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(More customer reviews)We take for granted time as a natural and cultural regulator of the life of society and of each individual but the calendar is in large measure man-made. In the past, high cultures had their own. This is a wonderful book, erudite and yet entertaining in every way. The design and manufacture are a credit to Harvard University Press. Text and illustrations are glorious. Palaces of Time grips the reader as tightly as any thriller, a remarkable achievement for such a thoughtful book. It makes a delightful gift but don't start reading, be warned: you won't put it down. The only heaviness is the sadness of the cyclical persecutions by Christians and the reaction of Jewish communities to oppression and discrimination. In itself a regrettable episode of history which explains the tensions in today's world. Although outside the scope of the book, I would have liked to read an early chapter describing the ancient Jewish perception of sacred time which explains the solar-lunar calendar, the Sabbath, the festivals, the day divided by sunrise and sunset and thus the unequal length of hours in summer and winter. The Essenes were, I think, the last to hold to this based on the Book of Jubilees.
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