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5000 BCE
Oldest way to tell time - early people
One of the oldest and simplest ways to tell time is by looking at the position of the sun for sunrise, sunset, and noon. -
3000 BCE
3000 BCE Babylonian Clay Tablets
The ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hittites wrote on tablets made from water-cleaned clay. Although these writing bricks varied in shape and dimension, a common form was a thin quadrilateral tile about five inches long. While the clay was still wet, the writer used a stylus to inscribe it with cuneiform characters. By writing on every surface in small characters, he could copy a substantial text on a single tablet. For longer texts he used several tablets linking them. -
3000 BCE
Early Egyptians Told Time with Obelisk
An obelisk is a shadow clock - a vertical structure with four sides placed in the sun so it casts a shadow and the shadow showed the position of the sun throughout the day -
1400 BCE
Early Greeks and Eygptians used Water Clocks
Uses the flow of water to measure time. Water flowed through a small opening in one container into another bowl-shaped container below it. Horizontal lines were drawn on the bowl-shaped container. The water reaching each line showed a certain amount of time had passed. -
300 BCE
Babylonians started to use a Sundial
A sundial is a flat circle on which a 12-hour clock face, or dial, had been written. The vertical marker is called a gnomon and it casts a shadow on the dial as the sun's position changed throughout the daylight hours. Where the shadow fell on the dial showed the time of day. -
700
Use of the Hourglass
The hourglass consisted of two upright containers joined with a narrow opening. One container contained sand and to start the process, the hourglass was turned upside down so that the sand poured into the bottom of the container. -
1000
Candle Clock in Europe
Notches were made to represent a period of time and people could tell how much time had passed by looking at how the notch where the candle had been burned since it was lit.
