“There is direct evidence of the existence of the Proto-Hayk calendar,” says Grigor Brutyan, a candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, astrophysicist, and calendar researcher.
— In ancient times, calendar science in Armenia was considered a rather rare and highly respected specialty. But how much do we know about this science and its origins?
— Let’s start with the fact that scholars’ knowledge of calendar science dates back to the Christian period. We only have medieval sources. The oldest sources, albeit indirect, are the testimonies of Movses Khorenatsi.
However, there are works that belong to an earlier period. In the first half of the 5th century, the calendar of Andreas of Byzantium was translated into Armenian. The first Armenian calendrical work that has come down to us dates back to the 7th century.
This is the grand work of Anania Shirakatsi, called “Knnnikon” (Canonicon). In ancient times, chronological lists of rulers were called canons, and in any calendar, these canons played an important role, as they determined the system of chronology. “Knnnikon” by Shirakatsi has not survived in its entirety, but fortunately, excerpts from it were copied in different periods and have survived to this day, albeit in a rather distorted form.
— What is the value of “Knnnikon” from the perspective of calendar science?
— According to researchers, Shirakatsi’s work was essentially an encyclopedia of almost all sciences, albeit with a bias towards natural sciences. And, crucially, the “Knnnikon” also included a calendar, including the Armenian one.
Why was calendar science considered such a rare specialty in ancient times? To answer this question, one must understand what the system of sciences and the education system in Armenia represented, which in the Middle Ages was significantly different from what we know today. The entire system of sciences was divided into seven so-called “azat gitutyunner.”
— Liberal arts?
— I don’t know how adequate this translation is, but I find it difficult to suggest another. This set of “liberal arts” was divided into two parts. The first part (introduced in Armenia by Khorenatsi) covered grammar, rhetoric, and logic (or philosophy).
The second part (which spread in Armenia thanks to Shirakatsi) included mathematics (arithmetic, number theory, etc.), geometry, astronomy, and music. Don’t be surprised, as musical canons are directly related to the laws of geometry, and the theory of music is based on the laws of physics and mathematics.
In ancient times, musical works were created exclusively according to known canons, and the magnificent sharakans written by medieval Armenian authors fully justify this approach to music. In short, by the 7th century, Armenia already had a complete education system, and it is no coincidence that universities appeared after this.
Before that, there were only higher schools that trained high-class specialists in various fields, but there was no university education covering the widest possible range of sciences. Thus, in universities, the study of calendar science began after the student had mastered all seven of the aforementioned sciences.
That is, it was believed that to understand the calendar, one needed to know grammar, rhetoric, logic, mathematics, geometry, astronomy, and music.
— Why did calendar science develop so much in ancient times?
— Let’s ask ourselves: what place does the calendar occupy in human worldview? In almost all books that tell the history of the calendar, you will read that the calendar emerged with the development of human economic activity, as people needed more precise knowledge of time—they needed to know when to sow, when to harvest, etc.
That is, the only “customer” of the calendar was everyday life. In my opinion, this is extremely incorrect, as such an explanation of the creation and development of the calendar leaves many questions unanswered.
Why, for example, does a people who have lived on a certain territory for millennia suddenly change their calendar, and not always for the better? If the need for a calendar is explained solely by human economic activity, how can such changes be explained in the absence of changes in the nature of this very economic activity, climate, etc.?
But if, for example, we pay attention to important historical events that occurred at a certain point in the history of a nation, it becomes obvious that all radical changes in the calendar were preceded by a change in religion. Religion changes, and after some time, the calendar changes. So, there is some correlation, there is a connection.
— And what is it expressed in?
— What is religion, essentially? It is a system of dogmas that we believe in and a system of rituals and ceremonies that are performed according to the requirements of this faith. And to know the place of a particular ritual in time, we need a system of temporal reference points, that is, a calendar. There can be no religion without a calendar, and there can be no calendar that does not originate from religion. Therefore, when religion changes, the calendar changes. All of human history confirms this.
— How many times has the Armenian calendar changed?
— Many times. Research shows that in pre-Christian times, there were many calendars in Armenia at different periods. There is, for example, the Hayk calendar, which, according to legend, was founded by Hayk, the progenitor of the Armenians.
— So, this is the very first Armenian calendar?
— It was long considered the first. But in studying this calendar, I was fortunate to find evidence that it had a predecessor, and I even managed to reconstruct a calendar that I called “Proto-Hayk.” But I think this is not the end.
— Not the beginning?
— I mean research that will surely lead to new evidence of even more ancient Armenian calendars. The information is there—it just needs to be found. The calendar is a very curious thing. Since it has a mathematical structure, it is easy to analyze.
By analyzing a particular calendar, one can discover many layers leading back through the centuries. Suppose a people who have lived on a certain territory for millennia change their religion, and therefore their calendar.
But no people can radically erase their past culture, traces of the old religion, and adopt something new from scratch overnight. Something from the old remains. We adopted Christianity 1700 years ago, but we retained much from the pre-Christian period—names, for example, or even rituals.
The same happens with the calendar. All new Armenian Christian calendars contain small grains preserved from the old pre-Christian calendars. True, these grains are scattered randomly, and it is incredibly difficult to collect them into a whole, but it is possible.
— What century is the first Armenian calendar created after Armenia adopted Christianity dated to?
— The first calendar (called the Great Armenian Calendar) was created in the mid-6th century by order of Catholicos Movses Yegvardetsi. Its creator was Athanas Taronatsi, the head of the Msho Surb Karapet Monastery.
The Easter lists compiled by Taronatsi—the numbers of the years—became the years of the Armenian era. Later, in the 7th century, Anania Shirakatsi, by order of Catholicos Anastas Akoretsi, created a new version of this calendar, which, unfortunately, was not approved by the Church Council.
Meanwhile, the works in which Shirakatsi presented the project of the new Armenian calendar have survived to this day. The improved version of the Armenian calendar is dedicated to a part of the aforementioned “Knnnikon”—”Tomar.”
For the first time after a long break, Grigor Magistros drew attention to the works of Anania Shirakatsi. This was already the 10th century. He found the “Knnnikon” in the archives and persuaded Catholicos Petros Getadarts to give Shirakatsi’s work for copying.
Thanks to the copies made, we have the opportunity to study the “Knnnikon” today; otherwise, lost in the archives, it would have been irretrievably lost. In the 11th century, two exceptionally serious Armenian calendar researchers emerged: Hovhannes Kozern and Hovhannes Sarkavag—one of the greatest Armenian philosophers.
He made a significant contribution to the development of Armenian calendar science. The fact is that in his time, the first 532-year cycle of the Armenian calendar ended.
— Why does one cycle last exactly 532 years?
— Because the cycle of lunar phases repeats every 19 years, the parallelism of days of the week and calendar dates repeats every 28 years—that is, the correspondence of a certain date to a certain day of the week. And Christian church holidays are based on the phases of the moon, days of the week, and dates.
First, Easter is determined, and then, based on Easter, all other holiday dates. Easter is determined by considering the day of the spring equinox, lunar phases, and days of the week.
According to the decision of the Council of Nicaea (325 AD), Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first spring full moon. Multiplying 19 by 28, we get 532—the period over which the combination of all parameters repeats.
— Yes, you can’t do without mathematics here. So, what did Hovhannes Sarkavag do?
— In 1084, the first cycle, founded by Athanas Taronatsi in 552, ended. Hovhannes Sarkavag created calendar lists—the so-called paschal tables for the new cycle—the next 532 years.
Then he created a new Armenian calendar that had not existed before. For centuries, the Armenian calendar was movable—that is, the calendar year consisted of only 365 days, without the use of a leap year system. The beginning of the year was not fixed—such a year is called a wandering year.
Hovhannes Sarkavag created the Armenian fixed, non-wandering calendar by introducing a leap day.
— Have the ancient Armenian names of months, days of the week, etc., reached us?
— Yes, thanks to the works of Anania Shirakatsi, we know the ancient Armenian names of all the months, days of the month, and even the names of all the hours of the day.
— Is it possible, based on ancient calendrical sources, to calculate the actual age of the Armenian nation?
— It is possible, although no calendar researcher has gone that far in their studies yet. In 1974, a ceramic jug was found in Shirak, dated to the 33rd-32nd centuries BC. This ceramic vessel has ornaments with calendrical significance.
It was possible to reconstruct this ancient calendar, which turned out to be very similar to the Proto-Hayk calendar that I managed to discover based on the analysis of the Armenian calendars that have come down to us. This is direct evidence that the Proto-Hayk calendar indeed existed.
“Voice of Armenia” — Socio-political newspaper.
The ancient Armenian calendar, recreated and constructed by Paris Heruni. In the photo: Paris Misakovich Heruni (Armenian: Պարիս Միսակի Հերունի) — scientist, radio physicist, radio technician, and radio astronomer. Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (1996, corresponding member since 1982), Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Antennas at the Yerevan Polytechnic Institute. Photo provided by Nana Heruni.
