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Calendars in Antiquity
Empires, States, and Societies
Sacha Stern
480 pages
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17 tables
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234x156mm
978-0-19-958944-9
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Hardback
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06 September 2012
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- Comprehensive presentation of ancient calendars across the ancient Mediterranean and Near East
- Integrates a detailed analysis of individual calendars into a general, overriding argument
- Contextualizes ancient calendars within the social history of the ancient civilizations discussed
Calendars were at the heart of ancient culture and society, and were far more than just technical, time-keeping devices. Calendars in Antiquity offers a comprehensive study of the calendars of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, Gaul, and all other parts of the Mediterranean and the Near East, from the origins up to and including Jewish and Christian calendars in late Antiquity. In this volume, Stern sheds light on the political context in 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.Readership: This book will be of value to scholars and ancient historians interested in classical studies, Near Eastern studies, late antiquity, religious studies, and epigraphy.
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Sacha Stern, Professor of Rabbinic Judaism, Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London Sacha Stern is Professor of Jewish Studies at University College London. His research and publications are centred on ancient and medieval time and calendars, as well as on other aspects of Jewish history in Antiquity.
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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
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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