Cappadocian calendar

The Cappadocian calendar was evidently devised at a time when Cappadocia, a historical region in present-day Turkey, was a province (satrapy) of the Achaemenid Empire.

[13] According to Boyce and the historian Frantz Grenet, the "exactness in the main of the correspondences between the calendars" shows the uses adopted by the Zoroastrians in Cappadocia were "largely uniform".

[17] They add that the only divergences lay in the substitution of Teiri (Teirei) for Avestan Tištrya, a change reportedly widespread in many Zoroastrian communities, and the "dedication of the eight month" to Apąm Napāt ("son of the waters") rather than to Apąm ("waters"), here being Varuna.

[18] Boyce and Grenet wrote that this "month-dedication" was apparently unique to the Cappadocian calendar, meaning there may have been controversy among the Zoroastrians in Cappadocia regarding the elevation of Anahita over Varuna.

[19] Boyce and Grenet add that this phenomenon shows that even under the strong polity created by the Achaemenids in a region known for its strong Persian religious influences, the local Persian priests apparently held some minor priestly autonomy.