10-18-2011, 10:02 PM
I believe that dating was not all that important in the ancient world. The date on a specific year was important - for the scheduling of festivals and sacrifices, or officially for government purposes, as in "Have you paid your taxes and tribute for this year?" but not the recording of sequential years. It just didn't impinge on most peoples' lives. Even historians don't seem to have cared much about what particular year an incident ocurred, much to the chagrin of modern historians. Meticulous dating of events is a modern concern, not an ancient one.
