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From: johnbl@tekig5.UUCP (John Blankenagel)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: Counting years
Message-ID: <1089@tekig5.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 27-Aug-86 10:14:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekig5.1089
Posted: Wed Aug 27 10:14:41 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 29-Aug-86 19:22:34 EDT
References: <1408@tektools.UUCP> <140@csustan.UUCP>
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR
Lines: 20
Keywords: Rome Mesopotamia Zero

In article <140@csustan.UUCP>, smdev@csustan.UUCP (Scott Hazen Mueller) writes:
> In article <1408@tektools.UUCP> steves@tektools.UUCP (steve shellans) writes:
> >In western culture, we count years from the birth of Christ.
> >What event did people count from before that time?
> 
> counts from year zero.  To the meat of your question, the custom in any number
> of societies in ancient Mesopotamia (the Tigris/Euphrates valley, in the middle
> of Iraq) was to count the years in terms of the length of the current king's
> reign.  That is, if Bubblehead the first is king, and has been for 9 years,
> then the date is referred to as the ninth year of Bubblehead's reign.  It makes
> >Steve Shellans
> >Tektronix, Beaverton OR
> >{decvax, ucbvax, wyvax, ihnp4}!tektronix!tektools!steves
> 

And the Japanese still do it this way.  This year is Showa 63 or 64 or 
something like that.  The current emperor (Hirohito) has been around for
about that long.

John Blankenagel