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The ruling class benefited by having a systematic way for collecting taxes or tribute, which were necessarily based on agricultural product. They also tended to insinuate themselves into the death-and-rebirth ceremonies surrounding the agriculture by having themselves buried in these structures with the appropriate ceremonies, enhancing their own power. |
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In the earliest agricultural societies, then, the physical structures were the calendar, and simultaneously satisfied important religious, ceremonial, and political needs. |
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Any society that makes the transition from tribal hunting and gathering to settled agriculture must solve certain problems under very similar constraints of knowledge and past development. When we see pyramids in Mexico, it is not necessary to assume that ancient Egyptians sailed to Mexico. Rather, we can see a pyramid as a very predictable structural form which is a fingerprint of an emerging agricultural society. Form follows function. |
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The construction of a calendar and, later, a clock is essentially an exercise in applied astronomy. Wherever we look, we are concerned with the Sun, the Moon, the stars, and the relative motion of Earth. |
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It is human nature to seek simplicity in the search for answers. We instinctively prefer integers to fractions and constants to variables. In the area of astronomy, unfortunately, we are not granted either of these conditions, and these issues are central to the problem of constructing a calendar and, thus, the remainder of the units of time. |
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2.1.3.1
Problems with Fractional Units |
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Most of the relationships that matter in astronomy do not involve simple integer relationships or ratios. The number of days in a tropical year, for example, is not 360 or 365, but 365.242199 to six digits of accuracy. |
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2.1.3.2
Problems with Variability |
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Most key factors in astronomy, moreover, are not only not integers, they are not even constants. The measure of lunation most relevant to the length of the month is the synodic lunar period (SLP). The length of the SLP is known to have an average value of 29.5306 days, but the length of a given lunation can depart significantly from that value, owing to the influence of literally hundreds of variables on lunar motion. |
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We also know, for example, that the speed of the rotation of the Earth is slowing. Thus the length of the day, defined in terms of Earth's rotation, is changing, and this change also changes the values of other ''constants." |
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