The Ancient Origin of The Calendar In Eastern Germany

摘要

Until recently, the dominant thinking has been that the birthplace of the calendar was either Egypt or Mesopotamia, in the period spanning 3000 to 2000 B.C., and that from there the calendar spread into the northern regions. Two recent discoveries in Germany challenge such a view, while reinforcing the hypothesis that northern Europe contributed to, or even originated, the elaboration of the first astronomical calendar. In this article, I will present the new discoveries, framed in a terminology of "visual astronomy": That is, a type of astronomy which can be replicated everywhere, without any optical device. In visual astronomy, the celestial objects are thought to "move" in relation to an observer and a "fixed" reference.