research on ancient Egyptian timekeeping is characterized
by a proliferation of postulated calendars. Th en again, there
is no conclusive evidence for the existence of more than two
calendars at any one time in Egyptian history.
Much discussion on calendars has revolved over the de-
cades around the two problems of the month names. Egypt
had both a nonlunar calendar—that is, the civil one—and a
lunar calendar. It comes as no surprise that the two problems
of the month names have everything to do with the relation-
ship between these two calendars. Th e fi rst problem is that
the last month can be named as if it were the fi rst, namely,
opener of the year or birth of Re, which are also names for New
Year’s Day, the quintessential beginning. Th e second problem
is that a feast could sometimes be celebrated on the civil day
1 following the civil month with the same name, as if a feast
called January were celebrated on February 1.
Th e two problems of the month names came about as
the result of two actions by ancient calendar makers. First,
calendar makers transferred month names from the lunar
calendar to the civil calendar. As a result, the name of the
fi rst lunar month—the month inside which the civil new
year fell—was rolled backward in time onto the 12th and last
civil month, resulting in the awkward circumstance that the
last civil month was named as if it were the fi rst civil month.
Second, calendar makers transferred the names of feast days
from the middle of lunar month X, that is, from the full
moon, to day 1 of the civil month, because that civil day 1
fell inside lunar month X. Th e name of the feast day at full
moon was the same as the name of the entire lunar month X.
As a result of the fi rst action, the name of lunar month X was
rolled back onto the civil month preceding the civil day 1
that had received the same name owing to the second action.
Consequently, it was indeed as if a feast called January was
celebrated on February 1.
Clocks were not in any kind of regular use in ancient
Egypt, even if a small number of water clocks, sundials, and
related devices have been preserved. Th e rise of mechanical
clocks dates to the Middle Ages, in the 13th and 14th century
c.e. Before mechanical clocks, people’s lives were not nor-
mally guided by numbered subdivisions of the day. Th e daily
course of the sun, the yearly succession of the seasons, and
the agricultural cycle suffi ced as markers of time. For most
people most of the time, there was no need to count the days
or to watch clocks. Life was much simpler then.
THE MIDDLE EAST
BY DAVID BROWN
Some mythological texts composed in ancient Mesopotamia
describe great lengths of time in terms of a round number
of years, but what was a year to a scribe? Years were counted
from one seasonally or sidereally recurring event to another,
and there is no evidence in cuneiform sources that the small
diff erence between a seasonal (or equinoctial) and a sidereal
(or stellar) year was remarked upon. An equinoctial year is
the period between one spring equinox, when day and night
are of equal length, and the next. A stellar year marks one
360-degree rotation of the sun. Th e two lengths are slightly
diff erent. Nevertheless, around 150 b.c.e. cuneiform schol-
ars determined lengths of the year that are close to both. Th e
Greek astronomer Hipparchus at about the same time was
seemingly the fi rst to note and quantify that diff erence.
More generally, though, years were defi ned in terms of
lunations, the intervals from new moon to new moon. One
year was defi ned as either 12 or 13 lunations. Th e seasonal
names given to the months of the calendars used during the
course of the third millennium b.c.e. indicate that from the
earliest times the year was characterized by its seasons. An
attempt was made to insert an extra month into the calen-
dar about every three years to ensure that the beginning of
the fi rst month of the year coincided roughly with the vernal
equinox, the date in spring when day and night are of equal
length. A lunation lasts either 29 or 30 days, with slightly
more than half lasting 30. Because 12 lunations fall some
11 days short of the length of a∫ year, without the addition
(known as intercalation) of an extra month, the start of each
month would fall ever earlier in the year, and the agricultural
activities described by their names would soon occur within
inappropriately named months.
A rule-of-thumb intercalation of one extra month every
three years was employed in most areas of Mesopotamia and
periods of history. During the course of the second millenni-
um b.c.e. the names assigned to the months by the people ofFragment of a basalt water clock, from Tell el-Yahudiya, Egypt, Macedo-
nian Dynasty, around 320 b.c.e. (© Th e Trustees of the British Museum)166 calendars and clocks: The Middle East