Calendars & time

SINCE prehistoric times, people have looked to the movements of the sun, moon and stars, the changing seasons and dawn and dusk to try to tell the time. These observations were necessary to plan agricultural activities or to organise religious festivals. The need to tell the time led to the development of clocks and calendars. Let’s find out more.

FIRST CLOCKS

The need to record the passage of days and seasons led to the Ancient Egyptian, Chinese, Greeks and Romans creating timekeeping devices such as obelisks, sundials, hourglasses and water and candle clocks.

In the third century BC, Greek mathematician was the , which improved its accuracy. In 1088 Chinese scientist built an in the  that would only be used by Europeans hundreds of years later.