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Egyptian Dates

Intro page      |      How to Read the Tables      |      The Egyptian Calendars       |       Sources      |      Analysis

Civil dates: (Excel) (HTML) (CSV)                                                   Lunar cycle: (Excel) (HTML) (CSV)

This page gives access to a set of conversion tables for determining the Julian equivalent of Egyptian civil and lunar dates in the Ptolemaic era. Two tables are provided: a table converting civil dates to Julian dates, and a table notionally converting lunar dates to civil dates according to the lunar cycle of pCarlsberg 9.

Sources for the Civil Conversions

The original classical source for our knowledge of the Egyptian calendar is the Almagest of Claudius Ptolemy, most conveniently available in the English translation of G. J. Toomer. This also gives many astronomical synchronisms, although the calendar dates associated with these must be interpreted carefully when used chronologically. The regnal eras of the kings, or most of them, are given in the Canon of Kings of Ptolemy's Handy Tables, through the Commentary of Theon of Alexandria. This original structure has been supplemented in the last century or so, to the point of replacement, through a mountain of papyri and other contemporary documents. Many individual points of chronology are discussed in the genealogical pages.

The basic modern surveys of the chronology of the period are:

P. W. Pestman, Chronologie Égyptienne d'après les textes démotiques (332 av. J.-C. - 453 ap. J.-C.) (Leiden, 1967)
A. E. Samuel, Ptolemaic Chronology (Munich, 1962)
T. C. Skeat, The Reigns of the Ptolemies (2nd edition) (Munich, 1969)

All of these works are, in some respects, out of date. Further, Samuel's work in particular is much more concerned with the Macedonian calendar than the Egyptian one.

Other books and papers with significant studies of specific topics related to the Ptolemaic Egyptian calendar, mostly in connection with regnal eras, are:

C. J. Bennett, The Chronology of Berenice III, ZPE 139 (2002) 143
        ——      The Early Augustan Calendars in Rome and Egypt, ZPE 142 (2003) 221
E. Bikerman, L'Avènement de Ptolemée V Épiphane, CdE 15 (1940) 128
M. Chauveau, Ères nouvelles et corégences en Égypte ptolémaïque, in B. Kramer et al. (eds), Akten des 21. Internationalen Papyrologenkongresses Berlin 13.-19.8 1995 (Stuttgart, 1997) I 163
A. Jones, Calendrica I: New Callippic Dates, ZPE 129 (2000) 141 
E. Grzybek, Du calendrier macédonien au calendrier ptolémaïque: problèmes de chronologie hellénistique (Basel, 1990)
B. Muhs, The Chronology of the Reign of Ptolemy II Reconsidered: The evidence of the NHb and NHT tax receipts, in A. M. F. W. Verhoogt & S. P. Vleeming (eds.), The Two Faces of Graeco-Roman Egypt: Greek and Demotic and Greek-demotic studies presented to P. W. Pestman (Leiden, 1998), 71
P. W. Pestman, Harronophris and Chaonnophris, two indigenous pharaohs in Ptolemaic Egypt (205-186 B.C.), in S. P. Vleeming (ed.) Hundred-Gated Thebes (Leiden, 1995), 101
A. E. Samuel, Year 27 = 30 and 88 B.C., CdE 40 (1965) 376
T. C. Skeat, Notes on Ptolemaic Chronology I. 'The Last Year which is also the First', JEA 46 (1960) 91
      ——      Notes on Ptolemaic Chronology II. 'The Twelfth Year which is also the First': The Invasion of Egypt by Antiochus Epiphanes, JEA 47 (1961) 10
      ——      Notes on Ptolemaic Chronology III. 'The First Year which is also the Third': A Date in the Reign of Cleopatra VII, JEA 48 (1962) 100
      ——      The Augustan Era in Egypt: A Note on P.Oxy. xii. 1453, ZPE 53 (1983) 241
      ——      The Beginning and the End of the KaisaroV krathsiV Era in Egypt, CdE 69 (1994) 308
W. F. Snyder, When was the Alexandrian Calendar Established?, AJP 64 (1943) 385

Not all the results of these studies are accepted here.

The most important books and articles used for the discussion of the calendar of the Canopic reform at this website are:

R. Krauss, Sothis- und Monddaten: studien zur astronomischen und technischen Chronologie Altägyptens (Hildesheim, 1985)
R. A. Parker, The Sothic Dating of the Twelfth and Eighteenth Dynasties, in J. H. Johnson & E. F. Wente (eds.), Studies in Honor of George R. Hughes (Chicago, 1977) 177
S. Pfeiffer, Das Dekret von Kanopus (238 v. Chr): Kommentar und historische Auswertung eines dreisprachigen Synodaldekretes der ägyptischen Priester zu Ehren Ptolemaios' III und seiner Familie (Leipzig, 2004)
L. E. Rose, Sun, Moon, and Sothis: A Study of Calendars and Calendar Reforms in Ancient Egypt (Deerfield Beach FL, 1999)
A. J. Spalinger, The Canopus Stela, in A. J. Spalinger, Three Studies on Egyptian Feasts and their Chronological Implications (Baltimore, 1992) 31

The English translation used here is that of Roger Bagnall. The clearest technical discussion of the relationship of the Canopic calendar to the Julian calendar and to the heliacal rising of Sothis in English -- despite its Velikovskian background, radical and unacceptable chronological conclusions, and rather hectoring tone -- is that of Rose. For Spalinger's relentlessly hostile review of this work, which spares only Rose' mathematical analysis of the Sothic cycle (which is what is relevant to these pages!), see here; for Rose's reply see here.

Sources for the Lunar Conversions

The Egyptian lunar calendar is a discovery of modern Egyptology. Its structure and its relationship to the civil calendar are discussed in extraordinary detail in:

L. Depuydt, Civil Calendar and Lunar Calendar in Ancient Egypt (Leuven, 1997)
R. A. Parker, The Calendars of Ancient Egypt (Chicago, 1950)

The basic document for synchronising the Egyptian lunar calendar to the civil one is pdem Carlsberg 9. The two most important treatments are in Parker and in:

L. Depuydt, The Demotic Mathematical Astronomical Papyrus Carlsberg 9 Reconsidered, in W. Clarysse et al. (eds) Egyptian Religion -- The Last Thousand Years: Studies Dedicated to the Memory of Jan Quaegebeur (Louvain, 1998) II 1277

With additional useful discussion in:

A. Jones, On the Reconstructed Macedonian and Egyptian Lunar Calendars, ZPE 119 (1997) 157

Most of the lunar/civil double dates considered here, but not known to Parker or Depuydt, are given in:

H. J. Thissen, Die demotischen Graffiti von Medinet Habu (Sommerhausen, 1989)

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