Hedvig Győry: Mélanges offerts a Edith Varga „Le lotus qui sort de terre” (Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts Supplément 1. Budapest, 2001)

LEO DEPUYDT: What Is Certain about the Origin of the Egyptian Civil Calendar?

3. Its year wanders in relation to the solar year. It is a wandering year. The reason is that the solar year is about 365.2422 (then closer to about 365.2424) days long, whereas the Egyptian year has only 365 days. After four years, the difference between the two years adds up to about a day (0.2422 x 4). Therefore, every four years, the Egyptian new year (I Vjt 1 or 1 Thoth) fell a day or so earlier in relation to the solar year. In the Julian calendar (whose year is exactly 365.25 days long), this regression may be illustrated by the following Julian dates of the Egyptian new year: It takes 1460 Julian years or 1461 Egyptian years for the same Egyptian day to return to the same Julian day (1460 x 365% = 1461 x 365 = 533265 days). Under Augustus, this wandering motion was arrested by adding a day every four years. But the wandering Egyptian calendar remained in use alongside this new fixed Egyptian calendar which is called the Alexandrian calendar. From the secure vantage point of Greco-Roman Egypt, early Egyptologists looked back into the past and wondered how far the wandering year's cycle could be rolled backward. Depending on how far the cycle goes back, the Egyptian new year would fall on 21 July for the first of four successive years in 1328 B.C., in 2788 B.C., in 4248 B.C., in 5708 B.C., in 7168 B.C., and so on, at intervals of 1460 Julian years of 365.25 days. Several classical sources, including the reputable Alexandrian astronomer Theon, suggest that the cycle did exist before the Greco-Roman period. But it is not clear from these authors how far the cycle extends backwards or even whether they had any idea. Nor is it clear how reliable classical sources are for Pharaonic Egypt. They contain much that is verifiable about Pharaonic Egyptian history, but also much that is patently false. It is therefore often difficult to decide which is which. Classical sources are therefore better interpreted only in light of what has first been derived from native Egyptian sources that are contemporary with the events that they describe. 200 B.C.: 100 B.C.: 1 A.D.: 100 A.D. 200 A.D. 12 October 17 September 23 August 29 July 4 July