Leap Years: Why they exist and the future without them
Although 2020 will go down as possibly the worst year in history, some conspiracy theorists will contend with this title. This is because a small number of historians have bizarrely proposed the Middle Ages never happened and our calendars are greatly out of sync with the actual timeline. According to the German historian Herbert Illig, the year is 1724 and much of what you thought you knew about history and how time works is flat-out wrong.
Illig first proposed in the 1980s the Phantom Time Hypothesis, according to which the calendars were muddled with and advanced by about 297 years.
The historian proposed the years between 614 and 911 AD were simply glossed over although the exact reasoning behind this monumental clerical error is unclear.
One version states the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III (980 to 1002 AD) wanted his reign to begin in 1000 AD, rather than the 700s – or 996 AD as it really was.
The Emperor is said to have schemed with Pope Sylvester II (946 to 1003 AD) to advance the calendars.
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In another version of the theory, it was the Byzantine Emperor Constantine V (905 to 959 AD) who stood behind the mix-up.
Illig also based his claims on a discrepancy between the Julian Calendar introduced under Julius Caesar in 45 BC, the Gregorian Calendar introduced in 1582 AD and the solar year.
Because the Earth’s orbit of the Sun lasts 365 and a quarter of a day – and then a bit still – certain concessions need to be made.
The Julian Calendar introduced a leap year every four years, making its average year 365.25 days long.
But the real solar year is 365.24219 days long, meaning the Julian calendar gained a day every 128 years.
This created a 13-day discrepancy by the time the Gregorian Calendar was introduced nearly more than 1,600 years later, which was not wholly addressed by Pope Gregory XIII and his mathematicians.
The Pope had only accounted for a 10-day discrepancy in 1582, so October 4, 1582, on the Julian calendar was instantly followed by October 15, 1582, on the Gregorian calendar.
If there was a 10-day discrepancy, that would mean the Julian calendar was around for some 1,280 years (10 multiplied by 128) – the three days added up to three centuries – and not 1,664 years (13 multiplied by 128).
In other words, it would mean Julius Ceasar introduced the calendar more than 300 years after his death.
Does this mean history has glossed over some 300 years of human history? Most likely not.
If it did, it would mean figures like Charlemagne, King of the Franks, never really existed or lived at different points in time and Illig blew the cover on one of the world’s biggest conspiracies.
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Astronomical observations show many events, such as the passing of the Comet Halley in 240 BC, which was recorded by Chinese texts, did indeed happen, even though the Phantom Time Hypothesis states these “phantom years” are not real.
The dating of archaeological artefacts and monuments also blows the theory out of the water.
And although most historians have outright rejected the theory, it was entertained by some in the 1990s.
Dr Hans-Ulrich Niemitz penned a paper on the theory in 1995, in which he expanded upon Illig’s ideas.
In a paper titled Did the Early Middle Ages Really Exist?, he wrote: “This question in itself – and more so the answer ‘NO, the early Middle Ages did not exist’ – is surprising, to say the least.
“It contradicts all basic knowledge and attacks the historian’s self-respect to such an extreme that the reader of this paper is asked to be patient, benevolent and open to radically new ideas.”
The historian cited archaeological evidence, which he believes backed the theory.
Namely, the medieval Chapel of Aachen in Germany, which he claimed was built 200 years too early.
How did he come to this conclusion? Niemitz simply said it was architecturally out of place for the time period.
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