calendar was invented by mankind for convenience and ease of change of natural cycles.All civilizations have arisen before our era, had their own way of this calculation.Chronology of ancient Egypt occurred about five thousand years ago, it was based on all the economic and productive life of the Egyptians.
Lunar calendar Egyptians
This civilization that arose on a narrow piece of land irrigated by the Nile.It was he who provided all the needs of the population, so it spills to the need to be treated with great care.The Egyptians, like the vast majority of the world's population, originally used the lunar calendar.To set the date of the festivities, needed a system of chronology.In Egypt, it is by the assumption of some scientists emerged in the middle of the first millennium BC.Along with the religious calendar and there was a civilian, which was developed in detail.The Egyptians had in the course of a 25-year cycle, and the number of months in this case was equal to 309. However, quite aware of the fact that the lunar calendar is astronomically quite inaccurate, so it is not suitable for calculating the beginning of agricultural work.The system of chronology of ancient Egypt, based on lunar phases, short-lived
Creating solar calendar
why the ancient Egyptian priests attended to the problem of creating a new, precise calendar.Fortunately, the level of knowledge has allowed to make accurate estimates and associate them with a map of the sky.According to the well-known British Egyptologist James Breasted, solar calendar appeared in this country for hundreds of years before the appearance of the Hyksos, but they made an attempt to reform it.These types of calendars are used as the basis of the tropical year, and the particular stage of the seasons, is not considered a change of phases of the moon.It was the birthplace of the ancient Egypt of the solar calendar.Many of the priests well versed in the stars, the time of their occurrence, and they noticed the close relationship of the heavenly bodies with natural phenomena.In particular, they were interested in flooding of the Nile.The waters of the river overflows its banks in the period from July to November, they flooded the entire valley, and when Neal re-enters its bed, it was time for sowing.After 3-4 months you can shoot the harvest, and in March by the Sahara blew sizzling, dry wind that destroyed all life.Therefore, the system of chronology was to be accurate.
Principles of the ancient Egyptian calendar
All year consisted of three seasons: flood (ahet), ie,the flood of the Nile, or output channel (Peret), ie,the time when the river returns to its original appearance, and shoaling (Shem), ie,while the lowest level of water in the river.For many years, the people of Egypt built a complex system of dikes, canals and reservoirs.It had to always keep in the proper form, and for this you need to know the algorithm of life the main waterway of the country.Here and useful knowledge of the priests.They began to relate the flooding of the Nile with a map of the sky, and revealed an important regularity.Flooding occurred immediately after the summer solstice, another important fact is that in the early morning hours in the sky appears bright star that can be seen even with the naked eye.It is not always visible, and Priests determined that it appears at intervals of 70 days.These two discoveries made it possible to create a new era in ancient Egypt.
cycle, based on the heavenly body
And if the definition of solstice require special equipment, the appearance of Sirius marked the new cycle.Sirius, or Sothis as it was called in this country, and has become a source calendar.Based heliacal, i.e.periodical risings of the star begins a new agricultural year in the country.Its duration was defined first in 360 and then to 365 days.Chronology of Egypt did not know of leap years, and such a thing was necessary for the accurate calculation of astronomical time.Therefore, in the calendar every four years the Egyptians rise Sothis delayed by 1 day.The year was divided into 12 months, each of which is 30 days.Week divided into 10 days, the day has 10 hours.Within an hour the ancient Egyptians were 100 minutes and 100 seconds in a minute.Thus it was 360 days.The remaining five days is not attached to any of the months.They were celebrated at the end of last month as the birthday of Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis, Nephthys.
Wandering calendar and the first attempt to reform the
inhabitants of the fertile Nile Valley satisfied that the celebrations over time falls on different days.They smooth transitions and on presentation of the pious people, thus consecrated the whole year.Egyptian year, it turns out, was wandering, but the Pharaohs did not even try to change it, on the contrary, each of them brought a solemn promise not to encroach on the duration of the calendar year.As mentioned above, the Hyksos rulers of ancient Egypt have tried to change, it caused a dull murmur of the population, but under the pressure forces the inhabitants obeyed.However, after the expulsion of the calendar has been fully restored and all the innovations of the Hyksos eliminated.Days, months and years, designated numbers.This was due to the fact that the calendar in ancient Egypt knew no fixed age, by years, was conducted from the beginning of the reign of the next pharaoh.But always acted normally start of the new year, it falls on August 29 to the modern calendar.
Name calendar periods
Despite the fact that the months often denoted by numbers, each had its own name.They were dedicated to some deities.Is preceded by the beginning of the month, the one named in honor of the god of the moon, then walked Faofi month and follow Athir in honor of the goddess Hathor, Hoyyak contacted the Pharaonic dynasties, Tibi in honor of the god Khnum, Mehir devoted to the terrible god Montu, Famenot associated with Amenophis, Farmutidedicated to the Goddess Ermuti, Pahon in honor of the god Khonsu, the Piney named after the Nile Valley, epiphyte and Mesori dedicated to the appearance of the sun.The remaining five days added to the calendar later became known as the Greek word epagomeny, iesverhgodichnye days.Backlog calendar could be solved by inserting one day every four years, but Pharaoh stubbornly ignored this fact.Most likely, this is due to religious beliefs, so the reformed system of chronology Hyksos in ancient Egypt did not survive.
second attempt to change the chronology of ancient Egypt
Attempts were made to change the calendar not only the nomadic tribes of the Hyksos.However, this was done much later, in the era of Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty.The third pharaoh of the descendants of Alexander the Great companion tried to change the chronology of ancient Egypt.In particular it is described in "Kanopskom decree".In 1866, at the excavations it was discovered a stone slab on which the Egyptian and Greek were written command of Pharaoh Evergeta make changes to the calendar.So it appeared a leap year, which was to solve the problem of astronomical backlog.Although this innovation did not prevail in the country, there was originally a mistake, rather than add one day every four years, it was done every three years.This has affected the accuracy and error noticed only after 48 years.
Alexandria calendar
Pharaoh's decree ordering the introduction of a leap year, and has not been given in life.If it all-yet taken place, then the year amounted to 365.25 days, and as close to the astronomical figures.A third attempt to change the chronology of ancient Egypt has been undertaken already by the Romans.Having conquered this country, they are almost immediately held calendar reform.Thus, every four years there is a need one day, but they have all been changed ordinal shift leap years than it was accepted in Rome.Alexandria coexisted with the Julian calendar in parallel for more than 1500 years.
system of chronology in ancient Egypt as the most simple and convenient system
chronology of ancient Egypt knew a lot of different ways to count the years.However, it was the most popular solar calendar.According to Herodotus, it was the most simple and handy calendar in the ancient world.That backlog, which it was observed, did not complicate the lives of the Egyptians.Maybe if there was a real need for this, then that day is likely to appear in the calendar on the basis of long observation priests were convinced that 365.25 days also corresponds to the period between two floods of the Nile.They found that every 130 years with respect to the rising of Sothis spill falls a day earlier, so perhaps they have neglected astronomical precision for the sake of convenience and simplicity.Whatever it was, the ancient Egyptian calendar standards laid compiling calendars and became the basis for further improvement of the solar calendar.
