Throughout human existence, one of the most prominent inventions ever has to be the act of recording time, or timekeeping. Ever since the most primitive eras of civilization mankind has found ways to measure the passage of time from studying celestial bodies, the sun, moon, planets, and stars. Beginning with timepieces that run on daylight, such as the sundial, developing into digital clocks we use today, it can even be argued that timekeeping is even a basic necessity in today’s society.
As long ago as 20,000 years ago ice-age hunters from Europe would take sticks and bones and scratch lines and mark holes in them, supposedly counting the days between phased of the moon. 5,000 years ago, the Sumerians that had occupied present-day Iraq divided the year into 30-day months, the also divided the day into 12 periods (equivalent to 2 of our hours), and divided those into 30 parts (equivalent to 4 of our minutes).
Although, the first Egyptian calendar was based in moon cycles, they noticed that every 365 days the “Dog Star” in Canis Major, now referred to as Sirius rose next to the su...
This book focuses on different types of calendars from a number of different places all around the world. This specific chapter, even more specifically this section, focuses on the Mayan calendar. These calendars were written by honored members of their aristocracy and were held to be of great value. The Spanish invaders believed them to be instruments of the devil and burnt great quantities of them. E. G. Richards explains that only four Mayan books are survive in the libraries of Europe, and one of those—The Dresden codex—suffered severe damage in another fire, one which was inflicted on that city in the Second World War. Richards says that the earliest record of a calendar survives from about 500 BC in Monte Alban near Oaxaca. This calendar employs a 260-day cycle, which was commonly used by several societies and is still in use among the present-day inhabitants of the region. The Maya used the calendar partly to anticipate propitious days to embark on wars and other activities. It was also used to record on stone pillars, or stelae, important events in the lives of their kings and to relate these to more mythical events of the past. The Mayan calendar system involved two major methods of specifying a specific date—the calendar round and the long count. The calendar round was used to specify a date within a period of about 52 years, while the long count served to relate such dates within a longer period named a great cycle. The calendar round involved three interlocking cycles of 13, 20, and 365 days respectively. The 365-day cycle was called a haab and was similar to the Egyptian wandering year. Each haab was divided into 18 periods called uinals; each uinal had 20 days and a name. The 18 uinal were followed by five epagomen...
...eir records by building structures that would observe the sun. the Bighorn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming dates to AD 1400 to 1700. Lines drawn between major markings on the wheel point to the location of solstice sunrises and sunsets and also toward the rising point of the three brightest stars that rise before the sun in the summer. About fifty medicine wheels have been discovered, several are thousands of years. Many of them have the same alignment as the Bighorn Medicine Wheel. In Chaco Canyon, New Mexico two spirals carved into the rock by the prehistoric Anasazi can be used as a calendar. A dagger of light penetrates the shadow of adjacent rocks. The dagger moves with the sun to different locations on the spiral.the full pattern also reflects the 18.6 year cycle of the moon as well as the yearly cycle of the sun. The ancient Native Americans were not sophisticated astronomers in the sense of coherent theory behind the movements of heavenly objects, their level of understanding of the time cycles of the sun, moon and planets was great. The methods for recording and keeping track of the seasonal movements was clever and displays a cultural richness that varies from tribe to tribe.
While it is true that “the Hopi language has no word quite equivalent to our ‘time,’”(375) the essence of time remains despite their not having a word to define it. If told by an elder to keep a fire going, a Hopi fireguard observing a fire pit can mentally grasp the urgency of the fire needing more wood by taking note of the color of the embers. A cowboy with a pocket watch observing from a distant hill may notice the young Hopi getting up to replenish the pit with firewood every forty-five minutes. But the fireguard does not think in terms of seconds, minutes, or hours. He is merely using his observation of the embers to gauge time the same way the cowboy tells time looking at his watch. By reading the color of the sky, or the position of the sun, a Hopi walking in the desert will most likely know how fast he would have to walk in order to get to a certain location before dark.
The Egyptians calendar was based on the celestial bodies to determine the passing of time. For thousands of years, there have been records of timekeeping in the different cultures of past times. The Egyptian calendar was first based on the moon's cycles, but then discovered the Sirius which rose every 365 days. The Egyptian calendar and this discovery have led this to be one of the earliest discoveries that began in about 3100 BC. In the Egyptian culture the moon, stars, sun and planet are very important to the discovery of timekeeping for the calendar.
Throughout the day we are constantly checking the time, preparing for the upcoming months, and keeping track of the year. Clocks tell us the time we use as a measurement. It’s how we keep track of those important months and events, such as holidays and birthdays. Although there are many investigations and research being done on the nature of time, many unresolved issues remain.
This cycle of the ages was given different names by different cultures. To the Greeks it was the great year broken down into four periods: iron, bronze, silver and gold, each year having distinct characteristics of manifestation. The sages of ancient India called it the Yuga cycle. The most common name for this cycle was coined by the Romans as the ‘procession of the equinox’. Ancient star watchers observed that certain constellations followed the same path in the sky as the sun. This is also seen through examination of the mayan calendars. These 12 constellations make up the zodiac and are considered the most important. Twice each year on the day of the equinox ancient astonomers realized that overtime the constellations were not in the exact place in the sky that they had been in the year before. The stars seemed to be moving backwards in the sky, a movement known as the procession of the equinox or the wobble of the earth. At the birth of Jesus the constellation Aries was becoming less dominant in the sky and the constellation pisces was moving in to take its
As time passes along through the centuries, how did people make calendars that fit their culture? Many used the solar system to try and get their calendars as precise as possible, yet it never seemed to work. Throughout time, specialists would try to research and study the passing time in order to try and figure out their hours, days, and years that would fit their culture the best. Yet the question still sits, how have different peoples created calendars to reflect time within their cultures.
John McTaggart in his essay “Time” presents a radical argument that claims time is unreal. While the argument is interesting and has attracted much attention for his arguments, I remain unconvinced of the argument he makes. This paper will lay out McTaggart’s argument that time in unreal, critically analyze why I believe McTaggart’s argument fails and present an alternative idea about time, utilizing aspects of McTaggart’s argument.
As ancient peoples began to realize that sun, moon and stars follow certain rhythms in step with the seasons, they began to hypothesize that some conscious set of rules must be dictating these movements and seasonal changes that, for agrarian or pastoral soc...
Time Travel has always struck close to the imagination of the minds. From H.G. Wells ' "The Time Machine" to blockbuster films like "Back to the Future" - for years, time travel was the stuff of science fiction and crazy-eyed mad men but as physicists approach the subject of time travel with new advances in scientific theories and equipment, the possibility of time travel has become a more legitimate field for scientific endeavours. This paper will argue the possibility of time travel and the positive effects that this discovery will bring forth to modern day society: technological advancements.
There are 365 days in a year, 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in each minute. This vital element to life is often looked over and is thought of to just pass as we go along our days. It’s not something that we usually stop for to think about and examine. To humans, time is seen as useless and easily brushed off, but many don’t realize that it is a crucial and necessary concept that affects our everyday life and could easily live without us.
Due to archeological evidence we know that the African people were the first people in the world to use counting to keep track of their things, or time. Around 35,000 BC, in South Africa the earliest known tally stick was made, and was left in Lebombo Cave. 29 notches were cut into the stick. We don't know exactly what they were counting. Some people think they were counting the days from one moon phase to the next, but it could have been something else. Just as well. Now, what we do see is that by 35,000 BC people in South Africa had the idea of keeping records by making marks. “The Lebombo bone is a baboon fibula with a set of 29 notches carved in it. Archeologists believe these marks are evidence of a primitive calendar, measuring either the lunar or the menstrual calendar. This artifact is incredibly important for unders...
Astronomy is a natural science focusing on the study of celestial objects such as moons, stars, planets, nebulae and galaxies. Astronomy is considered to be one of the oldest natural sciences; early civilizations throughout history such as the Babylonians, Egyptians and Greeks performed methodical observations of the sky. The Babylonians had different astronomical records regarding the position of the moon, sun and stars, on the other hand the Egyptians used astronomy to know the time and afterwards they developed a calendar based on the solar year. The following paper will focus on the ancient Greek astronomy, interestingly the origin of the word astronomy is Greek it comes from two words; astron meaning "star" and nemien refers to "to name". This paper will explain and highlight the methods used, famous figures and the achievements attained during the ancient Greek astronomy era.
Astronomy dates back to ancient times when peoples such as the Babylonians, Egyptians, and Chinese kept written records of astronomical events and occurrences. Today’s seven day week originates from the Babylonians’ seven important bodies in the night sky: the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. The ancient Egyptians used the stars to align their pyramids and many of their corridors in almost perfect north-south or east-west directions. The Chinese were experts at predicting solar eclipses. They believed that a solar eclipse was a dangerous warning. Chinese astronomers were executed if they failed to predict an eclipse.
One cultural group was especially important for their discoveries in astronomy, the Egyptians. They were especially important because they were one of the first groups of people to create an accurate calendar. This calendar was different than others because it was based off of the Sun and stars rather than the moon. The calendars purpose was to make correct estimates of when to plan...