Misplaced Pages

#256743

137-505: Although relatively abundant, the evidence for the Attic calendar is still patchy and often contested. As it was well known in Athens and of little use outside Attica, no contemporary source set out to describe the system as a whole. Further, even during the well-sourced 5th and 4th centuries BC, the calendar underwent changes, not all perfectly understood. As such, any account given of it must be

274-540: A "Sumerian renaissance" in the past. Already, the region was becoming more Semitic than Sumerian, with the resurgence of the Akkadian-speaking Semites in Assyria and elsewhere, and the influx of waves of Semitic Martu ( Amorites ), who founded several competing local powers in the south, including Isin , Larsa , Eshnunna and later, Babylonia. The last of these eventually came to briefly dominate

411-524: A "hundred oxen" held on the final night of the Panathenaia. More often than not, the festival providing the month name is minor or obsolete. For instance, the second month, Metageitnion, is named after a cult title of the god Apollo, but there is no trace of a festival bearing the name. The same goes for months 5 and 6, Maimakterion and Poseideon. The calendars of the Ionian cities of Asia Minor (along

548-642: A Proto-Euphratean language or one substrate language; they think the Sumerian language may originally have been that of the hunting and fishing peoples who lived in the marshland and the Eastern Arabia littoral region and were part of the Arabian bifacial culture. Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians lived along the coast of Eastern Arabia , today's Persian Gulf region, before it was flooded at

685-543: A century divided into decades. A four-year cycle was important, which must have helped structure a sense of the passing years: at Athens, the festival of the Panathenaia was celebrated on a grander scale every fourth year as the Great Panathenaia, but that was not used as the basis of a dating system. As both narrowly local and cyclical in focus then, the calendar did not provide a means for dating events in

822-651: A century in the Third Dynasty of Ur at approximately 2100–2000 BC, but the Akkadian language also remained in use for some time. The Sumerians were entirely unknown during the early period of modern archeology. Jules Oppert was the first scholar to publish the word Sumer in a lecture on 17 January 1869. The first major excavations of Sumerian cities were in 1877 at Girsu by the French archeologist Ernest de Sarzec , in 1889 at Nippur by John Punnett Peters from

959-526: A comprehensible way between cities. A dating system using the four-yearly Olympiads was devised by the Greek Sicilian historian Timaeus (born c. 350 BC) as a tool for historical research, but it was probably never important on a local level. Boeotia Boeotia ( / b i ˈ oʊ ʃ ( i ) ə / bee- OH -sh(ee-)ə ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( Greek : Βοιωτία ; modern : Viotía ; ancient : Boiōtía ),

1096-486: A difficult environment. Others have suggested a continuity of Sumerians, from the indigenous hunter-fisherfolk traditions, associated with the bifacial assemblages found on the Arabian littoral. Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians may have been the people living in the Persian Gulf region before it flooded at the end of the last Ice Age. In the early Sumerian period, the primitive pictograms suggest that There

1233-538: A maximum of 250,000. By comparison, the population of Boeotia was 38,000-50,000 in the late sixteenth century, according to tahrir records, 40,000-42,000 in the 1889 census, and 117,920 in the 2011 census. Boeotia took a prominent part in the Corinthian War against Sparta, especially in the battles of Haliartus and Coronea (395–394 BC). This change of policy was mainly due to the popular resentment against foreign interference. Yet disaffection against Thebes

1370-608: A member of Barilla Group . Also, some of the biggest companies in Greece and Europe have factories in this place. For example, Nestlé and Viohalco have factories in Oinofyta , Boeotia. Sumer Sumer ( / ˈ s uː m ər / ) is the earliest known civilization , located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq ), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between

1507-412: A sequence of astronomical events, each with a peg hole beside it. Lines of bare peg holes were used to count the "empty days" between what were taken as the significant celestial events. Often set up in town squares ( agoras ), the tablets put the progression of the year on public display. This system would have been fundamental to an individual's sense of the advancing year, but it barely intersected with

SECTION 10

#1732788085257

1644-399: A set scheme (such as the popular rhyme "Thirty days hath September..."), the duration of each month was declared just before month's end in an attempt to latch the first of the following month onto the upcoming new moon . The short months of 29 days were known as "hollow" and the ones with 30 days as "full". Each month was divided into three phases of ten days associated with the waxing moon,

1781-603: A short period of prosperity under the Frankish rulers of Athens (1205–1310), who repaired the underground drainage channels ( καταβόθρα katavóthra ) of Lake Kopais and fostered agriculture, Boeotia long continued in a state of decay, aggravated by occasional barbarian incursions. The first step toward the country's recovery was not until 1895, when the drainage channels of Kopais were again put into working order. In 1880–86, Heinrich Schliemann 's excavations at Orchomenus (H. Schliemann, Orchomenos , Leipzig 1881) revealed

1918-598: A short time in the Aetolian League (about 245 BC) Boeotia was generally loyal to Macedon , and supported its later kings against Rome. Rome dissolved the league in 171 BC, but it was revived under Augustus , and merged with the other central Greek federations in the Achaean synod. The death-blow to the country's prosperity was dealt by the devastations during the First Mithridatic War . Save for

2055-468: A solar year, using a purely lunar calendar (such as the Islamic one) removes any relation between the months and the seasons, causing the months to creep backwards over the seasons. By tying the start of their year to the summer solstice Athenians forced the months to relate, with some elasticity, to the seasons. In order to deal with the 11-day difference between 12 lunar months and 1 solar cycle, when it

2192-578: A suitable capital; other major towns were Orchomenus , Plataea , and Thespiae . It was the constant ambition of the Thebans to absorb the other townships into a single state, just as Athens had annexed the Attic communities. But the outlying cities successfully resisted this policy, and only allowed the formation of a loose federation that, initially, was merely religious. While the Boeotians, unlike

2329-542: A tentative reconstruction. The Attic calendar was an exclusively local phenomenon, used to regulate the internal affairs of the Athenians, with little relevance to the outside world. For example, just across the border in Boeotia , the months had different names, and the year even began in midwinter. In Athens, the year began six months later, just after midsummer. Furthermore, while Greek months were supposed to begin with

2466-576: A thirteenth month. A nineteen-year cycle, the Metonic cycle , was developed in Athens by the astronomers Meton and Euctemon (known to be active in 432 BC), could have been used to pattern the insertion of leap years to keep the lunar and solar years aligned with some accuracy. There is, however, no sign that any such system was in fact used in Athens, whose calendar seems to have been administered on an ad hoc basis. The first function of this calendar

2603-400: A total of 24,200 men in the army. He assumes that 25% of men were ineligible for military service, so his total population of men between the ages of twenty and fifty is 30,250. Using model life tables he calculates a total male citizen population of 72,240 and an equal number of women, for a minimum free population of 144,050, plus an unknown number of slaves and foreign residents. He proposes

2740-423: A year: Monthly and annual festivals were not usually allowed to fall on the same days so every festival month had an opening phase with exactly recurrent practices and celebrations while in the body of each month was a unique schedule of festival days. A parallel function of this calendar was the positioning of the perhaps 15 or so forbidden days on which business should not be transacted. Rather than considering

2877-587: Is considerable evidence concerning Sumerian music . Lyres and flutes were played, among the best-known examples being the Lyres of Ur . Sumerian culture was male-dominated and stratified. The Code of Ur-Nammu , the oldest such codification yet discovered, dating to the Ur III, reveals a glimpse at societal structure in late Sumerian law. Beneath the lu-gal ("great man" or king), all members of society belonged to one of two basic strata: The " lu " or free person, and

SECTION 20

#1732788085257

3014-513: Is first attested in proper names of the kings of Kish c.  2800 BC , preserved in later king lists. There are texts written entirely in Old Akkadian dating from c.  2500 BC . Use of Old Akkadian was at its peak during the rule of Sargon the Great ( c.  2334 –2279 BC), but even then most administrative tablets continued to be written in Sumerian, the language used by

3151-520: Is known to have applied in the 2nd century BC, when the festival calendar was so out of sync with the actual cycles of the moon that the lunisolar date was sometimes given under two headings, one "according to the god", apparently the Moon, and the other "according to the archon ", the festival calendar itself. A third calendar regulating Athenian lives was solar or seasonal. As such, it was fundamental for seasonal activities like farming and sailing. Within

3288-407: Is little break in historical continuity between the pre- and post-Sargon periods, and that too much emphasis has been placed on the perception of a "Semitic vs. Sumerian" conflict. It is certain that Akkadian was also briefly imposed on neighboring parts of Elam that were previously conquered, by Sargon. c. 2193–2119 BC (middle chronology) c.  2200 –2110 BC (middle chronology) Following

3425-526: Is marked by a distinctive style of fine quality painted pottery which spread throughout Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf . The oldest evidence for occupation comes from Tell el-'Oueili , but, given that environmental conditions in southern Mesopotamia were favourable to human occupation well before the Ubaid period, it is likely that older sites exist but have not yet been found. It appears that this culture

3562-404: Is most clearly seen at Tell el-'Oueili near Larsa , excavated by the French in the 1980s, where eight levels yielded pre-Ubaid pottery resembling Samarran ware. According to this theory, farming peoples spread down into southern Mesopotamia because they had developed a temple-centered social organization for mobilizing labor and technology for water control, enabling them to survive and prosper in

3699-416: Is not clear. However, in 407 BC the two calendars were synchronized to start and end on the same days. Hereafter as described in the 4th century Constitution of the Athenians the civic year was arranged as follows: In years with an extra month intercalated into the festival calendar, the political months were probably lengthened to 39 and 38 days, a method that would have maintained the balance between

3836-459: Is one of the regional units of Greece . It is part of the region of Central Greece . Its capital is Livadeia , and its largest city is Thebes . Boeotia was also a region of ancient Greece , from before the 6th century BC. Boeotia lies to the north of the eastern part of the Gulf of Corinth . It also has a short coastline on the Gulf of Euboea . It bordered on Megaris (now West Attica ) in

3973-559: Is probably the source of this tradition, and the source of Thucydides ' "sixtieth year", that is, two generations of thirty years. A second tradition puts the expulsion of the Boiotoi in the reign of Aiatus, one generation after the War . To this should also belong the story in Plutarch , which tells how Opheltas king of the Boiotoi took Chaeronea "by force from the barbarians." Opheltas is

4110-487: Is shown by the reputation and visible Mycenean remains of several of its cities, especially Orchomenus and Thebes . Some toponyms and the common Aeolic dialect indicate that the Boeotians were related to the Thessalians . Traditionally, the Boeotians are said to have originally occupied Thessaly , the largest fertile plain in Greece, and to have been dispossessed by the north-western Thessalians two generations after

4247-652: The Anthesteria . While the month-naming festivals of Pyanepsia, Thargelia and Skira were relatively important, some of the grandest celebrations in the life of the city are not recognised in the name of the month. Examples are the Great Dionysia held in Elaphebolion (month 9) and the Panathenaia are only indirectly recognised in Hekatombaion (month 1), named after the hekatombe , the sacrifice of

Attic calendar - Misplaced Pages Continue

4384-525: The Arcadians , generally acted as a united whole against foreign enemies, the constant struggle between the cities was a serious check on the nation's development. Boeotia hardly figures in history before the late 6th century BC. Previous to this, its people are chiefly known as the makers of a type of geometric pottery, similar to the Dipylon ware of Athens. In about 519 BC, the resistance of Plataea to

4521-517: The Battle of Tanagra . Athens retaliated with a sudden advance upon Boeotia, and after the victory at the Battle of Oenophyta took control of the whole country, taking down the wall the Spartans had built. With the victory the Athenians also occupied Phocis , the original source of the conflict, and Opuntian Locris . For ten years the land remained under Athenian control, which was exercised through

4658-725: The Fall of Troy (1200 BC). They moved south and settled in another rich plain, while others filtered across the Aegean and settled on Lesbos and in Aeolis in Asia Minor . Others are said to have stayed in Thessaly, withdrawing into the hill country and becoming the perioikoi ("dwellers around"). Boeotia was an early member of the oldest Amphictyonic League ( Anthelian ), a religious confederacy of related tribes, despite its distance from

4795-554: The Fertile Crescent . Although not specifically discussing Sumerians, Lazaridis et al. 2016 have suggested a partial North African origin for some pre-Semitic cultures of the Middle East, particularly Natufians , after testing the genomes of Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic culture-bearers. Craniometric analysis has also suggested an affinity between Natufians and ancient North Africans. Some scholars associate

4932-727: The Mycenean age (1600–1200 BC) when the Mycenean Greeks established themselves in Boeotia and the city of Thebes became an important centre. Many of them are related to the myths of Argos , and others indicate connections with Phoenicia , where the Mycenean Greeks and later the Euboean Greeks established trading posts. Important legends related to Boeotia include: Many of these legends were used in plays by

5069-657: The Pagasitic Gulf before migrating to the land later termed Boeotia. The location of Arne is unknown, though sometimes it is equated with Cierium in Central Thessaly . The presence in Classical times in Boeotia of cults and place-names of Thessalian origin, such as Itonia and Itonian Athena, Homole and Homoloian Zeus, Alalcomenae , Corseia and Pharae , confirm for most scholars the merits of these traditions. It is, therefore, generally believed that

5206-511: The Pleiades rises (an event which elsewhere is set to mark the end of spring). Such a system was part of general Greek tradition, but fitted to local geography and conditions. Hesiod also uses the rising of Arcturus to mark the ending of winter and marks the start of Spring with the coming of the sparrows. The seasons were not viewed by Greeks as dividing the year into four even blocks but rather spring and autumn were shorter tail sections of

5343-509: The Samarra culture of northern Mesopotamia. The Ubaidians, though never mentioned by the Sumerians themselves, are assumed by modern-day scholars to have been the first civilizing force in Sumer. They drained the marshes for agriculture , developed trade, and established industries, including weaving , leatherwork , metalwork , masonry , and pottery . Some scholars contest the idea of

5480-588: The Thessalians who were led by Thessalus , son of Aiatus, son of Pheidippus , son of another Thessalus. Pheidippus appears in the Catalogue of ships as one of the commanders of the force from Cos and Carpathus. He was thought to have been driven to Epirus after the war and to have settled at Ephyra in the Thesprotid . Hence the Boiotoi were expelled two generations after the Trojan War. Hellanicus

5617-531: The University of Pennsylvania between 1889 and 1900, and in Shuruppak by German archeologist Robert Koldewey in 1902–1903. Major publications of these finds were " Decouvertes en Chaldée par Ernest de Sarzec " by Léon Heuzey in 1884, " Les Inscriptions de Sumer et d'Akkad " by François Thureau-Dangin in 1905, and " Grundzüge der sumerischen Grammatik " on Sumerian grammar by Arno Poebel in 1923. In

Attic calendar - Misplaced Pages Continue

5754-558: The archaeological record shows clear uninterrupted cultural continuity from the time of the early Ubaid period (5300–4700 BC C-14 ) settlements in southern Mesopotamia. The Sumerian people who settled here, farmed the lands in this region that were made fertile by silt deposited by the Tigris and the Euphrates . Some archaeologists have speculated that the original speakers of ancient Sumerian may have been farmers, who moved down from

5891-634: The prytaneis of the Athenian council, which took it in turns to vote on all new measures. Two Boeotarchs were provided by Thebes, but by 395 BC Thebes was providing four Boeotarchs, including two who had represented places now conquered by Thebes such as Plataea, Scolus , Erythrae , and Scaphae . Orchomenus , Hysiae , and Tanagra each supplied one Boeotarch. Thespiae , Thisbe , and Eutresis supplied two between them. Haliartus , Lebadea and Coronea supplied one in turn, and so did Acraephia , Copae , and Chaeronea . The total military force of

6028-415: The " Dynasty of Isin " in the Sumerian king list, ending with the rise of Babylonia under Hammurabi c. 1800 BC. Later rulers who dominated Assyria and Babylonia occasionally assumed the old Sargonic title "King of Sumer and Akkad", such as Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria after c. 1225 BC. Uruk, one of Sumer's largest cities, has been estimated to have had a population of 50,000–80,000 at its height. Given

6165-536: The "Treasury of Minyas"). The Boeotian population entered the land from the north possibly before the Dorian invasion. With the exception of the Minyae, the original peoples were soon absorbed by these immigrants, and the Boeotians henceforth appear as a homogeneous nation. Aeolic Greek was spoken in Boeotia. In historical times, the leading city of Boeotia was Thebes, whose central position and military strength made it

6302-458: The 10 sets of public arbitrators, the 10 treasurers of the Delian league and so on.) This decimal ordering extended to the creation of a supplementary calendar with ten months. Each year, each tribe contributed 50 members to the council of 500 ( boule ), which played an important role in the administration of the city. For one tenth of the year, each tribal fifty was on duty, with a third of them in

6439-435: The Akkadian and Ur III phases, there was a shift from the cultivation of wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley , but this was insufficient, and during the period from 2100 BC to 1700 BC, it is estimated that the population in this area declined by nearly three-fifths. This greatly upset the balance of power within the region, weakening the areas where Sumerian was spoken, and comparatively strengthening those where Akkadian

6576-560: The Archaeological Service under Theodore Spyropoulos , uncovering the Mycenaean palace, a prehistoric cemetery, the ancient amphitheatre , and other structures. The regional unit Boeotia is subdivided into 6 municipalities. These are (number as in the map in the infobox): Boeotia was created as a prefecture in 1836 ( Greek : Διοίκησις Βοιωτίας ), again in 1899 ( Νομός Βοιωτίας ) and again in 1943; in all cases it

6713-471: The Athenian month names refer to a festival schedule some hundreds of years out of date. The correlation suggested here between the Athenian months and those of the modern ( Gregorian ) calendar is loose, and, in some years, it might have been off by over a month. The months were 29 or 30 days in length, loosely in alternation, since the Moon orbits the Earth in roughly 29.5 days. However, rather than following

6850-570: The Boeotians originated in Thessaly and lived there as a distinct ethnos , in Phthiotis or in Thessaliotis, before they migrated to Boeotia, taking elements with them from other parts of Thessaly . Boeotians were expelled from Thessaly after the Trojan war although there are three traditions which disagree on how expulsion played out. One tradition says that the Boiotoi were expelled by

6987-584: The Boiotian League (11,000 infantry and 1,100 cavalry) has been used as the basis for a number of calculations of the population of the region in the early fourth century BC. John Bintliff assumes an additional 21,000 light troops and rowers in the navy, for a total of 33,100 men. Assuming the same number of women, two children and one slave for every household, he estimates the total Boeotian population at 165,500 (including 33,100 slaves). Mogens Herman Hansen assumes an additional 12,100 light troops, for

SECTION 50

#1732788085257

7124-461: The Boiotoi seem to have paused to digest western Boeotia; the generation or two before Thebes was captured marks this pause in all traditions. The siting close to Coronea of the sanctuary of Itonian Athena, and the celebration of the Pamboeotia there, together with the renaming of rivers and other toponyms, and the sanctity attached to the neighbouring settlement of Alalcomenae , all strengthen

7261-462: The French use the term béotien ("Boeotian") to denote Philistinism . Boeotia had significant political importance, owing to its position on the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth , the strategic strength of its frontiers, and the ease of communication within its extensive area. On the other hand, the lack of good harbours hindered its maritime development. The importance of the legendary Minyae has been confirmed by archaeological remains (notably

7398-600: The League's original home in Anthela . Although they included great men such as Pindar , Hesiod , Epaminondas , Pelopidas , and Plutarch , the Boeotian people were portrayed as proverbially dull by the Athenians (cf. Boeotian ears incapable of appreciating music or poetry and Hog-Boeotians , Cratinus .310). Many ancient Greek legends originated or are set in this region. The older myths took their final form during

7535-485: The Sumerian cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr , and date to between c.  3350  – c.  2500 BC , following a period of proto-writing c.  4000  – c.  2500 BC . The term "Sumer" ( Akkadian : 𒋗𒈨𒊒 , romanized:  šumeru ) comes from the Akkadian name for the "Sumerians", the ancient non- Semitic -speaking inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia . In their inscriptions,

7672-556: The Sumerian king Shulgi described himself as "the king of the four quarters, the pastor of the black-headed people". The Akkadians also called the Sumerians "black-headed people", or ṣalmat-qaqqadi , in the Semitic Akkadian language. The Akkadians, the East Semitic-speaking people who later conquered the Sumerian city-states , gave Sumer its main historical name, but the phonological development of

7809-528: The Sumerian king list whose name is known from any other legendary source is Etana , 13th king of the first dynasty of Kish . The earliest king authenticated through archaeological evidence is Enmebaragesi of Kish (Early Dynastic I), whose name is mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh —leading to the suggestion that Gilgamesh himself might have been a historical king of Uruk. As the Epic of Gilgamesh shows, this period

7946-695: The Sumerians called their land "Kengir", the "Country of the noble lords" ( Sumerian : 𒆠 𒂗 𒄀 , romanized:  ki-en-gi(-r) , lit.   ''country" + "lords" + "noble''), and their language "Emegir" ( Sumerian : 𒅴𒂠 , romanized:  eme-g̃ir or 𒅴𒄀 eme-gi 15 ). The origin of the Sumerians is not known, but the people of Sumer referred to themselves as "Black-Headed Ones" or "Black-Headed People" ( Sumerian : 𒊕 𒈪 , romanized:  sag̃-gíg , lit.   ''head" + "black'', or 𒊕 𒈪 𒂵 , sag̃-gíg-ga , phonetically /saŋ ɡi ɡa/ , lit. "head" + "black" + relative marker). For example,

8083-540: The Sumerians with the Hurrians and Urartians , and suggest the Caucasus as their homeland. This is not generally accepted. Based on mentions of Dilmun as the “home city of the land of Sumer” in Sumerian legends and literature, other scholars have suggested the possibility that the Sumerians originated from Dilmun, which was theorized to be the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. In Sumerian mythology, Dilmun

8220-528: The Sumerians’ sphere of influence (ordered from south to north): Apart from Mari, which lies full 330 kilometres (205 miles) north-west of Agade, but which is credited in the king list as having exercised kingship in the Early Dynastic II period, and Nagar, an outpost, these cities are all in the Euphrates-Tigris alluvial plain, south of Baghdad in what are now the Bābil , Diyala , Wāsit , Dhi Qar , Basra , Al-Muthannā and Al-Qādisiyyah governorates of Iraq . The Sumerian city-states rose to power during

8357-422: The Ubaid period to the Uruk period is marked by a gradual shift from painted pottery domestically produced on a slow wheel to a great variety of unpainted pottery mass-produced by specialists on fast wheels. The Uruk period is a continuation and an outgrowth of Ubaid with pottery being the main visible change. By the time of the Uruk period, c. 4100–2900 BC calibrated, the volume of trade goods transported along

SECTION 60

#1732788085257

8494-403: The Uruk period coincided with the Piora oscillation , a dry period from c. 3200–2900 BC that marked the end of a long wetter, warmer climate period from about 9,000 to 5,000 years ago, called the Holocene climatic optimum . The dynastic period begins c. 2900 BC and was associated with a shift from the temple establishment headed by council of elders led by a priestly "En" (a male figure when it

8631-422: The Uruk period were probably theocratic and were most likely headed by a priest-king ( ensi ), assisted by a council of elders, including both men and women. It is quite possible that the later Sumerian pantheon was modeled upon this political structure. There was little evidence of organized warfare or professional soldiers during the Uruk period, and towns were generally unwalled. During this period Uruk became

8768-402: The arrangement in the 4th century explained below. From several synchronized datings that survive, it is evident that the political and the festival years did not have to begin or end on the same days. The political new year is attested 15 days either way from the start of the festival year. The system is known from the 420s; whether it had been in place from the beginning of the ten-month system

8905-404: The beginnings of a modern economy, with the use of artisans to 'do the technical work in making his plow and wagon' and the beginnings of sea commerce and its increasing importance in the economic life of Greece. According to myth, the Boeotians ( Ancient Greek : Βοιώτιοι , romanized :  Boiotioi ) lived in Thessaly , especially in the area around Arne , though some may have gone to

9042-505: The belief that this western section was the area where the first Boeotian settlement took place, and where Boeotian institutions were first established in the new homeland. The advance eastward eventually proceeded both to the north and to the south of Copais lake . On the north side it ultimately reached Anthedon , a town credited with once having been occupied by the Thracians . On the south side it came as far as Thebes and Thespiae . In Thebes, according to one version, Damasichthon took

9179-416: The broad divisions of the seasons, it relied on star risings and settings to mark more precise points in time. Star risings are the days when particular stars or constellations that have been below the horizon during hours of darkness first appear after sunset. Different star risings were keyed to various farm tasks, such as when to harvest: Hesiod in the Works and Days urges the farmer to harvest when

9316-430: The canals and rivers of southern Mesopotamia facilitated the rise of many large, stratified , temple-centered cities, with populations of over 10,000 people, where centralized administrations employed specialized workers. It is fairly certain that it was during the Uruk period that Sumerian cities began to make use of slave labour captured from the hill country, and there is ample evidence for captured slaves as workers in

9453-493: The closing years of the Peloponnesian War; but their greatest achievement was the decisive victory at the Battle of Delium over the Athenian army (424 BC) in which both their heavy infantry and their cavalry displayed unusual efficiency. According to the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia , in 395 BC the Boeotian League comprised eleven groups of sovereign cities and associated townships, each of which elected one Boeotarch or minister of war and foreign affairs, contributed sixty delegates to

9590-400: The conciliar year was made up of three prytanies of 28 days followed by ten prytanies of 27 days, but there is strong evidence that the first prytany had usually 27 days. (Meritt, 1961: Ch.VII) The political months had no name but were numbered and given in conjunction with the name of the presiding tribe (which, as determined by lot at the expiry of their predecessors' term, gave no clue as to

9727-439: The council chamber at all times as an executive committee for the state. Their period of office was known as a ' prytany ' or state month. In the 5th century, the calendar was solar-based by using a year of 365 or 366 days and paying no attention at all to the phases of the moon. One likely arrangement is that the ten prytanies were divided between six months of 37 days followed by four months of 36 days. That would be parallel to

9864-550: The day as bridging the two moons or months. Elsewhere in Greece this day was usually called the 30th. Athenian festivals were divided between the 80 or so annually recurring celebrations and a set of monthly holy days clustered around the beginning of each month. They were often the birthdays of gods, the Greeks thinking of birthdays as a monthly rather than a yearly recurrence. Every month, days 1–4 and 6–8 were all sacred to particular gods or divine entities, amounting to some 60 days

10001-502: The dealings with Philip of Macedon the cities merely followed Thebes. The federal constitution was also brought into accord with the democratic governments now prevalent throughout the land. Sovereign power was vested in the popular assembly, which elected the Boeotarchs (between seven and twelve in number), and sanctioned all laws. After the Battle of Chaeroneia , in which the Boeotian heavy infantry once again distinguished itself,

10138-596: The death of Xanthus symbolized traditionally the completion of the conquest of Boeotia under the kings and the consequent immediate extinction of the kingship. During the Persian invasion of 480 BC, Thebes assisted the invaders. In consequence, for a time, the presidency of the Boeotian League was taken from Thebes, but in 457 BC the Spartans reinstated that city as a bulwark against Athenian aggression after

10275-718: The downfall of the Akkadian Empire at the hands of Gutians , another native Sumerian ruler, Gudea of Lagash, rose to local prominence and continued the practices of the Sargonic kings ' claims to divinity. The previous Lagash dynasty, Gudea and his descendants also promoted artistic development and left a large number of archaeological artifacts. Later, the Third Dynasty of Ur under Ur-Nammu and Shulgi (c. 2112–2004 BC, middle chronology), whose power extended as far as southern Assyria , has been erroneously called

10412-754: The earliest texts. Artifacts, and even colonies of this Uruk civilization have been found over a wide area—from the Taurus Mountains in Turkey , to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and as far east as western Iran . The Uruk period civilization, exported by Sumerian traders and colonists, like that found at Tell Brak , had an effect on all surrounding peoples, who gradually evolved their own comparable, competing economies and cultures. The cities of Sumer could not maintain remote, long-distance colonies by military force. Sumerian cities during

10549-735: The end of the Ice Age . Sumerian civilization took form in the Uruk period (4th millennium BC), continuing into the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic periods. The Sumerian city of Eridu , on the coast of the Persian Gulf, is considered to have been one of the oldest cities , where three separate cultures may have fused: that of peasant Ubaidian farmers, living in mud-brick huts and practicing irrigation; that of mobile nomadic Semitic pastoralists living in black tents and following herds of sheep and goats; and that of fisher folk, living in reed huts in

10686-488: The end of Skirophorion, the final month of the year. The new year would then begin on the day after the first sliver of the new moon was seen (or presumed to be seen). However, because the relation of these two events, solstice and new moon, is variable, the date of the new year (in relation to a Gregorian date) could move by up to a month. This linking of solar and lunar years defines the calendar as lunisolar . Because 12 lunar months are approximately 11 days shorter than

10823-451: The federal council at Thebes, and supplied a contingent of about 1000 infantry and 100 cavalry to the federal army. A safeguard against undue encroachment on the part of the central government was provided in the councils of the individual cities, to which all important questions of policy had to be submitted for ratification. These local councils, to which the propertied classes alone were eligible, were subdivided into four sections, resembling

10960-526: The federating policy of Thebes led to the interference of Athens on behalf of the former; on this occasion, and again in 507 BC, the Athenians defeated the Boeotian levy. The Works and Days by Hesiod is often used by economists and historians alike to provide invaluable evidence for the Boetian economic system and its developments in the Homeric Age. In the poem Hesiod, who lived in Boeotia, describes

11097-409: The festival or state calendars. They were more civic in character and required managing to maintain their coherence with the year of the seasons. The seasonal and sidereal calendar, on the other hand, was immune to interference so Thucydides could date by the rising of Arcturus without having to wade into the confusion of disconnected city-state calendars. The modern calendar, as well as regulating

11234-471: The first empires known to history was that of Eannatum of Lagash, who annexed practically all of Sumer, including Kish, Uruk, Ur , and Larsa , and reduced to tribute the city-state of Umma , arch-rival of Lagash. In addition, his realm extended to parts of Elam and along the Persian Gulf . He seems to have used terror as a matter of policy. Eannatum's Stele of the Vultures depicts vultures pecking at

11371-477: The first says that Coronea and Orchomenus were captured virtually simultaneously and then the sanctuary of Itonian Athena was founded. It is clear that both traditions envisaged the Boiotoi as following a well-known invasion route from Thessaly , the one via Thermopylae and Hyampolis to Chaeronea , where the invaders would be poised to attack both Orchomenus and Coronea . Having gained control of Chaeronea , Orchomenus and Coronea , and their territories,

11508-411: The first sighting of the new moon , it was determined locally and with a degree of variability. In many years, the months in the two communities would have more or less coincided, but there is no sign that they tried to keep the days of the month exactly aligned, as they would have seen no reason to do so. The divide between these neighbouring calendars perhaps reflected the traditional hostility between

11645-540: The first state that successfully united larger parts of Mesopotamia in the 23rd century BC. After the Gutian period , the Ur III kingdom similarly united parts of northern and southern Mesopotamia. It ended in the face of Amorite incursions at the beginning of the second millennium BC. The Amorite "dynasty of Isin " persisted until c.  1700 BC , when Mesopotamia was united under Babylonian rule. The Ubaid period

11782-483: The full moon and the waning moon. The naming of the days was complex. The first day of the month was simply noumenia or new moon, a name used in virtually every Greek calendar. From there the days were numbered up to the 20th day. For the final third of the month the numbering turned around to do a countdown from ten to the last day. Only the middle phase had numbers for the days running higher than 10 and even these were often phrased as "the third over ten" and so forth. In

11919-541: The gaining of Thebes . The Thebans remembered, according to Thucydides, that the Asopus valley and Plataea were reduced later than the rest of Boeotia and were occupied in accordance with an agreed plan. The Boeotian advance was apparently stalled on what became the Athenian-Boeotian frontier, by the efforts of local forces, if the legend of Xanthus and Melanthus has any historical significance. In any event

12056-418: The god Poseidon . More commonly, the god appears in the form of a cult title. (A cult title is the name or aspect under which a god was worshipped at a particular festival.) Examples are Maimakterion, named after Zeus ("the rager") and Metageitnion, after Apollo as helper of colonists . Of all of the months, only the eighth, Anthesterion, was named directly after the major festival celebrated in its month,

12193-424: The ground, month by month and year by year, in the light of immediate concerns, political or military. It was in the control of magistrates , who were not astronomers . How heavyhanded the interference was is controversial. Some scholars believe that if a festival date fell on a day needed for an assembly meeting, an extra day could be inserted by simply repeating the same day name. There is clear evidence that it

12330-439: The immediate year, is part of a system of chronology that allows events to be dated far into the future and the past so a given date includes day, month and year. By contrast, the Attic calendar had little interest in ordering the sequence of years. As in other Greek cities, the name of one of the yearly magistrates, at Athens known as the eponymous archon , was used to identify the year in relation to others. The sequence of years

12467-666: The islands of Lemnos and Thera . The Argonauts were sometimes referred to as Minyans. Also, according to legend the citizens of Thebes paid an annual tribute to their king Erginus . The Minyans may have been proto-Greek speakers. Although most scholars today agree that the Myceneans descended from the Minyans of the Middle Helladic period , they believe that the progenitors and founders of Minyan culture were an indigenous people . The early wealth and power of Boeotia

12604-436: The land never again rose to prosperity. The destruction of Thebes by Alexander the Great (335 BC) destroyed the political energy of the Boeotians. They never again pursued an independent policy, but followed the lead of protecting powers. Although military training and organization continued, the people proved unable to defend the frontiers, and the land became more than ever the "dancing-ground of Ares". Although enrolled for

12741-514: The late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was divided into many independent city-states , which were divided by canals and boundary stones. Each was centered on a temple dedicated to the particular patron god or goddess of the city and ruled over by a priestly governor ( ensi ) or by a king ( lugal ) who was intimately tied to the city's religious rites. An incomplete list of cities that may have been visited, interacted and traded with, invaded, conquered, destroyed, occupied, colonized by and/or otherwise within

12878-489: The marshlands, who may have been the ancestors of the Sumerians. Reliable historical records begin with Enmebaragesi ( Early Dynastic I ). The Sumerians progressively lost control to Semitic states from the northwest. Sumer was conquered by the Semitic-speaking kings of the Akkadian Empire around 2270 BC ( short chronology ), but Sumerian continued as a sacred language . Native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about

13015-416: The meetings were bunched slightly toward the end of the month and made to dodge especially the larger festivals. A date under this calendar might run "the 33rd day in the 3rd prytany, that of the tribe Erechtheis", the style used in Athenian state documents (surviving only as inscriptions ). Sometimes, however, a dating in terms of the festival calendar is added as well. The Attic calendar was determined on

13152-426: The month as a simple duration of thirty days, the three-part numbering scheme focuses on the Moon itself. In particular the waning days 10–2 and the waxing days 2–10 frame the crucial moment where the moon vanishes and then reappears. A date under this scheme might be "the third (day) of Thargelion waning", meaning the 28th day of Thargelion. To summarise the days with special names. This strange juxtapositioning of

13289-461: The months were named after the main agricultural activity practised in that month. Many Athenian festivals had links with different stages of the agricultural cycle, such as festivals of planting or harvest. It perhaps added to the need to keep lunar and solar calendars roughly aligned, though this was not always achieved. The farming year, however, was not the primary focus of the calendar. At Athens month 6, Poseideon, took its name directly from

13426-429: The most urbanized city in the world, surpassing for the first time 50,000 inhabitants. The ancient Sumerian king list includes the early dynasties of several prominent cities from this period. The first set of names on the list is of kings said to have reigned before a major flood occurred. These early names may be fictional, and include some legendary and mythological figures, such as Alulim and Dumizid . The end of

13563-548: The names of cities, rivers, basic occupations, etc., as evidence), a non-Semitic and non- Indo-European agglutinative language isolate . Others have suggested that the Sumerians were a North African people who migrated from the Green Sahara into the Middle East and were responsible for the spread of farming in the Middle East. However, contrary evidence strongly suggests that the first farming originated in

13700-490: The newly installed democracies; but in 447 BC the people revolted, and after a victory at the Battle of Coronea regained their independence. In the Peloponnesian War the Boeotians fought zealously against Athens. Although slightly estranged from Sparta after the peace of Nicias , they never abated their enmity against their neighbours. They rendered good service at Syracuse and at the Battle of Arginusae in

13837-413: The north of Mesopotamia after perfecting irrigation agriculture there. The Ubaid period pottery of southern Mesopotamia has been connected via Choga Mami transitional ware, to the pottery of the Samarra period culture ( c.  5700 –4900 BC C-14 ) in the north, who were the first to practice a primitive form of irrigation agriculture along the middle Tigris River and its tributaries. The connection

13974-402: The north. Ecologically, the agricultural productivity of the Sumerian lands was being compromised as a result of rising salinity. Soil salinity in this region had been long recognized as a major problem. Poorly drained irrigated soils, in an arid climate with high levels of evaporation, led to the buildup of dissolved salts in the soil, eventually reducing agricultural yields severely. During

14111-499: The other cities in Sumer, and the large agricultural population, a rough estimate for Sumer's population might be 0.8 million to 1.5 million. The world population at this time has been estimated at 27 million. The Sumerians spoke a language isolate . A number of linguists have claimed to be able to detect a substrate language of unknown classification beneath Sumerian, because names of some of Sumer's major cities are not Sumerian, revealing influences of earlier inhabitants. However,

14248-521: The other two: the two generations until the expulsion from Thessaly after the War and the two generations until Thebes is gained give the four generations cited by Hieronymus in his tale of the Cadmean return to Thebes after the war. The entry-point to Boeotia by Boeotians seems to be put in the same general area by all traditions. The second tradition gives Chaeronea as the first place attacked, while

14385-514: The overarching seasons, summer and winter. The divisions could be formalised by using star risings or settings in relation to the equinoxes : for instance, winter is defined in one medical text as the period between the setting of the Pleiades and the spring. The older tradition as seen in Hesiod's Works and Days was extended by astronomical research to the creation of star calendars known as parapegmas . They were stone or wooden tablets listing

14522-469: The prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods. Sumerian written history reaches back to the 27th century BC and before, but the historical record remains obscure until the Early Dynastic III period, c.  23rd century BC , when the language of the written records becomes easier to decipher, which has allowed archaeologists to read contemporary records and inscriptions. The Akkadian Empire was

14659-609: The rule from Autesion , son of Tisamenus , son of Thersander , another stemma that puts the Boeotians in Thebes two generations after the Trojan War . The tradition intimates that there was a peaceful take-over, with Autesion joining the Dorians . There must have been another pause for some time. The next advance, into the Asopus valley, was led by Xanthus , son of Ptolemy , son of Damasichthon , that is, two generations after

14796-433: The scribes. Gelb and Westenholz differentiate three stages of Old Akkadian: that of the pre-Sargonic era, that of the Akkadian empire, and that of the Ur III period that followed it. Akkadian and Sumerian coexisted as vernacular languages for about one thousand years, but by around 1800 BC, Sumerian was becoming more of a literary language familiar mainly only to scholars and scribes. Thorkild Jacobsen has argued that there

14933-665: The severed heads and other body parts of his enemies. His empire collapsed shortly after his death. Later, Lugal-zage-si , the priest-king of Umma, overthrew the primacy of the Lagash dynasty in the area, then conquered Uruk, making it his capital, and claimed an empire extending from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. He was the last ethnically Sumerian king before Sargon of Akkad . The Akkadian Empire dates to c.  2234 –2154 BC ( middle chronology ), founded by Sargon of Akkad . The Eastern Semitic Akkadian language

15070-623: The sixth and fifth millennium BC. Like nearby Elam , it is one of the cradles of civilization , along with Egypt , the Indus Valley , the Erligang culture of the Yellow River valley, Caral-Supe , and Mesoamerica . Living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Sumerian farmers grew an abundance of grain and other crops, a surplus which enabled them to form urban settlements. The world's earliest known texts come from

15207-430: The son of Peneleus , one of the leaders of the Boeotian contingent in the Catalogue , and living one generation after the war. It is not until the reign of Damasichthon , son of Opheltas , that control of Thebes was gained by the Boiotoi. Hence in this tradition one generation after the war, the Boiotoi were expelled and western Boeotia was invaded; two generations after the war, Thebes was won. A third tradition combines

15344-691: The south of Mesopotamia as the Babylonian Empire , just as the Old Assyrian Empire had already done in the north from the late 21st century BC. The Sumerian language continued as a sacerdotal language taught in schools in Babylonia and Assyria, much as Latin was used in the Medieval period, for as long as cuneiform was used. This period is generally taken to coincide with a major shift in population from southern Mesopotamia toward

15481-499: The south, Attica in the southeast, Euboea in the northeast, Opuntian Locris (now part of Phthiotis ) in the north and Phocis in the west. The main mountain ranges of Boeotia are Mount Parnassus in the west, Mount Helicon in the southwest, Cithaeron in the south and Parnitha in the east. Its longest river, the Cephissus , flows in the central part, where most of the low-lying areas of Boeotia are found. Lake Copais

15618-454: The term šumerû is uncertain. Hebrew שִׁנְעָר Šinʿar , Egyptian Sngr , and Hittite Šanhar(a) , all referring to southern Mesopotamia, could be western variants of Sumer . Most historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled between c.  5500  – c.  3300 BC by a West Asian people who spoke the Sumerian language (pointing to

15755-532: The tholos tomb he called the "Tomb of Minyas ", a Mycenaean monument that equalled the beehive tomb known as the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae . In 1893, A. de Ridder excavated the temple of Asclepios and some burials in the Roman necropolis. In 1903–05, a Bavarian archaeological mission under Heinrich Bulle and Adolf Furtwängler conducted successful excavations at the site. Research continued in 1970–73 by

15892-401: The time of year). The days were numbered with a straightforward sequence, running from 1 to the total number of days for that month. One of the main roles of the civic calendar was to position the four assembly meetings to be held each prytany . If possible, assembly meetings were not held on festival days, including the monthly festival days clustered at the start of each month. As a result,

16029-529: The tragic Greek poets, Aeschylus , Sophocles , and Euripides : They were also used in lost plays such as Aeschylus's Niobe and Euripides's Antiope . Boeotia was also notable for the ancient oracular shrine of Trophonius at Lebadea . Graea , an ancient city in Boeotia, is sometimes thought to be the origin of the Latin word Graecus , from which English derives the words Greece and Greeks . The major poets Hesiod and Pindar were Boeotians. Nonetheless,

16166-411: The tribes were never abolished, one of the key reforms at the creation of democracy after 506 BC was to distribute citizens under a new system of ten tribes to try to ensure even participation across the whole community. From then on, ten became a kind of hallmark number for the democracy, as so much citizen activity was done through the ten tribes. (For instance, the 10 generals leading the 10 regiments,

16303-696: The tribes. Evidence, however, is lacking. In the Macedonian period (307/306 – 224/223 BC), with twelve tribes (and the prytanies), evidence shows that the month and the prytany were not coterminous and that, in general, the six first prytanies had 30 days and the last six had 29 days and that in an intercalary year, the 384 days are equally subdivided. (Meritt, 1961: Ch.VI) In the Thirteen Phylai period (224/223 – 201/200 BC), it would be expected that in an intercalary year prytanies and months must have been fairly evenly matched and that in an ordinary year,

16440-401: The two communities. Had the Boeotians been speakers of an Ionic dialect , the one spoken in Athens, there would have been overlap in the names of months. An example is the island of Delos , where the calendar shared four out of twelve month-names with Athens, but not in the same places in the year. There, even though the island was under some degree of Athenian control from around 479 to 314 BC,

16577-452: The two days called the tenth, the earlier and the later, further highlighted the shift into the moon's waning phase. When a month was to last 29 instead of 30 days (a "hollow" month), the last day of the month ("the old and new") was pulled back by one day. That is to say, the "second day of the waning month" (the 29th in straight sequence) was renamed as month's end. As Ionians, the Athenians had always been divided into four tribes. Although

16714-413: The western coastline of modern Turkey) often share month names with Athens. For instance, at Miletos four of the same month names were in use, namely Thargelion, Metageitnion, Boedromion and Pyanepsion, and the last of these even occupied the same position as month four in both communities. Traditionally, these Ionian cities were founded by colonists from Attica (perhaps around 1050 BC). It may be then that

16851-447: The wings of the month, the numbered days ran 2–10 and then 10–2. Days in these sections were distinguished from each other by adding the participle "waxing" and "waning" to the month name. In the centre of the month with its unambiguous numbering there was no need for this, though later the term "of the middling month" was used. The final day of the month was called henē kai nea , "the old and the new". Peculiar to Athens, this name presents

16988-421: The year started, as with the Boeotians, at midwinter . Athenians lived under a number of simultaneous calendars that were used to fix days for different purposes. How much each calendar meant to individuals probably depended on how they lived. They may be set out as follows: The year was meant to begin with the first sighting of the new moon after the summer solstice . Ideally, the solstice would occur toward

17125-510: Was a large lake in the center of Boeotia. It was drained in the 19th century. Lake Yliki is a large lake near Thebes . The origin of the name "Boeotians" may lie in the mountain Boeon in Epirus . The earliest inhabitants of Boeotia, associated with the city of Orchomenus , were called Minyans . Pausanias mentions that Minyans established the maritime Ionian city of Teos , and occupied

17262-610: Was a temple for a goddess, or a female figure when headed by a male god) towards a more secular Lugal (Lu = man, Gal = great) and includes such legendary patriarchal figures as Dumuzid , Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh —who reigned shortly before the historic record opens c. 2900 BC, when the now deciphered syllabic writing started to develop from the early pictograms. The center of Sumerian culture remained in southern Mesopotamia, even though rulers soon began expanding into neighboring areas, and neighboring Semitic groups adopted much of Sumerian culture for their own. The earliest dynastic king on

17399-548: Was also mentioned as the home of deities such as Enki . The status of Dilmun as the Sumerians’ ancestral homeland has not been established, but archaeologists have found evidence of civilization in Bahrain, namely the existence of Mesopotamian-style round disks. A prehistoric people who lived in the region before the Sumerians have been termed the " Proto-Euphrateans " or " Ubaidians ", and are theorized to have evolved from

17536-410: Was associated with increased war. Cities became walled, and increased in size as undefended villages in southern Mesopotamia disappeared. Both Enmerkar and Gilgamesh are credited with having built the walls of Uruk. The dynasty of Lagash (c. 2500–2270 BC), though omitted from the king list, is well attested through several important monuments and many archaeological finds. Although short-lived, one of

17673-547: Was banned, decided to freeze the calendar to add some extra days of war. However, their allies rejected the rearrangement and went home. Aristophanes ' Clouds , a comedy from 423 BC, contains a speech whose complaint is brought from the Moon: the Athenians have been playing round with the months, "running them up and down" so that human activity and the divine order are completely out of kilter: "When you should be holding sacrifices, instead you are torturing and judging." A situation

17810-479: Was derived from the Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia. It is not known whether or not these were the actual Sumerians who are identified with the later Uruk culture. The story of the passing of the gifts of civilization ( me ) to Inanna , goddess of Uruk and of love and war, by Enki , god of wisdom and chief god of Eridu, may reflect the transition from Eridu to Uruk. The archaeological transition from

17947-555: Was done later. In Athens in 271 BC, just before the Great Dionysia , four days were inserted between Elaphebolion 9 and 10, putting the calendar on hold. Presumably, it was to gain extra rehearsal time for the festival with its performances of tragedy and comedy . A similar story comes from the 5th century BC but at Argos : the Argives, launching a punitive expedition in the shadow of the holy month of Karneios when fighting

18084-584: Was judged that the months had slid back enough (roughly every three years), an extra month was inserted (" intercalated "), leading to a leap year with about 384 days in it. The extra month was achieved by repeating an existing month so that the same month name was used twice in a row. The sixth month, Poseideon, is most frequently mentioned as the month that was repeated; however months 1, 2, 7, and 8 (Hekatombaiōn, Metageitniōn, Gameliōn, and Anthesteriōn) are also attested as being doubled. Various cycles were in existence for working out exactly which years needed to add

18221-430: Was matched to a list of names that could be consulted. Instead of citing a numbered year, one could locate a year in time by saying that some event occurred "when X. was archon". That allowed the years to be ordered back in time for a number of generations into the past, but there was no way of dating forward beyond ordinary human reckoning (as in expressions such as "ten years from now"). There was, for instance, no use of

18358-530: Was now growing rife, and Sparta fostered this feeling by insisting on the complete independence of all the cities in the Peace of Antaclidas (387 BC). In 374 BC, Pelopidas restored Theban dominance. Boeotian contingents fought in all the campaigns of Epaminondas against the Spartans, most notably at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, and in the Third Sacred War against Phocis (356–346 BC); while in

18495-495: Was split from Attica and Boeotia Prefecture . As a part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform, the regional unit Boeotia was created out of the former prefecture Boeotia. The prefecture had the same territory as the present regional unit. At the same time, the municipalities were reorganised, according to the table below. The provinces were: Boeotia is the home of the third largest pasta factory in Europe, built by MISKO ,

18632-483: Was the major language. Henceforth, Sumerian remained only a literary and liturgical language, similar to the position occupied by Latin in medieval Europe. Following an Elamite invasion and sack of Ur during the rule of Ibbi-Sin (c. 2028–2004 BC), Sumer came under Amorite rule (taken to introduce the Middle Bronze Age ). The independent Amorite states of the 20th to 18th centuries are summarized as

18769-488: Was to set the days for the religious festivals . In a county fair role, they encompassed a much broader range of activities than the word "religious" suggests and were central to the life of the city. The Athenian months were named after gods and festivals. In this the calendar differed from the Mesopotamian models that lie behind all Greek lunar calendars. In the Sumerian and Babylonian prototypes, for instance,

#256743