It's split up. Four weeks is 28 days, but every month except non-leap year February has more days than that. There's where your missing four weeks went.
Sure, but why did society go from 13 lunar months of 4 weeks each to this whacky system counting 1/4th of a day, is I think the question being raised by the post. I think the case could be made that it’s yet another example of the “modern” (relatively speaking) world being constructed in ways that divorce us from nature and reality to live in artificial man-made bubbles of thought, constructed by those at the “top” and foisted down onto us, the masses
The problem is that a lunar cycle is about 29 and a a half days. So for example if your ancient city-state establishes a day for a harvest festival in the 3rd week of the 10th month, the difference between a revolution around the sun and the time lunar cycles take will cause that date to drift and eventually no longer be near harvest time.
So basically the Roman civil calendar was all jacked up towards the end of the republic. Caesar consulted with an Alexandrian astronomer and came up with a modified version of the Egyptian solar calendar, adding that quarter day. And as a bonus fun fact, archeologists can't agree on how old the ancient Egyptian 365 day calendar was. But they also had a lunar calendar and apparently used both. So solar vs lunar is an unknowably old debate.
How do you easily approximate half a year? A quarter? 12 and power-of-two basesale common division and multiplication tasks easier than primes. Since a year isn't early so neat to divide up, though, compromises had to be made.
It's split up. Four weeks is 28 days, but every month except non-leap year February has more days than that. There's where your missing four weeks went.
Sure, but why did society go from 13 lunar months of 4 weeks each to this whacky system counting 1/4th of a day, is I think the question being raised by the post. I think the case could be made that it’s yet another example of the “modern” (relatively speaking) world being constructed in ways that divorce us from nature and reality to live in artificial man-made bubbles of thought, constructed by those at the “top” and foisted down onto us, the masses
Well said
The problem is that a lunar cycle is about 29 and a a half days. So for example if your ancient city-state establishes a day for a harvest festival in the 3rd week of the 10th month, the difference between a revolution around the sun and the time lunar cycles take will cause that date to drift and eventually no longer be near harvest time.
So basically the Roman civil calendar was all jacked up towards the end of the republic. Caesar consulted with an Alexandrian astronomer and came up with a modified version of the Egyptian solar calendar, adding that quarter day. And as a bonus fun fact, archeologists can't agree on how old the ancient Egyptian 365 day calendar was. But they also had a lunar calendar and apparently used both. So solar vs lunar is an unknowably old debate.
How do you easily approximate half a year? A quarter? 12 and power-of-two basesale common division and multiplication tasks easier than primes. Since a year isn't early so neat to divide up, though, compromises had to be made.