I’ll just make a guess until someone more knowledgeable comes along.
To my understanding, we have the summer and winter solstices as reference points of interest. We can look at the length of shadows cast at noon to determine where you are along this cycle. When you reach the shortest length, it’s the summer solstice. When you reach the longest length, that’s the winter solstice. Count the number of days between these reference points and you have the approximate number of days in a year.
Months are arbitrary though. Someone said so, then it stuck.
Months aren’t 100% arbitrary. There’s 12.3ish lunar phase cycles in a year. It’s that “bit more” than 12 thing that trips things up though, and why the lunar month was abandoned for arbitrary 12 divisions. But the 12 wasn’t arbitrary… that’s a nod back to those 12 and a bit lunar months.
I’ll just make a guess until someone more knowledgeable comes along.
To my understanding, we have the summer and winter solstices as reference points of interest. We can look at the length of shadows cast at noon to determine where you are along this cycle. When you reach the shortest length, it’s the summer solstice. When you reach the longest length, that’s the winter solstice. Count the number of days between these reference points and you have the approximate number of days in a year.
Months are arbitrary though. Someone said so, then it stuck.
Months aren’t 100% arbitrary. There’s 12.3ish lunar phase cycles in a year. It’s that “bit more” than 12 thing that trips things up though, and why the lunar month was abandoned for arbitrary 12 divisions. But the 12 wasn’t arbitrary… that’s a nod back to those 12 and a bit lunar months.