Re: hypothetical Yangshao calendar (early China)

From: Franz Gnaedinger (frgn_at_bluemail.ch)
Date: 03/17/05 

Date: 16 Mar 2005 23:30:29 -0800

A year ago I undertook an attempt at deciphering the
Vinca script (you may look up the thread Did the Trojan
war really happen the way Homer said it did?, or my web
page www.seshat.ch/home/vinca.htm).

My interpretations of the round plaque from the burial
pit at Tartaria in western Romania, ca. 5300-5000 BC;
of a clay seal from Predionica near Pristina, end of
6th millennium BC; of the charming shallow vessel from
Gradesnica near Vraca in western Bulgaria, ca. 5000 BC;
and of a fourfold sign incised in a pottery dish from
Bohemia, end of 6th - early fifth millennium BC (see:
Marija Gimbutas, The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe,
UCLA Press 1996) led me to an early European calendar:

A year has 12 longer months of 25 days each, plus 4
shorter months of the solstices and equinoxes: 25 25 25
16 (vernal equinox) 25 25 25 16 (summer solstice) 25 25
25 16 (fall equi8nox) 25 25 25 17-18 (winter solstice),
yielding 365 and occasionally 366 days.

Sequences of seven long and two short months

  25 25 25 16 25 25 25 16 25
     25 25 16 25 25 25 16 25 25
        25 16 25 25 25 16 25 25 25

yield 207 days each and correspond to seven lunations.

This calendar would have given way to a second one:
year 52 weeks of seven days, plus 1 and occasionally
2 days. Nine lunations equal 266 days or 36 weeks
(www.seshat.ch/home/stonehen.htm).

A cycle of nine lunations equals roughly 266 days.
Nine cycles are about 2394 days - actually two days
less, namely 2392 days. Divide them by 9 x 9 and you
obtain a very good value for a lunation (mistake less
than 24 seconds).

A cycle of seven lunations equals roughly 207 days.
Seven cycles are about 1449 days - actually two days
less, namnely 1447 days. Divide them by 7 x 7 and you
obtain a brillant value for a lunation (mistake only
two seconds).

If my reconstructions hold, the first Vinca calendar
and the Halafian calendar differ markedly. There are
various numerical options for an early calendar. Why,
then, did Egypt and China wind up with the Mesopotamian
calendar model? For the time being I find it plausible
that Egypt and China took over the older Mesopotamian
model, and the same calendar spread to Crete and the
Argolis, as I shall demonstrate in my next messages.
-
Regards Franz Gnaedinger
-

> 'My' Mesopotamian calendar would have been taken over
> by early dynastic Egypt, where the cycle of 64 moons
> or lunations that equal 63 months or 1890 days would
> have been linked with the Horus Eye.
>
> Horus was the Celestial Falcon. His one eye was the
> sun, his other eye was the moon. Seth destroyed the
> moon eye, whereupon wise Thoth restored it. However,
> a small part was missing, and that small part seems
> to be a duration, namely the gap between moon and
> month: one 64th of 30 days. One moon is obtained by
> multiplying a month by the series of the Horus Eye:
> 30 days x '2 '4 '8 '16 '32 '64 yield 29 '2 '32 days
> or 29 days 12 hours 45 minutes (modern value 29 days
> 12 hours 44 minutes 2.9 seconds, mistake only 57.1
> seconds, less than one minute).
>
> The same calendar would have been used in early
> China: a month of 30 days, a year of 12 months plus
> 5 and occasionally 6 days, 64 moons equal 63 months.
> Interestingly, Yangshao in the province of Henan has
> about the same geographical latitude as the region
> of Tell Arpachiyah in Mesopotamia.
>
> Sumerian/Akkadian lapis lazuli came from Afghanistan.
> Neolithic dwellers lived along former rivers in the
> Takla Makan, Xinjiang province. A 5000-year-old stone
> knive with seven holes representing the Big Dipper
> has been found in the Qinghai province. There may well
> have been a way from Mesopotamia via Afghanistan, the
> Takla Makam and the Qinghai province to the provinces
> of Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan on the middle course of
> the Yellow River, homeland of the neolithic Yangshao
> culture. Evidence for the use of my calendar in early
> China is provided by Yangshao ceramics, and by ceramic
> objects from Banshan in the province of Gansu.
>
> Later on, 'my' calendar would have been modified under
> the legendary first king Fuh-hi: new zodiac 28 mansions,
> long week 1 5 1 5 1 or 13 days, year 28 long weeks plus
> 1 and occasionally 2 days, 81 lunations equal 184 long
> weeks or 2392 days; alternative week 7 days, month 28
> days, year 13 months plus 1 and occasionally 2 days,
> 12 lunations equal 135 alternative weeks or 945 days.
>
> (The numbers of both calendars can be derived from
> the mystic symbol ho-t'u in the I-king or I-Ching.)
> -
> Regards Franz Gnaedinger www.seshat.ch
> -
>
>
> > The temples at Goebekli Tepe in southeastern Anatolia,
> > Sanli-Urfa region, north of the Syrian Harran plain,
> > were built from 11500 BP on, and in use till 9500 BP.
> > The highest T-shaped pillars are eight meters tall,
> > while the largest pillar in a nearby quarry, if freed
> > from the rock, would weigh fifty tons. Reliefs on the
> > pillars show various animals. By now a moonlike region,
> > Goebekli Tepe was by then surrounded by lush meadows.
> > Game, heading for the cooler Anatolian hills and woods
> > in spring, were an easy prey for the local hunters
> > who also maintained an important flint tool industry
> > and worked on obsidian from a not so far away volcano.
> >
> > The temples of Goebekli Tepe were in use for two
> > millennia, and then carefully filled up and abandoned.
> > Half a millennium later, in around 9000 BP, agriculture
> > started in the Harran plain. The tokens from Asia Minor,
> > a simple way of recording numbers, are known since the
> > same time (www.sumerian.org).
> >
> > Tell Halaf near Harran gave its name to an early stage
> > of Mesopotamian culture, and the amazing dish from Tell
> > Arpachiyah was formed and painted some 7,000 years ago.
> >
> > Agriculture, by then known since two millennia, requires
> > a calendar, and establishing a useful calendar requires
> > observations of the sun and moon for several decades,
> > hence a well organized and stable farming society,
> > plus a recording system. These prerequisites were given
> > in the region of Tell Arpachiyah some 7,000 years ago,
> > where I locate 'my' calendar: a short week of 5 days,
> > a long week of 10 days, a month of 30 days, a year of
> > 12 months plus 5 and occasionally 6 days, yielding 365
> > or 366 days. 64 lunations equal 63 continual months or
> > 1890 days. 25 years equal 9131 days: 9000 plus 131 days.
> >
> > Geographical latitude of Tell Arpachiyah: 36 degrees
> > 29 minutes. Angle of ecliptic in 7000 BP: 24.171375
> > degrees. Morning width of rising midsummer sun (top
> > / center / bottom): 31.352 / 30.615 / 29.898 degrees.
> > This angle is measured from the EW axis. Measure it
> > from the NS axis and you obtain roughly 60 degrees
> > (athmospheric influences ignored).
> >
> > The directions North - rising midsummer sun - rising
> > midwinter sun - South - setting midwinter sun - setting
> > midsummer sun divided the circle of the horizon into
> > 6 equal angles. Halve them and you obtain 12 equal
> > angles. Divide them by three and you obtain 36 equal
> > angles. Halve them and you obtain 72 equal angles.
> > Divide them by five and you get a circle of 360 degrees.
> > -
> > Regards Franz Gnaedinger www.seshat.ch
> > -
> >
> >
> >
> > > Lao-tse had presumably been born by the end of the 7th
> > > century BC in the province of Henan on the middle course
> > > of the Yellow River, homeland of the neolithic Yangshao
> > > culture. Saying 42 of his Daode jing tells me that he
> > > knew the old calendars, and his name as a scholar,
> > > Be Yang, Earl Sun, only confirms my assumption.
> > >
> > > In Saying 11 of the Daode jing he tells that 30 spokes
> > > share a wheel's hub, yet it is the empty space in the
> > > center of the hub that makes a wheel useful. The cavity
> > > makes a vessel and the empty rooms make a house useful.
> > > What is there defines the form, and what is not there
> > > defines the use.
> > >
> > > The wheel of 30 spokes makes me think of a month of
> > > 30 days, basic element of 'my' hypothetical Yangshao
> > > calendar. If so, what may be represented by the empty
> > > space in the center of such a wheel of time? It may
> > > be English becoming, French devenir, growing in time,
> > > and what we call time would then be the wheel, vessel,
> > > house or shell of becoming.
> > >
> > > At the end of Saying 11, Lao-tse opposes being and form
> > > (also possession) to usefulness, in a quite practical
> > > sense. In a more philosophical sense, usefulness goes
> > > along with a process, and a process involves becoming,
> > > which, in the Daode jing, goes along with the week and
> > > soft, young plants, or water. Water makes plants grown,
> > > it is a soft element par excellence, and yet rivers
> > > wash away the loess ground and carve deep gorges into
> > > hard rock, so the soft element water which enhances
> > > growth and life is actually very strong.
> > >
> > > I ignore time when ideas form, when I do a work I like,
> > > when I fall in love and am with the woman I love. Works
> > > of art appear 'timeless' when they look as if they had
> > > just become and were not really made. Be on the side
> > > of becoming, and you are in time, flowing with time,
> > > one with time itself ...
> > > -
> > > Regards Franz Gnaedinger www.seshat.ch

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