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▶ calendars and clocks

introduction
An old proverb defi nes the diff erence between ancient and
modern life by saying that early people had time but no
watches and busy modern people have watches but no time.
As the proverb pertains to ancient peoples, it is only partly
true. While ancient peoples did not have tools for measuring
time that rival the modern atomic clock, they were vitally in-
terested in the passage of time and developed numerous ways
of measuring it. In doing so, they became the world’s fi rst as-
tronomers, using the movements of the heavenly bodies to
keep track of time.
Prehistoric peoples tended to rely on the moon and stars
rather than the sun to mark the passage of the seasons and to
defi ne the year. In ancient Africa, for example, early peoples
devised a calendar based on the movements of various star
groups in conjunction with the phases of the moon. Th ese
types of calendrical systems are called lunar calendars (as
opposed to solar calendars). Th roughout the world, people
observed the phases of the moon and used them to defi ne
months and seasons. In some cases, such as ancient Rome,
the agricultural seasons were used to structure the calendar,
giving rise in Rome to a calendar of ten months. Only later
were calendars devised that relied on the movement of the
sun. In some cultures both lunar and solar calendars were
used, oft en making the calendrical system complex and hard
to understand. Solar calendars were used principally for civil
purposes, while lunar calendars were used mainly for reli-
gious and ritual purposes. It was the ancient Egyptians who
worked out the fact that the year is 365¼ days long.

Ancient peoples were concerned with the passage of

the seasons, for the seasons determined when crops need-

ed to be planted or when people could expect the arrival of

a rainy or dry season. Historians believe that many public

monuments, including burial pyramids, were positioned

to mark the arrival of the summer or winter solstice or

the spring or autumn equinox. A passageway, for example,

might have been constructed in a pyramid in such a way

that the sun’s rays are focused straight into the passage at

the time of the spring solstice.

Most ancient peoples were not interested in accurate

timekeeping throughout the day. It was enough to have a

rough idea of what time it was by observing the passage of the

sun throughout the sky. Most ancient cultures used primitive

sundials, oft en consisting of nothing more than a stick placed

in the ground. Th e shadow cast by the stick marked the pas-

sage of time. Later, more formal sundials were built, and the

ancient Greeks spread the use of sundials and water clocks

throughout the Mediterranean region. Some public monu-

ments may have served as sundials as well. Th ese include

obelisks, or tall, tapered structures capped with a pyramid

(similar to the Washington Monument in the U.S. capital).

Th e stela, or a stone slab or monument positioned vertically,

may also have served as a public sundial.

AFRICA

BY MICHAEL J. O’NEAL

While ancient Africans in general had little interest in mea-

suring the hours and minutes of the day, they needed to mark

the passage of the seasons. To that end, they developed an