Invention of timing

[timelets]

“They said that the Egyptians were the first of all peoples to discover the year, by dividing up the seasons into twelve parts to total one year, and that they discovered how to do this from the stars. The Egyptians seem to me to be much wiser than the Hellenes in the way they regulate the timing of the seasons. While the Hellenes attempt to preserve the timing of the seasons by inserting an intercalary month every other year, the Egyptians divide the year into twelve months of thirty days each and add just five days each year beyond that number, and thus their seasons do return at the same periods in the cycle from year to year.”

--- Herodotus, Histories.

The calendar is an amazing invention because it lets people keep time without checking the stars; the ultimate simulator.

Comments

[juan_gandhi]

В Египте ж хитро было. Надо было рассчитывать, когда Нил в следующий раз разольется. На этом вся экономика была построена.

[timelets]

Ну, да. Timing was everything.

As Herodotus writes, “Egypt consists of mud deposited by the Nile River."

[olindom]

А ничего, что это Шумеры развили?!

[timelets]

Я тут не специалист, но насколько знаю, Запад получил свой календарь по линии Египет-Греция-Рим.

[olindom]

А туда календарь пришел через Вавилон от Шумер.

[timelets]

Вполне может быть.