Phoenix Journal 208 - Four Winds 10

mers use), but ours was sexagesimal, based on six.
The original calendar was a year of 360 (60 x 6) days, 12 (2 x 6) months of 30 (5 x 6) days each. The
days are divided into 12 or 24 hours, 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute. A cubit was 30
fingers. The cord was 120 cubits or 3600 fingers. The league was 180 cords. The foot is 12 inches.
There are 3 feet in a yard. We buy eggs by the dozen or by the gross (12 x 12). The smallest unit of weight
was the grain, the shekel was 180 grains (3 x 60), and the talent was 3600 shekels. The troy ounce is 480
(80 x 6) grains and 12 troy ounces per troy pound (called troy because it traces back to ancient Troy, and
they got it from Egypt and Babylon). Pure gold is 24 (4 x 6) karats; fine gold jewelry is 18 (3 x 6) karats.
We inherited our numbering system from ancient Babylon, which used a base 60 system. We count one
hundred, two hundred, three hundred, they counted one sixty, two sixties, three sixties, etc. In the Babylonian
system, all fractions were represented by one number, because they were all an exact number of sixtieths.
In decimal, we have to round off 1/3, 1/4, or 1/6 but the Babylonian system did not have that inconvenience
for the common fractions. We still use the Babylonian system in geometry and trigonometry. Zecharia
Sitchin has written a series of books whose theme is that our numbering system and much else was given
to us by extraterrestrials.
[To be continued.]
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