How did people tell time before clocks?
Time Before Ticking
How did people tell time before clocks?
Right now, you can glance at your phone and know it's 3:47 PM. But for most of human history, there were no clocks, no watches, no blinking digits. So how did anyone know when to wake up, when to meet a friend, or when dinner was ready?
The first clock was the biggest one of all: the sun itself. People watched it crawl across the sky from east to west, and that journey divided the day into rough chunks. Sunrise meant "time to start work." When the sun stood directly overhead, it was midday—time to rest and eat. Sunset meant the workday was done.
