Primitive Time-reckoning / A study in the origins and first development of the art of counting time among the primitive and early culture peoples

by Martin P. Nilsson

Winkler, J., Der Kalender der Toba-Bataks auf Sumatra. Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie 45, 1913, 436 ff.

Wirth, A., The Aborigines of Formosa. The American Anthropologist 10, 1897, 357 ff.

Wollaston, A. F. R., Pygmies and Papuans. London, 1912.

Worm, Olaus, Fasti Danici. Hafniæ, 1642.

Yermoloff, A., Der landwirtschaftliche Volkskalender (der Russen). Leipsic, 1905.

INDEX.

Acronychal risings and settings, [5]
Age, classes of, [99];
ignorance of, [98];
relative, [98]
Agricultural cycles of seasons, [66];
festivals, [268], [337];
year, [91], [95]
Anglo-Saxon seasons, [75];
months and year, [292]
Apollo, festivals of, [363];
and the Greek calendar, [366]
Arabic lunisolar year, [251];
month-names, [237];
names for days of the month, [165]
Astrology, [119];
origin of, [146]
Astronomers, primitive, [350], [351]
Babylonian designation of years, [105];
intercalation, [258];
months, [226]
Beginning of the year, see [New Year].
Bilfinger on the Icelandic week-year, [78], n. 1;
on the Anglo-Saxon year, [295]
Birds of passage, [46]
Calendar, Greek star-c., [114];
Indian picture-writing c., [103]
Calendar-makers, [347]
Canaanitish month-names, [233]
Constellations, [114]
Continuous time-reckoning, [8], [359]
Counting, [168];
aids in, [319];
of days, [168];
of months, [148], [217]
Dagsmǫrk, [21]
Dawn = day, [13]
Day, of 24 hours, [11];
limits of, [43];
solar, stellar, [3];
as unit of time-reckoning, [3]
Day, times of, [17];
expressions for, [22];
indications of, [17]
Days, counting of: in dawns, [13];
in days, [14];
in nights, [13];
in sleeps, [15];
in suns, [12]
Decades, [168]
Delphi, influence on the calendar, [365]
Dieteris, [1]
Disting, [302]
Dry and rainy seasons, [54], [88];
two, [62]
Easter, computation of, [301]
Ebb and flow, [39]
Egyptian designation of years, [107];
year, [277]
End of the year, [268]
Ennaeteris, [364]
Epiphany moon, [301]
Eponyms, [107]
Equinoxes, observation of, [313]
Extracalation, [244], [360]
Fasti, Greek, [365]
Feriae conceptivae, [340]
Festivals, agricultural and new year, [268];
cycles of, [337];
months named after, [345];
regulated by the moon, [341];
by the solstices, [344];
by the stars, [133]
First-fruits, [269]
Full moon, celebration of, [155];
the time of festivals, [342]
Germanic division of the year, [75];
month-names, [288];
seasons, [74]
Gestures indicating days, [12];
time of the day, [17]
Gezer, calendar of, [235]
Gnomon, [20]
Greek division of the month, [168];
expressions for times of the day, [34];
observation of the solstices, [316];
of the stars, [110];
seasonal points, [46];
seasons, [72];
calendar, [362]
Half-years, reckoning in, [75], [78], [87]
Hammurabi, letter of, [263]
Heliacal risings and settings, [5]
Hesiod, [46], [112]
Homer, [34], [110], [316]
Hour, origin of, [43]
Icelandic (cp. Scandinavian) designation of times of the day, [21];
months, [297];
seasons, [75];
week-year, [78], [370]
Indo-European expressions for times of the day, [31];
notion of the year, [97];
seasons, [71]
Intercalary cycle, Babylonian, [259];
Greek, [363]
Intercalation (cp. month, intercalary,) cyclical, [362];
in Greece, [368];
empirical, [243], [359];
origin of, [240];
pre-Mohammedan, [253];
regulated by the solstices, [265];
by the stars, [247]
Israelitish festivals at full moon, [341];
intercalation, [244];
months, [233];
new year, [272]
King in charge of the calendar, [352]
Knots, [104], [320]
Kugler on Babylonian intercalation, [260]
Landmarks indicating times of the day, [21];
for observation of solstices and equinoxes, [311]
Latin expressions for times of the day, [37];
star-names, [113]
Lunar month, see [Month].
Lunar months of European peoples, [294], [304], [305]
Markets, in Arabia, [251];
in Canaan, [334]
Market-week, [324]
Measures of time, [42]
Monsoons, [57], [87]
Month, [147];
division of, [155], [159];
halving of, [166];
tripartite division of, [167];
quarters of, [170];
intercalary, [243];
of the Wadschagga, [203];
lunar, [5];
number of days in, [149];
sidereal, [4];
synodic, [5]
Month-names, [174];
from festivals, [345];
from seasons and occupations, [218], [227];
from stars, [227], [247];
absence of, [223];
multiplicity of, [222];
old Greek, [364];
pairs of, [224];
popular European, [282];
variability of, [221]
Months, counting of, [148], [217];
numbering of, [188], [233];
series of, [174];
incomplete, [240], [246];
Semitic, [226]
Moon (cp. full moon, new moon) course of, [147];
invisibility of, [149];
phases of, [151], [155];
smaller phases, [159];
position of, [150];
time counted by, [16]
Mountains as landmarks, [21]
Nasi, [253]
New moon, celebration of, [151]
New moons, counting in, [151], [235]
New Year, [8], [91], [267];
Egyptian, [278];
festivals of, [268]
Night, parts of, [39];
times of, indicated by the stars, [40]
Nights, counting in, [13]
‘Noon-line’, [21]
Nundinae, [333]
Oktaeteris, [1], [363]
Olympiads, [364]
Pars pro toto counting, [358];
of days, [16];
of weeks, [358];
of years, [92]
Picture-writings, [103]
Planets, [120], [124]
Plant as sun-dial, [19]
Pleiades the, as indicating seed-time, [134];
special significance of, [129]
Pleiades-year, [275]
Priests as calendar-makers, [350]
Qalammas, [253]
Quarters of the moon, [170]
Rainy and dry seasons, [54], [88];
two, [62]
Sabbath, [329]
Scandinavian (cp. Icelandic, Swedish) divisions of the day, [21];
observation of solstices, [316];
seasons, [74];
week-reckoning, [80]
Schools of astronomy, [354]
Seasonal points, [46]
Seasons, [45];
cycles of, [65];
number: two, [54];
two or three, [72], [75];
three, [64];
four or five, [58], [63];
six, [60];
s. and months, [218];
regulation of, [70];
subdivision of, [61], [72]
Sea-voyages, stars a guide to, [125], [353]
Shabattu, [329]
Shadow, time of day reckoned according to, [19]
Shifting method of time-reckoning, [8]
Solstices, [220];
festivals regulated by, [344];
months regulated by, [265];
observation of, [311]
Stars, [109];
festivals regulated by, [133];
a guide to sea-voyages, [125], [353];
months named after, [227], [247];
new year determined by, [275];
omens of weather, [125], [130], [140], [143];
risings and settings of, [5], [128];
other phases, [129];
time of the night, [40];
time of the year indicated by, [128]
Summer and winter, [54], [89]
Summer day, the, [81]
Sun = day, [13]
Sun (cp. solstices and equinoxes), seed-time indicated by, [317];
time of day indicated by the position of, [17]
Swedish (cp. Scandinavian) lunar months, [302], [304];
month-names, [299];
quarter-years, [80]
Tally, [104], [168], [320]
Tetraeteris, [1]
Tille on the division of the Germanic year, [77]
Time-indications, [9];
concrete, [355];
discontinuous and ‘aoristic’, [9], [356]
Time-reckoning, methods of, [8]
Units of time-reckoning, [3]
Weather, stars as omens of, [125], [130], [140], [143]
Webster on the sabbath, [335]
Week, seven-day, [333]
Week-year, [78], [370]
Weidner on Babylonian intercalary cycles, [259]
Weinhold on the Germanic seasons, [76]
Wind-seasons, greater, [57];
shorter, [85]
Winter and summer, [54], [89];
w. the time of festivals, [339]
Winter day, the, [81]
Winters, years counted in, [9]
Year, [86];
agricultural, [91], [95], [96];
Egyptian, [277];
incomplete, [89], [223], [240];
stellar, [4];
stellar, of primitive peoples, [93], [275];
tropic, [4]
Years, counting of, [92];
designation of y. after events, [99];
after rulers etc., [101], [107]
Yule-moon, [301]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] In Swedish (or German) I should use the word punktnell to denote this mode of time-reckoning, since the calculation is based upon a punctum, a single point, not upon the whole unit of time. Unfortunately the word ‘punctual’ has quite another sense in English.