Hi, Rob, Dirk, List
The date May 19, 861 in the Julian calendar is
May 25, 861 in the Gregorian calendar. The problem
is that in 861, there is NO Gregorian calendar! So,
roughly speaking, it is more accurate to say that the
date given for the fall is in the same day-slot of the
seasonal year as the May 25 is today, relative to the
solstices or the perihelion of the Earth's orbit (+/- 1 day).
But there is another coincidence worth noting. As
Dirk points out, the box housing the meteorite and the
script in which the date recorded is younger than the
year 861 (of later date). The Japanese calendrical date
given as the fall date April 8th. That is the traditional
day in Japan to celebrate the birth of the Buddha and
is a local festival date (Hana-matsuri or Kanbutsu-e).
In China, the Birth of the Buddha is celebrated on the
8th day of the 4th month (=April 8) of the Chinese lunar
calendar, a date which in the Western calendar varies from
May 6 to 26, and lands on May 25 (the fall date in the
Western calendar) more than any other. (Lunar calendars
oscillate back and forth over the solar calendar in a 13
year cycle.)
Further west, the date is moved one week later to
the 15th day, 4th month of the lunar year (April 15) to
coincide with the Full Moon, which conveniently always
falls in the middle of a lunar "moon-th." In many other
regions, Buddha's Birthday is whenever the Full Moon
lands in the May of the Western calendar.
Given the fact that the assignment of the date is
not contemporary with the fall and that the date has
other significances, it may be that the assigned
date is just that: assigned at a later time for reasons
of "appropriateness." (A polite way of saying the
DATE of the year may be made up.)
It is much more likely that the YEAR is totally accurate.
This is usually the case with ancient records, that they
are accumulated as "annals," "yearbook," and so forth,
as they have for millennia.
It's still a heck of long time to take good care of
a meteorite!
Sterling
-----------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob Wesel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Sterling K. Webb" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Cc: "drtanuki" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2007 7:16 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] AD. Japan Meteorite
Falls/Finds/Hammerspageupdated with more than 50 links
OK, so +/- 6 days then.
Just busting chops Sterling, your posts are always amazingly insightful,
thanks for that.
You and Bernd...juggernauts...or robots...need to run some tests.
Rob Wesel
http://www.nakhladogmeteorites.com
------------------
We are the music makers...
and we are the dreamers of the dreams.
Willy Wonka, 1971
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