Interesting that it is generally presumed that the Earth's rotation has
slowed down over the years due to tidal drag but right now there is not a
variation in the Earth's speed to within a millisecond. When we go back to
the time of Ramses II we find the length of the year was precisely the same
length as it is now.

The theories related to the Earth's rotational slow-down and upon which the
modern astronomy programs are based come from the Seleucid Period which is
now under scrutiny for massive revisions including revisions in lunar times.
For instance, the lunar positions in the VAT4956 is some 13.5 hours earlier
than lunar positions found in later texts during the Seleucid Period. One
theory is that the later Seleucid texts were created with the revised lunar
times and renamed stars to camouflage revisions made in the Neo-Babylonian
and Persian chronologies. This adjustments taken for face value by
researchers, finding the Earth sped up by 12-16 hours generated the theory
of the Earth's slow down based upon tidal drag. But since there is no
evidence of any slow down now and the length of the year during a much
earlier period in the time of Rameses demonstrates the same length of the
year, the theory about the slow-down of Earth's rotation is probably
completely a farce based upon false records from the Seleucid Period.
Delta-T reductions for this period reduced the speed of the earth by 3
minutes every five years. This would increase up to 18 hours by the time
of Ramses II, certainly not confirmed by the archaeological evidence to the
contrary that their year was precisely the same length of our own now.

When will archaeologists become smart enough to recognize revisionism in
ancient texts, though, is the real question. An expert in astronomy is not
necessary an expert in historical records and especially historical
revisionism.

Larry