar years (of approximately 365¼days).
158 Calendars in Antiquity