Conclusion
A wide range of sometimes very different calendars were used in ancient
empires, states, and societies, but they allshared a common history. Between
the mid-first millenniumBCEand the end of Antiquity, calendars evolved as
a wholealong a similar trajectory: fromlunar to solar, from empiricalto
schematic, fromflexibletofixed, from random to predictable, from diverse to
single.
To appreciate the profound transformation that calendars underwent dur-
ing this period, we may compare the distribution of calendars in the ancient
worldinc. 500 BCEandc.300CE.In the middle of thefirst millenniumBCE, at the
beginning of the Achaemenid period, virtuallyallcalendars in the ancient
world werelunar. These calendars wereflexible and unpredictable, both in
their monthlengths (dependent on new moon sightings and often other,
extraneous factors) and in thelengths of their years (of twelve or thirteen
lunar months). They are attested, more orless continuously, fromItaly
through Greece, Asia Minor, the Near East, and allthe way toIndia and
beyond.‘Beyond’could take us as far asChina; although thislies outside the
geographicalscope of this study, it is important to note thatlunar calendars
were virtually a world-wide norm.^1 Closer to the borders of the Achaemenid
Empire, there is good reason to assume that the calendars of Africa, of
southern Arabia, and in northern Europe of theCelts and Germans, were all
lunar.^2 The pervasive use oflunar calendars does not mean, however, unity of
(^1) But Mesoamerican calendars, probably as far back as Antiquity, were based on non-lunar
periods of 20 days.Purely agriculturalor seasonalcalendars are attested in certain other cultures,
e.g. in Melanesia (according to Malinowski 1 927), and probably represent very ancient
traditions. 2
The evidence islimited. Modern ethnographic studies suggest that calendars in Africa were
traditionallylunar (e.g. Turton and Ruggles 1 978). Ancient evidence is available for southern
Arabia, with Sabaic inscriptions from perhaps as early as 200BCEreferring to the beginning of the
month as‘new crescent of the month’(s^2 hrwrhn), and with evidence of intercalation persisting
from then untiltheHimyaritic period in the 6th c.CE(de Blois 1 998, 2004, and Nebes 2004).
A Saracen new moon festivalin the Sinai desert is described in thelate 6th c.CE(Antonini
Placentini Itinerarium, 38, in Geyer 1965 : 148 – 9, 171 ), but the calendricalsignificance of this
festivalis uncertain. On the Galliclunar calendar, seeChapter 6. 1. Evidence that Germanic