Editing Time (section)

=== History of the calendar ===
{{Main|Calendar}}

Artifacts from the [[Paleolithic]] suggest that the moon was used to reckon time as early as 6,000 years ago.<ref name="Rudgley">{{cite book |title=The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age |last=Rudgley |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Rudgley |date=1999 |pages=86–105 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York}}
</ref>{{Disputed inline|Talk page section|date=January 2025}} [[Lunar calendar]]s were among the first to appear, with years of either 12 or 13 [[lunar month]]s (either 354 or 384 days). Without [[Intercalation (timekeeping)|intercalation]] to add days or months to some years, seasons quickly drift in a calendar based solely on twelve lunar months. [[Lunisolar calendar]]s have a thirteenth month added to some years to make up for the difference between a full year (now known to be about 365.24 days) and a year of just twelve lunar months. The numbers twelve and thirteen came to feature prominently in many cultures, at least partly due to this relationship of months to years.

Other early forms of calendars originated in [[Mesoamerica]], particularly in ancient Mayan civilization, in which they developed the [[Maya calendar]], consisting of multiple interrelated calendars. These calendars were religiously and astronomically based; the [[Haabʼ|Haab']] calendar has 18 months in a year and 20 days in a month, plus five [[epagomenal]] days at the end of the year.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Van Stone | first1 = Mark | year = 2011 | title = The Maya Long Count Calendar: An Introduction | journal = Archaeoastronomy | volume = 24 | pages = 8–11 }}</ref> In conjunction, the Maya also used a 260-day sacred calendar called the [[Tzolkʼin|Tzolk'in]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Davies |first=Diane |title=The Maya Calendar Explained |url=https://www.mayaarchaeologist.co.uk/public-resources/maya-world/maya-calendar-system/ |access-date=2025-02-26 |website=Maya Archaeologist |language=en-GB |archive-date=26 February 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250226110722/https://www.mayaarchaeologist.co.uk/public-resources/maya-world/maya-calendar-system/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The reforms of [[Julius Caesar]] in 45&nbsp;BC put the [[Roman Empire|Roman world]] on a [[solar calendar]]. This [[Julian calendar]] was faulty in that its intercalation still allowed the astronomical [[solstice]]s and [[equinox]]es to advance against it by about 11&nbsp;minutes per year. [[Pope Gregory XIII]] introduced a correction in 1582; the [[Gregorian calendar]] was only slowly adopted by different nations over a period of centuries, but it is now by far the most commonly used calendar around the world.

During the [[French Revolution]], a new clock and calendar were invented as part of the [[Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution|dechristianization of France]] and to create a more rational system in order to replace the Gregorian calendar. The [[French Republican Calendar]]'s days consisted of ten hours of a hundred minutes of a hundred seconds, which marked a deviation from the base 12 ([[duodecimal]]) system used in many other devices by many cultures. The system was abolished in 1806.<ref>{{Cite web |title=French republican calendar {{!}} Revolutionary period, decimal system, reform |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/French-republican-calendar |access-date=2025-02-26 |website=Britannica |language=en |archive-date=8 March 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250308214916/https://www.britannica.com/science/French-republican-calendar |url-status=live }}</ref>