Relógio babilônico

Os babilônios usavam dois tipos diferentes de unidades de tempo: o primeiro era definido por fenômenos homogêneos (ou seja, sempre o mesmo comprimento), fossem astronômicos (surgimento de uma estrela ou movimento de um corpo celeste) ou físicos (relógio de água); o segundo era um sistema sazonal em que a duração de uma hora muda dependendo da duração da luz do dia. Este relógio mostra seu horário local usando um sistema babilônico de horas sazonais.

Babylonian Hours

This clock shows you your local time computed using a Babylonian system of seasonal hours. There are two different types of units of time in the Babylonian system, the first is set by homogeneous phenomena (i.e. always the same length), either astronomical (appearance of a star or movement of a celestial body) or physical (water clock), the second is a seasonal system whereby the length of an hour changes depending on the length of daylight. The Babylonians used multiple methods for measuring the passage of time throughout the day, a common system was dividing the 24-day up into 12 “double”-hours (bēru), these units of time were equivalent to 30° of the sun’s movement around the earth (360° divided by 12 is 30°). This clock (somewhat anachronistically) makes use of both fixed and seasonal units of time.

This clock uses a system of time calculation from 2,500 years ago used by the Babylonians in ancient Mesopotamia. The time is based on the concept of a seasonal hour, i.e. the length of an hour is seasonal and depends on the duration of daylight in your current location. This website grabs your location and computes your local time in this Babylonian system. Obviously, the ancient Babylonians did not have digital clocks, so this clock takes a few liberties with how it displays the data, if you want to know more about the calculations and ancient Babylonian units of time continue reading below.

If you’re just curious how to read this clock, the first number is the hour past sunrise or sunset (depending on day or night), the second is a unit called an which counts up from zero to a maximum of 16 for your current location, the third number is a unit called gar for which there are 60 in an , the acronym at the end refers to a named quarter of the 24-hour day.

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