For as long as we can find, there has always been a method of tracking time and events. In the earliest days of time-keeping, calendars were locally based. For example, when Plutarch gives a date for the battle of Plataea, he states, “They fought this battle on the fourth Boedromon, according to the Athenians, but according to the Boeotians, on the twenty-seventh of the month of Panemus (Feeny, 2007).” Obviously, this made event tracking difficult for travelers and merchants.

Even Japan had a similar situation such as when Kino Yoshihito and Fujiwara under Emperor Suzaku fought pirates off the southwest coast of Japan. The date is recorded as the “33rd year of the 60-year cycle of the zodiac: the Year of the Fiery Monkey (Roberts, 2011).” It was similar in China as well. Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, is credited to inventing the calendar in roughly 2952 BCE.

What about a civilization removed from others? Like, Australian Aborigines? “Daytime was marked by the position of the sun, while the number of days and moons accounted for longer periods.” The hunters and gatherers relied on major references such as big floods, droughts, tribal fights, etc. for the onset of their calendar. An example message: “Crocodiles vary their behaviour from year to year; using the western calendar it is only predictable that they will usually start to lay eggs between late August and late September. But for Yarralin people the event is completely predictable: the marchflies tell them (Clarke, 2009).”

It appears that throughout history, even before a unified calendar system, there was some form of tracking time and dates. People found a way to organize things through these alternative methods. For example, one might say, “At the sun’s maximum is when we’ll have lunch. “ Or, “At sunset on the full-moon’s date we’ll hold this festival.” There was always some frame of reference. The reference is dependent on when their calendar system starts; whether it be a flood, a new emperor, a disease, etc.

Good question! I enjoyed researching this.

Sources:

Feeney, Denis. Caesar's calendar: ancient time and the beginnings of history. Vol. 65. Univ of California Press, 2007.

Roberts, John AG. A history of China. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Clarke, Philip A. "Australian Aboriginal ethnometeorology and seasonal calendars." History and Anthropology 20.2 (2009): 79-106.