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snoozefestaudioI've been trying out Chat GPT over the past couple days, asking it all kinds of questions about card decks and calendars, and this is my initial report.
The earliest known progenitor of the playing cards came out of the Islamic world in the 9th century. It was a deck with four suits and... most believe, 52 cards, with hindu-arabic numerals for the first ten cards in the suit, and face cards for the 11th, 12th, and 13th cards.
This was only four centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, and this 9th century deck spread along the silk road and other trade routes, both to China, and later to Europe.
The Egyptian solar calendar, which was the most accurate of the ancient world, would've been the closest in proximity to the Islamic world at this time. However, the Islamic world itself was using their own lunar calendar that bears no resemblance to the solar calendar of Egypt.
So, it's puzzling to figure out how that proto 9th century card deck happens to work as a solar calendar as accurate as the one from Egypt... purely by coincidence.
Egypts solar calendar is the one that inspired Julius Caesar to reform the old Roman calendar. Both, in the end, had a 365 day year, with a leap day every fourth year.
So, while the truth is forever shrouded in mystery, I personally think the ancestor deck, to that 9th century islamic deck, had to have come out of Egypt.
Did that anscestor deck have hindu-arabic numerals and three face cards? Maybe not. But it still must've had four suits, of thirteen cards each... and maybe it WAS just some kind of calendar!
--<>--
Prior to this research, my theory was that the playing cards were inspired by a Mayan book of days that was not fully appreciated by european monks.
But... all of that stuff came WAY after this 9th century Islamic deck.
Still, could it have been Islamic scholars, who got hold of an Egyptian book of days, and did not realize it was a calendar?
Four symbols for four seasons, each symbol with thirteen cards (or pages) for the thirteen weeks of that season... but since the Islamic world was on a solar calendar, they may not have understood the purpose of the thing.
If true, then... an Egyptian system, for keeping track of Earth's orbit around the sun... may have inspired Islamic scholars/ craftsman, to create a novel form of entertainment... that has survived for twelve-hundred years, and... still works fine as a calendar!
--<>--
Prior to this 9th century deck... which we only know about from texts describing it... board games were the main entertainment product being trafficked up and down the silk road.
Chess, for example, predates playing cards by a few hundred years, but also emerged out of the same area.
So, in the 9th century, there was good money to be made, if you could think up a novel game. And whoever invented the first playing card deck was probably looking for inspiration beforehand... and may have found it in some kind of Egyptian day planner that made it's way into town.
--<>--
The modern deck that we know, with Spades, Hearts, Clubs, and Diamonds for suits, and Jacks, Kings, and Queens for face cards, first emerged in Europe, in the 1300s. And a very similar deck appeared in Egypt around the same time.
It took four hundred years, but it finally found it's way back to the world of the solar calendar we still use today.
And by the time it did... nobody saw the connection. Or if they did... assumed it was just a coincidence... which is still the official word today.
--<>--
But I don't believe it's possible to accidentally create a thing that works as an accurate solar calendar!
Because it took humanity thousands of years of trial and error to finally develop an accurate calendar! It was one of the hardest things humanity ever did!
For some dudes in the middle east, using a lunar calendar, to just accidentally make a toy that worked as well as the world's most accurate solar calendar... and not even know it could be used like that... is beyond belief!
So, until further notice, my theory is that the playing cards work as a calendar because their inventor was looking at an Egyptian day planner, for inspiration to create a new game.
--<>--
Still, no matter what the truth really is... it makes you realize how much of the modern world is just stuff from the ancient world that worked well and took off... like arabic numerals... and the alphabet... and the calendar... and paper...
And it's amazing how many things in our modern world just, came from a mysterious fog that we'll never see through... like the playing cards, and... the clock!
I guess I'm mainly talking about the western world here, but more of our lives than we realize is just... stuff that came out of nowhere!
I would go so far as to say that, instead of the traditional divide we see, between the natural world and the man-made world... there is a middle layer that is best described as the ghost-made world!
--<>--
As far as Chat GPT goes... it's INSANELY better than Google or Wikipedia for getting instant, in depth answers to, even very arcane questions!
What I uncovered over the past 24 hours, using it on and off... would've taken me forever, or never, on Google! Especially now that Google really only turns up ads for products, and maybe a few YouTube videos on the third page.
Chat GPT, or systems like it, are definitely the future!
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
The earliest known progenitor of the playing cards came out of the Islamic world in the 9th century. It was a deck with four suits and... most believe, 52 cards, with hindu-arabic numerals for the first ten cards in the suit, and face cards for the 11th, 12th, and 13th cards.
This was only four centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, and this 9th century deck spread along the silk road and other trade routes, both to China, and later to Europe.
The Egyptian solar calendar, which was the most accurate of the ancient world, would've been the closest in proximity to the Islamic world at this time. However, the Islamic world itself was using their own lunar calendar that bears no resemblance to the solar calendar of Egypt.
So, it's puzzling to figure out how that proto 9th century card deck happens to work as a solar calendar as accurate as the one from Egypt... purely by coincidence.
Egypts solar calendar is the one that inspired Julius Caesar to reform the old Roman calendar. Both, in the end, had a 365 day year, with a leap day every fourth year.
So, while the truth is forever shrouded in mystery, I personally think the ancestor deck, to that 9th century islamic deck, had to have come out of Egypt.
Did that anscestor deck have hindu-arabic numerals and three face cards? Maybe not. But it still must've had four suits, of thirteen cards each... and maybe it WAS just some kind of calendar!
Prior to this research, my theory was that the playing cards were inspired by a Mayan book of days that was not fully appreciated by european monks.
But... all of that stuff came WAY after this 9th century Islamic deck.
Still, could it have been Islamic scholars, who got hold of an Egyptian book of days, and did not realize it was a calendar?
Four symbols for four seasons, each symbol with thirteen cards (or pages) for the thirteen weeks of that season... but since the Islamic world was on a solar calendar, they may not have understood the purpose of the thing.
If true, then... an Egyptian system, for keeping track of Earth's orbit around the sun... may have inspired Islamic scholars/ craftsman, to create a novel form of entertainment... that has survived for twelve-hundred years, and... still works fine as a calendar!
Prior to this 9th century deck... which we only know about from texts describing it... board games were the main entertainment product being trafficked up and down the silk road.
Chess, for example, predates playing cards by a few hundred years, but also emerged out of the same area.
So, in the 9th century, there was good money to be made, if you could think up a novel game. And whoever invented the first playing card deck was probably looking for inspiration beforehand... and may have found it in some kind of Egyptian day planner that made it's way into town.
The modern deck that we know, with Spades, Hearts, Clubs, and Diamonds for suits, and Jacks, Kings, and Queens for face cards, first emerged in Europe, in the 1300s. And a very similar deck appeared in Egypt around the same time.
It took four hundred years, but it finally found it's way back to the world of the solar calendar we still use today.
And by the time it did... nobody saw the connection. Or if they did... assumed it was just a coincidence... which is still the official word today.
But I don't believe it's possible to accidentally create a thing that works as an accurate solar calendar!
Because it took humanity thousands of years of trial and error to finally develop an accurate calendar! It was one of the hardest things humanity ever did!
For some dudes in the middle east, using a lunar calendar, to just accidentally make a toy that worked as well as the world's most accurate solar calendar... and not even know it could be used like that... is beyond belief!
So, until further notice, my theory is that the playing cards work as a calendar because their inventor was looking at an Egyptian day planner, for inspiration to create a new game.
Still, no matter what the truth really is... it makes you realize how much of the modern world is just stuff from the ancient world that worked well and took off... like arabic numerals... and the alphabet... and the calendar... and paper...
And it's amazing how many things in our modern world just, came from a mysterious fog that we'll never see through... like the playing cards, and... the clock!
I guess I'm mainly talking about the western world here, but more of our lives than we realize is just... stuff that came out of nowhere!
I would go so far as to say that, instead of the traditional divide we see, between the natural world and the man-made world... there is a middle layer that is best described as the ghost-made world!
As far as Chat GPT goes... it's INSANELY better than Google or Wikipedia for getting instant, in depth answers to, even very arcane questions!
What I uncovered over the past 24 hours, using it on and off... would've taken me forever, or never, on Google! Especially now that Google really only turns up ads for products, and maybe a few YouTube videos on the third page.
Chat GPT, or systems like it, are definitely the future!
°¦}
