Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- chronology [2016/03/04 13:12] – lafont
+++ chronology [2023/02/24 15:06] (current) – lafont
@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 ==== Ancient chronological methods ====
-The Mesopotamian scribes used three different systems for dating administrative documents:\\
+Beginning in the Early Dynastic period ca. 2400 BC, Babylonian scribes began to qualify administrative and legal texts with notations clearly identifiable as date notations, consisting of all of some of the categories Ruler, Year of rule, Month of year, Day of month. From the Late Uruk period of the latter third of the 4th millennium BC on, these calendars combined knowledge of solar and lunar cycles to achieve an ideal administrative year of 360 days divided into 12 months of 30 days each. The cultic calender evidently was based on the lunar cycle of ca. 29.5 days for each month, and therefore a lunar year of ca. 354 days and thus the need for intercalation of extra months on average every three years. These dates are currently entered to CDLI catalogue in the form RN.Y.M.D (Royal name is spelled in full with conventional English designations), with “--” for lost information, “00” when information was not given by  the scribe. Month intercalation were designationed by scribes with "min," “the second,” or "diri," “extra.”\\
+\\
+For defining the year and during the three millennia of Mesopotamian history, scribes used three different systems \\
 **1) Year names**\\
 This system attributes a “name” to the current year, making reference to an official event of the previous year (e.g., a military victory, the foundation of a religious establishment, etc.). This method was common during the Old Akkadian, Ur III, and Old Babylonian periods.\\
   * [[Year names]]\\
+  * [[https://cdli-gh.github.io/year-names/|Year Names from Akkad to Babylon I ("Sigrist/Damerow" List)]]
 \\
 **2) Eponyms**\\
-This system attributes the name of a "limmu” officer to the current year; this eponym gives its name to the year in question. This method was the predominant system used in Assyria for more than a thousand years.\\
+This system attributes the name of a "//limmu//” officer to the current year; this eponym, annually appointed, gives his name to the year in question. This method was the predominant system used in Assyria for more than a thousand years.\\
   * [[Assyrian Eponyms (limmu)|Eponym lists]]\\
 \\
@@ Line 23: / Line 26: @@
 ==== Modern chronological models ====
+  * [[Adopted periodisation in CDLI|Chronological periodisation in CDLI]]\\
   * [[Archeometry (14C, dendrochronology, thermoluminescence, etc.)|Scientific Methods (14C, dendrochronology, thermoluminescence)]]
-  * Astronomical observations\\
+  * [[Astronomical observations]]\\
-  * Synchronisms\\
+  * [[Synchronisms]]\\
+  * [[Distanzangaben]] (statements of time-spans)\\
   * [[High-middle-low-ultralow "absolute" chronologies]]\\
-  * [[Adopted periodisation in CDLI|Chronological periodisation in CDLI]]\\
   * [[Archaeological periodisation (with links to other projects, i.e. ARCANE)]]\\
@@ Line 38: / Line 43: @@
 ==== Calendars and month names. Seasonal and cultic calendars ====
-The lunar month (ITI in Sumerian, //warḫu//(//m//) in Akkadian) is defined as the interval of time between two successive apparitions of the first moon. The month begins the evening that the new crescent moon reappears for the first time on the Western horizon just after the setting of the sun. The lunar month consists of 29 or 30 days, 30 being the number symbolising the moon god. Although it was not always possible to observe of the reappearance of the first crescent, the division of the month into 29 or 30 days remained empirical until the first millennium, when the calculations based on the ephemeral tables, which took into account the different factors of visibility of the moon, allowed the beginning of the month to be fixed. \\
+The lunar month (iti in Sumerian, //warḫu//(//m//) in Akkadian) is defined as the interval of time between two successive apparitions of the first moon. The month begins the evening that the new crescent moon reappears for the first time on the Western horizon just after the setting of the sun. The lunar month consists of 29.53 days, 30 being the number symbolising the moon god. Although it was not always possible to observe the reappearance of the new crescent, the division of the month into 29 or 30 days remained empirical until the first millennium, when the calculations based on the ephemeral tables that took into account the different factors of visibility of the moon allowed the beginning of the month to be fixed. \\
 == Early Dynastic Calendars ==
@@ Line 53: / Line 58: @@
   * [[The Old Assyrian calendar]]
   * [[Local calendars]]