The Lost Millennium

by Diacu, Florin

• ISBN13: 9781421402888
• ISBN10: 1421402882
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-11-01
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

We measure history -- its defining moments, landmark documents, and great figures -- by dates. The French Revolution began in 1789, the Magna Carta was originally issued in 1215, and Julius Caesar died in the year 44 BC. What makes these dates correct, though? Is it possible that there is a massive gap in the historical record and that the calendar we use today is off by about 1,000 years? Sparked by a chance meeting at a conference in Mexico more than fifteen years ago, Florin Diacu sets off on a journey into the field of historical chronology to answer these fascinating questions. This book reads like a detective story, describing in vivid detail Diacu's adventure back in time as he explores the shocking theory of a lost millennium. He meets a colorful cast of characters along the way. Chief among them is Anatoli Fomenko, a Russian mathematician who supports drastically revising historical chronology based on his extensive research in ancient astronomy, linguistics, cartography, and a crucial manuscript by Ptolemy. Fomenko, however, is not the only one to puzzle over time. Isaac Newton, Voltaire, and Edmund Halley, among others, also enter into this captivating quest. The Lost Millennium highlights the controversy surrounding the dating of ancient events, a fascinating tale full of mystery, debate, and excitement. Join the author as he pushes further and further in search of the truth. Praise for the first edition "Diacu gives both sides of the argument fairly but the mere idea that the calendar may be out by as much as 1,000 years is staggering." -- The London Free Press "Intriguing... [Diacu's] account is at its best when he wrestles with the many contradictions of both the accepted and revisionist chronologies... He wades into celestial mechanics with a dizzying discussion of eclipses, astronomical calculations, and algebraic formulas." -- The Globe and Mail "Diacu, a polyglot and erudite mathematician, lays out old and recent debates with great clarity and offers the first detailed account for nonspecialists of the radical revisionist theories of Anatoli Fomenko and his colleagues. His book -- like most of those he describes -- will certainly become a flash point in its own right. For the general reader, it offers a fascinating look at an unknown world." -- Anthony Grafton, Princeton University

Author Biography

Florin Diacu is a professor of mathematics at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, author of Megadisasters: The Science of Predicting the Next Catastrophe; Singularities of the N-body Problem: An Introduction to Celestial Mechanics; and An Introduction to Differential Equations: Order and Chaos, and coauthor of Celestial Encounters: The Origins of Chaos and Stability.

Table of Contents

Introduction. Where Did the Time Go?	p. 1
The Challenges of Historical Chronology
Catastrophes and Chaos	p. 17
A New Science	p. 33
Swan Song	p. 53
Fomenko's Battle against Tradition
Historical Eclipses	p. 77
The Moon and the Almagest	p. 95
Ancient Kingdoms	p. 115
Overlapping Dynasties	p. 129
Secrets and Lies	p. 147
Science Fights Back
Scientific Dating	p. 169
Finding a Consensus	p. 186
Afterword	p. 205
Notes	p. 207
References	p. 221
Index	p. 231
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