Note 597 — Chapter VI · LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK

Lepsius, Chronologie der Ägypter, i, 131 sqq.; Brugsch, Thesaurus, pt. i, 488 sqq.; idem, Ägyptologie, p. 364. On the astrological connection between the thirty-six decades of the twelve months and certain constellations see G. Daressy, “Une ancienne liste des décans égyptiens,” Annales du service des antiquités de l’Égypte, 1900, i, 79-90. The old and once popular theory, based upon a misunderstanding of certain passages in classical writers (Herodotus, ii, 82; Dio Cassius, xxxvii, 19), that the Egyptians originally possessed a week of seven days has now been entirely abandoned. For some monumental evidence, dating from the Twenty-second Dynasty, which may possibly refer to an hebdomadal cycle then used in astronomical speculations, see G. Daressy, “La semaine des Égyptiens,” Annales du service des antiquités de l’Égypte, 1909, x, 21-23, 180-182.