[Regia-NA] FW: [BRITARCH] Oldest calendar

Fri Oct 6 07:48:28 EDT 2006

 Out of period, and set to the south of our area of interest, but I thought
some members might find it useful/entertaining.

Guthrum

-----Original Message-----
From: British archaeology discussion list [mailto:BRITARCH at JISCMAIL.AC.UK]
On Behalf Of Kevin Flude
Sent: 06 October 2006 10:10
To: BRITARCH at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: Re: [BRITARCH] Oldest calendar

Hesiod in his Works and Days gives a good idea of a non numerical calendar
in his 'Works and Days.

Here is the part of the poem dealing with the agricultural year - note the
variety of calendrical indicators he uses - stars, birds, sun, heat, rain,
frosts, winds, sprouting, counting days off etc.

Hesiod lived in the 8th century BC, about the same time as Homer

Kevin  Flude

Hesiod: Works And Days

Translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White

http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/works.htm

When the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas, are rising (10), begin your harvest,
and your ploughing when they are going to set (11). Forty nights and days
they are hidden and appear again as the year moves round, when first you
sharpen your sickle. This is the law of the plains, and of those who live
near the sea, and who inhabit rich country, the glens and dingles far from
the tossing sea, -- strip to sow and strip to plough and strip to reap, if
you wish to get in all Demeter's fruits in due season, and that each kind
may grow in its season. Else, afterwards, you may chance to be in want, and
go begging to other men's houses, but without avail; as you have already
come to me. But I will give you no more nor give you further measure.
Foolish Perses! Work the work which the gods ordained for men, lest in
bitter anguish of spirit you with your wife and children seek your
livelihood amongst your neighbours, and they do not heed you. Two or three
times, may be, you will succeed, but if you trouble them further, it will
not avail you, and all your talk will be in vain, and your word-play
unprofitable. Nay, I bid you find a way to pay your debts and avoid hunger. 

(ll. 405-413) First of all, get a house, and a woman and an ox for the
plough -- a slave woman and not a wife, to follow the oxen as well -- and
make everything ready at home, so that you may not have to ask of another,
and he refuses you, and so, because you are in lack, the season pass by and
your work come to nothing. Do not put your work off till to-morrow and the
day after; for a sluggish worker does not fill his barn, nor one who puts
off his work: industry makes work go well, but a man who putts off work is
always at hand-grips with ruin. 

(ll. 414-447) When the piercing power and sultry heat of the sun abate, and
almighty Zeus sends the autumn rains (12), and men's flesh comes to feel far
easier, -- for then the star Sirius passes over the heads of men, who are
born to misery, only a little while by day and takes greater share of night,
-- then, when it showers its leaves to the ground and stops sprouting, the
wood you cut with your axe is least liable to worm. Then remember to hew
your timber: it is the season for that work. Cut a mortar (13) three feet
wide and a pestle three cubits long, and an axle of seven feet, for it will
do very well so; but if you make it eight feet long, you can cut a beetle
(14) from it as well. Cut a felloe three spans across for a waggon of ten
palms' width. Hew also many bent timbers, and bring home a plough-tree when
you have found it, and look out on the mountain or in the field for one of
holm-oak; for this is the strongest for oxen to plough with when one of
Athena's handmen has fixed in the share-beam and fastened it to the pole
with dowels. Get two ploughs ready work on them at home, one all of a piece,
and the other jointed. It is far better to do this, for if you should break
one of them, you can put the oxen to the other. Poles of laurel or elm are
most free from worms, and a share-beam of oak and a plough-tree of holm-oak.
Get two oxen, bulls of nine years; for their strength is unspent and they
are in the prime of their age: they are best for work. They will not fight
in the furrow and break the plough and then leave the work undone. Let a
brisk fellow of forty years follow them, with a loaf of four quarters (15)
and eight slices (16) for his dinner, one who will attend to his work and
drive a straight furrow and is past the age for gaping after his fellows,
but will keep his mind on his work. No younger man will be better than he at
scattering the seed and avoiding double-sowing; for a man less staid gets
disturbed, hankering after his fellows. 

(ll. 448-457) Mark, when you hear the voice of the crane (17) who cries year
by year from the clouds above, for she give the signal for ploughing and
shows the season of rainy winter; but she vexes the heart of the man who has
no oxen. Then is the time to feed up your horned oxen in the byre; for it is
easy to say: `Give me a yoke of oxen and a waggon,' and it is easy to
refuse: `I have work for my oxen.' The man who is rich in fancy thinks his
waggon as good as built already -- the fool! He does not know that there are
a hundred timbers to a waggon. Take care to lay these up beforehand at home.

(ll. 458-464) So soon as the time for ploughing is proclaimed to men, then
make haste, you and your slaves alike, in wet and in dry, to plough in the
season for ploughing, and bestir yourself early in the morning so that your
fields may be full. Plough in the spring; but fallow broken up in the summer
will not belie your hopes. Sow fallow land when the soil is still getting
light: fallow land is a defender from harm and a soother of children. 

(ll. 465-478) Pray to Zeus of the Earth and to pure Demeter to make Demeter
s holy grain sound and heavy, when first you begin ploughing, when you hold
in your hand the end of the plough-tail and bring down your stick on the
backs of the oxen as they draw on the pole-bar by the yoke-straps. Let a
slave follow a little behind with a mattock and make trouble for the birds
by hiding the seed; for good management is the best for mortal men as bad
management is the worst. In this way your corn-ears will bow to the ground
with fullness if the Olympian himself gives a good result at the last, and
you will sweep the cobwebs from your bins and you will be glad, I ween, as
you take of your garnered substance. And so you will have plenty till you
come to grey (18) springtime, and will not look wistfully to others, but
another shall be in need of your help. 

(ll. 479-492) But if you plough the good ground at the solstice (19), you
will reap sitting, grasping a thin crop in your hand, binding the sheaves
awry, dust-covered, not glad at all; so you will bring all home in a basket
and not many will admire you. Yet the will of Zeus who holds the aegis is
different at different times; and it is hard for mortal men to tell it; for
if you should plough late, you may find this remedy -- when the cuckoo first
calls (20) in the leaves of the oak and makes men glad all over the
boundless earth, if Zeus should send rain on the third day and not cease
until it rises neither above an ox's hoof nor falls short of it, then the
late-plougher will vie with the early. Keep all this well in mind, and fail
not to mark grey spring as it comes and the season of rain. 

(ll 493-501) Pass by the smithy and its crowded lounge in winter time when
the cold keeps men from field work, -- for then an industrious man can
greatly prosper his house -- lest bitter winter catch you helpless and poor
and you chafe a swollen foot with a shrunk hand. The idle man who waits on
empty hope, lacking a livelihood, lays to heart mischief-making; it is not
an wholesome hope that accompanies a need man who lolls at ease while he has
no sure livelihood. 

(ll. 502-503) While it is yet midsummer command your slaves: `It will not
always be summer, build barns.' 

(ll. 504-535) Avoid the month Lenaeon (21), wretched days, all of them fit
to skin an ox, and the frosts which are cruel when Boreas blows over the
earth. He blows across horse-breeding Thrace upon the wide sea and stirs it
up, while earth and the forest howl. On many a high-leafed oak and thick
pine he falls and brings them to the bounteous earth in mountain glens: then
all the immense wood roars and the beasts shudder and put their tails
between their legs, even those whose hide is covered with fur; for with his
bitter blast he blows even through them although they are shaggy-breasted.
He goes even through an ox's hide; it does not stop him. Also he blows
through the goat's fine hair. But through the fleeces of sheep, because
their wool is abundant, the keen wind Boreas pierces not at all; but it
makes the old man curved as a wheel. And it does not blow through the tender
maiden who stays indoors with her dear mother, unlearned as yet in the works
of golden Aphrodite, and who washes her soft body and anoints herself with
oil and lies down in an inner room within the house, on a winter's day when
the Boneless One (22) gnaws his foot in his fireless house and wretched home
for the sun shows him no pastures to make for, but goes to and fro over the
land and city of dusky men (23), and shines more sluggishly upon the whole
race of the Hellenes. Then the horned and unhorned denizens of the wood,
with teeth chattering pitifully, flee through the copses and glades, and all
as they seek shelter, have this one care, to gain thick coverts or some
hollow rock. Then, like the Three-legged One (24) whose back is broken and
whose head looks down upon the ground, like him, I say, they wander to
escape the white snow. 

(ll. 536-563) Then put on, as I bid you, a soft coat and a tunic to the feet
to shield your body, -- and you should weave thick woof on thin warp. In
this clothe yourself so that your hair may keep still and not bristle and
stand upon end all over your body. 

Lace on your feet close-fitting boots of the hide of a slaughtered ox,
thickly lined with felt inside. And when the season of frost comes on,
stitch together skins of firstling kids with ox-sinew, to put over your back
and to keep off the rain. On your head above wear a shaped cap of felt to
keep your ears from getting wet, for the dawn is chill when Boreas has once
made his onslaught, and at dawn a fruitful mist is spread over the earth
from starry heaven upon the fields of blessed men: it is drawn from the ever
flowing rivers and is raised high above the earth by windstorm, and
sometimes it turns to rain towards evening, and sometimes to wind when
Thracian Boreas huddles the thick clouds. Finish your work and return home
ahead of him, and do not let the dark cloud from heaven wrap round you and
make your body clammy and soak your clothes. Avoid it; for this is the
hardest month, wintry, hard for sheep and hard for men. In this season let
your oxen have half their usual food, but let your man have more; for the
helpful nights are long. Observe all this until the year is ended and you
have nights and days of equal length, and Earth, the mother of all, bears
again her various fruit. 

(ll. 564-570) When Zeus has finished sixty wintry days after the solstice,
then the star Arcturus (25) leaves the holy stream of Ocean and first rises
brilliant at dusk. After him the shrilly wailing daughter of Pandion, the
swallow, appears to men when spring is just beginning. Before she comes,
prune the vines, for it is best so. 

(ll. 571-581) But when the House-carrier (26) climbs up the plants from the
earth to escape the Pleiades, then it is no longer the season for digging
vineyards, but to whet your sickles and rouse up your slaves. Avoid shady
seats and sleeping until dawn in the harvest season, when the sun scorches
the body. Then be busy, and bring home your fruits, getting up early to make
your livelihood sure. For dawn takes away a third part of your work, dawn
advances a man on his journey and advances him in his work, -- dawn which
appears and sets many men on their road, and puts yokes on many oxen. 

(ll. 582-596) But when the artichoke flowers (27), and the chirping
grass-hopper sits in a tree and pours down his shrill song continually from
under his wings in the season of wearisome heat, then goats are plumpest and
wine sweetest; women are most wanton, but men are feeblest, because Sirius
parches head and knees and the skin is dry through heat. But at that time
let me have a shady rock and wine of Biblis, a clot of curds and milk of
drained goats with the flesh of an heifer fed in the woods, that has never
calved, and of firstling kids; then also let me drink bright wine, sitting
in the shade, when my heart is satisfied with food, and so, turning my head
to face the fresh Zephyr, from the everflowing spring which pours down
unfouled thrice pour an offering of water, but make a fourth libation of
wine. 

(ll. 597-608) Set your slaves to winnow Demeter's holy grain, when strong
Orion (28) first appears, on a smooth threshing-floor in an airy place. Then
measure it and store it in jars. And so soon as you have safely stored all
your stuff indoors, I bid you put your bondman out of doors and look out for
a servant-girl with no children; -- for a servant with a child to nurse is
troublesome. And look after the dog with jagged teeth; do not grudge him his
food, or some time the Day-sleeper (29) may take your stuff. Bring in fodder
and litter so as to have enough for your oxen and mules. After that, let
your men rest their poor knees and unyoke your pair of oxen. 

(ll. 609-617) But when Orion and Sirius are come into mid-heaven, and
rosy-fingered Dawn sees Arcturus (30), then cut off all the grape-clusters,
Perses, and bring them home. Show them to the sun ten days and ten nights:
then cover them over for five, and on the sixth day draw off into vessels
the gifts of joyful Dionysus. But when the Pleiades and Hyades and strong
Orion begin to set (31), then remember to plough in season: and so the
completed year (32) will fitly pass beneath the earth. 

(ll. 618-640) But if desire for uncomfortable sea-faring seize you; when the
Pleiades plunge into the misty sea (33) to escape Orion's rude strength,
then truly gales of all kinds rage. Then keep ships no longer on the
sparkling sea, but bethink you to till the land as I bid you. Haul up your
ship upon the land and pack it closely with stones all round to keep off the
power of the winds which blow damply, and draw out the bilge-plug so that
the rain of heaven may not rot it. Put away all the tackle and fittings in
your house, and stow the wings of the sea-going ship neatly, and hang up the
well-shaped rudder over the smoke. You yourself wait until the season for
sailing is come, and then haul your swift ship down to the sea and stow a
convenient cargo in it, so that you may bring home profit, even as your
father and mine, foolish Perses, used to sail on shipboard because he lacked
sufficient livelihood. And one day he came to this very place crossing over
a great stretch of sea; he left Aeolian Cyme and fled, not from riches and
substance, but from wretched poverty which Zeus lays upon men, and he
settled near Helicon in a miserable hamlet, Ascra, which is bad in winter,
sultry in summer, and good at no time. 

(ll. 641-645) But you, Perses, remember all works in their season but
sailing especially. Admire a small ship, but put your freight in a large one
for the greater the lading, the greater will be your piled gain, if only the
winds will keep back their harmful gales. 

(ll. 646-662) If ever you turn your misguided heart to trading and with to
escape from debt and joyless hunger, I will show you the measures of the
loud-roaring sea, though I have no skill in sea-faring nor in ships; for
never yet have I sailed by ship over the wide sea, but only to Euboea from
Aulis where the Achaeans once stayed through much storm when they had
gathered a great host from divine Hellas for Troy, the land of fair women.
Then I crossed over to Chalcis, to the games of wise Amphidamas where the
sons of the great-hearted hero proclaimed and appointed prizes. And there I
boast that I gained the victory with a song and carried off an handled
tripod which I dedicated to the Muses of Helicon, in the place where they
first set me in the way of clear song. Such is all my experience of
many-pegged ships; nevertheless I will tell you the will of Zeus who holds
the aegis; for the Muses have taught me to sing in marvellous song. 

(ll. 663-677) Fifty days after the solstice (34), when the season of
wearisome heat is come to an end, is the right time for me to go sailing.
Then you will not wreck your ship, nor will the sea destroy the sailors,
unless Poseidon the Earth-Shaker be set upon it, or Zeus, the king of the
deathless gods, wish to slay them; for the issues of good and evil alike are
with them. At that time the winds are steady, and the sea is harmless. Then
trust in the winds without care, and haul your swift ship down to the sea
and put all the freight no board; but make all haste you can to return home
again and do not wait till the time of the new wine and autumn rain and
oncoming storms with the fierce gales of Notus who accompanies the heavy
autumn rain of Zeus and stirs up the sea and makes the deep dangerous. 

(ll. 678-694) Another time for men to go sailing is in spring when a man
first sees leaves on the topmost shoot of a fig-tree as large as the
foot-print that a cow makes; then the sea is passable, and this is the
spring sailing time. For my part I do not praise it, for my heart does not
like it. Such a sailing is snatched, and you will hardly avoid mischief. Yet
in their ignorance men do even this, for wealth means life to poor mortals;
but it is fearful to die among the waves. But I bid you consider all these
things in your heart as I say. Do not put all your goods in hallow ships;
leave the greater part behind, and put the lesser part on board; for it is a
bad business to meet with disaster among the waves of the sea, as it is bad
if you put too great a load on your waggon and break the axle, and your
goods are spoiled. Observe due measure: and proportion is best in all things

Copyright is in the public domain

 http://www.sacred-texts.com/cnote.htm

-------Original Message-------

From: Michael Haseler

Date: 10/05/06 08:40:37

To: BRITARCH at JISCMAIL.AC.UK

Subject: Re: [BRITARCH] Oldest calendar

It is an interesting subject "what is the oldest calendar"? Arguably a

hunter-gatherer doesn't need to know what time of year it is except that

"when the leaves of the gongo plant turn pail, it is time to look & store

for hazelnuts".

Even early agriculture doesn't need a calendar (wait till the earth is warm

to your bum before planting the  seeds of doubt)

Calendars are only necessary when you need more precision than natural

events will give, and must mark a change in society whereby times were

needed to be known to within a few days, rather than weeks.

I can't imagine why people in easy, regular contact with each other would

have a calendar, because all dates can be "in X days from today", so

calendars would be a necessity in a "irregular contact society", one where

e.g. part of the society only meets others at certain times of year, and

e.g. they live in different natural calendars (one mountain ie late

flowering, one valley!)

The efficiency of the society then becomes enhanced if they can find a

"universal calendar". And, of course, once you attempt to have  universal

calendar, the natural smallest division is the day.

Now imagine two kings agreeing to meet on the 60th day of the year. But due

to a different is calendar, one arrives in February and one in March. You

can bet your bottom dollar that the one waiting since February is going to

be a little pissed off with the other! After the kings slowly torture to

death both official timekeepers to keep the other happy, I think we can be

fairly sure, all future timekeepers put in a bit of effort to agree on a

date and meet once a year to decide an agreed "year start".

To be honest, it matters not at all whether they get the actual start of the

year "right", all that matters, is that whenever one tells his Queen (today

is the 57th day of the year) that her prospective husband is waiting to meet

her in three days time!

Mike Haseler

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