The Coligny Calendar

The tropical year was divided in 365. 2423 days starting from the fall equinox. The names of the Celtic Zodiac were identical to those of the lunar months. The calendar found in Coligny, France, is strictly an astronomical device. Dr. Garret Olmstead who also studied the Coligny Calendar uncovered in 1897, discovered that, although made in the first century BCE, was using astronomical calculations going back to 1100 BCE!

Here is a full reconstruction of the Coligny Calendar with all its notations, the result of analysis by the author Helen McKay, Version 2.1 2020 The calendar has modern dates running beside the calendar for use as a modern calendar. This version follows on from the first five years, now 26 April 2015 to 29 April 2020. All dates in the calendar are luni-solar, which means they will move around in the calendar by roughly a solar month. The lunar months will remain constant with the phases of the moon. Day 1 of each month is the first quarter waxing moon, Day 8 of the upper fortnight is the full moon, and Day 7-9 in the lower fortnight are the nights of the dark moon when it is lost in the glare of the sun. The calendar is a precise Metonic calendar, keeping in perfect time with the solar year and lunar phase. The notations of the intercalary months have now been fully identified and updated. This file is free to disseminate or use, with the proviso that no changes are made to the file without permission of the author, and that the source and author is acknowledged.

Dans cet article, l'auteur analyse comment les mois du calendrier de Coligny suivent de très près les lunaisons pendant les 62 mois des 5 années figurant sur la plaque de bronze, et, ce faisant, met en évidence la précision extraordinaire, au jour près, à chaque 'extrémité' de la lunaison moyenne. Cela signifie que chaque mois du calendrier lunaire commence toujours au même point de la phase de la lune, et que ce calendrier peut rester synchronisé avec la lune indéfiniment. La forme globale du calendrier est déterminée ensuite par l'attribution de 29 jours au premier mois intercalaire, ce qui fait du calendrier un calendrier métonique tout au long de 4 cycles successifs de 5 ans; cela montre aussi que, dans cet ensemble de 5 années, nous avons une partie complète, la seule nécessaire, du calendrier entier. Ce calendrier métonique pouvait aussi être intégré à une période de 30 ans, constituée de 6 cycles successifs de 5 ans, sans qu'il soit nécessaire de redéfinir le cycle de 5 ans.

This paper examines how closely the lunar calendar months of the Coligny calendar track the individual lunations over the 62 months of the 5-year bronze plaque, and in doing so, discovers an extraordinary precision to within a day either side of the average lunation. This means that each calendar month always starts at the same point in the lunar phase and the calendar can remain in sync with the moon indefinitely. The question of the overall shape of the calendar is further defined by assigning 29 days to Intercalary One, which then shows the calendar to be a Metonic calendar through four successive cycles of the 5-year base, and that in the one 5-year plaque we have the complete and only needed part of the entire calendar. This Metonic calendar could also be embedded as part of a larger 30-year age of 6 successive cycles of the 5-year base, again without the necessity of reshaping the 5-year base cycle.

The Festivals of the Celtic and Greek Lunar Calendars are charted for comparison and contrast. The Festivals follow the lunar calendars of both cultures using the Coligny Calendar of the Druids of Gaul and the Greek Attic Calendar of Athens, respectively. Deities are noted by means of comparative mythology.

A full reconstruction of the notations of the Coligny Calendar, based on original research by Helen McKay.  The majority of notations will be the same as found in Olmsted's reconstruction, but several differences are produced by the systematic analysis of the triple marks and associated interactions.  The modern date is also provided to facilitate the use of the calendar in the current time period.  The assignment of modern date relies upon analysis of the notations to the lunar and solar phases, the seasons, festivals, and stellar events.

Todas as culturas possuem suas próprias formas de perceber a passagem do tempo, seja de acordo com o movimento do sol pelo céu ou pelas fases da lua, formando uma sucessão de dias que originam semanas, meses e anos 1 . Este fato fora igualmente verdadeiro para o mundo antigo como é para nossas sociedades atuais faltando, entretanto, ao passado a uniformidade em que vivemos hoje; uma uniformidade que tomou o lugar de uma variedade de formas engenhosas e originais de medir a passagem do tempo e criar calendários. Os calendários na antiguidade eram, geralmente, de três tipos: Solares, isto é, baseados no movimento do Sol pelo céu, como era o caso do calendário da República Romana tardia 2 ; Lunares, aqueles baseados nas fases da Lua, como por exemplo, o calendário religioso em Atenas nos séculos V e IV a.C. 3 , e os Lunisolares que tentavam conciliar ambos os corpos celestes, este último como será demonstrado durante este estudo, é o caso do calendário de Coligny 4 . No mundo Romano o Senado era o responsável pela criação e modificação dos calendários, embora sua gerência estivesse sob a responsabilidade dos Pontifices. Como se bem sabe, durante 36 anos após a reforma Juliana do calendário Romano, os pontifices erraram adicionando o dia extra do ano bissexto a cada três anos ao invés de quatro, um erro corrigido somente pela ação do Imperador Augusto 5 . No mundo Celta apenas os fragmentos de dois calendários foram encontrados: O Calendário de Coligny

Evidence of a calendar within the Critias of Plato; and extant evidence of the Coligny  calendar used by the Druids of Gaul can both be reconstructed according to an eleven-year lunisolar cycle of 5+6 years and may in fact be the same calendar. This short article summarises the author’s previously published work on these subjects as published in 2005 & 2006.

Astronomy cannot be fooled! Plato didn't know that he was describing a real working ancient calendar in his Critias, which tells us that it was not his own invention. Rather, it represents an ancient calendar used in Atlantic Europe that survived until Roman times. This would suggest that the story really did come from Egypt, via Solon and was not a literary invention as conventional scholarship tries to pass it off

This article outlines the basic astronomy and acts as a source guide for "Year One of the Lunar Calendar: December 22, 2020- December 11, 2021." Year One of the Lunar Calenar can be downloaded from this academia.edu site; the calendar is in the section entitled "The Coligny Calendar Translation." Take back your time and let the calendar be your guide through the night sky at the beginning of a new era.

It is now over a century since the Coligny calendar was discovered, during which time the intricate, complex and interrelating patterns of the various terms that are layered over its months and years have to a large degree been defined, one exception being the triple marks which have so far only been defined in part.  Here the patterns followed by the triple marks are further defined, along with the mark’s interactions with several related notations, including the special treatment of Day 21, the anomalous treatment of triplets that run over the end of a fortnight, and the EXO term.  With the definition of the pattern that governs the years, the systematic pattern underlying the distribution of the triple marks can now be finalised with certainty, rather than filling in unknown days through conflation.   
Le calendrier de Coligny fut découvert il y a plus d'un siècle, au cours duquel les modèles complexes, interconnectés, des divers termes disposés au long de ses mois et années, ont été dans une large mesure définis, à l'exception des signes triples qui jusqu'à maintenant n'ont été définis qu'en partie. Les modèles suivis par les signes triples seront ici définis de manière plus précise, ainsi que les interactions avec plusieurs notations, y compris le cas spécial du Jour 21, le cas anormal des triplettes placées à la fin d'une quinzaine, et le terme EXO. Avec la définition du modèle qui gouverne l'année, le modèle systémique qui sous-tend la distribution des signes triples peut maintenant être finalisé avec certitude, plutôt que de remplir des jours inconnus par assemblage.