{4,000 Years BC[E] – Commentary (1)}[15th October 1990]

[Redbook8:30-32][19901015:1017]{4,000 Years BC[E] – Commentary (1)}[15th October 1990]

.1017

The diagram,* inevitably, had become over-full. But there are a few possibly interesting points.

Where a civilisation forms a single, reasonably ‘continuous’ thread across 2 or more millennia – which is the case only for the Egyptian, Chinese, and perhaps Greek cultures – there is a definite tendency for historians to identify and name periods in a way which displays shifts in context at[,] or within the permitted variation*** from[,] C points.

In the case of Egypt, if one joins the 2 ‘intermediate’ periods onto their predecessors in each case – which I think is permissible – then in the whole c3072 year period, only 1 out of the 7 points of change varies by more than 1/8th of its 512-year sub-period or 45^o** sector, from the appropriate 512C degree – and that one varies by <1/4, and is 2500 years ago, at the limit of records.

China does not start off so well (c2205bce) but comes progressively closer: there seems to be a 256 year cycle, from 768bce, from which point each of the 4 named shifts is within[,] or almost within (5 years at most, where 1/8 = 32)[,] the limit.

The Greek cycle is not nearly so precise: but there is a suggestion of 3 consecutive cycles of c1024 years each, meeting and overlapping (and the first starting and the last finishing) at least partly in each case within periods which are within the 1/8th permitted variation (which for 1024 years = 128 years). # The early internal cultural divisions of the 3^rd cycles, ie ‘Proto-geometric’ and ‘Geometric’, are not very regular; but the boundaries of the later Archaic and Classical, and the end of Hellenistic, are within 1/8th of the 256 year cycle, and the Classical/Helenistic boundary is greater than ¼#* by 3 years.

*ref [[Redbook8:28-29][19901015:1710]{Four Thousand Years BC[E]}[15th October 1990],] 28-29 [– last previous entry but one]

**[Inserted in ms. Ms has 30^o inserted, which must presumably be a mistake for 45^o – a mistake which has been made before, more than once.]

***1/8^th

****I think the (perhaps unsurprising) implication of this para [ie section / ts entry – the ms paragraphs having been split for the ts] is that the more stable a state is, the closer it will tend to stick to precise doubling cycle[s]; and, perhaps, the longer its ‘internal’ cycle periods will tend to be. {↓

But see later [] – short periods are difficult to identify before written records and accurate chronology}

#{This is not quite as it appears after more research/study: see amended chart ([[Redbook8:28-29][19901015:1710]{Four Thousand Years BC[E]}[15th October 1990],] p28-29)}

#*(64 years)

[continued]

[PostedBlogger21062022]