Ancient Egyptian Calendars

The Mayan calendars were also very significant and even have a lasting impact today. The haab, “... had eighteen months of twenty days each, adding up to 360 days in all. To this were added [five days] to make a total of 365 days…” (Document D). Our current calendar might not be divided the same day the Mayans was but the total number of days is the same which shows the impact their calendar has on the present

| The development of the calendar was based on their observations and studies of the stars, moon, and sky. They also established a number system; a year was cut into 12 months, a month into 30 days, a day into 12 hours, an hour into 60 minutes, and a minute into 60 seconds. They also divided a circle into 360 degrees of the 60 arc minutes. Settlement patterns were based on the environment of the area and the need for a stable water supply.

Celestial bodies - the sun, moon, planets, and stars - have provided us a reference for measuring the passage of time throughout human existence. Ancient civilizations like: China, India, Babylon, and Greece relied upon the apparent motion of these bodies through the sky to record and determine seasons, months, and years. We know little about the details of timekeeping in prehistoric eras. However, records and artifacts usually uncover that in every culture, people were preoccupied with measuring and recording the passage of time. Stonehenge, built over 4000 years ago in England has no written records, but its alignments show its purposes apparently included the determination of seasonal or celestial events, such as lunar

Ancient Egypt is one of the earliest civilizations in the world. Beginning with their Predynastic Period in circa 5000 BCE, the Egyptians began to cultivate their way of life. Independently ruling until the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, the Egyptians continued to influence and be influenced by other cultures, like the Greeks and Romans. However, unlike the Greeks, the Egyptians incorporated their religious thinking into everyday life, believing that the sky was the heavens and the sun, moon, and stars were gods. During the thousands of years the ancient Egyptians lived, they developed calendars and constellations that inspired later calendars until the calendar that is used today was created. The ancient Egyptians used astronomy to create calendars, believing that the sun and the stars were their gods.

Astrological calendars have been in existence since ancient times where time was measured according to the number of Moons that had passed in a certain period, or in consonance with the shadows that were cast by either the Sun or Moon. Solar years are calculated based on the sun’s motions, whereas lunar years are mutually based on the moons motions. A lunar year consists of approximately 354 days, whereas there are 365 days in solar year. By virtue of the eleven day disparity between a solar and lunar year, an additional month is added to the lunar calendar every three years, and as for the solar calendar, every fourth year, a leap day is added to the month of February. A lunar year is comprised of twelve lunar months, which corresponds to the time that elapses as the moon carries out each of its phases and proceeds to its position of origin. In contrast, a solar month is one twelfth of a solar year, given that a solar year is span of time that elapses as the Earth completes a single revolution around the sun.

Ancient Egypt was a captivating and intricate civilization. Over the years, historians have found it easier to study this civilization, rather than other historical civilizations, because the Egyptians went through great lengths to record their history. Besides being decent record keepers, they were very religious, and “ahead of their time,” due to their technological and economic breakthroughs. Because of the aspects of this culture, it has to be one of the greatest civilizations of the world.

That need for structure is probably the reason that the Mayans developed such an amazingly accurate calendar. They also developed a complex style of hieroglyphic writing that we have not fully deciphered. Through their knowledge of astronomy and mathematics they calculated the lunar cycle, predicted eclipses, and formulated a unique calendar system was very accurate. Their calendar was only one day off every 6000 years. That makes it more accurate than our calendar today (Hooker 6). Two fundamental

The Mayan priests studied their measurement of time. The Maya had a calendar with 18 months each containing 20 days, plus 5 unlucky days that made up the Mayan year. They also had a religious calendar that had 260 days in it. Each day was given a name and a number. They believed that each day was a god that carried the weight of the day on its back.

The calendar was based on the sun it tracked the 365 day year and would tell when seasonal events would likely occur. The mayans also created a ritual calendar which was a calendar that was a cycle of 260 days, and it marked the ceremonial life of the people.This two

People used the new calendar to make peace, equality, simplicity and detachment from previous ideas. “The Instruction concerning the era of the Republic and the Division Of the Year” claimed that The new calendar would make trading easier, simple and exact.(Doc 2) The new calendar is “freed from all errors that credulity and superstitious routines that had been handed down from centuries of

The society had two main calendars. One calendar was called tzolkin, the sacred or ritual calendar. It predicted the "...ceremonial life of the people."(Doc D) The other was called haab, the civil/solar calendar. The civil/ solar predicted the weather, and unlucky days for the year. Both of these calendar cycles were used together. "They were like two cogged wheels, revolving alongside each other, with the cogs (days) meshing as the wheels turned." (Doc D) The Mayan calendars were far more accurate and more advanced than any other New World people. Document D also informs us that "Observatories were built, at Chicen Itza and other cities, to use in studying the movements of the sun and the moon, planets such as Venus and Mars, and the

ient Egypt was an established civilization of Northeastern Africa. Located near the lower half of the Nile River, it was an extremely sophisticated civilization for its time. The Egyptians were especially intelligent in agriculture and infrastructure. They had pyramids and temples, that were places of worship and used for religious matter. Basic buildings that were used for things like banking and irrigations systems used to control flooding. The Egyptians were able to adjust and modify to their natural surroundings as well. By predicting the flood of the Nile River, they were able to stimulate agriculture and maintain their population. They were also pioneers in a number of new technologies; some of which are highly used today.  Much of

Almost everyone has heard of the ancient civilization of Egypt. Most people generally know that the Egyptians lived from 2575 B.C. to 1075 B.C. along the Nile River, that they had a theocracy and a bureaucratic system, that they farmed and traded and conquered, and that they built massive structures and made their own writing

Next is the Tzolk’in. The Tzolk’in calendar is also known as the sacred calendar. It was primarily used for scheduling religious ceremonies. The word Tzolk’in translates into “distribution of the days”. The Tzolk’in calendar lasted 260 days, using 20 periods of 13 days which were numbered 1-13, then repeated. The Tzolk’in contains two seperate lengths of weeks. The first of which is a numbered week containing 13 days, numbering the days from 1 to 13. The second is a named week of 20 days. The names of the days were as follows: 0. Ahau, 1. Imix, 2. Ik, 3. Akbal, 4. Kan, 5.Chicchan, 6.Cimi, 7. Manik, 8. Lamat, 9. Muluc, 10. Oc, 11. Chuen,

The Chinese use the lunar calendar. “Although China has adopted the Gregorian calendar in common with most other countries in the world for official and business purposes, the traditional Chinese calendar continues to define