Research Catalog
Calendar : humanity's epic struggle to determine a true and accurate year
- Title
- Calendar : humanity's epic struggle to determine a true and accurate year / David Ewing Duncan.
- Author
- Duncan, David Ewing.
- Publication
- New York, N.Y. : Avon Books, [1999], ©1998.
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Use in library | CE6 .D86 1999 | Off-site |
Details
- Description
- xix, 328 pages : illustrations; 21 cm
- Summary
- From Stonehenge to astronomically aligned pyramids at Giza to the atomic clock in Washington, David Ewing Duncan explores the extraordinary journey through man's reckoning of time. Annotation. The adventure spans the world from Stonehenge to astronomically aligned pyramids at Giza, from Mayan observatories at Chichen Itza to the atomic clock in Washington, the world's official timekeeper since the 1960s. We visit cultures from Vedic India and Cleopatra's Egypt to Byzantium and the Elizabethan court; and meet an impressive cast of historic personages from Julius Caesar to Omar Khayyam, and giants of science from Galileo and Copernicus to Stephen Hawking. Our present calendar system predates the invention of the telescope, the mechanical clock, and the concept ol zero and its development is one of the great untold stories of science and history. How did Pope Gregory set right a calendar which was in error by at least ten lull days? What did time mean to a farmer on the Rhine in 800 A.D.? What was daily life like in the Middle Ages, when the general population reckoned births and marriages by seasons, wars, kings'' reigns, and saints' days? In short, how did the world The adventure spans the world from Stonehenge to astronomically aligned pyramids at Giza, from Mayan observatories at Chichen Itza to the atomic clock in Washington, the world's official timekeeper since the 1960s. We visit cultures from Vedic India and Cleopatra's Egypt to Byzantium and the Elizabethan court; and meet an impressive cast of historic personages from Julius Caesar to Omar Khayyam, and giants of science from Galileo and Copernicus to Stephen Hawking. Our present calendar system predates the invention of the telescope, the mechanical clock, and the concept ol zero and its development is one of the great untold stories of science and history. How did Pope Gregory set right a calendar which was in error by at least ten lull days? What did time mean to a farmer on the Rhine in 800 A.D.? What was daily life like in the Middle Ages, when the general population reckoned births and marriages by seasons, wars, kings'' reigns, and saints' days?
- Subjects
- Genre/Form
- History.
- Note
- "An Avon book."
- Originally published: New York : Bard, ©1998.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-316) and index.
- Contents
- Net cast over time -- Lone genius proclaims the truth about time -- Luna: Temptress of time -- Caesar embraces the sun -- Flaming cross of gold -- Time stands still -- Monks dream while counting on their fingers -- Charlemagne's sandglass -- Strange journey of 365.242199 -- House of wisdom to darkest Europe -- Latinorum penuria (The poverty of the Latins) -- Battle over time -- Black death to Copernicus -- Solving the riddle of time -- Ten days lost forever -- Living on atomic time -- Time line: Calendar.
- ISBN
- 0380793245
- 9780380793242
- 0380975289
- 9780380975280
- LCCN
- 98010434
- OCLC
- 41630962
- ocm41630962
- SCSB-14504174
- Owning Institutions
- Princeton University Library