Why were the first calendars carefully hidden from the people (5 photos)

We perceive the calendar as something banal and taken for granted. But it was not always so. And such a simple thing, it would seem, like the calendar at the dawn of human civilization made a revolution. And it was, perhaps, more important than the invention of the wheel.





Many megaliths, even before the advent of human civilizations, were made in an attempt to structure the seasons

The calendar became a breakthrough invention for humanity. Imagine, time has become possible to structure. You could plan your life!

And the inventors of the calendar themselves quickly realized this. This allowed them to get rich very quickly.

How the invention of the calendar made its authors the elite of society

Imagine, for example, how peasants in Ancient Egypt worked hard from morning to night to feed themselves.



Evenki calendar in modern interpretation. These Siberian tribes had all their affairs for each month drawn and scheduled on such a calendar.

And then this smart guy comes out and says:

In four days the Nile will flood.

And the Nile flood, which is very important for Egyptian agriculture, occurs.

Rains are very rare here. But every year the Nile flooded, which made the lands very fertile and saturated the fields with moisture. And the Nile was the axis around which Egyptian civilization developed.



Ancient Mayan calendar. It amazes with its astronomical accuracy. A year in it is equal to ≈365.2422 days. This is more accurate than the Gregorian calendar, where a year is 365.2425 days.

Then the wise guy comes and says:

The drought will come in two days.

And again his prediction comes true.

Over time, such a person becomes a priest. After all, he talks to the gods, those around him are sure! And they brought him gifts, and the priest himself could no longer work, no longer think about his daily bread.



But the Gregorian calendar is so familiar to all of us

The priests willingly shared their predictions, but the calendars themselves were hidden from the people for a long time. The compilation, planning and modification of calendars was passed down from generation to generation between priests, remaining secret knowledge for thousands of years. The reason is simple:

"Knowledge is power!".

Although Francis Bacon said this in the 17th century, people understood this truth much earlier. As long as only you have real knowledge, you can demonstrate its sacredness. And the simple crowd considers you to be “speaking with the gods” and pays homage to you.



These days, you have to work hard to attract attention to the calendar. Because why have it if everyone has it on their phone?

But you shouldn’t think of priests as cunning scoundrels. In fact, many of them moved human civilization forward. Due to the income, they had time for further observations, inventions and discoveries.