o
have consisted in the relative importance they attached to various of
the phenomena which they both observed. The Egyptian, as we have seen,
centred his attention upon the sun. That luminary was the abode of
one of his most important gods. His worship was essentially solar. The
Babylonian, on the other hand, appears to have been peculiarly impressed
with the importance of the moon. He could not, of course, overlook the
attention-compelling fact of the solar year; but his unit of time was
the lunar period of thirty days, and his year consisted of twelve lunar
periods, or 360 days. He was perfectly aware, however, that this period
did not coincide with the actual year; but the relative unimportance
which he ascribed to the solar year is evidenced by the fact that he
interpolated an added month to adjust the calendar only once in six
years. Indeed, it would appear that the Babylonians and Assyrians did
not adopt precisely the same method of adjusting the calendar, since the
Babylonians had two intercular months called Elul and Adar, whereas the
Assyrians had only a single such month, called the second Adar.(8) (The
Ve'Adar of the Hebrews.) This diversity further emphasizes the fact that
it was the lunar period which received chief attention, the adjustment
of this period with the solar seasons being a necessary expedient of
secondary importance. It is held that these lunar periods have often
been made to do service for years in the Babylonian computations and in
the allied computations of the early Hebrews. The lives of the Hebrew
patriarchs, for example, as recorded in the Bible, are perhaps reckoned
in lunar "years." Divided by twelve, the "years" of Methuselah accord
fairly with the usual experience of mankind.

Yet, on the other hand, the convenience of the solar year in computing
long periods of time was not unrecognized, since this period is utilized
in reckoning the reigns of the Assyrian kings. It may be added that the
reign of a king "was not reckoned from the day of his accession, but
from the Assyrian new year's day, either before or after the day of
accession. There does not appear to have been any fixed rule as to which
new year's day should be chosen; but from the number of known cases, it
appears to have been the general practice to count the reigning years
from the new year's day nearest the accession, and to call the period
between the accession day and the first new year's day 'the beginning of
the reig