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Englund (Reference Englund1988: 122) has convincingly shown that similar time-reckoning systems were being used in Mesopotamia by the late fourth millennium BC, and their adoption in the Eastern Mediterranean might have been more widespread at this time than previously realised. It was patently successful, as many of its key features were adopted in later calendars (Stern Reference Stern2012: 125).

Archaeologically, the question is whether the Egyptian Civil Calendar, or a variation thereof, could have been known to communities living in southern Britain in the mid-third millennium BC, and adopted by them.

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Tight radiocarbon chronologies allow synchronicities to be recognised, while aDNA and isotope studies emphasise the nature and extent of population movements during the third millennium BC (Furholt Reference Furholt2018; Armit & Reich Reference Armit and Reich2021). Especially relevant here is the life-story of the Amesbury Archer, who was buried 5km south-east of Stonehenge c. 2300 BC in a simple grave, accompanied by an extraordinary array of grave goods, including some from continental Europe. Isotope analysis shows that he was born and raised in the Alps and moved to Britain as a teenager (Fitzpatrick Reference Fitzpatrick2011: 65–166).

Wilkinson (Reference Wilkinson and Lloyd2010: 59–60) has documented the growth of long-distance trade beyond Egypt's traditional borders, in all directions, during Early Dynastic times. Stone vessels provide the earliest secure evidence, dating to the early third millennium BC, of Egyptian exports to Minoan Crete, on the south-eastern extreme edge of Europe, with scarabs present in Early Minoan contexts after 2300 BC (Warren Reference Warren and Matz2009: 384–90). From the early second millennium BC, the flow of prestige objects and materials between the Eastern Mediterranean and Northern Europe, and vice versa, is well recognised, although much debated (see Harding Reference Harding1983: 4–115, Reference Harding, Fokkens and Harding2013: 379–80). Amongst the earliest known imports to Britain is the large, red-glass bead from the Wilsford G42 bowl barrow, located 2.3km south-west of Stonehenge—an object probably made in Egypt in the early second millennium BC (Guido et al. Reference Guido1984). The source of the much-discussed faience beads found in prehistoric British contexts may also be worth revisiting, recalling Harding's (Reference Harding1983: 87) comment that “all authorities accept that the technology originated in the Near East; what is in question is the place of manufacture of these beads.” Working back beyond 2000 BC, the archaeological trail marked by visible imports goes cold ...