Calendars, Time Measurements and Seasons in Ancient Mesopotamia | Middle East And North Africa

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MESOPOTAMIAN CALENDARS

planisphere fragment

What may be the world’s oldest calendar was unearthed in Iraq. It is 10,000 years old and is comprised of a pebble with 12 notches. There were various Sumerian calenders. Ones with 12 months of 30 days, which added up to 360 day years, soon fell out of synch with the season so extra months were added every few years. The Eblaite calendar affixed a different name to every year that commemorated a great event. The year 2480 B.C., for example, is referred to as “ Dis mu til Mari ki” (the Year of the defeat of Mari).

The Babylonians are often given credit for devising the first calendars, and with them the first conception of time an entity. One of the most important aspects of the calendar in Mesopotamia was marking spring and autumn, which in turn marked the beginning and end of the agricultural year. Like Easter, spring and new year were marked by the first new moon after the spring equinox, around the end of March or beginning of April. Autumn was marked at the first new moon after the autumn equinox. In Mesopotamia, autumn marked the beginning of the planting season and spring was a time of harvest as the summer was too dry and hot to grow crops. [Source: Lishtar based on the first part of the excellent chapter on the Akitu Festival by Mark Cohen´s “The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East,” CDL Press, Bethesda, Maryland, 1993 ==]

Time Measurement in Mesopotamia

Many cuneiform tablets are dated by the year, month and day. The Mesopotamians used sundials and water clock. These technologies were improved by the Egyptians,, Greeks and Romans. Within Babylonian literature there is a widespread but specialized group of texts that deals with the days of the months one by one, the hemerologies, and with the months of the year, the menologies.

The Akkadian term shapattu (source of the word Sabbath) suggests a Babylonian origin for the seven-day week and the Sabbath. But shapattu refers to the day of the Full Moon and is not described as a day of rest. Why a seven-day week was chosen is not clearly known as it does not fit well into either a solar or lunar calendar.

Months in Mesopotamia and stages in the agricultural calendar for the city of Girsu: 1) Nissannu — March-April: last irrigation; harvesting starts, flooding; 2) Ajaru — April-May: harvest, survey of wet fields; 3) Simanu — May-June: cutting, drying, stacking; 4) Du'uzu — June-July: transport and storage of grains, time of rest; 5) Abu — July-August: harvest ends, rest; 6) Elülu — August-September: beginning of ploughing, sowing, inactivity; 7) Tashritu — September-October: ploughing, early sowing, rest; 8) Arashamna — October-November: late sowing; end of ploughing; 9) Kissilimu — November-December: late sowing, inactivity; 10) Tebetu — December-January: end of late sowing of cereals, preparation of fields; 11) Sabatu — January-December: first seedlings appear; irrigation; preparation of fields; 12) Addaru — February-March: irrigation

Years in Mesopotamia

The Babylonians developed the used the 360-day year—divided into 12 lunar months of 30 days (real lunar months are 29½ days)—devised by the Sumerians and introduced the seven day week, corresponding to the four waning and waxing periods of the lunar cycle. The ancients Egyptians adopted the 12-month system to their calendar. The ancient Hindus, Chinese, and Egyptians, all used 365-day calendars.

The Babylonians stuck stubbornly to the lunar calendar to define the year even though 12 lunar months did not equal one year. In 432 B.C., the Greeks introduced the so-called Metonic cycle in which every 19 years seven of the years had thirteen months and 12 years had 12 months. These kept the seasons in synch with the year and the roughly kept the days and months of the Metonic year in synch with those on the lunar calendar. The Metonic calendar was too complicated for everyday use and used mostly by astronomers.

Babylonians Are Why Are There Seven Days in a Week

Kristin Heineman said: “Some of the earliest civilizations observed the cosmos and recorded the movements of planets, the Sun and Moon. The Babylonians were astute observers and interpreters of the heavens, and it is largely thanks to them that our weeks are seven days long.The reason they adopted the number seven was that they observed seven celestial bodies — the, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. So, that number held particular significance to them. [Source: Kristin Heineman, Instructor in History, Colorado State University, The Conversation, June 27, 2021]

The phases of the Moon do not exactly coincide with the solar calendar. The Moon cycle is 27 days and seven hours long, and there are 13 phases of the Moon in each solar year. Other civilizations chose other numbers — like the Egyptians, whose week was 10 days long; or the Romans, whose week lasted eight.

“The Babylonians divided their lunar months into seven-day weeks, with the final day of the week holding particular religious significance. The 28-day month, or a complete cycle of the Moon, is a bit too large a period of time to manage effectively, and so the Babylonians divided their months into four equal parts of seven.

“The number seven is not especially well-suited to coincide with the solar year, or even the months, so it did create a few inconsistencies. However, the Babylonians were such a dominant culture in the Near East, especially in the sixth and seventh centuries B.C., that this, and many of their other notions of time — such as a 60-minute hour — persisted.

“The seven-day week spread throughout the Near East. It was adopted by the Jews, who had been captives of the Babylonians at the height of that civilization’s power. Other cultures in the surrounding areas got on board with the seven-day week, including the Persian empire and the Greeks. Centuries later, when Alexander the Great began to spread Greek culture throughout the Near East as far as India, the concept of the seven-day week spread as well. Scholars think that perhaps India later introduced the seven-day week to China.

“Finally, once the Romans began to conquer the territory influenced by Alexander the Great, they too eventually shifted to the seven-day week. It was Emperor Constantine who decreed that the seven-day week was the official Roman week and made Sunday a public holiday in A.D. 321. The weekend was not adopted until modern times in the 20th century. Although there have been some recent attempts to change the seven-day week, it has been around for so long that it seems like it is here to stay.

Zuist (sumerian religion) calendar

Hours and Minutes in Mesopotamia

The Mesopotamians also invented the 60 minute hour. The idea of measuring the year was more important than measuring the day. People could judge the time of day by following the sun. Judging the time of year was more difficult and important in knowing when to plant crops, expect rain or snow and harvest crops. That is why a yearly calendar was developed before clocks and minutes and seconds didn’t come to the Middle Ages.

The Babylonians have been credited with coming up with the idea of dividing the hour into 60 minutes. The number 60 seemed to be prized especially since 360 divided by six is 60 and some scholars have speculated that is why hours are made up of 60 minutes and minutes are made up of 60 seconds. Other believe the number 60 was arrived at by multiplying the visible planets (5, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) by the number of months (12).

Mesopotamian Seasons

Morris Jastrow said: “The sun-god of the spring was pictured as a youthful warrior triumphing over the storms of winter. The goddess of vegetation—Ishtar, under various names—unites herself to this god, and the two in unison—sun and earth—bring forth new life in the fields and meadows. [Source: Morris Jastrow, Lectures more than ten years after publishing his book “Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria” 1911 ]

But after a few months the summer season begins to wane, and rains and storms again set in. The change of seasons was depicted as due to the death of the youthful god; according to one tradition he was deserted by the goddess who had won his love; according to another, he was slain by a wild boar. An old Sumerian designation of this god was Dumu-Zi, abbreviated from a fuller designation, Dumu-Zi-Ab-zu, and interpreted as “the legitimate [or “faithful”] child of the deep.” The allusion is apparently to the sun rising out of the ocean, which was supposed to flow about and underneath the world. The name passed over to the Semites of Babylonia, and thence spread throughout and beyond the borders of Semitic settlements under the form Tammuz. With the name, went the myth of the youthful god, full of vigour, but who is slain, and condemned to a sojourn in the lower world, from which he is released and revivified in the following spring.

“The antiquity of the cult of Tammuz in Babylonia is confirmed by religious compositions in Sumerian, bewailing the loss of the god and also hailing his return. This, of itself, would not, necessarily, prove the Sumerian origin of the myth, which indeed is of so widespread a character as to justify us in regarding it as common to Sumerians and Semites; but it shows that the weeping for Tammuz, which Ezekiel (viii., 14) portrays as being practised even in his days by the women at the north gate of the temple in Jerusalem, is one of the oldest items of the Sumero-Babylonian cult. In the older Babylonian calendar the summer solstice fell in the sixth month; in the later calendar in the fourth month, which became known as the month of the festival of Tammuz, and then briefly as the month of Tammuz. With the summer solstice the year begins to wane, and it was appropriate, therefore, to hold at this time a festival commemorating the gradual waning of the god’s vigour.”

Farmers Instructions, Gods and the Agricultural Seasons of Mesopotamia

The Sumerians produced a 111-line text called The Farmer´s Instructions. consisting of instructions on annual agriculture duties addressed by a farmer to his son. D. T. Potts (1997) has argued that there are many similarities between traditional, pre-mechanized agriculture in Iraq and the agricultural cycle and the recommendations found in "The Farmer´s Instructions". [Source: Lishtar based on the first part of the excellent chapter on the Akitu Festival by Mark Cohen´s “The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East,” CDL Press, Bethesda, Maryland, 1993]

Generally, fallow land was followed flooded and leached in spring and summer, and ploughed and sowed in the autumn and winter, while cultivated fields were harvested and threshed in the dry and hot spring and summer, following the relatively wet fall and winter. The Spring Equinox marked the beginning of the season when fallow land was washed to cleanse the soil of salt and impurities. The Autumn Equinox marked the beginning of harvest. For cultivated fields, the Spring Equinox marked the beginning of harvest, whereas the Autumn Equinox marked the fallowing season.

Morris Jastrow said: “Festival days sacred to a deity were numerous and formed another important feature of worship. As was to be expected of an agricultural people like the ancient Babylonians, these festivals were connected originally with the seasons of the year. The most important was the spring festival. [Source: Morris Jastrow, Lectures more than ten years after publishing his book “Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria” 1911 ]

“The Babylonians and Assyrians must have had harvest festivals, marked like those of other people by rejoicings and thanksgivings to the gods, but as yet we have not unearthed these rites and ceremonies. We are, however, fortunate enough to know a good deal about a festival that forms a complement to the new year’s celebration and, because of its antiquity and wide bearings on the general religious ideas of the Semites, commands a special interest.

“The sun-god of the spring was pictured as a youthful warrior triumphing over the storms of winter. The goddess of vegetation—Ishtar, under various names—unites herself to this god, and the two in unison—sun and earth—bring forth new life in the fields and meadows. But after a few months the summer season begins to wane, and rains and storms again set in. The change of seasons was depicted as due to the death of the youthful god; according to one tradition he was deserted by the goddess who had won his love; according to another, he was slain by a wild boar. An old Sumerian designation of this god was Dumu-Zi, abbreviated from a fuller designation, Dumu-Zi-Ab-zu, and interpreted as “the legitimate [or “faithful”] child of the deep.” The allusion is apparently to the sun rising out of the ocean, which was supposed to flow about and underneath the world. The name passed over to the Semites of Babylonia, and thence spread throughout and beyond the borders of Semitic settlements under the form Tammuz. With the name, went the myth of the youthful god, full of vigour, but who is slain, and condemned to a sojourn in the lower world, from which he is released and revivified in the following spring.

Mesopotamia Calendar and the Equinoxes

Mark Cohen wrote: “Mesopotamians, we must not forget, were farmers who built cities, or, as stated stated clearly in the Myth of the Creation of the Pickax "the pickax and the basket build cities". Basically, the scale and scope of the agricultural activities conducted in Mesopotamia provided the foundation for the success of this civilization in Antiquity. We must not forget a composition called "Enten (Winter) and Summer (Emesh), or Enlil chooses the Farmer God", a debate between two brothers, or the seasons of Winter and Summer as known by the Sumerians, where we learn that Enlil chooses Winter as more important than Summer, because it allows for the flowering of the land after the scorching Summer season, the watering of the fields by means of canals, etc.(see Enten and Emesh). [Source: “Akitu Festival” in Mark Cohen´s The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East, CDL Press, 1993]

“It is therefore logical to suppose that the onset and end of the agricultural year might have been marked by religious observances, and it is within this specific context that in this article we establish the relationship between the stages of field preparation, sowing, ploughing and harvesting with the Spring and Autumn Equinox celebrations which in time turned out to be some of the most important religious festivals in the Mesopotamian liturgical calendar. Because the deity who ruled both the passage of time and the fertility of the land was Nanna, the Sumerian Moon God, first born of Enlil and Ninlil, Lord and Lady Air, later known by the Babylonians and Assyrians as Sin, the earliest records of the New Year´s Festival in Mesopotamia or the Akitu Festival come from Ur, Nanna´s city. Thus, Ur fixed the celebration of the vernal (Spring) and autumnal (Autumn) to the months in which they occurred, the first and seventh months of the year, called respectively Nissanu and Tashritu.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons except Akitu festival images, Brown University and atours.com

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Mesopotamia sourcebooks.fordham.edu , National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, especially Merle Severy, National Geographic, May 1991 and Marion Steinmann, Smithsonian, December 1988, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides,“World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated July 2024