Hisotrical Dating and the Calendar
by
MaatRaAh
The first obstacle we must overcome [or the second if we consider our prejudices to be the first] is the dating of history. Christian use of A.D. and B.C. is far too confusing. So I am rearranging the way we will look at historical events. I also chose to use CE, "current era", and BCE, "before the current era", as I, like many recent scholars chose not to give credence to Christianity. I firmly believe that the christianization of history is a lie which should not be propagate by a system that promotes it through a dating system.
There are eight events in the history of mankind which are important for us to appreciate the origin of spiritual knowledge. The approximate dates for these are in order:
The origin of spiritual knowledge 150,000 years ago;
The reintroduction of knowledge 16,000 years ago;
The origin of the Celts, 10,000 years ago;
The founding of Sumer 5,500 years ago;
Sargon the Great, Sumer-Akkad, 4,350 years ago;
Hammurabi and Babylon 3,850 years ago;
The fall of the Troy, 3,250 years ago;
The founding of Rome, 2,750 years ago; and
The introduction of the Christian calendar, in the current era year 1000.
If the reader thinks the omission of the beginning of the Christian era, is a glaring mistake, then he or she is grossly ignorant of history. Christianity did not exist in 1 AD. There never was a 1 AD. No one was sitting around waiting for the birth of Jesus of Nazareth in order to start a new calendar. The year would have been recorded as 753 AUC, if anyone were recording the event - which they were not. AUC or Ab Urbe Condita, is dated from the founding of Rome 2746 years ago (from 1993). For the purists, the date would have been 748 of the Babylonian (Nabonassar) calendar which began in 5 AUC, with the founding of the second Babylonian Empire, known as the Chaldean Empire. For the Greeks the year would have been 312 by the Seleucidae calendar which had been created in 441 AUC, when the Macedonian general of Alexander the Great Seleucus I, founded the Seleucid Dynasty. Despite what the Jews would like us to believe, there was no Jewish calendar with a date of 3760 in use at that time. The Jews did not date from the mythical creation of the world, but from the founding of temples and ascensions of kings.
The Roman calendar was in use at Jerusalem at the time Jesus is presumed to have been born, simply because Judea was ruled by the Roman Empire and Rome imposed its Julian calendar on all its subjects. The Roman calendar in one form or another continued in use by most nations of the west until 1754 AUC when that year became 1000 AD.
Christianity did not become the religion of Rome until the Edict of Milan issued by Constantine I in 1070 AUC, and it was not for another 684 years (1754 AUC) that Christians rewrote history to make the Edict of Milan occur in the year 313 A.D. The Christian monk, Dionysius Exiguus, was the first use BC and AD. That was in 1250 AUC but those were his personal notes which he wrote in the margins of the books he was copying. That was nearly 500 years after the date he had calculated as being the birth of Jesus. Thus when you read that the Council of Niece took place in 325 AD, you know that history was rewritten, for there was no 325 AD. The Dionysian Period was not accepted by any other religious scholars until 1416 AUC when they also began to use BC and AD as margin notes. That year became 616 AD. After that time we find not only writings of theologians bearing the inscription, but some civil records in areas where Christian Monks kept records. Christians saw to it that only monks could be taught to read and write. Pope John XII was the first to use AD in the papal chancery in 1720 AUC, (967 CE) but that was only on official documents and the era did not become general in Europe until after 1753 AUC, which was the Christian year 1000 AD.
If the people of the ancient world found no significant reason to adopt a new calendar at the birth of Jesus, then we should not find any reason to regarded the period as a new era today. It was only in retrospect that the Christians made the founding of a new era important, making it Nunc Pro Tunc.
I have struggled with a dating system which can be understood by my readers. Astronomers, who work with mathematics, use the Julian Period to date historical events. The Julian period was created by Joseph Caliger in 1582, and was named after his father - not Julius Caesar. The Julian Period takes several solar and man made events into consideration. By international agreement, most astronomers throughout the world use this method for calculating events. The system commences with the arbitrary date of January 1, 4713 BCE, after which it was assumed that all historical events have occurred. Under the Julian Period, Sumer would have been founded in 1513 and Egypt two hundred years later, (1713). This is a simple method which will most likely be adopted with some modification at a future date when the Gregorian, Islamic, Hebrew and Chinese calendars are replaced with an international calendar. The inherent problem with the Julian Period is Caliger's assumption that 4713 was the earliest date in man's history. It was 709 years before the Jewish god created the first man, but unfortunately for the Jews and Christians, there were already great civilizations in existence when their "new god" created the world. Under the Julian Period, Catal Hüyük would have to be dated at -2100 while Jericho would be -4300. This does nothing more than replace A.D. (CE) and B.C. (BCE) with, JP and BJP, and push the negative numbers back a few thousand years.
Most of us are not concerned with precise dates in history. We know that 1776 was the date for the founding of the United States. In 1993, we still think of America as being 200 years old, even though it is actually 216 years old. 1992 was the 500th anniversary of the discovered America - even though America was already discovered. Twenty years from now we will still be thinking of the discovery as being 500 years ago. Both the discovery by Columbus and the founding of America were important when they occurred and they continue to be important for historical purposes today. There were no important events in 1 A.D. No nations were formed, no decisive wars fought - nothing. Jesus wasn't even born in that year.
Of the nine important events in human history, only 6 need to be set firmly in our minds. They are the founding of Sumer 5,500 years ago; the uniting of Sumer-Akkad, under Sargon the Great, 4,350 years ago; the rise of Babylon under Hammurabi, 500 years after Sargon; the fall of Troy 600 years later, and the founding of Rome 500 years after Troy.
The most important event in Greek history, was the fall of Troy which has been dated by Archaeologists as being 1253 (±10 years) BCE, [but no earlier than 1260 BCE which is one of those confusing negative dates]. The date of 1253 is given by Herodotus, which is not coincidentally, exactly 500 years before the founding of Rome. Eratosthenes however, calculated Troy as being 60 years later, and he may be close to the truth, for reasons that are not important here. In any event it seemed appropriate to place the fall of Troy 600 years after Hammurabi and 500 years before the founding of Rome, thus giving the reader two events which can be easily remembered.
The date for the founding of Rome is of course, fictional. Roman myth has it that Romulus was taken into heaven without dying in 37 AUC, and Numa Pompilius took his place to become the Second Legendary King of Rome. However, Numa did not rule anywhere near 37 AUC, but rather he lived much later, during the time of Pythagoras. Some Roman writers claimed that it was a different Pythagoras who lived at the time of Numa Pompilius, but the evidence is strongly against that. Pythagoras settle in the Greek colony of Crotona in southern Italy about 223 AUC. The most convincing evidence of the contemporary co-existence of Numa and Pythagoras is found in the laws and religious doctrines established by Numa. They are clearly Pythagorean doctrines. Add to that the fact that Numa gave one of his four sons the name, Mamercus, which was the name of one of the sons of Pythagoras and there is little doubt as to when Numa ruled. This would place the actual beginning of Numa's reign about 200 AUC instead of 37 AUC.
Such forgeries in the dates of the founding of cities were common in the ancient world, and it really doesn't matter when Rome was founded. The importance of Rome's founding was not the actual date it was founded, but rather the fact that everyone "accepted the date" as being in the third year of the sixth Olympiad. It is quite likely that the traditional date for the founding of Rome was fabricated to predate the founding of the Babylonian Empire under Nabunassar in 5 AUC [747 BCE]. The Era of Nabunassar was recorded by both the Egyptians and the Babylonians as having begun in the Egyptian month Thoth, day 1 at midday (noon) in year 1 of the reign of Nabunassar. However since the founding of Babylonian and its calendar had only a minor influence in western history, it is easier to use the founding of Rome [AUC]; which again was exactly 500 years after the traditional date for the fall of Troy.
It now appears with reasonable certainty that human-like creatures existed at least two and possible seven million years ago. But no significant event can be attributed to those early humans. Nor is can anything be attributed to our more recent humans ancestors who have lived 700,000 years. I therefore have placed mankind's origin as we know it today at 150,000 years ago.
Sumer is important because it was the first nation in history. That nation arose 5,500 years ago and occupied the southern part of what is modern Iraq. Its territory encompassed thousands of villages and scores of cities in an area nearly 250 miles from north to south and 100 miles wide. Within 500 years a swarthy dark-skinned people known as Semites began to move into the northern territories of Sumer. 1,150 years after its founding, Sumer, was conquered by the Semite ruler of Akkad, Sargon the Great (c. 4,350 years ago). Sumer-Akkad was the union of two nations and became the first Empire in history. 500 years later, the Semite city of Babylon rose suddenly to power under Hammurabi. The next 600 years saw the rise of other Semite nations, the most notable being the Assyrians in the far north. But there was also the blonde blue-eyed Aryans, who invaded the area that became known as Persia. There were also the Aryan nations of Mitani the Hittites and Mycenae all of whom played important roles leading up to the fall of Troy 600 years after Hammurabi. Egypt, cannot be overlooked as a central figure in the power struggle, but our examination of history is only peripheral to our quest for spiritual knowledge of the ancients. It is against this backdrop of history and the rise of Rome 500 years after Troy that we will find the last remnants of the spiritual which is so clearly missing today.
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