Primitive Time-reckoning A study in the origins and first development of the art of counting time among the primitive and early culture peoples

The day of 24 hours not primitive--Counting of days or nights--_Pars pro toto_ reckoning--Indications of the sun’s position--Indications by means of marks etc.--Names for the pa...

Seasonal points--Small seasons--Winter and summer--Dry and rainy seasons--Wind-seasons--Four or five seasons-- Sub-division of seasons--Greater seasons--Cycles of seasons --Agri...

Half-years--Shorter years--The empirical year--_Pars pro toto_ reckoning--The period of the vegetation and the year-- Ignorance of age--Relative age--Designation of years after...

Inaccuracy of time-reckoning--The stars in Homer--Observation of the stars by the Greeks and Romans--Star-lore: N. America --S. America--Africa--India--Australia--Oceania--Indic...

The moon--Counting of months and their days--Indications of the position of the moon--Salutations to the new moon-- Celebration of the full moon--Other phases--The greater phase...

Incomplete series of months--Uncertainty as to the month-- Difficulties in reckoning months--Empirical intercalation-- The Jews--Correction of the months by the stars--Correctio...

The market-week in Africa--Greater periods in Africa--The market-week in Asia--America--Rome--_Shabattu_ and sabbath-- Origin of the sabbath--The sabbath a market-day--Festivals...

1. _Summary of results._ The concrete nature of time-indications--Discontinuous and ‘aoristic’ time-indications--The _pars pro toto_ counting of the periods--The continuous time...

For primitive man the day is the simplest and most obvious unit of time. The variations of day and night, light and darkness, sleeping and waking penetrate at least as deeply in...

The year is for us a numerical quantity of 365 or 366 days. But we speak of the year in two senses, first as the calendar year beginning on New Year’s Day, and secondly as the c...

Following the practice of my authorities I have often in the foregoing pages made use of the expression that the year is ‘divided’ into so many parts. From a genetic stand-point...

The time-indications from the phases of the climate and of Nature are only approximate: they themselves, like the concrete phenomena to which they refer, are subject to fluctuat...

The course of the sun determines the variation between day and night, and causes the natural phases of the year. From the position of the sun the times of the day can be given w...

The (moon-)month has originally nothing to do with the year and the seasons: this must be clearly and definitely recognised. The months may be reckoned independently of the year...

Whoever has had patience to read through the material collected in the previous chapter will now no doubt be clear as to the process by which the cycle of months arose. The nece...

In the much disputed questions of the ancient Babylonian astronomy and calendar the non-expert is in a situation of despair: for whoever cannot himself make use of the sources i...

The circumstance that the lunar months are among almost all peoples named from the phases of Nature involves the necessity of an agreement between the two really incommensurable...

The question of the beginning of the year presents some difficulties, since it is for the most part quite uncertain what meaning is to be attached to the phrase ‘beginning of th...

In ancient times, and even at the present day in lands which lie outside the path of the great leveller, civilisation, the months taken over with the Roman calendar are not numb...

We have seen in the foregoing pages how the phases of Nature, with their somewhat variable dates, are everywhere employed in the determination of time; how in the moon there lie...

In the more fully developed calendar there are not seldom found periods of time which are reckoned without reference to any of the factors given by Nature. Such are, for example...

As long as the determination of time is adjusted by the phases of Nature which immediately become obvious to everyone, anybody can judge of them, and should different people jud...

_The concrete nature of the time-indications._ Any genuine system of time-reckoning must admit of numerical treatment, i. e. it must consist of divisions of which the length is...