Complexity in Time:

The development of the accurate pilgrimage calendar was a major achievement of human culture. The expansion of a pilgrimages from local to regional scale awaited the invention of precise methods for measuring and structuring time. Not only were precise observations of the cycles of the sun and moon necessary to develop an accurate calendar, but calendrical knowledge had to be communicated across the pilgrimage "catchment" area. Few other events involve such precise voluntary behavior of ordinary folk, as opposed to coercive organization by rulers, priests, and military leaders. When was a pilgrimage calendar first developed and how was its knowledge communicated?

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