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stopleavingcrumbs t1_j89ttgr wrote

I made a post about this in Archaeology but it was removed so asking here. Apologies about the size.

Why did ancient people use the lunar cycle in addition to the solar cycle?

Tracking the 365 days between a solstice seems like an accurate solution to knowing when seasons will begin/end. If we were to say Spring begins on the 90th day (just an example) this would be accurate for several years.

Why did people supplement this with the use of lunar cycles when they do not line up with the seasons very well (approx 1/3 of a month further out of sync every year)?

The only reason I can think of is that tracking lunar cycles is extremely straightforward and anyone can do it, but it creates the issue of needing to realign every few years (often an extra month after the winter solstice if I remember right). The lunar cycle has been used in essentially every ancient culture so there obviously must be other benefits than it just being 'easy'. What are these?

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shantipole t1_j8a0b7u wrote

It wasn't easier to track via the moon, it was MUCH easier. How exactly do you calculate the solar cycle in ancient times? You won't have accurate-enough timekeeping for centuries to know the exact day of the solstice by tracking duration of day, you're basically stuck trying to accurately measure shadows or the angle of the sun, which takes years of observations to establish. That's a lot of effort for anyone and is very not-portable. It's something only the elites can do or will care about.

But anybody can see the moon, and it's not even 10 fingers' worth of counting from full or new to a quarter moon. It's very easy for everyone to observe and to track with. It's also not ambiguous--a full moon is a full moon, you might be off by a day at most, and there would be general agreement in a community.

And the primary thing you need timekeeping for is agriculture (because that's what 90% plus of the population do, and what 100% eat). But, due to weather variability, knowing when spring astronomically begins doesn't help you all that much. Temperature trends, rain, likelihood of a frost, all of those are more important. IIRC, lunar calendars (the Islamic calendar being a notable exception) usually start counting in the spring, when X crop needs to be harvested and Y crop planted for just this reason.

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