The ancient Egypt technology that kept them most organized was
definitely their clocks. By casting a shadow from a point standing in
the path of the sun, the sundial was the original timekeeper in the
world. In ancient Egypt, the earliest form of sundial was the obelisk.
The length and position of a shadow would determine the time of day.
Smaller varied versions were eventually developed, particularly in
Greece and Rome.Egyptians clocks were much different from ours as well.
There were two types of clocks in Ancient Egypt-a water clock and a
sundial.
A water clock sounds very complicated, but really it's not. The sundial
was basically a circle with numbers written around it with a little
stick in the middle. When the stick's shadow fell at a certain number,
it was that time.For astronomers and priests time was extremely
important and they were responsible for determining the exact hour for
the daily rituals and for the important religious festivals. Sundials,
which allowed the astronomers and priests to observe the passing of the
12 daylight hours, could not be used to record the 12 night time
hours.The ancient Egyptian water clock was a dual purpose instrument.
It was utilized to tell time and also keep track of how long a person
speaks in the courtroom in speeches. Water clocks were among the
earliest timekeepers that did not depend on the observation of celestial
bodies. Some of these clocks were used to determine hours at night, but
may have been used in daylight as well.This unique instrument works in a
very interesting way because it actually measures time through the
water which flows out from small orifice. The bowl which receives the
water has markings to denote hours on each side. They were different
types of water clocks in ancient Egypt and this basically measured time
based on the quantity of water in the bowl.
Whenever the level of water was altered, the wheel would turn to
indicate an hour of the day had passed. This water clock was utilized
during the third century and is not in function today.The only
disadvantage to the water clock was that you had to keep refilling it.
One big advantage the water clock had over the sundial was you couldn't
use the sundial at night and the water clock you could. The water clock
allowed the ancient Egyptians to economise on the physical mechanism of
telling time. The beauty of the water clock was that it was economical
in terms of human effort as well as the space it utilized.
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