many cases,Ihave found that fresh research and fresh interpretations were
needed.
Many of the generalworks surveyed above present themselves aslists or
catalogues of ancient calendars, with the often explicit purpose of serving as
reference works for ancient historians and epigraphists; as Samuel( 1 972: viii)
candidly stated in his preface,‘basically,Iam trying to be useful’. My purpose
in this work is not to be useful, even though much‘useful’information could
probablybeculled by the reader from it.Ihave notlisted, either in appendices
or in the main text, the month-lists of allancient calendars (which might
resembleatelephone directory, and judging by Samuel1972 andCohen 1993
alone could easily take up a wholevolume); for these the reader is referred to
the above-mentioned works, with the warning, however, that tables of ancient
calendars are sometimes simplifications, sometimes reconstructions based on
sporadic evidence, and sometimes misleading impressions of historical
changelessness and stability.Ido not approach ancient calendars as technical
devices for reckoning time, but rather as integralaspects of society and culture.
In short, my purpose is to write a piece of socialhistory.
Introduction 21