Pages - Menu

Calendar in Ancient Egypt

Calendar in Ancient Egypt or the pharaonic Egypt's calendrical syste  was both straightforward  and  simple.  From  the  first dynasty  onward,  the  Egyptian  year  was  divided  into  three  seasons,  based  on  the  agricultural rhythm of the Nile Valley: (1) jht, inundation; (2) prt,  emergence  (of  crops);  and  (3)  smw,  harvest.  These  seasons  consisted of four months apiece, each containing thirty days. Hence,  the basic year of the Egyptians comprised a regular number of days  (360) as well as an orderly number of months (12). Such a system  had to have five additional days added to it, the epagomenals ("days  above the year"), which neatly fixed the annual rotation of the sun  to a set integer of 365; there were no intercalary days in that native  year.


The calendrical order was most advantageous to Egyptologists'  cumulative reckoning of such large-scale time elements as dynasties  and epochs. Mainly from hypothetical reasoning, it is assumed that  the  Nile  year  was  created  by  the  early  Egyptian  state  in  order  to  regularize  its  economic  stability  (tax  collecting  through  a  census  placed on cattle) as well as to record its kings' reigns. Modern scholars, therefore, call this 365-day year the civil calendar,  to  indicate  the  original  purpose  of  its  reckoning.  The  number  of  months,  as  well  as  their  names,  were  based  on  an  older,  lunar  calendar. In this earlier system, it is unclear whether the Egyptians  intercalated an extra month (the thirteenth), every three years or so,  to  bring  the  calendar  into  accord  with  the  seasons.  Although  the  extant data neither support nor reject that, traces of the lunar calendar exist in the presence of some feast days, which were determined  by  the  moon's  cycle  rather  than  permanently  fixed  on  a  day  (or  days) within the civil calendar.

Some ancient Egyptian festivals were therefore determined by  the moon, and quite a number of significant religious events were  solely  set  to  a  specific  lunar  day,  such  as  the  new  moon.  For  example,  the  Valley  Feast  took  place  within  the  tenth  Egyptian  civil month but was not permanently set on a predetermined day  within that month. Similarly, the funerary event of Wagy seems to  have taken place on day eighteen of lunar month two, although a  civil calendar counterpart always occurred on day eighteen of the  first  civil  month.  For  the  most  part,  Egyptian  religious  festivals  became civil calendar-based since a change had been made from  lunar time to the civil calendar when it came into being.

The regnal years of the kings were also reorganized so that they  coincided with civil calendar years. In Predynastic times, a lunar  calendar must have been the basis for the regnal year. In the Old  Kingdom, as the Palermo Stone clearly indicates, the regnal year  counts were originally labeled by names of auspicious or important  events  that  occurred  within  a  civil  calendar  year  of  365  days,  among  which  one  can  single  out  building  projects  of  a  religious  nature.  After  the  second  dynasty,  the  regnal  years  also  became  orderly,  since  they  were  referred  to,  on  a  regular  basis,  by  the  biennial  cattle  census  that  took  place  throughout  Egypt.  Eventually, probably by the sixth dynasty, the biennial census was  replaced by an annual one. From that time on, all regnal years were  rationalized so that the king's year in office was nothing more than  an integer that was counted every civil calendar year. The causes  for  such  change  included  the  importance  of  the  centralized  state  apparatus and the necessity to establish a workable and relatively  easy  method  of  counting.  Egyptian  regnal  years  were  dependent  upon  a  365-day  civil  calendar  year,  not  a  lunar  year,  and  they  operated independently of whether the anniversary of a pharaoh's  accession  caused  a  change  in  the  year  count  (as  in  the  New Kingdom) or whether the presence of subsequent new year's days  effected such a change. In the Middle Kingdom (unlike the New  Kingdom),  counting  of  regnal  years  was  reckoned  from  the  first  day of the civil calendar year to the next, excluding the opening  year, which almost always began within a civil calendar year.

Although later sources, mainly of Greco-Roman times, put great  emphasis  on  the  star  the  Egyptians  called  Sothis  (our  Sirius),  as  being  connected  with  an  enormous  cycle  of  1,460  Egyptian  civil  years, that lengthy period seems not to have been employed by them  for any historical reckoning. Nonetheless, the commencement of a  year  was  intimately  associated  with  the  goddess  Sothis  (identified  with  the  goddess  Isis),  especially  if  an  ideal,  rather  than  a  real,  beginning  was  to  be  stressed.  Such  was  the  case  because  the  reappearance  of  the  star  Sothis  at  dawn,  after  a  disappearance  of  seventy days (its heliacal rising, prt spdt), was originally linked with  the  inauguration  of  the  year  at  a  time  when  the  Nile  waters  had  crested. Owing to this connection, scholars argue that the first day of  the just-created civil year (new year's day) began at the exact time of  prt spdt. In many extant festival calendars, as well as a few other  sources, Sothis' heliacal rising was given great prominence although  it did not interrupt the mundane flow of time, since the astronomical  event occurred independently of the way the civil calendar operated.

Research  has  obviated  the  need  to  claim  that  the  Egyptians  invented  a  second  lunar  calendar,  somewhat  later  than  their  civil  calendar. From our knowledge of the festival system, it appears that  most religious celebrations were only on the civil calendar. Those  festivals that were lunar-based seem to have been organized around  specific  lunar  occurrences  (such  as  the  new  moon)  that  could  be  seen with the naked eye, but they were nevertheless based partly on  the civil calendar. It was understood that the lunar occurrence was  fixed within a given civil month and that no independent lunar year  was operating alongside the established civil calendar. Therefore, all  administrative work, such as daily accounts and the like, were set by  the civil calendar; lunar-based events appear to have been restricted  solely to the cultic sphere.

The names of the twelve civil months betray their origins, since  it is evident that they are mere copies of the original names of their  twelve lunar-month counterparts. The first, Thoth, was named after  the god of the moon, who was also the reckoner of time. The third,  Athyr, overtly indicates that it was named after the goddess Ha-thor,  whose festival took place on day one of the following civil month.  Khoiak,  the  designation  for  civil  month  four,  was  similarly  borrowed from a major religious event that occurred at the crucial  change of season—from the first season, yht, to the second, prt—the  festival held on day one of the fifth month. In this case, the first day  of peret served as a second new year's day, on which the rejuvena- tion  of  the  subsistence-based  agricultural  society  of  Pre-dynastic  Egypt was predicated. A similar change from the second season to  the third can be observed with the name of month eight, Renenutet.  Then, the goddess of the harvest Renenutet bequeathed her name to  the final civil month, smw, in recognition of the festival for the gathering of grain,  which  took  place  at  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  month.  In  some  cases,  for  historical  reasons,  the  designations  of  the  civil  months  were  changed.  For  example,  Menchet  ("clothing"),  civil  month  number  two,  was  altered  to  Paophi  in  honor  of  the  important  Theban  festival  of  Opet,  which  occurred  at  that  time.  In  similar  fashion, Phamenoth, civil month seven, reflected the festival of the  deified King Amenhotep I (1514-1493). Yet the final civil month revealed its origins  in the rebirth of the sun god Re, for that is what its name, Mesore,  actually  meant.  Earlier,  the  designation  was  Wep-renpet  ("the  opener of the year"), called after the most important festival in the  year,  that  of  new  year's  day,  on  the  first  day  of  Thoth,  the  first  month.

A careful comparison of the month names has determined that at  least  some  of  the  older  designations  were  based  on  key  religious  festivals; however, they seem always to have occurred on or about  day  one  of  the  following  civil  month.  The  clear  case  of  Athyr,  mentioned above, provides an excellent example of this. Although  the civil month was the third in the year, its religious counterpart,  the feast of Hathor, began with the following civil month. Insofar as  the  civil  months  postdate  the  original  lunar  calendar  months  in  which the key feasts were first celebrated, any attempt to equate a  month  name  with  the  eponymous  feast  name  must  consider  this.  Even  at  the  inception  of  the  newly  created  civil  calendar,  such  a  shunting  of  festival  dates  must  have  occurred—an  alteration  partially explained by the original lunar year of only 354 days, and  the  new  civil  year  of  365  days.  The  difference  of  nineteen  days  (called the lunar-solar epact) explains the lack of equivalence and  provides a reason for the observance of the festival of the moon god  Thoth on day nineteen of the first civil month. (In a similar lack of  concurrence,  present-day  Easter  and  Passover  continue  to  be  celebrated on old lunar dates that have no fixed Western calendar  dates.)

The  various  festival  calendars  of  the  Egyptians  reflected  the  civil  calendar insofar  as they located their celebrations within the  civil  year.  Quite  often  a  clear  separation  was  made  between  the  "festivals of heaven," which occurred more than once a year, and  the  "seasonal  festivals,"  which  took  place  annually.  By the nineteenth dynasty, the  first  group  merely  comprised  the  various  celebrations in honor of lunar days (e.g., day 1, 2, 6, 15, and the  like).  In  contrast,  the  second  group  reflected  the  developed  theological  outlook  of  the  various  temples,  wherein  the  crucial  religious  manifestations  took  place  once  a  year.  Note  that  the  dichotomy  was  not  merely  one  of  celestial  phenomena  versus  earthly ones, since the heliacal rising of Sothis was placed under the  "seasonal festivals." The festival calendars are very important to us  because they reveal, in precise fashion, just which days were of crucial importance to the Egyptians and how they were celebrated.

Other segments of time from ancient Egypt also are known. A  week was in reality ten days, with the standard holidays at the end  (day ten) and the day following. Hour measurements were known,  too,  but  they  were  of  irregular  length,  roughly  identical  to  the  "seasonal  hours"  of  Hellenistic  and  Roman  times.  There  are  Egyptian words for small segments of time other than the hour, but  no  precise  designations  for  the  "half-hour,"  the "quarter  hour,"  or  the "minute." Such a lack of specificity was mainly the result of the  relatively  simple  timekeeping  used  in  the  Nile  Valley;  pharaonic  civilization had no need for precise time intervals such as seconds  or minutes. The Egyptian hours appear to have been based always  on groupings of stars. In the First Intermediate Period, if not earlier,  a system of decanal stars was invented, by which there were twelve  night hours. These twelve intervals were determined by sight, and  they depended on the sighting of various star groups that cannot be  identified. As each star group rose, it designated a specific hour of  the night sky for ten days (hence each is called a "decan" and the  method a decanal system). The decan-hour stars would then move  on  one  integer,  for  120  days,  or  12  "weeks."  At  first,  the  system  depended on naked-eye viewing at the eastern horizon; later, in the  Middle Kingdom, a more refined method of observation was used,  in  which  the  crossing  of  the  star  groups  across  a  meridian  determined the nightly hours. From the New Kingdom onward, the  Egyptians  preferred  to  work  out  nocturnal  timekeeping  by  the  transit  of  stars  across  various  reference  points  on  a  man's  body  (head, neck, etc.) as he faced south and was checked by a second  man who faced him. All such attempts to work out an effective hour  system for the night were affected by various difficulties.

Research  on  such  star  clocks  has  confirmed  their  usefulness;  nevertheless,  by  modern  standards  such  timekeeping  was  limited  by the lack of a coordinate system for the heavens. Only during the  Ptolemaic dynasty was a zodiacal system introduced to Egypt, one  that had as its basis the division of the Sun's annual path along the  ecliptic. This system was based on a "degree" system—originally  of Babylonian origin—into which each star group occupied thirty  "degrees,"  there  being  twelve  star  groups  in  all  (30  X  12  =  360  degrees, as used today, to describe a complete circle).

The beginning of the Egyptian day was at "dawn," probably in  morning twilight (although that is contested by some researchers);  the  actual  dawn,  when  the  Sun  first  rises  in  the  east,  is  also  a  possibility.  The  inscriptional  material  is  ambiguous.  The  crucial  point  is  that  the  Egyptians'  calendrical  perspective  was  fixed  toward morning sightings directed at the eastern horizon. A lunar  month began  on  the  day  when  the  waning  crescent  moon  could  not  be  sighted on the eastern horizon. (The Egyptian month was therefore  regulated in a different tradition than either the Babylonian or the  Greek, in which months were based on the evening sighting of the  first lunar crescent in west). Since the absence of any lunar crescent  indicates  that  the  Egyptian  system  depended  on  the  eastern,  morning sighting, the Egyptian lunar epoch occurred about one day  earlier  than  those  cultures  that  regarded  the  day  as  commencing  with the first western, evening sighting.

The Old Egyptian names for the lunar days are useful to survey  for a linguistic connection. The first day, that of no lunar crescent  visibility, was connected to the Egyptian word for "new," whereas  the "crescent" gave its name to the second day, and the third day  was called "arrival," indicating actual visibility (the first crescent  might be delayed by atmospheric anomalies, so that it would turn  up  on  day  three).  There  was  a  "second  arrival"  on  day  sixteen,  heralding  the  completion  of  the  full  moon  (from  day  fifteen,  the  Egyptian  "half  month"),  with  "first  quarter"  and  "last  quarter"  (called  "parts")  the  terms  for  day  seven  and  day  twenty-three,  respectively. Finally, day thirty was associated with the god Min,  owing to his virility; in this case, it is clear that the association with  Min  indicated  procreation.  Theologically,  the  following  day  was  considered the "moon in the womb," with its appearance— birth— occurring on day two of the following lunar month.

For the Ptolemaic period, a  few  extant  sources  from  Egypt  indicate that a regular correlation was drawn between lunar months  and  their  civil  calendar  counterparts.  Papyrus  Carlsberg  9,  in  particular, supplies us with a full (though not complete) listing of  such  equivalences;  from  the  text,  a  relatively  simple,  albeit  artificial,  cycle  was  introduced  to  Egypt,  in  which  25  Egyptian  years  (of  365  days apiece)  were  equated  with 309  lunar  months,  the latter consisting of 16 years of 12 months and 9 of 13 months  (365 X 25 = 9,125 days; 309 lunar months with those parameters  yield 9,124.95 days). Such a cycle eliminates the need for an actual  lunar sighting. Originally thought to be a native Egyptian creation,  reinterpretations have placed its sophisticated workings outside the  Nile  Valley.  Other  scholarly  arguments  have  connected  this  Demotic  papyrus  with  the  Macedonian  calendar—in  use  for  the  duration  of  the  Greek  domination  over  Egypt—although  serious  questions  remain  concerning  the  exact  extent  of  its  use.  One  difficulty in textual interpretation is that the columns of odd lunar- civil  calendar  equivalences  were  not  presented,  if  those  sections  merely repeated the integers in the'even columns, as some believe,  then the entries in Papyrus Carlsberg 9 are still incomplete. Some  Egyptologists see the inauguration of this cycle (c.357 BCE) being  based on the nonvisibility of the lunar crescent. Classicists interested in Ptolemaic Egypt prefer to understand the system  as one developed for equating Egyptian days and months with the  Macedonian  calendar,  and  one  extremely  fragmentary  Greek  papyrus  reveals  that  such  an  equivalence  was  made  (Papyrus  Rylands 586); however, the extant pieces are not sufficient to draw  any firm conclusions regarding its origins.

Recent Pages: