~ tracking down this book ~
"Steel takes you across the full span of recorded history, behind the seismic shifts within politics, religion, and science, and examines the ways in which people and events forged the calendar that we have today. Starting with Stonehenge and the first written records of the year and the day by the Sumerians around 3500 B. C. , Marking Time charts the calendar's ever-changing, erratic trajectory - from the Egyptians' reliance on the star Sirius to the numbering of the years, linked to the celebration of Easter in Christian churches. "--BOOK JACKET.