About
How did the ancients tell the time? The difference between the darkness of night and the brightness of day was probably the first concept of time recognized by our ancestors. No doubt they would have observed that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
Most likely, they also observed that during the day, shadows cast by a tree, or any other object sticking out of the ground changed; specifically, it got smaller as the morning passed, until it disappeared altogether when the sun was directly overhead around the middle of the day. Then, they would have noticed that the shadow began to grow in length again, this time on the other side of the object, until night set in.
When mankind began to settle down and managed to free up some time, they were able to pursue other endeavors not related to basic survival. Think about it: when society’s primary activities are solely focused on survival they would not have had the time to pursue other interests as we know them today, unless of course such interests support their daily survival duties.
It is not too much of a stretch then to imagine that the ancients did not discover the concept of the sundial until after they have made the transition from wandering nomads to some sort of settlement type people.after all, a sundial would need to be fixed in a certain place for it to be able to give you any meaningful measure of time.
Sundials have been known to exist during ancient Egyptian as well as ancient Chinese times. Perhaps they existed long before the Egyptians and Chinese documented them; however, given that other civilizations prior to the ancient Egyptians and Chinese may not have recorded their use, or did not have a way to do so (e.g. writing), we may never know the first instance when sundials became the standard way of telling time.
