What Are Sundials? About The Earliest Known Time Teller

What Are Sundials? About The Earliest Known Time Teller

SUNDIALS – In this topic, we will now know and discuss things and stuff to know about the earliest known devices that tells time, sundials.

SUNDIALS
Image from: Altas Obscura

According to TimeCenter sundial is the earliest known device used to measure time. Measuring time in this device depends on the rotation and movement of the sun.

Shadows forms on the device to predict the time of the day as the sun moves from east to west. The earliest known civilization to use the sundial were the Egyptians.

The Egyptians used a stick or a pillar called a gnomon. Time depends on the length of the shadow. They also built a t-shaped sundial is composed of a crossbar and a vertical stick. Five hours are written in the stick.

Egyptians face the stick in the east in the morning and west in the afternoon.

The Greeks, on the other hand, has a sundial called the “pelekinon” where the rod was placed on the horizontal or a half spherical face. This are marked to accurately tell time throughout the year. The Greeks further built a more accurate sundial which is based on their knowledge of geometry.

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