The History of the Calendar

Paper Summary:

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the topic of the modern calendar. Specifically the paper discusses how the Gregorian calendar came into being and the many changes it has undergone during its history. The paper examines how timekeeping has evolved from early, much more complicated methods. The paper concludes that the calendar may not be perfect, but it serves a vital purpose, and will probably remain constant for centuries to come.

From the Paper:

"One aspect of calendar history is quite surprising. While it would seem the Gregorian calendar that is the most common would be the universal calendar used around the world today, it is not. Historian Doggett continues, "According to a recent estimate, there are about forty calendars used in the world today" (Doggett, 2004). Some of these other calendars include the Hebrew calendar (used in Israel), the Islamic calendar (used throughout the Muslim world), the Chinese calendar (used throughout China), and the Indian calendar (used in India). Most of these calendar variations are used in specific localities and cultures, and there have been some attempts to coordinate them with the Gregorian calendar (Doggett, 2004)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Achelis, E. (1937). The world calendar: Addresses and occasional papers chronologically arranged on the progress of calendar reform since 1930. New York: G.P. Putnam's sons.
• Armitage, R. A., Brady, J. E., Cobb, A., Southon, J. R., & Rowe, M. W. (2001). Mass spectrometric radiocarbon dates from three rock paintings of known age. American Antiquity, 66(3), 471.
• Doggett, L. E. (2004). Calendars and their history. Retrieved from the New Mexico State University Web site: http://astro.nmsu.edu/~lhuber/leaphist.html 16 March 2006.
• Greengus, S. (2001). New evidence on the old Babylonian calendar and real estate documents from Sippar. The Journal of the American Oriental Society, 121(2), 257.
• Richards, E. G. (1999). Mapping time: The calendar and its history. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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