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Introduction
A dating convention is used that provides a full date with a set number of codes, in three categories, following each other in a fixed sequence:
- season – either one capital letter, with or without hyphen, or two capital letters
- month – either one number or one lower case letter
- day – two numbers.
The full list follows for each of the three categories.
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1. Season code
Note. The lower case letters (a, b,c, etc.) refer to study seasons.
season
codecalendar
yearseason # old
season #^A 1984 1 ^B 1985 2 ^C 1986 3 ^D 1987 4 ^E 1988 5 ^F 1989 5a A 1990 6 B 1991 6a 60 C 1992 7 D 1993 8 E 1994 8a 61 F 1995 8b 62 G 1996 9 H 1997 10 I 1998 11 J 1999 12 K 2000 13 L 2001 14 M 2002 15 N 2003 16 O 2004 17 P 2005 18 Q 2006 19 R 2007 20 S 2008 21 T 2009 22 U 2010 23 V 2011 23a 63 W 2012 23b 64 X 2013 23c 65 Y 2014 23d 66 Z 2015 23e 67 ZA 2016 23f 68 ZB 2017 23g 69 ZB 2018 23h 70 ZB 2019 23i 71 ZE 2020 23j 72 ZF 2021 23k 73 ZG 2022 23l 74 ZH 2023 23m 75 ZI 2024 23n 76 ZJ 2025 23o 77
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2. Month code
| code | name |
| 1 | January |
| 2 | February |
| 3 | March |
| 4 | April |
| 5 | May |
| 6 | June |
| 7 | July |
| 8 | August |
| 9 | September |
| x | October |
| y | November |
| z | December |
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3. Day code
The day code is the same as the day number, but the first nine numbers are preceded by zero, hence day 1 is written as 01.
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Examples
| code | date |
| -A601 | June 1, 1984 |
| Gx31 | October 31, 1996 |
| ZG115 | January 15, 2022 |
| ZHz01 | December 1, 2024 |
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Printable version
- <a href="https://urkesh.org/MZ/A/MZ/PDF/seasons_brief_OLD.pdf" target="_blank">seasons' short list (PDF) – OLD</a>
- <a href="https://urkesh.org/MZ/A/MZ/PDF/seasons_brief_INTERMEDIATE.pdf" target="_blank">seasons' short list (PDF) – INTERMEDIATE</a>
- <a href="https://urkesh.org/MZ/A/MZ/PDF/seasons_brief_LAST.pdf" target="_blank">seasons' short list (PDF) – LAST</a>
A PDF with the dating system for each season (of excavation or study) can be downloaded at the following link.
Back to top: Dating convention for Urkesh/Tell Mozan