The Chronology Challenge: earliest verifiable date of a historical event?
Upvote:7
There are lots of documents in Sumerian and Akkadian with precise dates mentioned in the documents themselves. These go back well into the 3rd millennium BC. These can be converted without difficulty into Julian or Gregorian dates.
But of course, all this depends on what you mean by “events”. If you include astronomical events visible on earth (eclipses, novae etc) then these can be dated down to a fraction of a second by astronomical science; this will take you back millions of years.
Upvote:10
I know this would not be to OP's liking (considering his expressed opinion of Chinese history), but other people might find this interesting.
The earliest event in Chinese history with a verifiable year is the Interregnum following the expulsion of King Li from the Zhou Kingdom. With the king exiled, his chief ministers ruled the realm in his stead. They declared the year, 841 B.C. , to be the first year (epoch) of the Joint Harmony era.
That event's significance is that it marked the beginning of consistent and preserved record keeping in China. The epoch changes with whenever the person on the throne changes - the Joint Harmony era terminated after 14 years, with the coronation of King Xuan becoming the new epoch. However, records were kept and added to year after year by every subseqeunt Chinese governement. Major events and government affairs were hence forth recorded by contemporary court historians in official annals - as opposed to being written down by a later historian.
Most of the early records have, unfortunately, been lost over time. The earliest annal in continuous survival is that of the State of Lu. Here is the year 722-721 B.C., from the State of Lu's official annals with rough translations:
隱公元年
春，王正月。 //Spring, January
三月，公及邾儀父盟于蔑。 //March, pact made with the Baron of Zou
夏，五月，鄭伯克段于鄢。 //Summer, May, Count of Zheng defeated his brother.
秋，七月，天王使宰咺來歸惠公仲子之賵。 //Autumn, July, emissary from the King
九月，及宋人盟于宿。 //September, pact made with the Duke of Song
冬，十有二月，祭伯來。 //Winter, December, the Count of Zhai visited.
公子益師卒。 //Lord Yi passed away.
二年
春，公會戎于潛。 //Spring, met with barbarians.
夏，五月，莒人入向。 //Summer, May, Ju's lord visited
無駭帥師入極。 //General Zhan attacked Ji.
秋，八月，庚辰，公及戎盟于唐。 //Autumn, August, day of gēngchén, pact with barbarians
九月，紀裂繻來逆女。 //September, bridal escort arrived from Ji
冬，十月，伯姬歸于紀。 //Winter, October, princess leaves for Ji
紀子帛莒子，盟于密。 //Barons of Zi and Ju allied
十有二月，乙卯，夫人子氏薨。 //December, day of yǐmǎo, the Duchess passed away.
鄭人伐衛。 //Zheng attacked Wey
Of special interest are the August and December entries (Lu's pact with the barbarians, and the death of Lu's duchess), which specified the dates. As far as I know, these are the earliest events in Chinese history that have verifiable exact dates.
Note that these records are made in the traditional Chinese calendar, but that can be of course be converted to Gregorian dates.
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