title: Calendars in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Measuring Time (The Literature of the Dead Sea Scrolls)
author: James C. VanderKam
description: "Always a model of concision and clarity, VanderKam is true to form here. His discussions of the Cave 4 texts are particularly helpful, especially considering their often complex and tedious character."<BR>-Review of Biblical Literature, March 2000 <BR>
zlib_text: * * *
  
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  ## Glossary
  
  ![Serpent and Wheel](../Graphics/serpent_wheel.gif)
  
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  _A NOTE ON DATES IN THIS GLOSSARY._ Three systems of recording dates have been
  in general use since the Breaking of the World. The first recorded years After
  the Breaking (AB). Since the years of the Breaking and immediately after were
  years of almost total chaos, and since this calendar was adopted a good
  hundred years after the end of the Breaking, its starting point was
  arbitrarily assigned. At the end of the Trolloc Wars many records had been
  lost, so much so that there was argument about the exact year under the old
  system. A new calendar was therefore established, dating from the end of the
  Wars and celebrating the supposed freedom of the world from the Trolloc
  threat. This second calendar recorded each year as Free Year (FY). After the
  