For an intelligent species of life to attain so advanced a level of technological development and operation as to be considered a type-I civilization, in a number of evolutionary scenarios they'd first need at their disposal hundreds of millennia. In the case of humanity, systems of time are often politically or religiously motivated--a number of different civilizations having their own calendar eras. For example, at present, in the West, we use the Gregorian calander, which incidentally is also called the Christian Calander. Most of us know when time supposedly started within it or at least according to Christian mythology.
When we look at these religiously or politically motivated biases it's easy enough to criticize, but then when we look at the alternatives, say Unix time, it's quite easy to appreciate their formats. My question incorporates both issues. How would so intelligent a species possibly or probably keep track of time?--Would they simply hold to ancient societal formats, such as those inspired by religion, or would they have possibly implemented a fabricated format based on atomic time with, say, the "beginning" being placed at the same "time" as the big bang, supposing that they espoused such a scientific theory? Would they use their sun, in all likelihood, just as we do for years and days and so forth?
The obvious answer is that we have no way of knowing what a superorganism so many times more intelligent than us would do as regards the recording and implementing of time. However, perhaps certain factors could be fleshed out in the same way that we have come up with a Drake equation or the Fermi paradox. The point I make in my last sentence is only that I am looking for plausability, not deductive inference.
Just in case, my question again is: what are some likely ways a type-I civilization would keep track of time; and, from what point of beginning? If you answer, please explain why you think such. If you go with something like unix time, how would that translate into years and what would the format look like and, again, is there any reason for thinking such?
Thank you.