Re: Concalendrical reference point

Tim May scripsit:
>
> Note that this thread is of marginal topicality, but I can't think of
> a better place to ask.
>
> I've been trying to develop a calendar.  It's just a standard calendar
> for use on Earth, with no speacal concultural associations.  I'm
> fairly happy with the mechanics of the thing, but one question
> troubles me - from what date to start the long count of years?  I
> could just start it from when I finish the calendar (or that year,
> anyway - I'm thinking of having the year start at the vernal equinox,
> like the Vorlin calendar) but that seems to perhaps attach too much
> importance to the creation of the calendar itself.  I'm unable to
> So one idea I
> had was to simply take the earliest recorded event which can be
> precisely dated (at least to the year) with a reasonable degree of
> certainty. So my question is, does anyone know what that event is?
Such things are pretty unstable.  Do you count something like
"oldest living tree sets seed"?  We know that date quite accurately
from tree-ring counting.

I would recommend instead that you use the year 4173 B.C.E.
It is comfortably before the beginning of history, and is the base
date for the Julian day count: 2452421 days ago.  This date was
chosen as the year in which three different cycles were all in
registry: the 28-year solar cycle of the civil year, the 19-year lunar cycle
of the Babylonian/Jewish year, and the arbitrary 15-year cycle
of the Roman tax year.

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_

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