DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15#0252
THE ORIGIN OF THE WEEK. 239
Chaldœan astronomers even until now. As to the
epoch of the real beginning of astronomy, then, we
have, in my opinion, no means of judging. The
epoch to which we really can point with some
degree of certainty—the year 2170 B.C., or there-
abouts— must belong, not to the infancy of astro-
nomy, but to an era when the science had made
considerable progress.
I have said that we should expect to find the
introduction of the new astronomy, the rejection
t of the week as an astronomical period in favour of
the year, to be marked by some celestial event
having special reference to the Pleiades, the year-
measuring star-group. Whether the à priori con-
sideration here indicated is valid or not, may
perhaps be doubtful; but it is certain the epoch
above mentioned is related to the Pleiades in a
quite unmistakable manner. For at that epoch,
quam proximè, through the effects of that mighty
gyrational movement of the earth which causes
what is termed the precession of the equinoxes,
the star Alcyone, the brightest of the Pleiades and
nearly central in the group, was carried to such a
position that when the spring began the sun and
Alcyone rose to their highest in the southern skies
at the same instant of time.
Be this, however, as it may, it seems abun-
Chaldœan astronomers even until now. As to the
epoch of the real beginning of astronomy, then, we
have, in my opinion, no means of judging. The
epoch to which we really can point with some
degree of certainty—the year 2170 B.C., or there-
abouts— must belong, not to the infancy of astro-
nomy, but to an era when the science had made
considerable progress.
I have said that we should expect to find the
introduction of the new astronomy, the rejection
t of the week as an astronomical period in favour of
the year, to be marked by some celestial event
having special reference to the Pleiades, the year-
measuring star-group. Whether the à priori con-
sideration here indicated is valid or not, may
perhaps be doubtful; but it is certain the epoch
above mentioned is related to the Pleiades in a
quite unmistakable manner. For at that epoch,
quam proximè, through the effects of that mighty
gyrational movement of the earth which causes
what is termed the precession of the equinoxes,
the star Alcyone, the brightest of the Pleiades and
nearly central in the group, was carried to such a
position that when the spring began the sun and
Alcyone rose to their highest in the southern skies
at the same instant of time.
Be this, however, as it may, it seems abun-