8. Contradictions

The valid dating of the two oldest tablets shows that historians did a satisfactory job of reconstituting the Babylonian calendar used in the Diaries, at least back to -651. Still, the reconstituted calendar is not definitive. Several calendars were used in Babylonia, and tablets that contradict the conventional order of months have been found.

These unorthodox tablets do not subvert the established chronology. As long as the reconstituted calendar is fairly accurate, errors will not be cumulative. It may occasionally diverge from the true Diary calendar by a day or two, or even a month, but the calendars will realign after the period of disharmony.