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The Calendars and, Chronology                  7
that they would have shared with the Mediterranean and
Syrian peoples a common scientific lore. It may well be that
their Southern conquerors were at the epoch of the conquest
considerably behind their new subjects in science. In this
connexion it has to be observed that our knowledge of the
culture of Egypt at this period is derived mainly from, the
remains of the Southern Kingdom. The calendric inferences
then indicate that at the epoch of the conquest a seasonal year
was observed in Lower Egypt which began 45 days after the
autumn equinox. This day represents clearly the day of the
Baal festival of Samhain, whose traces still linger in Britain,
It is practically certain that this New Year festival was imported
into Britain by the Mediterranean colonists of Cornwall. Thus
we have some evidence of that scientific link between Egypt
and the Mediterranean peoples which we should expect to
result from the trade contact.
Next, in the year of the death of Menes, the first recognized
monarch of the 'Two Lands' of Upper and Lower Egypt, we
find the institution of a revised calendric system, possibly a
compromise resulting from the union of the two races. From
the evidence quoted above, this year may be dated as 3141.
The revision adopted the festival of Set, the Lower Egypt
equivalent of Baal, as the New Year day, but removed it from
the day of Samhain to that of the autumn equinox. On the
assumption that two calendars were then deliberately instituted,
one of 365 days, the other of 365 J days, this system, combined
with the internal organization of the calendar itself, was in fact
the most scientific organization of calendars which has, yet
been used by man. From the 365^ days calendar derive the
calendars which have been used by the peoples of Europe
throughout the Christian era.1
1 The Julian calendar introduced by Julius Caesar, on the advice of the
Alexandrian scientist, Sosigenes, was the old 365^ days calendar of Egypt.
In the form in which it was in use in England down to 1752 it was a correction