Ancient Egyptian Calendar
Ancient Egyptian Calendar
The Ancient Egyptians were the first civilization to create a calendar
which organised the year into 365 days and the days into 24 hours. The
ancient civil Egyptian calendar, known as the Annus Vagus or "Wandering
Year". The Ancient Egyptian astrologers had long studied the stars which
helped them in forecasting the seasons of flood and sowing which was
vital to the prosperity of Egypt. The astronomers identified the planets
in the solar system and also took great interest in the stars. The
brightest star in the Egyptian sky was Sirius. Sirius disappeared for a
70 day period and reappeared on the eastern horizon on July 19th which
also coincided with the Nile floods. This was therefore the date of New
Year's Day for the Ancient Egyptians. The Ancient Egyptians had a great
interest in the passing of time and how this effected vital events such
as the annual flooding of the Nile. The Ancient Egyptian calendar
initially started with a lunar calendar.
Egyptian Lunar Calendar
The Ancient Egyptian Lunar calendar was organised into 12 lunar months
and 354 days which were divided into three seasons consisting of four
calendar months for each season and based on the cycle of the moon. A
similar lunar calendar was in use in Babylonia. The Egyptians placed
great importance on the sun and the astronomers realised that the solar
year was 365 days. The religion of the Ancient Egyptians focussed on the
sun which determined the patterns of the seasons, as opposed to the
moon, and a solar calendar was developed.
Egyptian Solar Calendar
The Ancient Egyptian calendar is
believed to date back to the 3rd Millennium BC which spans the Early to
Middle Bronze Age. The Ancient Egyptian calendar and year was divided as
follows:
The 5
holy days were dedicated the gods Osiris, Isis, Horus, Seth and
Nephthys. To measure the hours in a day the Ancient Egyptians used a
water clock. The Ancient Egyptian calendar was known to be imperfect as
the true solar calendar has an extra quarter of the day. This
discrepancy was eventually addressed by the Romans who introduced the
'leap year'.
Ancient Egyptian Calendar
Each section of this Egyptian website addresses all topics and
provides interesting facts and information about the Golden Age of
Egypt. The Sitemap provides full details
of all of the information and facts provided about the fascinating subject of Egypt, the Ancient Egyptians and of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun, King Tut.
|
