PROCEEDINGS 
OF 
THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 
1838. No. 12. 
May 14. 
SIR Ws. R. HAMILTON, A. M., President, in the Chair. 
Henry Watson, Esq., William T. Kent, Esq., and John 
Thompson Young, Esq., were elected members of the Royal 
Irish Academy. 
His Excellency, the Lord Lieutenant, attended the 
meeting as a guest. 
The President read the conclusion of the paper by 
the Rey. Dr. Hincks, “‘on the Years and Cycles of the 
ancient Egyptians.” 
According to the views advocated in this paper, a lunisolar 
cycle of 600 years was in use prior to the deluge, its epochs 
being at the autumnal equinox in the years B. C. 3567, 
2967, &c. The knowledge of this cycle was preserved by 
Noah, and diffused through the different nations at the 
dispersion. It was certainly used in Persia and in Egypt. 
In the former country, the commencement of the year was 
fixed at the vernal equinox by Jamshid ; the epoch of this 
change being 7th April, 2007 B. C., when 360 years of the 
current cycle had elapsed. The Persian years were however 
reckoned from the first day of the following cycle, that is, 
from 6th Feb. 1767; between which and the era of Yez- 
digerd (16th June, A. D. 632) there elapsed exactly 2400 
years of 365 days, that being the form of yearintroduced by 
R 
