End of the World, Predictions Of
Keeping track of time has been an integral activity of every civilization, no matter how primitive. There are ample indications that even civilizations in pre-historic times made concerted attempts to measure time. Many civilizations, including the Mayan, and individuals, such as Stifel in sixteenth-century Germany, used measurements of time to predict the end of the world.
Keeping Track of Time
For early civilizations, keeping track of time involved two distinct pursuits: food and religion. The cycles for planting and harvesting could be anticipated and planned for with a calendar. Primitive societies could also plan for bird and animal migrations in advance of their arrival. In both cases, even a primitive calendar could help communities grow crops and hunt game in a better, more organized manner.
The religious aspect of keeping time was tied to the worship of the heavens. Ancient peoples viewed the motions of heavenly bodies and related phenomena, such as an eclipse of the moon, as acts of the gods that were important to predict. Archeologists think the standing stones of Stonehenge in England were a massive observatory that ancient peoples used to track the rising and setting of the sun on the summer and winter solstice.
This page contains 201 words.
End of the World, Predictions Of article
Read the rest of this article.
This article contains 1,562 words
(approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page).
Order our Eschatology Article
