The Origin of the Year: I

Abstract

IT would seem that in the dawn of civilization it was not at all a matter of course that the sun should be taken as the measurer of time, as it is now with us; and in this connection it is worth while to note how very various the treatment of this subject was among the early peoples. Thus, for instance, it was different in Egypt from what it was in Chaldæa and Babylonia, and later among the Jews. In the Egyptian inscriptions we find references to the moon, but they prove that she occupied quite a subordinate position to the sun; while in Chaldæa it would seem that the moon was the chief thing worshipped, and it was thus naturally the chief means used for measuring time, and, 5o far as months were concerned, this, of course, was quite right. In Chaldæa, too, where much desert travel had to be undertaken at night, the movement of the moon would be naturally watched with great care.