Re: Weeks

[brian whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

> At 02:34 PM 4/9/01 -0500, Gary Karshner wrote:
> > The week is Babylonian, along with seconds and minutes.
> > They used a lunar calendar with the months starting when you could first
> > see a fingernail crescent moon. Each week corresponds to about one lunar
> > phase (new, first quarter, full, last quarter).


At 16:00 4/9/01 -0400, John Denker responded:

> What's the evidence for this?
>
> Evidence to the contrary is easy to find:
>   http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/khagen/Babylon.html


I expect I am missing something.
 The contrary URL adduced by John offers this:
"The seven-day cycle makes its earliest appearance in Babylonian
documents of the 7th century BCE. It is not quite yet the week as we
know it, however. In origin, it seems to have been one fourth of the
approximate time in a month the moon was visible..."

This looks rather more confirmatory than contrary to the innocent eye.
brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>  Altus OK
                Eureka!