Calendars: A Short History of the Passage of Time

Keeping track of the years for major events and dates for planting and rituals has long been a high priority. This class surveys the long history of trying to calculate the passage of time through records of the seasons, annual river floods, and royal regnal years, as well as observations of the stars, sun, and moon. It also explores other calendars, including the Mayan calendar, which was one of the most accurate and complex calendars ever created. From Babylon and ancient Egypt to Greco-Roman times there were problems trying to correct the calendar with leap years. Jews, Christians, Muslim and Buddhists have also created unique calendars founded on their religious histories. This class will have a look at the various problems and solutions for reckoning the passage of time in a day, year, and lifetime.

Richard Lobban, Ph.D., professor emeritus of anthropology and African studies at Rhode Island College, serves as adjunct professor of African studies at the Naval War College. He has a master’s degree from Temple University and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University and has taught at the American University in Cairo, Tufts University and Dartmouth College, among others. He has conducted field research in Tunis and Egypt and has been excavating a temple in Sudan for ten years. Richard is widely published in urban and complex societies, informal sector economy, gender, ethnicity, race and class, especially in the Middle East. He often serves as a subject matter expert and court-appointed expert witness in political asylum cases for refugees from Africa and the Middle East.