Abraham died and the Calendar Chaos that followed at Ur

by koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

When Abraham died in 2065 BCE (calculated from the fourth year of Solomon in 1 Kings 6:1 as 970  BCE) chaos followed at Ur with the calendar.

Abraham did not die at Ur (Genesis 25:7). Since Jacob was born in 2071 BCE (Genesis 47:9) he was only 6 years old when his grandfather died.

The ruler of Ur at that time was the famous ruler Shulgi who was an Akkadophil, meaning that the married a semite and gave all his sons semite names, although they were in the Sumerian zone. The Amorite migration took place and many Amorites flocked to Ur and surrounding areas.

Exactly ten year after the death of Abraham, in Shulgi's 40th year, he deified himself (see Jacob Klein in 1990: 31 footnote 43).

The calendar of Mesopotamia was based on a lunar-calculation of 354 days in a year. That means the year was always 11 days too short and every three years an intercalary month had to be added to bring the calendar in line with the seasons of the solar calendar. Astronomers were very helpful since they could see this problem with the rising of the constellations and stars at certain points in the year on the horizon and sunset.

What we know so far from the reign before Shulgi and until his 33rd year, is that the intercalary month additions were normal (OrSP 47-49, 170). In Shulgi's 33rd year, something special happened. It was three years after the death of Abraham and Jacob was now 9 years old in 2062 BCE.

An extra intercalary month was added in Shulgi's 33rd year although the 32nd year was also an intercalary year with an extra 13th month (Owen and Young, JCS 23 [1970]: 110, no. 5).

With an extra month added when the lunar system was adjusted to equalize with the solar system means that the extra month will be 30 days ahead in the season. If one fast-forward 30 days in a solar calendar, then it means that Spring has not yet started but one calls it already Spring. All the seasons for that year will be slipping and will be late. Obviously everyone knew the problem but no-one corrected it. The king was not yet deified but they did not correct the problem.

In his 36th year in 2059 BCE, they called again an intercalary month which is normal for three years have passed (De Genouillac TCL 5, 5665; Keiser, YOS 4, 319). By now in this year, they actually should not have added an intercalary month since the seasons were now again normal in line with the solar year. But an intercalary month was added and again the seasons slipped in a delay mode of at least a month too late.

For the next four years, no intercalary month was called for but in his 40th year in 2055 BCE, Shulgi deified himself and an intercalary month was used (Schneider AnOr 7, 189). Since the equalizing with the solar calendar occurred already in his 39th year in 2056 BCE [as the third year with 10 days x 3 years = 30 days], therefore his intercalary in the 40th year will make the delay of the season 20 days. All seasons in this year were 20 days too late. From 2055 BCE or the 40th year of Shulgi, all intercalary months were added at the end of the year (see Tohru Gomi ASJ 6 [1984]: 11)

Then in his second deified year in his 41st year of his reign in 2054 BCE, Shulgi allowed another intercalary month (YOS 4, 215 and J. Peat, JCS 28 [1976]: 214 no. 23). This would cause again the seasons to be 20 days delayed since they were supposed to be 10 days delayed in this year if he did not allow an intercalary month.

In his 42nd year they did not allow an intercalary month and that meant that at the end of his 43rd year, the lunar calendar and solar calendar were in line again.  Two texts do indicate that there was an intercalary month added in Shulgi's 43rd year. Now that the solar and lunar calendars were in line, Shulgi still added an intercalary for this year 2052 BCE (see MVN 4, 225 and 234).

In the 44th year, at the beginning, the seasons were 30 days late due to this addition of 30 days. By the end of year 44 of Shulgi or 2051 the seasons would be 20 days late. Again an intercalary was called for (MVN 1, 100 and OrSP 47-49, 248).   By adding 30 days the seasons would be for the year 2050 BCE in the beginning 50 days late but at the end of the year, 40 days. By the end of the 46th year the slipping was 30 days that the seasons were late.

Shulgi allowed another intercalary in his 46th year in 2049 BCE and this caused the seasons to slip 60 days at the beginning of  2048 BCE or the 47th year of Shulgi (De Genouillac TCL 5, 5667 and 5671), but 50 days at the end of Shulgi’s 47th year.  

But, in that year, the 47th year or 2048 BCE, king Shulgi of Ur allowed another intercalary month to be added and again for his 48th year the seasons were 70 days later at the beginning and 60 days at the end (see MVN 5, 20 for both 47 and 48). This was in 2047 BCE for 48.

It was the last year for the reign of Shulgi. When he died in that year, his son Amar-suen came to the throne. He deified himself from the beginning of his reign. When Shulgi died, Jacob of Israel was 25 years old.

King Amar-suen of Ur instituted an intercalary month in his first year in 2046 BCE probably to let the season be late with 70 days at his beginning and 60 days at the end of his first year. In his second year he also instituted an intercalary month and kept the seasons 90 days late for the year 2045 BCE at the beginning but 80 days late at the end.

By the end of 2043 BCE the seasons were again 60 days late and he called an intercalary that year, his 4th year. The beginning of his 5th year saw the seasons 90 days delayed. By the end of his 5th year, the seasons were 80 days delayed. By the end of the 6th year they were 70 days delayed and he instituted another intercalary month in 2041 BCE to have the seasons for 2040 about 100 days delayed.

Modern scholars are at loss with what happened during this period at Ur. Benno Landsberger in 1915 thought that it was an unified imperial calendar. N. Schneider in 1936 insisted that there was no unified calendar but that every city had their own calendars: Ur, Lagash, Umma, Nippur, Drehem.

Some observations:

1. We need to know that there is not a single text that has all the months listed on it.             

2. When we do have 12-kam used as in three tablets from Drehem (PDT 397; BIN III 354 and BIN III 565) the expression "from month x until intercalary month y is 12 months" does not mean that the year had only 12 months. It means that counting was done from the second month until the end of the intercalary month (contra  Tohru Gomi 1977: 279).

3. Is it possible that there was a kind of El-Nino effect over the world in those days that shifted the seasons 20 days earlier so that they had to fast-forward to be concurrent with the seasons? 

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