How did people tell time before clocks?

Before clocks, people told time by watching regular changes in nature: the sun’s height, shadows, dripping water, burning candles, stars, animals, and plants. Sundials and shadow sticks turned sunlight into rough hours, while water clocks and candle clocks worked when people needed time measured indoors.

The lovely part is that time was once something people read from the world around them. A shadow getting shorter, a candle mark disappearing, or a familiar star rising could all say, now is the moment. It was less exact than a phone, but deeply observant.