Ancient Egyptian Units of Measurement - Time

Time

The Egyptians divided their year (rnpt) into 365 days (hrw). The Egyptian calendar had 12 months (abd) of 30 days each, plus 5 epagomenal days.

They divided their year into 3 seasons, named Akhet, Peret and Shemu. Akhet was the season of inundation. Peret was the season which saw the emergence of life after the inundation. The season of Shemu was named after the low water and included harvest time.

Units of time
Name Egyptian name Equivalent Egyptian values
hour
unut		 1 day = 24 hours
day
hrw		 1 day = 1/30 month = 24 hours
month

abd		 1 month = 30 days
Inundation season

akhet		 Akhet = 4 months = 120 days
Emergence season


peret		 Peret = 4 months = 120 days
Harvest season


shemu		 Shemu = 4 months = 120 days
year
renpet		 1 year = 365 days

The introduction of equal length hours occurred in 127 BC. The Alexandrian scholar Claudius Ptolemaeus introduced the division of the hour into 60 minutes in the second century AD.

Read more about this topic:  Ancient Egyptian Units Of Measurement

Famous quotes containing the word time:

    “all the clocks in the city
    Began to whirr and chime:
    “O let not Time deceive you,
    You cannot conquer Time.”
    —W.H. (Wystan Hugh)

    “Theoretically, we know that the world turns, but in fact we do not notice it, the earth on which we walk does not seem to move and we live on in peace. This is how it is concerning Time in our lives. And to render its passing perceptible, novelists must... have their readers cross ten, twenty, thirty years in two minutes.”
    —Marcel Proust (1871–1922)