] Foot Notes: The Year Of 360 Days [

1 W. Whiston, in New Theory of the Earth (1696), expressed his belief that before the Deluge the year was composed of 360 days. He found references in classic authors to a year of 360 days, and as he recognized only one major catastrophe, the Deluge, he related these references to the antediluvian era.

2 Thibaut, "Astronomie, Astrologie und Mathematik," Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie und Altershumskunde (1899), III, 7.

3Ibid.

4Ibid.

5Ibid

6F. K. Ginzel, "Chronologie," Encyklopädie der mathematischen Wissenschaften (1904-1935), Vol. VI.

7 The Aryabhatiya of Aryabhatta, an ancient Indian work on mathematics and astronomy (transl. W. E. Clark, 1930), Chap 3, "Kalakriya or the Reckoning of Time." p 51.

8Surya-siddhanta: A Text Book of Hindu Astronomy (transl. Ebenezer Burgess, 1860)

9 Ibid., comment by Burgess in note to p. 7.

10 "Twelve months …of thirty days each …and the five Gatha-days at the end of the year" "The Book of Denkart," in H. S. Nyberg, Texte zum mazdayasnischen Kalender (Uppsala, 1934), p. 9.

11 Bundahis (transl. West), Chap. V.

12 Note by West on p. 24 of his translation of the Bundahis.

13 A. Jeremias, Das Alter der babylonischen Astronomie (2nd ci., 1909), pp. 58 ff.

14 The Fragments of the Persika of Ktesias (Ctesiae Persica), ed. J. Gilmore (1888), p. 38; Diodorus ii. 7.

15 W. Gundel, Dekane und Dekansternbilder (1936), p. 253.

16 Cantor, Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik I, 92.

17 "Sin" in Roscher, Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, Col. 892.

18 Georgius Syncellus, ed. Jacob Goar (Paris, 1652), pp. 17, 32.

19 R. C. Thompson, The Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon in the British Museum, II (1900), xix.

20 Ibid., p. xx.

21 Langdon and Fotheringham, The Venus Tablets of Ammizaduga, pp. 45-46; C. H. W. Johns, Assyrian Deeds and Documents, IV (1923), 333, J. Kohier and A. Ungnad, Assyrische Rechtsurkunden(1913) 258, 3; 263, 5, 649, 5.

22 Genesis 7:11 and 24;  8:4.

23 The other variant of the story of the Flood (Genesis 7:17; 8:6) has the Deluge lasting 40 days instead of 150. [Comment by HWS: Genesis 7:17 talks about the duration of the rain and flooding of the earth, not the total length of the waters covering the earth, which is reported by Genesis 8:6.]

24 I Samuel 20:5-6; II Kings 4:23; Amos 8:5; Isaiah 1:13; Hosea 2:11; Ezekiel 46:1, 3. In the Bible the month is called hodesh, or "the new (moon)," which testifies to a lunation of thirty days.

25 J. Wellhausen, Prolegomena to the History of Israel (1885), p. 113.

26 Cf. G. Legge in Recueil de travaux relatifs à la philologie el à l’archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes(La Mission française du Caire, 1909).

27 S. Sharpe, The Decree of Canopus(1870).

28 E. Meyer, "Agyptische Chronologie." Philos. und hist. Abhandlungen der Preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften(1904), p. 8.

29 Ibid.

30 Herodotus, History, Bk ii 4 (transl. A D. Godley).

31 See volume of Manetho in Loeb Classical Library.

32 Georgii Monachi Chronographia (ed P. Jacobi Goar, 1652), p. 123

33In the days of the Hyksos King Aseth. But see the Section "Changes in the Times and the Seasons."

34 Translated by F. C. Babbit.

35 See Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosphers, "Life of Thales."

36 Proclus, The Commentaries on the Timaeus of Plato (1820); Diogenes Laërtius, Lives, "Life of Solon"; Plutarch, Lives, "Life of Solon."

37 Aristotle Historia animalium vi. 20; Pliny, Natural History, xxxiv. 12 (transl. Bostock and Riley).

38 Plutarch, Lives, "The Life of Numa," xviii.

39 Cf. Geminus Elementa astronomiae viii; cf. also Cleomedes De motu circulare corporum celestium xi 4.

40 J. de Acosta, The Natural and Mora/ Histories of the Indies, 1880 (Historia natural y moral de las Indias, Seville, 1590).

41 Diego de Landa, Yucatan, p. 59.

42 D. G. Brinton, The Maya Chronicles(1882).

43 Gates’ note to De Landa, Yucatan, p. 59.

44 R. C. E. Long, "Chronology—Maya," Encyclopaedia Britannica (14th ed.): "They [the Mayas] never used a year of 365 days in counting the distance of time from one date to another."

45 Markham, The Incas of Peru, p.117.

46 Joseph Scaliger, Opus de emendatione temporum, p. 225; W. Hales, New Analysis of Chronology (1809-1812), I, 31, W. H. Medhurst, notes to pp. 405-406 of his translation of The Shoo King (Shanghai, 1846).

47 H. Murray, J. Crawfurd, and others, An Historical and Descriptive Account of China (p. 235); The Chinese Classics, III, Pt. 2, ed. Legge (Shanghai, 1865), note to p. 21. Cf. also Cantor, Vorlesungen,p. 92: "Zuerst wurde von den Astronomen Babylons das Jahr von 360 Tagen erkannt, und die Kreisteilung in 360 Grade sollte den Weg versinnlichen welchen die Sonne bei ihrem vermeintlichen Umlaufe um die Erde jeden Tag zurücklegte."

48 C. F. Dupuis (L’Origine de tous les cultes [1835-1836], the English compendium being The Origin of All Religious Worship [1872], p. 41) gathered material on the number 360, "which is that of the days of the year without the epigomena." He refers to the 360 gods in the "theology of Orpheus," to the 360 eons of the gnostic genii, to the 360 idols before the palace of Dairi in Japan, to 360 statues "surrounding that of Hobal," worshiped by the ancient Arabs, to the 360 genii who take possession of the soul after death, "according to the doctrine of the Christians of St. John," to the 360 temples built on the mountain of Lowham in China, and to the wall of 360 stadia "with which Semiramis surrounded the city" of Babylon. This material did not convey to its collector the idea that an astronomical year of 360 days had been the reason for the sacredness of the number 360.

49 Medhurst, The Shoo King.

50 "The number nine occurs conspicuously in so many sagas which, for other reasons, I recognized to be moon sagas, that I am convinced that the holiness of this number has its origin in its very ancient application in time division." The author of this passage (E.Siecke, Die Liebesgeschichte des Himmels, Untersuchungen zur indogermanischen Sagenkunde[1892]) did not suppose a change in the nature of the lunar cycles, and also was not aware of the work of the scholar referred to in the following footnote, yet he was forced to believe that nine was connected with a time subdivision of a month.

51 A. Kaegi, "Die Neunzahl bei den Ostarien," in the volume dedicated to H. Schweizer-Sidler (1891).

52 Kugler, "Die Symbolik der Neunzahl," Babylonische Zeitordnung, p.192

53 E. Naville, Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, IV (1875), 1-18.

54 Roscher,  Die enneadischen und hebdomadischen Fristen und Wochen, Vol. XXI, No 4, of Abhandlungen der philol.-histor. Klasse der Kgl. sächs. Ges. der Wissenschaften (1903).

55 Roscher,  Die Sieben-und Neunzahl im Kultus und Mythus der Griechen, ibid, Vol. XXIV, No. 1 (1904): "Die beiden Arten von Fristen schon bei Homer und ebenso auch im ältesten Kultus nebeneinander vorkommen" (p. 54)."In der Zeit des älteren Epos herrschend gewordene 9-tägige Woche" (p. 73).

56 Cf. Ovid Metamorphoses vii. 23 ff; xiii. 951; xlv. 57.

57 Roscher,  Die Sieben-und Neunzahl.

58 Roscher, Fristen und Wochen.

59 The sidereal month, or the period of time during which the moon completes a revolution in relation to the fixed stars is 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes. But the phases of the moon change according to the synodical month of 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, after a synodical month the moon returns to the same position in relation to the sun as viewed from the earth.

60 It was probably these changes that caused the gods in The Clouds of Aristophanes to accuse the moon of having brought disorder in the calendar and in the cult. Aristophanes, The Clouds II. 615 ff.

61 Kugler, Babylonische Zeitordnung p. 191, note.

62 Ovid Fasti i. 27 if.

63 Geminus, "Introduction aux phénomènes" in Petau, Uranologion (1630).

64 Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticaeiii. 16.

65 Plutarch, The Roman Questions, xix.

66 Eutropius Brevarium rerum romanorum 1. 3 says: "Numa Pompilius divided the year into ten months." This must refer to the beginning of Numa’s reign, when the calendar of Romulus was still valid.

67 Procopius of Caesarea, History of the Wars,Bk. V, "The Gothic War" (transl. H. B. Dewing, 1919), Sec. 31.

68 Boll, Sternglaube und Sterndeutung, p. 92; A. del Mar, The Worship of Augustus Caesar, pp. 6, 11, with references to Ovid, Virgil, Pliny, Servius, and Hyginus.

69 M. P. Nilsson, Primitive Time-Reckoning (1920), p. 89.

70 A. Wirth, "The Aborigines of Formosa," The American Anthropologist, 1897.

71 A. Schiefner, Bulletin de l’Académie de St. Petersbourg, Hist.-phil. Cl., XIV (1857), 198, 201f.

72 H. Hale, Ethnography and Philology: U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-42,VI (1846), 106, 170.

73 G. Mathias, Lettres sur les Isles Marquises (1843), 211.

74 N. Adriani and A. C. Kruijt, De Baré-sprekende Toradja’s (1912-1914), II, 264.

75 Frazer, Ovid’s Fasti (1931), p. 386.

76 Ibid.

77 W. Yate (English missionary in the early part of the nineteenth century), quoted in Frazer, Ovid’s Fasti, p. 386.

78 Ibid.

79 Nilsson, Primitive Time-Reckoning, p. 89.

80 The palace of Nineveh was the residence of Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Assurbanipal.

81 J. Menant, La Bibliothèque du palais de Ninive(1880), p. 100.

82 Kugler, Die babylonische Mondrechnung: Zwei Systeme der Chaldäer über den Lauf des Mondes und der Sonne, pp. 207-209.

83 Ibid., p. 90.

84 Ibid., p. 72.

85 Ibid., p. 90.

86 Ibid., p. 67.

87 R. C.Thompson, The Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon, II, xviii.

88 "The class of magicians who calculated the length of the months and published information concerning them formed a very important Section of the Babylonian and Assyrian priesthood." Ibid, p. xxiii.

89 C. Bezold. "Astronomie, Himmelschau und Astrallehre bei den Babyloniern," in Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, philos.-histor. Klasse, 1911, expresses the opinion that before the sixth century the Babylonians were unaware of the relative lengths of the solar year and 12 lunar months. See also Gundel, Dekane und Dekansternbilder,p. 379.

90 Kugler, Die Mondrechnung, p. 90.

91 S. Smith, Babylonian Historical Texts, p. 22.

92 Ibid., p. 25.

93 A Jeremias, Der alte Orient und die ägyptische Religion(1907), p. 17; Winckler, Forschungen, III, 300.

94 Bezold, Zenit und Aequatorialgestirne am babylonischen Fixsternhimmel(1913), p 6; M. Jastrow, The Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria (1915), p. 261.

95 Tractate Berakhot l0b; Pesahim 56a; other sources in Ginzberg, Legends, VI, 369.

96 II Chronicles 30.

97 Isaiah 47:13.

98 Talmudic references may be found in the article cited in the following footnote.

99 Morgenstern, "The Gates of Righteousness," Hebrew Union College Annual, VI (1929), p. 31.

100 Morgenstern says: "Upon the tenth of the seventh month ancient Israel celebrated originally, not the Day of Atonement, but the New Year’s day." Ibid., p. 37.

101 Ibid., p. 33.

102 Ibid., pp. 17, 31.

103 The Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Erubin 22c.

104 Morgenstern, "The Three Calendars of Ancient Israel," Hebrew Union College Annual, I (1924), 13-78.

105 The Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin I, 19a.

106 Daniel 2:21.

107 G. Thibaut, p. xlvii of his translation of the Panchasiddhantika, the astronomical work of Varaha Mihira (Benares, 1889).

108 A.del Mar, The Worship of Augustus Caesar, p. 4.

109 Breasted, Records of Egypt, IV, Sec. 757.

110 Ibid.,Sec. 764. See controversy in Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache, VI (1868).

111 Breasted, Records of Egypt, IV, Sec. 756.

112 A. Erman, Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache, XLV (1908), 1-7.

113 P. Jensen, Die Kosmologie der Babylonier, p. 39.

114 Plutarch, Lives, "The Life of Numa" (transl. B. Perrin).

115 Ibid.

116 Cf. Augustine, The City of God, Bk. XVIII, Chap. 27.

117 Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers(English transl. R. D. Hicks, 1925).

118 Ibid.; see also Herodotus i. 74.

119 Brasseur, Manuscrit Troano, p. 25.

120 F. Montesinos (fl. 1628-1639), Memorias antiguas historiales del Perú, II. Chap. 7.

121 Christoval de Molina (fl. 1570 to 1584),An Account of the Fables and Rites of the Yncas, transl. and ed. C. R. Markham (1873), p. 10.

122 Brasseur, Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique, p. 122. Among his sources were Ixtlilxochitl, Sumaria relación, etc.; M. Veytia (1718-1779), Historia antigua de México, I (1944), Chap. 2.

123 A. Gaubil, Histoire de l’astronomie chinoise (1732), pp. 73-86.

124 F. R. Moulton, The World and Man as Science Sees Them, p. 2.

125 Kalevala, Rune 3.