posted
As the New Year 2007 rapidly approaches it is useful to note that the astronomers of Ancient Egypt were the first to come up with the idea that there is a circularity to time with things starting over after 365 days. 365 days made up the year and there were 12 months of 30 days each. There were 5 additional days tagged on which were seen as birth days for 5 gods including Isis, Osiris, Horus, and others.
And given that Egypt is a tropical/sub-tropical land there were 3 seasons--4 months each--instead of the 4 that temeperate zone peoples use.
But the AE astronomers knew that their calendar was off by about 6 hours--on the basis of the complete sideral cycle--so instead of using the leap year conecpt they made allowances for that observation by recalibrating after 1,460 years.
So how about the real African New Year being 6243--the adaptation took place in 4236 BP--instead of 2007? This would indeed be in keeping with the antiquity of African time.
Nothing new here given that other groups also recognise other calendars--as the Chinese do.
The modern Western calendar derives from the Ancient Egyptian model but with modifications that gave rise to the Julian and Gregorian versions.
And Astrology--another Egyptian idea--that fits in with their study of the stars.
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posted
do you feel that Ancient Egypt is the home of astrology, or Babylon? Just curious........If there is strong evidence for the former, I am open. But alot of scholars will say that astrology originated in Babylon......Salaam
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posted
In ancient times there was little distintion between astronomy and astrology(from Greek "aster" "logos"--the study of the stars).
The ancient Greeks long believed that the Ancient Egyptians invented astrology and that the Egytian god Hermes Trismegistus(Thoth) was guardian of this knowledge of astronomical/astrolgical knowledge.
Given the early start that the Egyptians had in astronomy it is logical to believe that they would have connected the stars and the planets to the human condition.
There are others who claim that the Mesopotamians were responsible and chide the Greeks for believing such about the Egyptians.
Damn, the egyptians were the first to use the (full year) calendar as well? The Egyptians were smart as hell, man.
Posts: 447 | From: Somewhere son... | Registered: Sep 2006
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posted
And that's why the "racial" nature and origins of the Ancient Egyptians continues to be so hotly contested by most groups except those African intellectuals who try to study the matter objectively--C.A. Diop for example--and those very, very few others of non-African lineage.
The point is that most non-African researchers would not want to believe that the African environment could have produced such creative--in all endeavours--people. And long before any other group.
And the point too is that if Africa produced such groups in the past it could do so in the future--something which the intellectual spokesmen for the groups that arrogantly dominant now would not like to countenance.
In fact, the psychological subtext of the Western pundits on Africa is that Africans are slated to go the way of the Neanderthals--pushed in that direction by the impersonal forces of naturalistic evolution.
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posted
There is one country that still uses the Ancient Calender of the Egyptians still till this day and that country is Ethiopia and its in Africa i wonder if any one knows any more information on this issue and how long have the Ethiopians been using this calender.
-------------------- Hikuptah Al-Masri Posts: 526 | From: Aswan Egypt | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote:Originally posted by lamin: And that's why the "racial" nature and origins of the Ancient Egyptians continues to be so hotly contested by most groups except those African intellectuals who try to study the matter objectively--C.A. Diop for example--and those very, very few others of non-African lineage.
The point is that most non-African researchers would not want to believe that the African environment could have produced such creative--in all endeavours--people. And long before any other group.
And the point too is that if Africa produced such groups in the past it could do so in the future--something which the intellectual spokesmen for the groups that arrogantly dominant now would not like to countenance.
In fact, the psychological subtext of the Western pundits on Africa is that Africans are slated to go the way of the Neanderthals--pushed in that direction by the impersonal forces of naturalistic evolution.
Point well said and taken babe. Anyways, speaking of Diop, he was never a racialist, only a real scientist who STRESSED that egyptian civilization arose not because of the innate "racial superiority" of blacks but because of its environment: the life giving Nile and and that ever so erraticcaly changing Sahara. . So if you put, let's say, French Gauls in the Nile Valley in the epipaleolithic (and give them sun tan), in a couple thousand years egyptian civilization would have arisen with croissant shaped temples. God I love croissants.....
Posts: 447 | From: Somewhere son... | Registered: Sep 2006
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posted
I should also point out that the idea of cyclical time was not conceived by the Egyptians or known to them alone. Many cultures around the world base the concept of circular time on mere observance that everything in nature follows a cycle.
If you want to see an example of a people who also believed in circular time and had an even more advanced and accurate calendar look here. Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:And given that Egypt is a tropical/sub-tropical land there were 3 seasons--4 months each--instead of the 4 that temeperate zone peoples use
Are you certain about this? Would the climate in ancient Egypt be any different from the modern climate in Egypt today. If the following is true then Egypt does experiance a winter albeit a less harsh winter but it still can get very cold in the Middle to northern parts of Egypt.
Hikuptah wrote:
quote:There is one country that still uses the Ancient Calender of the Egyptians still till this day and that country is Ethiopia and its in Africa i wonder if any one knows any more information on this issue and how long have the Ethiopians been using this calender.
The ancient Egyptian calender is used by both Coptic Christians and Muslim fallahin in rural areas of Egypt. Both the Coptic and Lunar Islamic calenders are used side by side.
What evidence do you have that the Ethiopian calender is pharaonic in origin? Couldn't this calender simply be the work of indigenous Ethiopians. Many Africans have indigenous calenders from the Yoruba down to Ashanti.
Posts: 8675 | From: Tukuler al~Takruri as Ardo since OCT2014 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
^Ausar is correct about Ethiopians and other Africans having their own calendars. Calendars were invented to map out the seasons and help predict wheather, they were especially formulated by agriculturalists to know the planting and harvesting seasons.
Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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I should also point out that the idea of cyclical time was not conceived by the Egyptians or known to them alone. Many cultures around the world base the concept of circular time on mere observance that everything in nature follows a cycle.
If you want to see an example of a people who also believed in circular time and had an even more advanced and accurate calendar look here.
"Cyclic" calendar has no bearings on the the specifics of the "Solar-based calendar" system, taken into consideration with the Egyptian lunar calendar, that is being referenced here. The Egyptian solar calendar remedied the shortcomings of the civil calendar, to the point that it resembles modern day solar-based calendar system that we use, which is not surprising considering that the modern one ultimately derives from the ancient Egyptian version, largely with little more than superficial modifications; in the one area where one can add relative more depth to the significance of these modifications, is one whereby the modern calendar takes the 'leap year' into account via a different mode of determination from that used by the Egyptians to remedy the shortcoming of the Egyptian civil calendar, but all 'converge' in this aspect in terms of the effect on the calendar system. As noted, ancient Egyptian contemporaries [like those in Mesopotamia] were actually dated with the assistance of the Egyptian solar calendar system; it was noticeably different from those of its contemporaries. This point was reiterated here:
posted
^I agree Super, what I meant was conceptions of time. Many of us today have a linear notion of time when there are many cultures which for the longest held a cyclical view.
Posts: 26252 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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Egyptian Muslims do not use the Old Calendar only Coptic farmers do i dont know were u get your information from there is a Muslim Calendar. Ever since the Nasser Dam i dont think egypt has been the same there will be more problems for the Delta region because of Nasser Dam all the good soil coming from Ethiopia doesnt reach all the way to the delta.
Im sure the calendar of Ancient Egypt came from further south maybe from the Source of the Nile in the mountain of the Moon.
-------------------- Hikuptah Al-Masri Posts: 526 | From: Aswan Egypt | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote:Egyptian Muslims do not use the Old Calendar only Coptic farmers do i dont know were u get your information from there is a Muslim Calendar. Ever since the Nasser Dam i dont think egypt has been the same there will be more problems for the Delta region because of Nasser Dam all the good soil coming from Ethiopia doesnt reach all the way to the delta.
Im sure the calendar of Ancient Egypt came from further south maybe from the Source of the Nile in the mountain of the Moon
Here again you speak on issues you know very little about. Muslim fellahin[most of the rural fellahin are Muslims with a significant Coptic minority] use the same calender as Coptic Christians.
I get my information from my relatives who happen to be all desendants of indigenous fallahin. If you want another reliable source I suggest you look up Growing up in an Egyptian village; Silwa, Province of Aswan. by Ḥāmid ʻAmmār Hamed Ammar is actually from Aswan,unlike you, and wrote about customs and traditions of his native village which is mostly Muslim but still uses the Coptic calender.
With the construction of the Aswan High Dam in 1960, and its completion in 1970, the annual flooding of the Nile was checked and the flow of the river better regulated. Farming became possible all year round and the importance of the Coptic calendar ebbed.
Redundant, and almost devoid of special significance for agricultural purposes, the Coptic calendar fell into disuse by the country's farming communities. It retained a religious significance for Egypt's Christians, however.
I asked for direct evidence that the Ethiopian calender came from ancient Egypt. Where also is evidence that the ancient Egyptian calender came from south of Egypt? How could you possibly document this since writing in Egypt only dates to proto-dyanstic period around 3200 B.C.?
Posts: 8675 | From: Tukuler al~Takruri as Ardo since OCT2014 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Anyways, speaking of Diop, he was never a racialist, only a real scientist who STRESSED that egyptian civilization arose not because of the innate "racial superiority" of blacks but because of its environment: the life giving Nile and and that ever so erraticcaly changing Sahara. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
. So if you put, let's say, French Gauls in the Nile Valley in the epipaleolithic (and give them sun tan), in a couple thousand years egyptian civilization would have arisen with croissant shaped temples. ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
God I love croissants.....
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