The chronography of time as we have it now is down to a fine science.  The understanding of where we are at any given time is weighted against the sun in relation to the solar system.

Them there beancounters have established 365.24219 days per orbit.  Fancy fine work that anyone with a quantum computer can verify in no time.

Well hold my sliderule while I grab my sextant and show you there was a much simpler time.  A time ignorant of the orbits; ignorant of the parallax.

Let us start with the differences today.  Yes, today.  We must consider that the engineers did not get the memo from Pope Gregory, and as such they were forced to think for themselves.

  What is today?

Today the day will be 24 hours, or will it?  We calculate that 24 hours as high noon to high noon, but then we account for the orbital drift and skew the value to account for the 1/365.24219 bit of the turn, not to face the sun again, but complete the 360° rotation in geospace.  The math and additional variables are far too vast for my feeble-mind to conceive.

Let us return to a primitive day, before the distractions of the existence of the orbit.  This simple change affects the day, nothing you can notice on the surface, no physical change. Nothing changes in your life, just the way the passage of time is calculated on paper. This engineering milestone of yesterday that you will soon see echoes of today.

Let us re-construct this primitive system and see where it goes.  The purple rock on top of the Great Giza Pyramid will denote our prime meridian.  The analemma reminds us that the length of the day varies, so take high noon on the vernal equinox till high noon of the vernal equinox in 1461 days.  This calculation ensured that the rest of the math from here on out will be the average of a 4 year cycle.  You will see how their wisdom, while extreme, simplifies things.

We are going to the deep end now, one huge splash is the perfection of the Antikythera Mechanism.  Aunt K is a fairly complex but straight forward machine.  She is old and no longer functional, but the math she holds seems to be working fairly darn well even current day.  Her remains verify the knowledge and beliefs that are hardcoded into the machine.

The use of prime numbers within the system causes a unique factorization, and she has proven to accurately track several of the wandering stars as identified within the Bible.  Sorry Pluto :-(

The prime numbers we will start to focus on will be the 11, the 13, the 223.  Aunt K demonstrates how these gears play an integral part in the relationship between the sun and the moon, and the moon phases.

Then there is 1277, this prime number, in concert with a few others will build the system.

Challenge accepted, the game is afoot.

1277 x 13 x 11 x 2 x 360 = Divisions at the equator

1277 x 223 x 13 x 11 = Cycles in a full system run

Now you run those numbers and the values you get are 131,479,920 divisions at the equator, and 40,722,253 cycles.

If you do not know these numbers, you will soon.

131,479,920 with all its primes has a common denominator of 1277 x 13 x 11 x 5 x 3 x 2 or 5,478,330; and while that number may not mean anything to anyone, it divides evenly into 131,479,920 24 times.  24 even division of the equator; and so marks the Hour.

1277 x 13 x 11 x 2 = 365,222 (1000 years) Millennium

1277 x 13 x 3 / 2 = 24901.5 (years) The Zodiac Cycle

40,722,253 cycles / 365.222 = 111500 (years) The Apsidal Precession

This system counts time in rhythm with nature, it uses measurements that are not only earth based, but mathematically aids in the tracking of the wandering stars.

There is another unit of measure, one referenced in scholarly papers and cited in history books.  While scholars still scratch their respective heads pondering an origin, we will put our foot down on this one too.

The Cubit is a unit like the longitudinal lines, the distance apart changes with latitude terminating at the poll.  It is 1/800 of a second of transit time of the sun.  And much easier math in this system.

24 x 60 x 60 x 800 = 69,120,000 cubits over 131,479,920 feet.  Base unit is 1.90219791666… (or 1.9 and 211/96,000 if you like)  How about 22.826375 inches… How about dem apples…

The Cubit(φ)=22.826375cos(φ)​ inches. Hard Stop.

So the next time you are arguing with your neighbor about how many cubits wide your driveway is, you know what you are talking about.

• Egyptian Royal Cubit: 1.7167 feet (20.6 inches) at ~25.8° North

• Common Egyptian Cubit: 1.475 feet (17.7 inches) at ~39.2° North

• Mesopotamian Cubit: 1.625 feet (19.5 inches) at ~31.5° North

• Greek Cubit: 1.505 feet (18.1 inches) at ~37.4° North

• Roman Cubit: 1.458 feet (17.5 inches) at ~39.8° North

• Biblical Cubit: 1.475 feet (17.7 inches) at ~39.2° North (Jericho)

If you think these numbers seem to clean, just keep in mind, as an annual measurement you can multiply by about 0.002% to get the Gregorian equivalent (365.24219/365.222), and 0.27% (That pesky orbit bit).

One must agree, if the system calculates in 7,233 days an event will occur, do you really care how accurate I am as long as in ~20 years it happens?  How about 5,646 years?  Nature has cycles, it may oscillate in its accuracy, but its predictability is off the charts… One must also consider that the closer you are to the event, the more accurate the scale of timing.

Come children, remove all the Gregorian Numbers and truncated conversions from the messed-up meter; you too may see the 233 x 5^2 x 2^5.