Babylonian calendar

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Calendar of Nippur, Third Dynasty of Ur

The Babylonian calendar was a lunisolar calendar with years consisting of 12 lunar months, each beginning when a new crescent moon was first sighted low on the western horizon at sunset, plus an intercalary month inserted as needed by decree. The calendar is based on a Sumerian (Third Dynasty of Ur) predecessor preserved in the Umma calendar of Shulgi (c. 21st century BC).

Months[]

The year begins in spring, and is divided into reš šatti "beginning", mišil šatti "middle", and qīt šatti "end of the year". The word for "month" was arḫu (construct state araḫ). The chief deity of the Assyrians is assigned the surplus intercalary month, showing that the calendar originates in Babylonian, and not later Assyrian times.

During the 6th century BC Babylonian captivity of the Jews, the Babylonian month names were adopted into the Hebrew calendar. In Iraq and the Levant the Gregorian solar calendar is used with these names replacing the Latin ones as Arabic names of Roman months. The Assyrian calendar used in is an example, also the Turkish months. These were inspired by the Ottoman Rumi calendar, itself derived from the Roman Julian solar calendar. Despite appropriating the mere Babylonian names, their months are not equivalent to those of the Hebrew and Babylonian lunisolar calendar.