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If the solar side of the lunisolar problem could not be addressed, the lunar side was the only alternative. The original lunar calendar, however, was tied to the heliacal rising of Sirius, an astronomical event which could be neither ignored nor regulated by decree. Apparently, the remaining option was to add yet another lunar calendar, this one of a schematic sort, with the purpose of maintaining agreement with the schematic civil year. The original lunar calendar proceeded as before, leaving a dual year, consisting of the civil calendar and the later lunar calendar, free to progress through the seasons of the year. |
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A major part of the attractiveness of the civil calendar is its simplicity and hence its utility for record keeping and date calculation. Every calendar is designed for a purpose. Although elegant simplicity may not have been the original intent of its framers, the civil calendar comes to us as a powerful reminder that the sole purpose of a calendar is not to produce an accurate estimate of the length of the tropical year. That concern simply happens to be the concern of our culture, and we measure not only our own success but the success of others by that standard. Modern people focus on the split seconds within a year and count themselves wise. The ancients of Egypt were comfortable with reckoning time in terms of millennia and had a system which makes date calculation simple. Who is wiser? |
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In another context, W.E. van Wijk (Decimal Tables for the Reduction of Hindu Dates from the Data of the Surya-Siddhanta, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1938, pp. 13) stated, "From a chronological point of view the substitution for the mean calendaric system of one based on the true movements of the sun and moon, was anything but an improvement, as it destabilized the foundations of time reckoning. . . . The very complexity of the system is a proof of its primitiveness." |
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From the perspective of ancient Egypt, the modern preoccupation with leap seconds and the constant tinkering with the calendar is the product of technical myopia. By constantly improving the system, a series of incompatible and increasingly unintelligible systems have been generated. For many purposes, consistency and simplicity are far more important considerations than exact accuracy. |
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The structure of the civil calendar is very simple. The year consists of 12 months, each of 30 days, and an epagomenal period of five days at the end of the year. There is no leap year or additional intercalation. |
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The length of the civil year differs from the length of the tropical year by approximately one-fourth of one day and therefore moves backward relative to the tropical year at a rate of roughly one day every four years. To move 365 days, the civil calendar requires (4365 =) 1,460 of its years, which is the length of the Sothic cycle. |
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