The paper examines the calendar and astronomical representations of the Kyrgyz-Cossacks, Uzbeks, and mountain Tajiks, which indicate the use of the lunisolar calendar, in which the duration of the month was measured by observing the Moon's conjunctions with the Pleiades. It is shown that this calendar was in no way inferior to the lunisolar calendar, although it was just as inconvenient for farmers, since the beginning of the year in it fell on different dates of the solar calendar. Based on the fact that the mountaineers of the Pamirs have the worst preserved lunar-stellar calendar, it is suggested that it was originally invented by nomadic pastoralists.
Keywords: Central Asia, lunar calendar, lunisolar calendar, Moon, Pleiades, Scorpio, Kyrgyz-Cossacks, Uzbeks, mountain Tajiks.
NOTES ON THE QUESTION OF ACCOUNT OF TIME IN CENTRAL ASIA
Galina Yu. KOLGANOVA, Mikhail G. NICKIFOROV
The paper investigates the calendar and astronomical representations of Kirghiz-Cossacks, Uzbeks, and mountain Tajiks. All these people used the lunar-stellar calendar. This calendar calculates the duration of the month by observing conjunctions of the Moon with the Pleiades. The authors argue that the lunar-stellar calendar has the same precision as the lunar-solar calendar, although both calendars were uncomfortable to agriculturalists because the beginning of the year corresponded to the different dates of the solar calendar. Among all the mentioned peoples, the lunarstellar calendar worst of all has been preserved in the Pamir Mountains. Therefore it presumably was invented by nomadic pastoralists.
Keywords: Central Asia, the lunar calendar, the lunar-stellar calendar, the Moon, the Pleiades, the Scorpio, Kirghiz-cossacks, Uzbeks, mountain Tajiks.
In the pre-Islamic period in Central Asia, and in particular in the territory of Khorezm and Sogd, there was a solar calendar. In this calendar, the year consisted of 12 months
Galina KOLGANOVA-Researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of ...
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