The Egyptian Calendars

It will be all too easy here for a foolish amateur to rush in where learned experts seem unhesitant to tread. The experts have been working diligently and ingeniously for well over a century trying to piece together numerous scraps of evidence derived from many periods of time extending over more than three millennia from about 3000 BC and to provide a coherent and conclusive account of ancient Egyptian calendrical practices. Though there is much that must still be regarded as being in doubt, several points seem to be reasonably well established. We know most about the Egyptian civil calendar with its ‘vague’ or schematic year of 365 days, consisting of 12 schematic months, not tied to the phases of the Moon, plus 5 supplementary or epagomenal days outside the months. There was nothing vague in the ordinary sense about the Egyptian civil year. We derive the term ‘vague’ from the Latin annus vagus , meaning the wandering year. The evidence on the late schematic luni-solar calendar has been convincingly interpreted by Parker (1950 ). I have little doubt about Parker’s evidence on the existence of the earlier luni-solar calendar, almost certainly preceding the civil calendar, but I have some doubts about Parker’s detailed conclusions in respect of it; nevertheless I shall rely heavily on his contentions.