Dr. Troglodyte Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Would you kindly provide your source(s) for this
> statement?
> Dr. Troglodyte

That's from a book I looked at about 10 years ago called something like Calendar Systems of the Ancient World or ...Ancient Egypt. Its been a while. I'm pretty sure there was no mention of Sirius but it did mention the influence of the Chaldeans on the Egyptian solar calendar. There was a lot about 360 vs 365 days per year but I don't recall the details. If I run across the title in my notes somewhere I'll drop you a message.

EDIT (added following)
[www.barrygray.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk]
I Googled and found this link that states that the Egyptians used 4 different calendars and found the following which sounds so familiar that it may be quoting the same book as where I got my information:

"Most ancient religions used lunar calendars. All the religious festivals were celebrated on a calendar based on lunar months. Each month started the first evening the New Moon was visible, and lasted for either twenty nine or thirty days, until the first sighting of the next New Moon. The Ancient Egyptian priests also used a lunar calendar for all their religious festivals, but their new month started not the first day the New Moon was visible just after Sunset in the West but the first morning the Old Moon was not visible just before Sunrise in the East.

In Ancient Egypt there were (usually) twelve lunar months in the religious year. The twelfth month was called Wep-Renet. But as twelve lunar months come to only three hundred and fifty four days, slightly less than a solar year, the Priests added an extra month, called Thoth, if the heliacal rising of Serpet occurred during the last eleven days of Wep-Renet, so as to keep the religious calendar in step with the seasonal calendar and the flooding of the Nile. Usually they needed to add the extra month about once every three years."

Hope this helps. I did see reference to Sirius on another page that that appears to be referring to some correction that they applied to the solar civic/civil calendar.

Hope that helps.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12-Sep-15 23:19 by AndyBlackard.