DOCSLIB.ORG

J.R.R. Tolkien's Calendars, Or the Saga of Hador the Incompetent

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
J.R.R. Tolkien's Calendars, Or the Saga of Hador the Incompetent Volume 14 Number 4 Article 8 Summer 7-15-1988 J.R.R. Tolkien's Calendars, or The Saga of Hador The Incompetent Darrell A. Martin Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Martin, Darrell A. (1988) "J.R.R. Tolkien's Calendars, or The Saga of Hador The Incompetent," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 14 : No. 4 , Article 8. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol14/iss4/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Finds inconsistencies in The Lord of the Rings appendix relating Middle-earth’s calendars to the Gregorian. Additional Keywords Tolkien, J.R.R.—Settings—Middle-earth—Calendar systems; Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings. “Appendices”—Calendars This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol14/iss4/8 Page 52 MYTHLORE 54: Summer 1988 J.R.R.Tolkien's Calendars or The Saga of Hador The Incompetent Darrell A. Martin J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth was constructed 1752 adoption of the Gregorian reform. (Students of with a concern for detail, to say the least. One the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle are well aware of prob­ area that has not been examined in depth is the lems arising from regional differences in New- calendars, in their interrelationships and their Year’s.) connection to Terra. The month of lunar phases averages 29.530,588 1 use the word "Terra" to refer to our world days, giving 12.368,264 months in a tropical year. of primary reality. It is dangerous to distinguish it The ratio is thoroughly inconvenient. Most primitive from Middle-earth too much, though, for as Tolkien calendars were lunar, and eventually gave way to says: combined luni-solar years like the Babylonian. The Egyptians kept such a calendar for some purposes, Middle-earth is not an imaginary tied to the heliacal rising of Sirius about the time world.... The theatre of my tale is this of the Summer Solstice (in the second millenium earth, the one in which we now live, but BC). the historical period is imaginary. (Letters, #183, pg. 239) As an aside, note that this heliacal rising of Sirius is the same annual event, mentioned in But why study the calendars at all? I enjoy Lucan's Pharsalia, which occasioned Dorothy playing Tolkien’s "vast game", although I, too, Sayers’ attempt to defend this Roman poet against the attacks of Graves and Housman. Her efforts find that kind of thing only too (Marsden) are illustrative of the difficulties fatally attractive. It is, I suppose, a encountered by literary persons attempting to deal tribute to the curious effect that story with astronomical matters. has, when based on very elaborate and detailed workings of geography, chronol­ The Egyptian civil calendar was unusual in ogy, and language, that so many should being detached from the moon; it had three "sea­ clamour for sheer 'information', or 'lore'. sons" of four 30-day months, plus five epagomenal ( Letters, #160, pg. 210) days at the end of the year. The Roman months (except Februarius) were 29 or 31 days because Although just plain fun is not to be deni­ they thought even numbers unlucky. Every other grated, the Englishness of Tolkien’s mythology and year, when the pontifex maximus didn’t have other literary implications are also to be found. enemies in office whose terms he wanted to The study actually originated in an analysis of shorten, a month was added before Martius. This sources for Tolkien’s histories and annals in Clas­ didn’t have to be announced until Februarius 5, sical Antiquity and earlier. but provincial bureaucrats still had to date their documents. You can imagine their attitude when The following astronomical and historical infor­ they learned they had guessed wrong. The Julian mation is taken from various sources; where it has reform established the pattern we now use; the been commonly accepted for some time it will not shifting of days when Sextilis was renamed Augus­ be referenced. Days may be expressed to six deci­ tus is a legend. mal places (not hours, minutes, and seconds) for ease of calculation; "0.000,001 days per year" is The Egyptians chose dawn twilight to start equal to 14 minutes 24 seconds in 10,000 years. their day (they found both twilights important, and gave them separate hours). The Babylonians used By 1956 international definition, 1900 AD was sunset. Hellenistic astronomers found noon more 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45.9747 seconds convenient. The Babylonian Kidinnu used a day of (365.242,199 days) long (Sandow). The year’s length 6 "watches", each of 60 ges and 3,600 gars. is very slowly decreasing, at a rate of about 5.3 Hipparchos took the Egyptian 24-hour day and the seconds per millenium. Babylonian divisions of 60, began the day at mid­ night, and eventually bequeathed to the Romans The year’s beginning is arbitrary. The Egyp­ their horas, pars minuta, and pars secunda. tian civil year began at the Summer Solstice at one time, and had "seasons" named from the Nile flood; but since it was exactly 365 days long, its start ******* "wandered" through the tropical year. The Babylo­ nian lunar year began between March 25 and April 21. The Romans’ Ianuarius 1 was supposed to be The source for Tolkien’s calendars is Appendix about a week after the Winter Solstice. The English D to LotR. I assume familiarity with the second civil calendar generally abandoned January 1 for edition. There are major changes between editions December 25 in the 7th Century, switched to March and a few relevant texts outside Appendix D. Tol­ 25 in 1338, and returned to January 1 with the kien used modern month-names in his narrative to MYTH LORE 54: Summer 1988 avoid confusion; I have used untranslated month- to 3-42). The first complete Gregorian cycle, names, even in quotations. 1601-2000 AD, covers all but eighteen years since the Gregorian reform in 1582. I have selected The first revision involves intercalations made 1953-1968 as four leap-year cycles close to the time in the 3rd Age by the Stewards. In the first edi­ when Tolkien was writing and revising Appendix D. tion, Mardil added two days to 2060; in the revi­ sion, to 2059. Hador added one day to 2360 in both editions. The first edition had no detailed account­ ing for the additions. Table 2. More interesting as "lore" are revisions in relating the Shire calendar to the Gregorian (see Dates o f the Solstices and Equinoxes, Gregorian Table 1). Ephemeris Time (O ff is li t t l e differen t) Day of month: 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23rd 24th Table 1. SUMMER (JUNE) SOLSTICE Appendix D paragraph relatin g Shire OED **** and Gregorian dates 1601-2000 0 26 301 73 0 0 20th Century 0 0 64 36 0 0 1953-1968 0 0 12 4 0 0 FIRST EDITION COMMON TO BOTH SECOND EDITION and Year’ s End was CONSENSUS **** were o rig in ally intended to correspond AUTUMNAL (SEPTEMBER) EQUINOX as much as possible OED **** **** to the surnner 1601-2000 0 0 0 135 255 10 and winter 20th Century 0 0 0 10 82 8 solstices 1953-1968 0 0 0 1 15 0 , and s t i l l did so. CONSENSUS *** In that case * the Shire dates were actually in advance o f ours by some WINTER (DECEMBER) SOLSTICE nine ten OED **** **** days, and 1601-2000 0 10 227 162 1 0 our New Year’ s Day 20th Century 0 0 22 77 1 0 corresponded more or less 1953-1968 0 0 4 12 0 0 to Afterlithe CONSENSUS *** * 8. 9. VERNAL (MARCH) EQUINOX OED **** Appendix D also says "the Numenoreans... 1601-2000 22 270 108 0 0 0 adhered to the custom of beginning the year in 20th Century 0 43 57 0 0 0 mid-winter..." 1953-1968 0 8 8 0 0 0 Accounts of the marriage of Aragorn and Arwen CONSENSUS *** * use the term "Midsummer", which is not found in Appendix D (III, pgs. 251, 343). Appendix B says "Mid-year’s Day" (III, pg. 376). "Midsummer" is a definite day in English, see OED Eve def.2. quote, "...on mydsomer eue kyng edward bygan to sayll It is clear that the OED dates are trustworthy toward fraunce." Midsummer def.l. "the summer over a long period. For the Summer Solstice, June solstice, about June 21st”, "that ys on lyden solsti- 21st is the clear choice; the other consensus dates tium & on englisc midsumor"; or defs. 2. and 3.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • What Causes the Seasons? – How Does the Orientation of Earth's Axis Change with Time?
    2.2 The Reason for Seasons • Our goals for learning: – What causes the seasons? – How does the orientation of Earth's axis change with time? © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Thought Question TRUE OR FALSE? Earth is closer to the Sun in summer and farther from the Sun in winter. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Thought Question TRUE OR FALSE? Earth is closer to the Sun in summer and farther from the Sun in winter. Hint: When it is summer in America, it is winter in Australia. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Thought Question TRUE OR FALSE! Earth is closer to the Sun in summer and farther from the Sun in winter. • Seasons are opposite in the N and S hemispheres, so distance cannot be the reason. • The real reason for seasons involves Earth's axis tilt. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. What causes the seasons? © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Axis tilt changes directness of sunlight during the year. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Sun's altitude also changes with seasons Sun’s position at noon in summer: Higher altitude means more direct sunlight. Sun’s position at noon in winter: Lower altitude means less direct sunlight. Summary: The Real Reason for Seasons • Earth's axis points in the same direction (to Polaris) all year round, so its orientation relative to the Sun changes as Earth orbits the Sun. • Summer occurs in your hemisphere when sunlight hits it more directly; winter occurs when the sunlight is less direct. • AXIS TILT is the key to the seasons; without it, we would not have seasons on Earth.
    [Show full text]
  • Timing Accuracy of Web Applications on Touchscreen and Keyboard Devices
    Behavior Research Methods https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-019-01321-2 Mental chronometry in the pocket? Timing accuracy of web applications on touchscreen and keyboard devices Thomas Pronk1,2 & Reinout W. Wiers1 & Bert Molenkamp1,2 & Jaap Murre1 # The Author(s) 2020 Abstract Web applications can implement procedures for studying the speed of mental processes (mental chronometry) and can be administered via web browsers on most commodity desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets. This approach to conducting mental chronometry offers various opportunities, such as increased scale, ease of data collection, and access to specific samples. However, validity and reliability may be threatened by less accurate timing than specialized software and hardware can offer. We examined how accurately web applications time stimuli and register response times (RTs) on commodity touchscreen and keyboard devices running a range of popular web browsers. Additionally, we explored the accuracy of a range of technical innovations for timing stimuli, presenting stimuli, and estimating stimulus duration. The results offer some guidelines as to what methods may be most accurate and what mental chronometry paradigms may suitably be administered via web applications. In controlled circumstances, as can be realized in a lab setting, very accurate stimulus timing and moderately accurate RT mea- surements could be achieved on both touchscreen and keyboard devices, though RTs were consistently overestimated. In uncontrolled circumstances, such as researchers may encounter online, stimulus presentation may be less accurate, especially when brief durations are requested (of up to 100 ms). Differences in RT overestimation between devices might not substantially affect the reliability with which group differences can be found, but they may affect reliability for individual differences.
    [Show full text]
  • In the Wake of the Compendia Science, Technology, and Medicine in Ancient Cultures
    In the Wake of the Compendia Science, Technology, and Medicine in Ancient Cultures Edited by Markus Asper Philip van der Eijk Markham J. Geller Heinrich von Staden Liba Taub Volume 3 In the Wake of the Compendia Infrastructural Contexts and the Licensing of Empiricism in Ancient and Medieval Mesopotamia Edited by J. Cale Johnson DE GRUYTER ISBN 978-1-5015-1076-2 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-1-5015-0250-7 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-1-5015-0252-1 ISSN 2194-976X Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2015 Walter de Gruyter Inc., Boston/Berlin Typesetting: Meta Systems Publishing & Printservices GmbH, Wustermark Printing and binding: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Notes on Contributors Florentina Badalanova Geller is Professor at the Topoi Excellence Cluster at the Freie Universität Berlin. She previously taught at the University of Sofia and University College London, and is currently on secondment from the Royal Anthropological Institute (London). She has published numerous papers and is also the author of ‘The Bible in the Making’ in Imagining Creation (2008), Qurʾān in Vernacular: Folk Islam in the Balkans (2008), and 2 (Slavonic Apocalypse of) Enoch: Text and Context (2010). Siam Bhayro was appointed Senior Lecturer in Early Jewish Studies in the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Exeter, in 2012, having previously been Lecturer in Early Jewish Studies since 2007.
    [Show full text]
  • Mental Chronometry and the Unification of Differential Psychology
    P1: JPJ/KKR P2: GKW/KKR QC: GKW/KKR T1: GKW 0521827442c02 CB738-Sternberg-v1 January 25, 2005 14:54 2 Mental Chronometry and the Unification of Differential Psychology Arthur R. Jensen Mental chronometry is the measurement of cognitive speed. It is the actual time taken to process information of different types and degrees of com- plexity. The basic measurements are an individual’s response time (RT) to a visual or auditory stimulus that calls for a particular response, choice, or decision. Since at least the time of Sir Francis Galton (1822–1911), the father of differential psychology, it has been hypothesized by him and many others that mental speed is a major aspect of general intelligence. What we now know for sure is that RT can be a highly precise, reliable, and sensitive measure of individual differences. Its relationship to other psychological and ecological variables, however, is a complex affair just recently being explored. Research on RT has a venerable history. Not only was it the earliest mea- surement technique used in empirical psychology, but also its scientific use as a measure of individual differences preceded the beginning of experi- mental psychology by at least half a century. The first published research on RT appeared in astronomy journals. Time, as measured by the Earth’s rotation with reference to a star’s moment of transit across a hairline in the lens of a telescope, had to be measured as accurately as possible. In 1796 it was accidentally discovered by the Astronomer Royal at the Greenwich Observatory that astronomers showed individual differences in RT to the star’s transit across the hairline.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mathematics of the Chinese, Indian, Islamic and Gregorian Calendars
    Heavenly Mathematics: The Mathematics of the Chinese, Indian, Islamic and Gregorian Calendars Helmer Aslaksen Department of Mathematics National University of Singapore [email protected] www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/ www.chinesecalendar.net 1 Public Holidays There are 11 public holidays in Singapore. Three of them are secular. 1. New Year’s Day 2. Labour Day 3. National Day The remaining eight cultural, racial or reli- gious holidays consist of two Chinese, two Muslim, two Indian and two Christian. 2 Cultural, Racial or Religious Holidays 1. Chinese New Year and day after 2. Good Friday 3. Vesak Day 4. Deepavali 5. Christmas Day 6. Hari Raya Puasa 7. Hari Raya Haji Listed in order, except for the Muslim hol- idays, which can occur anytime during the year. Christmas Day falls on a fixed date, but all the others move. 3 A Quick Course in Astronomy The Earth revolves counterclockwise around the Sun in an elliptical orbit. The Earth ro- tates counterclockwise around an axis that is tilted 23.5 degrees. March equinox June December solstice solstice September equinox E E N S N S W W June equi Dec June equi Dec sol sol sol sol Beijing Singapore In the northern hemisphere, the day will be longest at the June solstice and shortest at the December solstice. At the two equinoxes day and night will be equally long. The equi- noxes and solstices are called the seasonal markers. 4 The Year The tropical year (or solar year) is the time from one March equinox to the next. The mean value is 365.2422 days.
    [Show full text]
  • The Basques of Lapurdi, Zuberoa, and Lower Navarre Their History and Their Traditions
    Center for Basque Studies Basque Classics Series, No. 6 The Basques of Lapurdi, Zuberoa, and Lower Navarre Their History and Their Traditions by Philippe Veyrin Translated by Andrew Brown Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno Reno, Nevada This book was published with generous financial support obtained by the Association of Friends of the Center for Basque Studies from the Provincial Government of Bizkaia. Basque Classics Series, No. 6 Series Editors: William A. Douglass, Gregorio Monreal, and Pello Salaburu Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno Reno, Nevada 89557 http://basque.unr.edu Copyright © 2011 by the Center for Basque Studies All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America Cover and series design © 2011 by Jose Luis Agote Cover illustration: Xiberoko maskaradak (Maskaradak of Zuberoa), drawing by Paul-Adolph Kaufman, 1906 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Veyrin, Philippe, 1900-1962. [Basques de Labourd, de Soule et de Basse Navarre. English] The Basques of Lapurdi, Zuberoa, and Lower Navarre : their history and their traditions / by Philippe Veyrin ; with an introduction by Sandra Ott ; translated by Andrew Brown. p. cm. Translation of: Les Basques, de Labourd, de Soule et de Basse Navarre Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: “Classic book on the Basques of Iparralde (French Basque Country) originally published in 1942, treating Basque history and culture in the region”--Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-1-877802-99-7 (hardcover) 1. Pays Basque (France)--Description and travel. 2. Pays Basque (France)-- History. I. Title. DC611.B313V513 2011 944’.716--dc22 2011001810 Contents List of Illustrations..................................................... vii Note on Basque Orthography.........................................
    [Show full text]
  • Babylonian Astral Science in the Hellenistic World: Reception and Transmission
    CAS® e SERIES Nummer 4 / 2010 Francesca Rochberg (Berkeley) Babylonian Astral Science in the Hellenistic World: Reception and Transmission Herausgegeben von Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Center for Advanced Studies®, Seestr. 13, 80802 München www.cas.lmu.de/publikationen/eseries Nummer 4 / 2010 Babylonian Astral Science in the Hellenistic World: Reception and Transmission Francesca Rochberg (Berkeley) In his astrological work the Tetrabiblos, the astronomer such as in Strabo’s Geography, as well as in an astrono- Ptolemy describes the effects of geography on ethnic mical text from Oxyrhynchus in the second century of character, claiming, for example, that due to their specific our era roughly contemporary with Ptolemy [P.Oxy. geographical location „The ...Chaldeans and Orchinians 4139:8; see Jones 1999, I 97-99 and II 22-23]. This have familiarity with Leo and the sun, so that they are astronomical papyrus fragment refers to the Orchenoi, simpler, kindly, addicted to astrology.” [Tetr. 2.3] or Urukeans, in direct connection with a lunar parameter Ptolemy was correct in putting the Chaldeans and identifiable as a Babylonian period for lunar anomaly Orchinians together geographically, as the Chaldeans, or preserved on cuneiform tablets from Uruk. The Kaldayu, were once West Semitic tribal groups located Babylonian, or Chaldean, literati, including those from in the parts of southern and western Babylonia known Uruk were rightly famed for astronomy and astrology, as Kaldu, and the Orchinians, or Urukayu, were the „addicted,” as Ptolemy put it, and eventually, in Greco- inhabitants of the southern Babylonian city of Uruk. He Roman works, the term Chaldean came to be interchan- was also correct in that he was transmitting a tradition geable with „astrologer.” from the Babylonians themselves, which, according to a Hellenistic Greek writers seeking to claim an authorita- Hellenistic tablet from Uruk [VAT 7847 obv.
    [Show full text]
  • Fundamentals of Meter Provers and Proving Methods
    FUNDAMENTALS OF METER PROVERS AND PROVING METHODS Greg Williams Flow Management Devices 5225 South 37th Street, Suite 400 Phoenix, AZ 85040 1. Introduction: This paper will verify the amount of time. Ed devised the double history, requirements and operation of all chronometry pulse interpolation technique Provers accepted for liquid pipeline meter to achieve the high accuracy meter uncertainty verification in the Liquid Oil/Gas proving’s in a very short time period. Double Industry. It will continue with an explanation chronometry for API meter proving as and the industries wide acceptance of the described in API MPMS Chapter 4.6 is Uni-directional Captive Displacement Prover simply a method of resolving meter pulses (UDCDP). This document will supply the to a resolution of +/-1 part out of 10,000 reader with information regarding meter without the need for actually counting types and the flow volumes that can be 10,000 meter pulses during a meter proving. used with the UDCDP and will look at the opportunities for the use of a UDCDP as a 3. Developments Allowing Acceptance in mass prover. It will also provide the the Industry: Over the years, technological information for field verification of provers advancements and improvements were known as a water draw. made in the design of the operating system for large bore Positive Displacement (PD) Meters and Turbine Meters. As well as a 2. UDCDP History: According to API, Flow greater understanding of the specifications Provers must have an uncertainty of less of the manufactured pulse output signal for than +/-0.01% for all measurements relating the Coriolis Mass Flow Meters (CMFM’s) to meter proving including water draw and Liquid Ultrasonic Flow Meters (LUFM’s) uncertainty, temperature measurement meters.
    [Show full text]
  • Archaeological Tree-Ring Dating at the Millennium
    P1: IAS Journal of Archaeological Research [jar] pp469-jare-369967 June 17, 2002 12:45 Style file version June 4th, 2002 Journal of Archaeological Research, Vol. 10, No. 3, September 2002 (C 2002) Archaeological Tree-Ring Dating at the Millennium Stephen E. Nash1 Tree-ring analysis provides chronological, environmental, and behavioral data to a wide variety of disciplines related to archaeology including architectural analysis, climatology, ecology, history, hydrology, resource economics, volcanology, and others. The pace of worldwide archaeological tree-ring research has accelerated in the last two decades, and significant contributions have recently been made in archaeological chronology and chronometry, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, and the study of human behavior in both the Old and New Worlds. This paper reviews a sample of recent contributions to tree-ring method, theory, and data, and makes some suggestions for future lines of research. KEY WORDS: dendrochronology; dendroclimatology; crossdating; tree-ring dating. INTRODUCTION Archaeology is a multidisciplinary social science that routinely adopts an- alytical techniques from disparate fields of inquiry to answer questions about human behavior and material culture in the prehistoric, historic, and recent past. Dendrochronology, literally “the study of tree time,” is a multidisciplinary sci- ence that provides chronological and environmental data to an astonishing vari- ety of archaeologically relevant fields of inquiry, including architectural analysis, biology, climatology, economics,
    [Show full text]
  • Autumnal Equinox in Northern Hemisphere
    Autumnal Equinox in Northern Hemisphere drishtiias.com/printpdf/autumnal-equinox-in-northern-hemisphere Why in News On 22nd September 2020, the day and night was almost equal in most locations marking the start of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere which lasts until the winter solstice (December 21 or 22). Similarly, the Vernal equinox falls around March 21, marking the start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere the seasons are reversed (Christmas is celebrated in Australia and New Zealand in the summer season). Key Points 1/3 About: The word equinox is derived from two Latin words - aequus (equal) and nox (night). There are only two times of the year when the Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, resulting in a nearly equal amount of daylight and darkness at all latitudes. These events are referred to as Equinoxes. The equinoxes happen in March (about March 21) and September (about September 23). These are the days when the Sun is exactly above the Equator, which makes day and night of equal length. It can be noted that the most places on Earth receive more than 12 hours of daylight on equinoxes. This is because of the atmospheric refraction of sunlight and how the length of the day is defined. The equinoxes are prime time for Northern Lights – geomagnetic activities are twice more likely to take place in the spring and fall time, than in the summer or winter. Varying Dates: While the September equinox usually occurs on September 22 or 23, it can very rarely fall on September 21 or September 24.
    [Show full text]
  • Chronometry of Late Eneolithic and 'Early Bronze' Cultures In
    Baltic-Pontic Studies vol . 20: 2015, 256-291 PL ISSN 1231-0344 Tomasz Goslar,* Viktor I. Klochko**, Aleksander Kośko***, Piotr Włodarczak****, Danuta Żurkiewicz***** CHRONOMETRY OF LATE ENEOLITHIC AND ‘EARLY BRONZE’ CULTURES IN THE MIDDLE DNIESTER AREA: INVESTIGATIONS OF THE YAMPIL BARROW COMPLEX AbstRACT The paper discusses the 2010-2015 studies of the radiocarbon chro- nology of Podolia ‘barrow cultures’ on the left bank of the middle Dniester . The studies have relied on series of 14C dates for the Klem- bivka 1, Pidlisivka 1, Porohy 3A and Prydnistryanske 1 sites deter- mined in Kyiv and Poznań laboratories . They are the first attempt to construct a regional (‘Yampil’) radiocarbon scale for ‘Early Bronze’ funerary rites (4th/3rd-2nd millennium BC) as practised by barrow builders – the communities of the Tripolye and Yamnaya cultures – and the secondary barrow users – the designers of necropolises lo- cated on barrows – belonging to the Catacomb, Babyno and Noua cultures . * 1 – Adam Mickiewicz University; Faculty of Physics, Umultowska 85, 61-614 Poznań, Poland; 2 – Poznań Radiocarbon Laboratory, Foundation of the Adam Mickiewicz University, Rubież 46, 61-612 Poznań, Poland; tomasz .goslar@radiocarbon .pl ** Department of Archaeology National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Skovorody 2, 04665 Kyiv, Ukraine; vklochko@ukr .net *** Institute of Prehistory Adam Mickiewicz University; Umultowska 89D, 61-614 Poznań, Poland; antokol@amu .edu .pl **** Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of Polish Academy of Sciences, Centre for Mountains
    [Show full text]
  • The Sun-Earth-Moon System 9
    CHAPTER 20 LESSON 1 The Sun-Earth-Moon System Earth’s Motion Key Concepts • How does Earth move? What do you think? Read the two statements below and decide • Why is Earth warmer at the whether you agree or disagree with them. Place an A in the Before column equator and colder at the if you agree with the statement or a D if you disagree. After you’ve read poles? this lesson, reread the statements to see if you have changed your mind. • Why do the seasons change Before Statement After as Earth moves around 1. Earth’s movement around the Sun causes the Sun? sunrises and sunsets. 2. Earth has seasons because its distance from the Sun changes throughout the year. Earth and the Sun Identify Main Ideas Highlight each head in one If you look around you, it does not seem as if Earth color. Use another color to is moving. The ground, trees, and buildings do not seem to highlight key words in the be moving. But Earth is always in motion. It spins and paragraphs under the head moves around the Sun. Earth’s motion causes changes on that explain or support the Earth. As Earth spins, day changes to night and back to day head. Use your highlighting again. The seasons change as Earth moves around the Sun. to review the lesson. Summer turns to winter because Earth’s motion changes how energy from the Sun spreads out over Earth’s surface. The Sun The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. The Sun is about 150 million km from Earth.
    [Show full text]