Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1906-09-27
.EARL|EST D|AT SET
CHICAGO PROFESSOR ADDS 1000
YEARS TO HISTORY.
sames II. Breasted Finds Records Go.
ing Back to 4241 3. c., While
on Recent Expedition to
Egypt. ....@ .t

breasted, or the University of Chi.
cago, who just returned from an expe.
dition to the upper Nile, has set back
the first authentic date in the worlds
history 1000 years. He has satisfied
himself and number of his scholarly
intimates that records were set down
In Egypt in the year 4241 B. C.
Recent excavations in the Nile val.
ley by the University of Chicago Egyp-
tan expedition, of which Prof. Breast.
ed was the head, are the basis for
an elaborate article in the issue of
the Biblical World, in which the noted
Psychologist attempts to fix "the old
est date in history"
Beginning with 4241 B. c., which
Prof. Breasted believes marks the be-
ginning of the recording of the years,
be finds calendar was kept, not IN
like that followed to-day
Prof. Breasted's opinions and proof.
which are labeled "The Oldest Fixed
Date in History" in part are as fol-
lows:
"Anthropological studies have long
since demonstrated the enormous an
tlquity Of man. The dates, however,
operating in conjunction with the ge-
ologist, necessarily cannot be fixed.
but move within the widest limits.
1t is OF interest, therefore, to study
briefly the state of the case from the
historical archaeologists' point Of
view.
"The Egyptians had early deter
mined the length of the year as 365
days, not being aware of the addition
al quarter, or nearly quarter of
day. This convenient year they d.
yorced from the phases of the moon,
and divided it into IL months of 80
days each, with an intercalary period
OF five days at the end of the year.
This, the first practical calendar ever
evolved by an ancient people, remain
ed an achievement unparalleled in
any other civilization
Nov We know from a statement in
Censorinus that some time in the pc.
Rod from 140-141 to 143-144 A. D. the
calendar conceded exactly with the
seasons, and that in one of the years
in that period the rising of the Sothis
took place on the first day of the cal
endar year. An entire revolution was
completed at that time.
THAT revolution must have begun
1,40O years earlier-that is, in 1920 B.
G The next earlier revolution must
have begun in 2780 B. C.-that is,
at about the beginning of the age at
which we are first able to observe
contemporary indications OF the shift.
Nov it is impossible that this cal
endar was first introduced as late as
the twenty-eighth century B. c., in the
midst of the highest culture of the
old kingdom. Moreover, the fivesin-
tercalary days at the end of the year,
proving the use of the shifting year Of
365 days, are mentioned in the Pyra-
mid Texts, which are far older than
the old kingdom.
1.-THE calendar existed, therefore,
before the old kingdom, but if this isis
true, we must seek its invention at
time when it's seasons coaIcided
roughly with those Of nature, as they
must have done at it's Introduction.
This carries us 1850 years back Of
their coincidence in the old kingdom;
that is, the calendar was introduced
in the middle of the forty-third CEN
fury B. G. .(4241 B. CO..
This is the eldest nXed date in his
tory"