The Gezer Calendar and the Seasonal Cycle of Ancient Canaan

Abstract

A FIXED CALENDAR, Emile Duerkheim once wrote, expresses the rhythm of the collective activities while at the same time its function is to assure their regularity. By virtue of these characteristics an analysis of the calendar of a given society, or even an investigation into a specific and detailed calendar problem will often reveal aspects of social and economic life that surpass the mere nature of the initial enquiry. The present paper illustrates this point. An attempt to clarify the meaning of a technical term in the Gezer Calendar (henceforth: G. C.), by means of comparing it with similar Hebrew expressions in the 0. T. and in the literature of the Judean Covenanters, as well as with pertinent Akkadian and South-Arabic terminology, leads to some general remarks on the relative importance of flaxgrowing and grass-cropping in Palestinian agriculture. The emerging economic factors are then shown to be actually mirrored in 0. T. narratives and also in biblical imagery. The resulting new insight into the seasonal cycle of Canaan provides a key for the better understanding of the calendaric realism underlying some prophetic oracles. It further reveals the widespread and continuous employment of some technical agricultural terms which were perpetuated in the Near East since the second millennium B. C. Palaeographically, and orthographically, the G. C. is a product of the tenth century B. c.,' as a comparison with the Phoenician inscriptions from Byblus shows.2 Archaeological and historical con-

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