Development of Calendars
Overview
Keeping track of the passage of time has been a human preoccupation since the dawn of history. Calendars helped societies to understand and track the changing seasons and to mark the elapse of time between important human events such as religious holidays. But producing accurate calendars was an enormous challenge, and proved to be a great stimulus for the advance of astronomy and mathematics from ancient Mesopotamia through Renaissance Europe.
Background
Some of the very earliest evidence of recorded history reveals the importance to all civilizations of calendars. Traces of calendars from prehistoric civilizations have been found at Stonehenge as well as at sites in the Americas, but among the earliest calendars about which historians have significant and detailed evidence are those of the Egyptians and Babylonians. The Egyptian calendar relied on practical principles rather than elaborate astronomical investigations; that is, it was a calendar intended to facilitate civic life rather than one produced by or aimed at supporting astronomical observations. A year consisted of 12 months of 30 days each, with 5 additional, or intercalary, days at the end of the year. Paradoxically, this calendar, with its reliable simplicity, became a widely used reference standard for astronomical calculations that was still in use at the time of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543).
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