Wandering Calendar and Julian Calendar, Egypt and Rome
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This paper delves into two specific calendars: the Egyptian Wandering Calendar and the Roman Julian Calendar, having origins separated by approximately three millennia. For the Wandering Calendar, contemporary written evidence from the 4th Dynasty, specifically the Red Sea papyri discovered in 2013, constitutes the earliest known record of a calendar in human history. This civil calendar's structure—twelve months of thirty days plus five epagomenal days—inherently lacked a leap year, leading to its "wandering" nature, unanchored to astronomical seasons. This characteristic, alongside ongoing scholarly debates (as explored through the works of Depuydt and Stern), highlights the Egyptian calendar's primary administrative function and its definition of seasons (Akhet, Peret, Shemu) intrinsically linked to the Nile's hydrological cycle, rather than astronomical markers like solstices and equinoxes. Furthermore, the paper discusses theories on its origins, including Neugebauer's hypothesis linking its New Year to the Nile inundation rather than the heliacal rising of Sothis. After a significant historical gap, the paper turns to Rome, which reformed its republican lunar calendar into the Julian Calendar. While designed to anchor time to the sun, the Julian Calendar initially faced intercalation issues corrected by Augustus in 8 BCE. Crucially, even after this reform, as documented by Varro, the Roman concept of seasons was not universally defined by solstices and equinoxes, but by intermediate "cross-quarter" days, reflecting a persistent reliance on agricultural and meteorological markers. This comparison reveals that despite their distinct contexts and advancements, both ancient calendars underscore a fundamental difference from modern timekeeping, where practical and cultural needs often dictated seasonal demarcation more than strict astronomical alignment.
Author: Sparavigna, Amelia Carolina
Institution: Politecnico di Torino
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6930828930
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: