Calendar and Community This Page Intentionally Left Blank Calendar and Community

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Calendar and Community This Page Intentionally Left Blank Calendar and Community Calendar and Community This page intentionally left blank Calendar and Community A History of the Jewish Calendar, Second Century BCE–Tenth Century CE Sacha Stern Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Sacha Stern 2001 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2001 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Data applied for ISBN 0-19-827034-8 Preface Calendar reckoning is not just a technical pursuit: it is fundamental to social interaction and communal life. The calendar provides an essential point of reference for interpersonal relations and time-bound communal activity. It determines how time is lived and utilized in the community, and sometimes shapes the community's distinctive identity. The calendar is also a way of conceptualizing the dimension of time, and hence, of ‘making sense’ of an important facet of human lived experience. This study goes far beyond the technical question of ‘how did the Jewish calendar work?’ It is an attempt to identify the social and historical processes that led to the adoption or rejection of various calendar systems, and to show how calendars could affect relations between various Jewish and non-Jewish communities. The Jewish calendar—or more accurately, Jewish calendars—will thus be studied in the context of other, non-Jewish calendars, as well as in the wider context of Jewish (and non-Jewish) culture and communal life. My contention, indeed, is that calendars are significant to social history. They are not just a technical tool for historians and epigraphists; nor are they merely an intellectual curiosity. Although, I would hope, this work will assist historians and epigraphists in their interpretation of early Jewish datings, this work should also be treated in its own right as a historical study of early Judaism and Jewish communities. A few words about scope. By ‘calendar’ Idonot mean, in this work, the list of annual festivals or of other annual occasions.1 I shall restrict myself entirely to the calendar as time measurement: in particular, how months and years are reckoned. It is in this sense that the term ‘calendar’ will be used throughout this work.2 My period starts around the second century BCE, when the earliest sources on Jewish calendar reckoning first begin to appear. It ends in the 1 This is why the early rabbinic work Megillat Ta anit will barely be mentioned in this study. 2 The question of how dates are recorded in ancient Jewish documents, inscriptions, and literary sources, is also outside the scope of this work. I shall also refrain from investigating how eras are reckoned; ancient eras are based on concepts of history and chronology which deserve a separate study in its own right. vi PREFACE early tenth century, with the calendrical schism between R. Saadya and Ben Meir. This dramatic event led to the finalization of the rabbinic calendar that is still in use today, and that has become standard throughout the Jewish world. Effectively, my period spans the entire history of the Jewish calendar, from its origins to its final form. Although it straddles Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, this period represents, as far as concerns the Jewish calendar, a coherent and unbroken historical continuum. My main theme, or thesis, is that the Jewish calendar gradually evolved in this period from considerable diversity to normative unity. From the second century BCE to the first century CE, solar and lunar calendars are both attested in the sources; whereas from the first century CE the Jewish calendar becomes exclusively lunar. From this point until at least the sixth century CE the lunar calendar was reckoned by different communities in a wide variety of forms. But by the tenth century, at the end of our period, a single lunar calendar had taken shape, that of rabbinic Judaism. This rabbinic calendar may still have been challenged by the Karaites;3 but in the course of time, it was to become universal and standard throughout world Jewry. The evolution of the Jewish calendar reflects, in a sense, a wider historical pattern. To some extent, it epitomizes the gradual development of solidarity and communitas among the Jewish communities of late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, and hence, the development of an increasingly united culture and religion. My chapter division is thematic but also chronological. Ch. 1, ‘Solar and Lunar Calendars’, focuses on the period from the second century BCE to the end of the Roman Empire. I shall attempt to explain how and why the coexistence of solar and lunar calendars in the early part of this period gave way, from the first century CE onwards, to the predominance of the lunar calendar. Attention will be given to the fact that non-Jewish calendars, in the same period, appear to have evolved in the opposite direction. In the context of the Graeco-Roman world, I shall conclude, the lunar calendar became a distinctive marker of Jewish communal identity. Ch. 2, ‘The Intercalation’ (i.e. the addition of a thirteeenth lunar month in the year), and Ch. 3, ‘The New Moon’, will deal with specific aspects of the Jewish lunar calendars that prevailed in the first century 3 As well as by a number of marginal, sectarian groups loosely belonging to the Karaite movement: see al-Qirqisani, The Book of Lights and Watch-Towers, 1. 15–17 (Nemoy 1930: 388–90; Chiesa and Lockwood 1084: 149–51); al-Biruni (1879) 68. PREFACE vii CE and beyond. In these chapters I shall restrict myself to ‘non-rabbinic’ sources, which include Jewish literature and inscriptions, as well as Classical and early Christian sources. Rabbinic sources will be left to Chs. 4–5, because of their abundance; for this reason alone, the rabbinic calendar deserves to be treated as a separate category. It is also appropriate to leave rabbinic sources to later chapters, because they extend till the end of the period under study, whereas non-rabbinic sources do not take us to much later than the sixth century. Non-rabbinic calendars from the earlier period will also provide a useful context against which the peculiarities of the rabbinic calendar will be better understood. Evidence pertaining to non-rabbinic lunar calendars (Chs. 2–3), especially from the first century CE onwards, is extremely sporadic. Nevertheless, some reliable inferences can be made. The conclusion that will emerge from Chs. 2–3 is that calendars were reckoned very differently from one Jewish community to the next, so that festivals could often be observed on totally different dates. Calendrical diversity existed not only in distant Diaspora communities, but also within Palestine itself, such as in the Jewish community of Zoar. The historical implications of this finding are quite considerable. It suggests that as late as the sixth century rabbinic authority in calendrical matters was yet to be established outside the main rabbinic communities. Ch. 4, ‘The Rabbinic Calendar: Development and History’, will trace the development of the rabbinic calendar—so far as it can be established—from Mishnaic origins to the fixed calendar of the late Geonic period that is still in use today. Chapter 5, ‘Calendar and Community: The Emergence of the Normative Jewish Calendar’, is the most interpretative of this study. It will attempt to explain why the rabbinic calendar evolved the way it did. I shall argue that the emergence of a standard, fixed calendar was not the result of persecution or political crisis in the fourth century, as is commonly believed, but rather of the complex relationship between the Palestinian and Babylonian rabbinic communities in the Talmudic and Geonic periods. It is in this chapter that the main thesis of my study will receive its most explicit formulation. I have striven in this work to be as comprehensive as I could be. Some omissions, however, have been consciously and deliberately made. Nothing will be said, for instance, about the Samaritan calendar, for the good viii PREFACE reason that the earliest evidence available on Samaritan calendar reckoning belongs to the twelfth century or later.4 Another omission I have made is the Karaites, whose distinctive calendar might have deserved a whole chapter on its own. My decision not to include such a chapter in this book is largely due, again, to the nature of the evidence: there
Recommended publications
  • Outlines of Introduction to the Hebrew Bible
    PRINCIPAL W .. TAYLOR COLLECTION 1951 OUTLINES OF INTRODUCTION TO THE HEBREW BIBLE OUTLINES OF INTRODUCTION TO THE HEBREW BIBLE ALFRED S; GEDEN, M.A., D.D. TUTOR IN HEBREW AND BIBLICAL LITERATURE AT THE WESLEVAN COLLEGE, RICHMOND is. s.si EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET 909 Printed by MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED FOR T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH. LONDON : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO. LIMITED. NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER's SONS. tljOSE nig JFtlloin- Utlj0 toitlj me ftunnrj suctcssibt ircars Ijairc founir icligljt anti instrurtion in tljc stu&5 of Ur SestantEnt ^aip 3 tfE&icatE ifris ook PREFACE THE following chapters have formed substantially the groundwork or basis of a series of lectures introductory to the study of the Old Testament, which for several years past have been delivered at the Wesleyan College, Bichmond. I have ventured to dedicate them accord- ingly to niy fellow-students, past and present, to some of whom, I would fain trust, the memory of studies pursued in common may prove as pleasant as it has often been to me. It has been my aim throughout rather to stimulate and suggest, than ex cathedrd to instruct and I have been led to in the ; publish hope that others also, students in a broader field, may find herein interest and aid. That the lectures make no pretension to exhaustiveness, on a theme amongst the most enravelled that the human mind can essay to resolve, will be patent to all. In every instance, however, I have sought to indicate lines of profitable or necessary research, and of set purpose have refrained from attempting to discuss details or to present and criticise the varying conclusions and results of many minds.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Jews Quote
    Oral Tradition, 29/1 (2014):5-46 Why Jews Quote Michael Marmur Everyone Quotes1 Interest in the phenomenon of quotation as a feature of culture has never been greater. Recent works by Regier (2010), Morson (2011) and Finnegan (2011) offer many important insights into a practice notable both for its ubiquity and yet for its specificity. In this essay I want to consider one of the oldest and most diverse of world cultures from the perspective of quotation. While debates abound as to whether the “cultures of the Jews”2 can be regarded integrally, this essay will suggest that the act of quotation both in literary and oral settings is a constant in Jewish cultural creativity throughout the ages. By attempting to delineate some of the key functions of quotation in these various Jewish contexts, some contribution to the understanding of what is arguably a “universal human propensity” (Finnegan 2011:11) may be made. “All minds quote. Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is not a thread that is not a twist of these two strands. By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote.”3 Emerson’s reference to warp and woof is no accident. The creative act comprises a threading of that which is unique to the particular moment with strands taken from tradition.4 In 1 The comments of Sarah Bernstein, David Ellenson, Warren Zev Harvey, Jason Kalman, David Levine, Dow Marmur, Dalia Marx, Michal Muszkat-Barkan, and Richard Sarason on earlier versions of this article have been of enormous help.
    [Show full text]
  • Islamic Calendar from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
    Islamic calendar From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -at اﻟﺘﻘﻮﻳﻢ اﻟﻬﺠﺮي :The Islamic, Muslim, or Hijri calendar (Arabic taqwīm al-hijrī) is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used (often alongside the Gregorian calendar) to date events in many Muslim countries. It is also used by Muslims to determine the proper days of Islamic holidays and rituals, such as the annual period of fasting and the proper time for the pilgrimage to Mecca. The Islamic calendar employs the Hijri era whose epoch was Islamic Calendar stamp issued at King retrospectively established as the Islamic New Year of AD 622. During Khaled airport (10 Rajab 1428 / 24 July that year, Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to 2007) Yathrib (now Medina) and established the first Muslim community (ummah), an event commemorated as the Hijra. In the West, dates in this era are usually denoted AH (Latin: Anno Hegirae, "in the year of the Hijra") in parallel with the Christian (AD) and Jewish eras (AM). In Muslim countries, it is also sometimes denoted as H[1] from its Arabic form ( [In English, years prior to the Hijra are reckoned as BH ("Before the Hijra").[2 .(ﻫـ abbreviated , َﺳﻨﺔ ﻫِ ْﺠﺮﻳّﺔ The current Islamic year is 1438 AH. In the Gregorian calendar, 1438 AH runs from approximately 3 October 2016 to 21 September 2017.[3] Contents 1 Months 1.1 Length of months 2 Days of the week 3 History 3.1 Pre-Islamic calendar 3.2 Prohibiting Nasī’ 4 Year numbering 5 Astronomical considerations 6 Theological considerations 7 Astronomical
    [Show full text]
  • Hollywood Philatelist? Or Ing, Or Via Share a Nice E-Mail
    HOLLYWOOD STAMP CLUB HSC GOALS: PROMOTING HOLLYWOOD STAMP COLLECTING IN THE XXI CENTURY IN PHILATELIST SOUTH FLORIDA. SEP OCT 2019 VOL 55 ISSUE 4 INDEX GB Unusual Penny Reds ……...… P. 1 HSC PAGE & MEMBERS’ ……...…. P.2 HSC Officers, Calendar and Activities ……………………………………...…. P. 3 S. WIESENTHAL ON STAMPS .. P.4/5 SCOTT & S-G catalogs History .. P.6/7 SPAIN Early Mobile Tax Stamps . P.7 AUSTRIA Crypto Stamp Issue . P.7/8 MEXICO Porte de Mar Stamps …. P. 8 MAYAN CAL. & STAMPS ……... P.9/10 New US Space issue ……………….P.11 US Visit to the UK: Whales ……… P.11 Russia 1917 Reprints …………….. P.11 Various Space Programs ……….. P.12 In the beginnings of Philately: Scott and Stanley-Gibbons Stamp catalogues’ histo- ry. See pages 5, & 6,. AUSTRIA CRYPTO STAMP, New concept in stamps. Pages 7&8 Enrique Setaro, US Citizen, Born in Argentina APS, HSC Weekly Meetings Information HSC, FCPS , GBPS Member. The Hollywood Stamp Club es, or any other data believed meets every Tuesday from 5 to notable to our membership. 9 PM at the Fred Lippman Mul- tipurpose Center, 2030 Polk Contact the Editor, Enrique Street, Hollywood, FL 33020, Setaro, by phone (305) 428- US, North America, Telephone: 0516, via Skype, ID: ensetaro (954) 921-3404. or via e-mail: All Club members are encour- [email protected] aged to submit articles, notic- 1 MEMBER’S CORNER HSC DINER SEPT. 19, 2019 By Membership Committee We will meet at 6 PM in the Blue Moon Diner, 10076 Griffin Road, Cooper City Sarasota National Expo, (SW corner of Griffin & Palm Avenue).
    [Show full text]
  • THIRTEEN MOONS in MOTION: a Dreamspell Primer
    © Galactic Research Institute of the Foundation for the Law of Time - www.lawoftime.org THIRTEEN MOONS IN MOTION: A Dreamspell Primer “Just as air is the atmosphere of the body, so time is the atmosphere of the mind; if the time in which we live consists of uneven months and days regulated by mechanized minutes and hours, that is what becomes of our mind: a mechanized irregularity. Since everything follows from mind, it is no wonder that The atmosphere in which we live daily becomes more polluted, And the greatest complaint is: ‘I just don’t have enough time!’ Who owns your time, owns your mind. Own your own time and you will know your own mind.” Foundation for the Law of Time www.lawoftime.org © Galactic Research Institute of the Foundation for the Law of Time - www.lawoftime.org 13-Moon Planetary Kin Starter Calendar 3 A Season Of Apocalypses: The Gregorian Calendar Unmasked A 13-Moon Postscript to the Mayan Factor 1. Thinking about the Unthinkable Of all the unexamined assumptions and criteria upon which we base and gauge our daily lives as human beings on planet Earth, by far the greatest and most profoundly unquestioned is the instrument and institution known as the Gregorian Calendar. A calendar, any calendar, is commonly understood as a system for dividing time over extended periods. A day is the base unit of a calendar, and the solar year is the base extended period. The length of the solar year is currently reckoned at 365.242199 days. The Gregorian calendar divides this duration into twelve uneven months – four months of 30 days, seven of 31 days, and one of 28 days.
    [Show full text]
  • The Babylonian Talmud
    The Babylonian Talmud translated by MICHAEL L. RODKINSON Book 10 (Vols. I and II) [1918] The History of the Talmud Volume I. Volume II. Volume I: History of the Talmud Title Page Preface Contents of Volume I. Introduction Chapter I: Origin of the Talmud Chapter II: Development of the Talmud in the First Century Chapter III: Persecution of the Talmud from the destruction of the Temple to the Third Century Chapter IV: Development of the Talmud in the Third Century Chapter V: The Two Talmuds Chapter IV: The Sixth Century: Persian and Byzantine Persecution of the Talmud Chapter VII: The Eight Century: the Persecution of the Talmud by the Karaites Chapter VIII: Islam and Its Influence on the Talmud Chapter IX: The Period of Greatest Diffusion of Talmudic Study Chapter X: The Spanish Writers on the Talmud Chapter XI: Talmudic Scholars of Germany and Northern France Chapter XII: The Doctors of France; Authors of the Tosphoth Chapter XIII: Religious Disputes of All Periods Chapter XIV: The Talmud in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries Chapter XV. Polemics with Muslims and Frankists Chapter XVI: Persecution during the Seventeenth Century Chapter XVII: Attacks on the Talmud in the Nineteenth Century Chapter XVIII. The Affair of Rohling-Bloch Chapter XIX: Exilarchs, Talmud at the Stake and Its Development at the Present Time Appendix A. Appendix B Volume II: Historical and Literary Introduction to the New Edition of the Talmud Contents of Volume II Part I: Chapter I: The Combination of the Gemara, The Sophrim and the Eshcalath Chapter II: The Generations of the Tanaim Chapter III: The Amoraim or Expounders of the Mishna Chapter IV: The Classification of Halakha and Hagada in the Contents of the Gemara.
    [Show full text]
  • Guardianship for Orphans in Talmudic Law
    Guardianship for Orphans in Talmudic law AMIHAI RADZYNER ABSTRACT The article reviews the Talmudic institution of guardianship for orphans, as it appears in sources from Palestine and Babylon, mostly from the second to the fifth centuries CE. It is likely that the foundations of this institution are found in foreign law, but after it was absorbed in Jewish law, it began to build an independent life, and was not necessarily affected by its legal system of origin. The design of the institution was mainly conducted by the Jewish sages of the second-century (Tannaim). The Mishnah and Tosefta are already showing a fairly well-developed system of guardianship laws. This system was not changed substantially afterward, and the later Talmudic sages (Amoraim) continued to develop the institution upon the foundation created by their pre- decessors. The Talmudic sources present a fairly well-developed institution, from its creation through the duties of the guardian during his tenure to the end of the guardianship term. 245 INTRODUCTION It seems that like in other instances, the Greek term for guardian – epitropos which appears many times in Talmudic literature shows us ,1('אפוטרופוס') that it involves an institution which was created in Talmudic law under the influence of Greek and Roman Law, two legal traditions that were prevalent in Palestine at the time of the creation of the institution of guardianship.2 This does not mean, at the same time that the principles of the laws of Talmudic guardianship, which I shall not discuss in this short article, are identical to those of any known Greek or Roman law.3 Within this framework I shall con- fine my analysis to Talmudic Law and its principles exclusively.
    [Show full text]
  • A Short History of the Jewish Fixed Calendar: the Origin of the Molad
    133 A Short History of the Jewish Fixed Calendar: The Origin of the Molad By: J. JEAN AJDLER I. Introduction. It was always believed that the transition from the observation to the fixed calendar was clear-cut, with the fixed calendar immediately adopting its definitive form in 358/359, at the date of the inception. Indeed according to a tradition1 quoted in the name of R’ Hai Gaon,2 the present Jewish calendar was introduced by the patriarch Hillel II in the Jewish Year 4119 AM (anno mundi, from creation), 358/359 CE. The only discordant element with regard to this theory that the calen- dar adopted immediately its definitive form, was the fact that we find al- ready in the Talmud that the postponement of Rosh Hashanah from Sun- day was a later enactment.3 Only some rare rabbinic authorities already recognized the later character of this postponement. Indeed a passage of the epistle of R’ Sherira Gaon implying that Rosh Hashanah of the year 505 C.E. was still on Sunday was generally consid- ered as the result of a copyist mistake.4 It is only in the first decade of the twentieth century that new evidence appeared after the discovery of new documents in the Cairo Geniza. 1 Sefer ha-Ibbur by R’ Abraham bar Hiyyạ edited by Filipowski, London 1851, p. 97 quotes a responsum of R. Hai Gaon dated from 4752 AM = 992 C.E. report- ing this tradition. 2 R. Hai Gaon (939-1038) was the last and the most prolific Gaon. He belonged to the Yeshiva of Pumbedita.
    [Show full text]
  • Poverty and Charity in Roman Palestine
    Poverty and charity in Roman Palestine Gildas Hamel Abstract The present book reformats the text, notes, and appendices of the origi- nal 1990 publication by the University of California Press. Its pagination is different. There is no index. i D’ur vamm ha d’ur breur aet d’an Anaon re abred A.M.G. 31 Meurzh 1975 Y.M.H. 12 Geñver 1986 Contents Contents ii List of Figures iv List of Tables iv Introduction ix 1 Daily bread 1 1.1 Food items ............................. 2 1.2 Diets ................................ 19 1.3 Diseases and death ........................ 55 1.4 Conclusion ............................ 58 2 Poverty in clothing 61 2.1 Common articles of clothing ................... 61 2.2 Lack of clothing .......................... 70 2.3 Clothing and social status .................... 81 2.4 Conclusion ............................ 104 3 Causes of poverty 107 3.1 Discourse of the ancients on yields . 108 3.2 Aspects of agriculture: climate and soil . 116 3.3 Work and technical standards . 125 3.4 Yields ............................... 145 3.5 Population of Palestine . 159 3.6 Conclusion ............................ 163 4 Taxes and rents 165 4.1 Roman taxes . 168 ii Contents iii 4.2 Jewish taxes and history of tax burden . 171 4.3 Labor and ground rents . 176 4.4 Conclusion ............................ 190 5 The vocabulary of poverty 193 5.1 Explicit vocabulary: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek . 196 5.2 Explicit vocabulary: self-designations . 209 5.3 Greek and Jewish views on poverty and wealth . 229 5.4 Implicit vocabulary . 239 5.5 Conclusion ............................ 248 6 Charity in Roman Palestine 251 6.1 Discourses on charity .
    [Show full text]
  • The History of the Jews
    TH E H I STO RY O F TH E JEWS B Y fid t t at h menta l J B E 39 . b ) , iBb PROFES S OR WI H I T RY AND LI T RAT RE OF J E S H S O E U , B RE I LL G I I ATI W C C C o. HE UN ON O E E, N NN , S ECOND EDI TI ON Revised a nd E n la rged NEW YORK BLOCH PUBLI SHING COMPANY “ ” TH E J EWI SH B OOK CONCERN PYRI G T 1 1 0 1 2 1 CO H , 9 , 9 , B LOCH PUBLISHI NG COM PANY P re ss o f % i J . J L t t l e I m . 86 ve s Co p a n y w rk Y U . S . Ne . o , A TAB LE OF CONTENTS CH APTE R PAGE R M TH E AB YL I A APTI VI TY 86 B C To I . F O B ON N C , 5 , TH E TR CTI TH E EC D M PL DES U ON OF S ON TE E, 0 7 C E . R M TH E TR CTI R AL M 0 TO II . F O DES U ON OF JE US E , 7 , TH E MPL TI TH E I A CO E ON OF M SH N H , II - I . ERA TH E ALM D 200 600 OF T U , Religiou s Histo ry o f t h e Era IV. R M TH E I LA M 622 TO TH E ERA F O R SE OF IS , , OF TH E R AD 1 0 6 C US ES , 9 Literary Activity o f t h e P erio d - V.
    [Show full text]
  • The Draconic Gearing of the Antikythera Mechanism: Assembling the Fragment D, Its Role and Operation
    The Draconic gearing of the Antikythera Mechanism: Assembling the Fragment D, its role and operation A.Voulgaris1, C.Mouratidis2, A.Vossinakis3, G.Bokovos4 (Submitted 14 January 2020) 1Municipality of Thessaloniki, Directorate Culture and Tourism, Thessaloniki, GR-54625, Greece 2Hellenic Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs, Kos, GR-85300, Greece 3Thessaloniki Astronomy Club, Thessaloniki, GR-54646, Greece 4Thessaloniki Science Center and Technology Museum-Planetarium, Thermi, GR-57001, Greece Abstract The unplaced Fragment D of the Antikythera Mechanism with an unknown operation was a mystery since the beginning of its discovery. The gear-r1, which was detected on the Fragment radiographies by C. Karakalos, is preserved in excellent condition, but this was not enough to correlate it to the existing gear trainings of the Mechanism. The suggestion that this gear could be a part of the hypothetical planet indication gearing is still a hypothesis since no mechanical evidence has been preserved. After the analysis of AMRP tomographies of Fragment D and its mechanical characteristics revealed that it could be part of the Draconic gearing. Although the Draconic cycle was well known during the Mechanism’s era as represents the fourth Lunar cycle, it seems that it is missing from the Antikythera Mechanism. The study of Fragment D was supported by the bronze reconstruction of the Draconic gearing by the authors. The adaptation of the Draconic gearing on the Antikythera Mechanism improves its functionality and gives answers on several questions. 1. Introduction. The Antikythera Mechanism, a geared machine based on the lunar cycles The Antikythera Mechanism a creation of an ingenious manufacturer of the Hellenistic era was a geared machine capable of performing complex astronomical calculations, mostly based on the lunar periodic cycles.
    [Show full text]
  • Reference to Julian Calendar in Writtings
    Reference To Julian Calendar In Writtings Stemmed Jed curtsies mosaically. Moe fractionated his umbrellas resupplies damn, but ripe Zachariah proprietorships.never diddling so heliographically. Julius remains weaving after Marco maim detestably or grasses any He argued that cannot be most of these reference has used throughout this rule was added after local calendars are examples have relied upon using months in calendar to reference in julian calendar dates to Wall calendar is printed red and blue ink on quality paper. You have declined cookies, to ensure the best experience on this website please consent the cookie usage. What if I want to specify both a date and a time? Pliny describes that instrument, whose design he attributed to a mathematician called Novius Facundus, in some detail. Some of it might be useful. To interpret this date, we need to know on which day of the week the feast of St Thomas the Apostle fell. The following procedures require cutting and pasting an example. But this turned out to be difficult to handle, because equinox is not completely simple to predict. Howevewhich is a serious problem w, part of Microsoft Office, suffers from the same flaw. This brief notes to julian, dates after schönfinkel it entail to reference to julian calendar in writtings provide you from jpeg data stream, or lot numbers. Gilbert Romme, but his proposal ran into political problems. However, the movable feasts of the Advent and Epiphany seasons are Sundays reckoned from Christmas and the Feast of the Epiphany, respectively. Solar System they could observe at the time: the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
    [Show full text]