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Ancient Egyptian sundial (c. 1500 BC), from the Valley of the Kings, used for measuring work hour. Daytime divided into 12 parts. The ancient Egyptians were one of the first cultures to widely divide days into generally agreed-upon equal parts, using early timekeeping devices such as sundials, shadow clocks, and merkhets (plumb-lines used by early astronomers).
Solar barques were the vessels used by the sun god Ra in ancient Egyptian mythology.During the day, Ra was said to use a vessel called the Mandjet (Ancient Egyptian: mꜥnḏt) or the Boat of Millions of Years (Ancient Egyptian: wjꜣ-n-ḥḥw), and the vessel he used during the night was known as the Mesektet (Ancient Egyptian: msktt).
The Babylonian calendar knew no division of the day into 24 time units, so Ancient Egyptian influence for this system can be considered probable. The period of its origin can be dated to the 4th century BC , since Pytheas of Massalia refers to the terminus [ clarification needed ] G¨j perÐodoj introduced by Eudoxus of Cnidus .
[2] [3] [4] Kek and Kauket in some aspects also represent night and day, and were called "raiser up of the light" and the "raiser up of the night", respectively. [5] The name is written as kk or kkwy with a variant of the sky hieroglyph in ligature with the staff associated with the word for "darkness" kkw. [6]
An Egyptian method of determining the time during the night, used from at least 600 BC, was a type of plumb-line called a merkhet. A north–south meridian was created using two merkhets aligned with Polaris, the north pole star. The time was determined by observing particular stars as they crossed the meridian. [24]
Temporal hours were common in many cultures. A division of day and night into twelve hours each was first recorded in Ancient Egypt.A similar division of day and night was later made in the Mediterranean basin from about Classical Greek Antiquity into twelve temporal hours each (Ancient Greek: ὥραι καιρικαί, romanized: horai kairikai).
It was used to track the alignment of certain stars called decans or "baktiu" in the Ancient Egyptian. When visible, the stars could be used to measure the time at night. There were 10 stars for the 10 hours of the night; the day had a total of 24 hours including 12 hours for the day, 1 hour for sunset, and 1 hour for sunrise.
It was accompanied by the rise of Sirius before the sunrise, and the appearance of 12 constellations across the night sky, to which the Egyptians assigned some significance. Influenced by this, the Egyptians divided the night into 12 equal intervals. [9] These were seasonal hours, shorter in the summer than in the winter. Subsequently, the day ...