The chronology system in ancient Egypt - all civilizations of the world created their own calendars for their convenience. The Egyptians are no exception - their calendar was created about 5,000 years ago. With his help, the Egyptians planned their lives.
Moon calendar
The ancient civilization of the Egyptians lives on a small plot of land near the Nile River. Since it was this river that provided all the economic and food needs, the ancient Egyptians directly depended on it. In order to track the dates of river floods and celebrations of significant dates, the lunar calendar was originally used, which was popular among many peoples of the world. However, to establish the dates of the holidays, a number system was needed - in Egypt it was created in the middle of the 1000th anniversary of the Common Era. However, simultaneously with the religious calendar, there was also another calendar - the civil one. The ancient Egyptians used a 25-year cycle with 309 months. It is not known for certain how this calendar functioned, but it is safe to say thatthat the lunar calendar was used for a short time and did not meet the needs for agricultural work.
Solar calendar
Thus, the Egyptian priests decided it was time to create a new, more accurate calendar. It is good that the knowledge they had was enough to carry out reliable calculations and draw an analogy between them with a map of the starry sky. One of the English Egyptologists made public the fact that the solar calendar was created several hundred years before the conquest of Egypt by the Hyksos, but they made an unsuccessful attempt to reform it. The solar year is used as the basis in such systems of calculation, namely the stages of the change of seasons of the solar year - however, the change in the phases of the moon is not taken into account. As a result, the inhabitants of ancient Egypt became the creators of the solar calendar. Almost all the priests learned to predict the time of the appearance of stars and after a while, according to the results of the study, they drew a parallel between the location of stars and natural phenomena. When creating a solar calendar, they paid special attention to the floods of the Nile. Floods occurred during the period from July to November and thus the entire river valley was flooded with water; when the Nile returned to its course, it was time to sow. As a result, after about three or four months it was necessary to reap the grown harvest, but it was worth hurrying - after all, since March a dry wind was blowing from the side of the Sahara desert, which destroyed everything that was left on the field. In view of these weather conditions, the chronology system had to be accurate. Floods occurred during the period from July to November and thus the entire river valley was flooded with water; when the Nile returned to its course, it was time to sow. As a result, after about three or four months it was necessary to reap the grown harvest, but it was worth hurrying - after all, since March a dry wind was blowing from the side of the Sahara desert, which destroyed everything that was left on the field. In view of these weather conditions, the chronology system had to be accurate. Floods occurred during the period from July to November and thus the entire river valley was flooded with water; when the Nile returned to its course, it was time to sow. As a result, after about three or four months it was necessary to reap the grown harvest, but it was worth hurrying - after all, since March a dry wind was blowing from the side of the Sahara desert, which destroyed everything that was left on the field. In view of these weather conditions, the chronology system had to be accurate.
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Principles of constructing the ancient Egyptian calendar
The year of the ancient Egyptians was divided into three seasons: Akhet - that is, the time of flooding, when the Nile overflowed its banks (period from July to November), overflow - at this time the waters of the Nile returned to their channel (December - March), Shema - was characterized by shallowing Nile (March - July). For years, the Egyptians created an intricate system of dams, canals, and reservoirs to protect themselves from flooding and drought. Since this system required constant maintenance, the knowledge of the priests was useful in order to find out the times of the flood and drought of the Nile. As a result of the research of the priests, it was discovered that the floods occurred immediately after the summer solstice. Another discovery was a bright star that could be easily spotted even with the naked eye. In the course of additional research, it was found that this star appears in the sky once every 70 days. Thus,with the help of these two discoveries, it became possible to create a new system of calculus for the Egyptians of antiquity.
Cycle based on the sun
Thus, the appearance of the star Sirius meant a new cycle. Therefore, the star Sothis (as the Egyptians called Sirius) became the source of a new chronology system. According to this calendar, the new year began on the basis of the periodic rises of Sothis. At the beginning, the length of the year according to this chronology system was 360, and after a while - 365 days. From the point of view of astronomical time, the chronology of ancient Egypt could not be considered accurate enough, since there were no conditions for a leap year in it. It is for this reason that the appearance of Sothis (Sirius) in the solar calendar of the inhabitants of ancient Egypt was delayed by one day every 4 years. Thus, the calendar year of the ancient Egyptians consisted of 12 months, and 30 days was one month. One week for the inhabitants of the Nile Valley consisted of 10 days,and 10 hours was the duration of one day. 100 minutes was one hour and a minute was 100 seconds. Total 360 days. The other 5 days were not assigned to any of the months of the year. On these days, which were postponed until the end of the last month, the birthdays of the Egyptian gods were celebrated.
Attempt to reform the wandering calendar
The ancient Egyptians were calm about the fact that the holidays fall on different days in the calendar. In their opinion, the holidays smoothly moved along the calendar and thus made them holy throughout the year. Thus, the Egyptian calendar was wandering, but that was fine with everyone. The pharaohs even made a promise that they would not change it. The Hyksos rulers tried to change this, which caused a murmur among the ancient Egyptians. Although they resigned under the influence, after the expulsion of the Hixons, the calendar of the ancient Egyptians was completely restored, and all the reforms of the Hixons were removed. All dates - days, months and years - were numbered. This is due to two reasons: firstly, the ancient Egyptians did not base their chronology on any specific date, and secondly, the counting of years began from the reign of the new pharaoh. However, there was a rule about the beginning of a new calendar year - it was August 29 according to the modern calendar.
Calendar month names
Although the months in ancient Egypt were designated with numbers, each of them bore its own name. Each month was dedicated to a specific god. The first month of the calendar year of the ancient Egyptians was called Thoth, which was so named after the god of the moon. This was followed by the month of Faofi, then named after the goddess Athor was the month of Atir. The 4th month of the year was associated with the dynasties of the pharaohs and was called Hoyak, the next month was named after the god Khnum - Tibi. The 6th month was dedicated to the god Montu and was called Mehir, and the 7th month - Famenoth in honor of Amenophis. The following months were named Farmuti, Pakhon, Piney, Epiphy and Mesori. As mentioned earlier, the Egyptian calendar had 360 days, and the 5 missing ones later became known as epagomene - super-annual days. Of course, the problem that the calendar was lagging behindcould be solved by adding one day every four years, but the pharaohs stubbornly ignored this possibility. Most likely it had something to do with their religious beliefs; in any case, the reforms of the ancient Egyptians' chronology were quickly reversed.
The Second Calendar Reform in Ancient Egypt
Attempts to reform the calendar were undertaken not only by the Hixons. Centuries later, a similar attempt was made in the Ptolemaic dynasty. In the "Canopic Decree" there is a record of an attempt by a descendant of Alexander the Great, the third pharaoh, to amend the calendar of the ancient Egyptians. During excavations in 1866, a plate was discovered on which inscriptions made in two languages (Egyptian and Greek) spoke of the order of Pharaoh Everget to change the calendar of the ancient Egyptians. Although this attempt, like the earlier hexons, did not take root, a mistake was made in the decree - one day was added not every four, but every three years. Such an error had a rather strong effect on the accuracy of the chronology, and the error itself was discovered only 48 years later.
Use of the Alexandrian calendar
However, Pharaoh's command to establish a leap year in Egyptian chronology was never fulfilled. Although if this did happen, then the year of the ancient Egyptians would be 365.25 days and would be more accurate in terms of astronomical indicators. The third reform of reckoning in ancient Egypt was carried out by the Romans. Immediately after the conquest, they decided to change the chronology. Thus, every four years, one more day was added, but the Romans made changes to the order of the change of leap years in relation to that which was adopted in the capital of the Roman Empire. As a result, for 1500 years, the Alexandrian calendar existed parallel to the Julian calendar generally accepted by the Romans.
The simplest and most convenient chronology system in ancient Egypt
Over the entire period of its existence, the system of chronology of ancient Egypt went through many reforms and tried many ways. However, the most popular is the calendar based on the Sun. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, this system was the simplest and most convenient in the whole world. Even the inaccuracy that existed in this system did not in any way aggravate the life of the ancient Egyptians. Probably over time, provided that it is a necessity, the missing day would still appear on the calendar. This could be the result of research by the priests, who determined that 365.25 days still do not accurately correspond to the period between the floods of the Nile. They were also able to calculate that every 130 years the flood will occur one day earlier in relation to the rise of Sothis. Probably,they chose to ignore this data for simplicity and convenience. Be that as it may, chronology in ancient Egypt laid a solid foundation for the compilation of calendars and served as the foundation for improving the solar calendar.
Ilya Grinko