The sun dial worked during daylight, but how did people agree on what time it was at night before clocks were invented?

  • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    There were some timekeeping approaches, including candles marked with the hours based on burn rate (also used as alarm clocks by sticking metal things in them that would fall on a bell or metal dish below), but there also wasn’t a lot of reason to know the time accurately at night. Hell, in the time before clocks, there wasn’t much need to know the time accurately in the day. People used sunrise, noon, and sunset as the major markers.