Our Glorious History, Part II

<grisom> Umu! Any idea how the Ancient Egyptians named the ten days of their week?

<umunmutamku> Holy shit, Griz, did you ever just crack open a can of blood-hungry hell worms.

Yeah. Egyptian dates are fucked up the bronze ass hole, though, Griz.

<grisom> My understanding was that the Egyptians invented the French Republican Calendar, to wit: that their year was 12 months of 30 days each, plus a five-day "little month" at the end, and that they had a ten-day week; furthermore that the start of the year was based on something Sirius was doing in the sky, which went slowly out of sync with what the Sun was doing.

<umunmutamku> Okay. The year divides into 12 months (3bd) and 3 seasons: 3ḫt "inundation," prt "winter," šmw "summer." Each season had four months of thirty days, and there were five "epagomenal" days to round it all out.

Dates begin with the "regnal year" sign ḥ3t-sp and a numeral. Next up: the month position in the season cycle, e.g. 3bd 2 3ḫt "second month of inundation." The last value is the date position in the month, sw, followed by a numeral.

The first month of the season is not usually written 3bd 1 XXX but rather tpy XXX "first of XXX." Similarly, the last day of the month is written ʕrqy without sw, meaning something like "end."

The date is always followed by the royal titulary, since the date is dependent on the current regime. The bare minimum is something like: "under the Majesty of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt (name in cartouche)—may he be given life!" (ḫr ḥm n(y) nsw-bity (name) ʕnḫw) The full titulary is excruciatingly long, consisting of five different names and a whole series of formulas.

So in conclusion: we must reckon only with Ancient Egyptian seasons, not month or day names (those are lost),

<grisom> I don't see why you say the month names are lost, though, since the Coptic Christians still call their months by names like "Thoth" and "Hathor". Is there any reason *not* to think that they're using the original Egyptian names?

<umunmutamku> *stares, blinks*

Jesus, you're right. No, they very obviously are.

<grisom> Success!

<umunmutamku> ...and must incorporate the royal titulary somehow.

<grisom> Oh, I'm not aiming to emulate the Ancient Egyptian year-numbering system, I just wanted better day-names than the French "oneday, twoday, threeday". But if those are lost to the sands then SCREW ANCIENT EGYPT.

<umunmutamku> Heh. But how about it? We could pick some symbolic ruler. :)

<grisom> Well, the main impetus for this calendar was to have the year-counting system centred around the end of the world on Dec 21, 2012. So as long as you can keep that property...