| Alphonsus, King of Castile, in Muller’s Tables | 6,984 | |
| The same, in Strauchius | 6,484 | 9 months |
| Onuphrius Panvinius | 6,310 | |
| Suidas | 6,000 | |
| Lactantius, Philastrius | 5,801 | |
| Nicephorus | 5,700 | |
| Clemens Alexandrinus | 5,624 | |
| The author of the Fasti Siculi | 5,608 | 9 months |
| Isaac Vossius, and the Greeks | 5,598 | |
| Etc. etc.” | „ |
It will be seen that the earlier of these dates leads us back to an even more remote age than that in which, if the theory here proposed is a true one, the marvellous achievement of the formation of a scientific sidereal calendar was accomplished.
To attribute to the dwellers in Eden or to their immediate descendants intellectual gifts that should enable them to perfect so grand a scheme, does certainly not contradict the story of the fall, but rather may open up for us fresh lines of thought, when we read of that transgression in which the pride of intellect played so important a part.
II
THE CONSTELLATION ARIES
[Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, March 1893]
In the January number of the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology for last year, under the title The Accadian Calendar, two propositions were advanced:—
I. The Accadian year was counted as a sidereal year.
II. The Accadian calendar was first thought out and originated at a date not later than 6,000 B.C.
The fact that the sun’s entry into the constellation Aries appears to have marked through many millenniums the beginning of the Accadian year, was cited in support of the first proposition, and the fact that the sun’s entry into Aries coincided about 6,000 B.C. with the winter solstice, was relied on to support the probability of the second proposition, namely, that at the above date the calendar, which so honoured the inconspicuous constellation Aries, was first drawn up.
If we now find this inconspicuous part of the heavens equally honoured by several nations in very ancient times, we shall be led to think either that these nations, independently of each other, happened to observe and mark out the sun’s annual course through the heavens at exactly the same date, and therefore chose the same point as marking the winter solstice; or we must suppose that they derived their calendar and knowledge of the Zodiac from observations originally made by some one civilized race.