Oldest Calendar Discovered In Scottish Field: 10,000 Years Old, Likely Shows When Humans Created Concept Of Time

The oldest calendar has been discovered.

The world's oldest lunar calendar has been discovered in a field in Scotland. The calendar is 10,000 years old and may help us understand when humans first created the concept of time.

Archeolagists say they discovered the world's oldest calendar in an Aberdeenshire, Scotland field. It was created in about 8,000 BC.

The previous "oldest calendar" was 5,000 years old in Mesopotamia. The newly-discovered  monument is twice that age.

And, notably, it may be the place where time itself was invented.

During the exploration of the Scottish field, excavations of a field at Crathes Castle turned up a series of 12 pits. The pits seemed to mark lunar phases and track months.

The pits may have contained wooden posts and were created by hunter-gatherers about 10,000 years ago. The site was first excavated in 2004.

It is remarkable to think that our aerial survey may have helped to find the place where time itself was invented."

At sunrise on midwinter, the pit aligns so that there is an automatic correction annually. This would help the early society understand the cycles of time and seasonal changes.

The archeologist who led the project, Vince Gaffney, Professor of Landscape Archaeology at Birmingham, UK, said, "The evidence suggests that hunter-gatherer societies in Scotland had both the need and sophistication to track time across the years, to correct for seasonal drift of the lunar year and that this occurred nearly 5,000 years before the first formal calendars known in the Near East."

He added, In doing so, this illustrates one important step towards the formal construction of time and therefore history itself."

Dr. Shannon Fraser, NTS archeologist, said, "This is a remarkable monument, which is so far unique in Britain.

"Our excavations revealed a fascinating glimpse into the cultural lives of people some 10,000 years ago - and now this latest discovery further enriches our understanding of their relationship with time and the heavens."