TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Footnote anchors are denoted by [number],and the footnotes have been placed at the end of the book.
In the Footnotes a reference to a second or third edition of a bookis denoted by ² or ³, for example: Schrader, II³.
This book has many Greek words, which should display correctly onmost devices. Some other less common characters are also used. Thesewill display on this device as
ð eth character
Þ thorn character
ǫ o with ogonek
ȱ o with dot and macron
å a with ring above
ă a with breve
ā ī ō a, i, o with macron
ǎ č ř š ž a, c, r, s, z with caron
The cover image was created by the transcriberand is placed in the public domain.
Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
SKRIFTER UTGIVNA AV
HUMANISTISKA VETENSKAPSSAMFUNDET I LUND
ACTA SOCIETATIS HUMANIORUM LITTERARUM LUNDENSIS
I.
MARTIN P. NILSSON
PRIMITIVE TIME-RECKONING
PRIMITIVE TIME-RECKONING
A STUDY IN THE ORIGINS AND FIRST DEVELOPMENT
OF THE ART OF COUNTING TIME AMONG
THE PRIMITIVE AND EARLY
CULTURE PEOPLES
BY
MARTIN P. NILSSON
PROFESSOR OF CLASSICAL ARCHÆOLOGY AND ANCIENT HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LUND
SECRETARY TO THE SOCIETY LETTERS OF LUND
MEMBER OF THE R. DANISH ACADEMY
LUND, C. W. K. GLEERUP
LONDON, HUMPHREY MILFORD PARIS, EDOUARD CHAMPION
OXFORD, UNIVERSITY PRESS LEIPZIG, O. HARRASSOWITZ
1920
LUND 1920
BERLINGSKA BOKTRYCKERIET
Although in the present study I devote only a few pages tothe Greek time-reckoning, and am engaged for the most partin very different fields, yet the work has arisen from a desire toprepare the way for a clearer view of the initial stages of theGreek time-reckoning. In the course of my investigations intoGreek festivals I had from the beginning been brought up againstchronological problems, and as I widened the circle so as to includethe survivals of the ancient festivals in the Middle Ages, moreparticularly in connexion with the origin of the Christmas festival,I was again met by difficulties of chronology, this time in regardto the earlier Germanic time-reckoning. In the year 1911 Ipublished in Archiv für Religionswissenschaft an article on thepresumptive origin of the Greek calendar circulated from Delphi.These preliminary studies led to my taking over myself, in theprojected Lexicon of the Greek and Roman Religions, the articleon the calendar in its sacral connexions.