Calendars in antiquity : empires, states, and societies
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Bibliographic Information
Calendars in antiquity : empires, states, and societies
Oxford University Press, 2012
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [431]-453) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Calendars were at the heart of ancient culture and society, and were far more than just technical, time-keeping devices. Calendars in Antiquity offers a comprehensive study of the calendars of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, Gaul, and all other parts of the Mediterranean and the Near East, from the origins up to and including Jewish and Christian calendars in late Antiquity. In this volume, Stern sheds light on the political context in
which ancient calendars were designed and managed. Set and controlled by political rulers, calendars served as expressions of political power, as mechanisms of social control, and sometimes as assertions of political independence, or even of sub-culture and dissidence.
While ancient calendars varied widely, they all shared a common history, evolving on the whole from flexible, lunar calendars to fixed, solar schemes. The Egyptian calendar played an important role in this process, leading most notably to the institution of the Julian calendar in Rome, the forerunner of our modern Gregorian calendar. Stern argues that this common, evolutionary trajectory was not the result of scientific or technical progress. It was rather the result of major political and
social changes that transformed the ancient world, with the formation of the great Near Eastern empires and then the Hellenistic and Roman Empires from the first millennium BC to late Antiquity. The institution of standard, fixed calendars served the administrative needs of these great empires but also
contributed to their cultural cohesion.
Table of Contents
- LIST OF TABLES
- INTRODUCTION
- PART I: FROM CITY STATES TO GREAT EMPIRES: THE RISE OF THE FIXED CALENDARS
- PART II: THE EMPIRES CHALLENGED AND DISSOLVED: CALENDAR DIVERSITY AND FRAGMENTATION
- CONCLUSION
- REFERENCES
- INDEX
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