Buch, Englisch, 470 Seiten, Format (B × H): 165 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 872 g
Buch, Englisch, 470 Seiten, Format (B × H): 165 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 872 g
ISBN: 978-0-19-958944-9
Verlag: OXFORD UNIV PR
which ancient calendars were designed and managed. Set and controlled by political rulers, calendars served as expressions of political power, as mechanisms of social control, and sometimes as assertions of political independence, or even of sub-culture and dissidence.
While ancient calendars varied widely, they all shared a common history, evolving on the whole from flexible, lunar calendars to fixed, solar schemes. The Egyptian calendar played an important role in this process, leading most notably to the institution of the Julian calendar in Rome, the forerunner of our modern Gregorian calendar. Stern argues that this common, evolutionary trajectory was not the result of scientific or technical progress. It was rather the result of major political and
social changes that transformed the ancient world, with the formation of the great Near Eastern empires and then the Hellenistic and Roman Empires from the first millennium BC to late Antiquity. The institution of standard, fixed calendars served the administrative needs of these great empires but also
contributed to their cultural cohesion.
Zielgruppe
This book will be of value to scholars and ancient historians interested in classical studies, Near Eastern studies, late antiquity, religious studies, and epigraphy.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Fachgebiete
Weitere Infos & Material
List of Tables
Introduction
Part I: From city states to great empires: the rise of the fixed calendars
1: Calendars of ancient Greece
2: The Babylonian calendar
3: The Egyptian calendar
4: The rise of the fixed calendars: Persian, Ptolemaic, and Julian calendars
Part II: The empires challenged and dissolved: calendar diversity and fragmentation
5: Fragmentation: Babylonian and Julian calendars in the Near East, 3rd century BCE 7th century CE
6: Dissidence and subversion: Gallic, Jewish, and other lunar calendars in the Roman Empire
7: Sectarianism and heresy: from Qumran calendars to Christian Easter controversies
Conclusion
References
Index