A History of the Sundial

Sundials likely have their origin very near the creation of man. We do not know what the earliest sundials looked like, but they were likely simply a stick (functioning as the gnomon) set in the ground with stones to mark the passing of time and the moving shadows.

ANCIENT ROOTS OF THE SUNDIAL

The earliest source recording the origin of the sundial comes from the Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484-425 B.C.), who states that the sundial originated, or at least was imported from Babylonia, from the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers where the roots of western culture was born.

The earliest literary mention of a sundial is in the Bible, during the reign of King Ahaz (around 750 B.C.). In the King James Version it reads:

Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which it was gone down.

(Isaiah 38:8)

The same event is also described in II Kings:

And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord, and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.

(II Kings 20:11)

The earliest existing sundial that we have today is an Egyptian sundial, dating to 1500 B.C., which is on display in the Berlin museum, and bears the name of Thothmes III, who ruled from Thebes between around 1504 and 1450 B.C. The ancient Egyptians were very well-versed in astronomy and mathematics, and understood at an early date the motions of the earth and the planet, and fixed the length of the year at 365 days.

The ancient Chaldeans also made great progress in the fields of mathematics and astronomy. By observing the heavens continuously, they became familiar with the constellations, and picked out different beings and animals. They divided the band in the sky called the “Zodiac,” where the suns and planets move, into twelve parts, and the year into twelve parts. During the era of Alexander the Great, a Chaldean priest and astronomer named Berosus (356-323 B.C.) created a hemispherium sundial, which was carved out of a block of stone, its concave hemisphere resembling the inverted vault of the heavens.

ANCIENT GREEK SUNDIALS

Prior to the Christian era, the Greeks made many contributions to sundial design and science, although many details are not known. According to the Roman author Pliny the Elder (Caius Plinius Secundus, 23-79 A.D.), the Greek philosopher Anaximenes of Miletus, in Asia Minor, who lived in the 6 th century B.C., had a sundial in the form called sciotherion, although any further information regarding the instrument has been lost. In the 3 rd century B.C., Apollonius of Perga published his treatise on conic sections, which laid the foundation for the geometry of position, and brought great progress in the advent of sundials. The conical sundial was developed at this time, which had a much greater accuracy than previous sundials. Hipparchus (160-125 B.C.), the founder of scientific astronomy, laid the foundation for our present trigonometry, which later led to the development of accurate sundials.

ROMAN SUNDIALS

While the Romans did not develop the theory of the sundial significantly, they did borrow much from other civilizations, and made popular the use of the sundial. The first sundial in Rome was captured in Sicily and setup in 293 B.C. by the Roman general Papirius Curso in the court of the Temple of Quirinus. As evidence of the proliferation of sundials is a quote from Maccius Plautus (250-184 B.C.), a Roman playwright and poet, who wrote:

“The gods confound the man who first found out

How to distinguish hours! Confound him, too,

Who in this place set up a sun-dial,

To cut and hack my days so wretchedly

Into small portions. When I was a boy,

My belly was my sun-dial; one more sure,

Truer, and more exact than any of them.

This Dial told me when ‘twas proper time

To go to dinner, when I had aught to eat.

But now-a-days, why, even when I have,

I can’t fall-to, unless the sun give leave.

The town’s so full of these confounded dials, The greatest part of its inhabitants,

Shrunk up with hunger, creep along its streets.”

The great Roman author and stateman, Cicero must have had a sundial that he greatly prized, as he wrote in 45 B.C. to his servant Tiro “Horologium mittam et libros, si erit sudum (I will send the sundial and books, if the weather is dry).” One of the most significant records by the Romans regarding sundials is written by the famous architect Virtuvius in the first century B.C., in which he says he will “state by whom the different classes and designs of dials have been invented. For I cannot invent new kinds myself at this late day, nor do I think that I ought to display the inventions of others as my own.” He make a list of thirteen sundials thus:

“The HEMICYCLIUM of Berosus

The HEMISPHERIUM of Aristarchus

The DISCUS ON A PLANE of Aristarchus

The ARACHNE of Eudoxus

The PLINTHIUM of Scopas

The UNIVERSAL DIAL of Parmenio

The UNIVERSAL DIAL of Theodosius and Andrias

The PELICONON of Patrocles

The CONE of Dionysidorus

The QUIVER of Apollonius”

Vitruvius also states that other writers have left directions for sundials for travelers, and that anyone can construct sundials from books, which have directions on their construction. After the fall of the Roman Empire, around 400 A.D., and the ensuing period of the Middle Ages, or Dark Ages, until the age of the Renaissance, little further progress was made regarding the development of the sundial, with the exception of a contribution by an Arabian mathematician. Albategni (850-929 A.D.) greatly developed the field of trigonometry, which directly led to the final phase of the sundial – the possibility of easily constructing sundials based on precise calculations of trigonometry.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF SUNDIALS

The renaissance period in Europe (14 th -16 th centuries) is known as the golden age of sundials. Copernicus (1473-1543) revolutionized the sciences of astronomy and mathematics, as his theory of the sun as the center of the universe (instead of Earth), the advent of equal hours, and the application of trigonometry let to the widespread development and use of sundials.

The sundial during this period became an essential part of life, and was constructed in many forms out of many different materials, in any place possible to display them. The sundial became a proper gift for kings and queens, and was used widely in towns, public buildings, market squares, courtyards, churches, cemeteries, and even in pocket, portable styles. Thousands upon thousands of sundials were made and used in this period, customized for their locations to tell the accurate time, and usually with an artistic flair and motto of significance.

In the 16 th century, a literary reference appears to sundials in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. In Act II, scene 7, a member of the duke’s court, Jacques, describes his encounter with Touchstone, the jester:

“Call me not fool till heaven hath sent me fortune.”

And then he drew a dial from his poke,

And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye,

Says very wisely, “It is ten o’clock:

Thus may we see,” quoth he, “how the world wags.

‘Tis but an hour ago since it was nine;

And after one hour more ‘twill be eleven;

And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,

And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot;

And thereby hangs a tale.”

By the early part of the 19 th century, the sundial began to lose ground as a timekeeper of great importance, with the advent of the traditional clock. Today, the sundial is used primarily as a garden centerpiece, an ancient instrument standing the test of time, reminding us to think of what is important in life, as time eventually overtakes us all.

Some European sundial mottos:

I live by thy presence, and my usefulness ends in thy silence

Sundial at Courmayeur

O God, Thou art my God: early will I seek Thee

Walkern Church

The Sun is the light and glory of the world

Moccas Court , Hertfordshire

Look upon the hour, and remember death!

Townhouse of the Barons of Hylton

I count the bright hours only

Cawdor House

I forget the anger, the darkness, the pain; I am happy, I count the bright hours only.

We are smoke and shadow

Italian farmhouse

Time wastes us, our bodies and our wits

And we waste time: so time and we are quits

Camphill Farm, Yorkshire

Autumn gives fruits: summer fair with corn appears:

Spring bestows flowers: winter’s fire cheers.

Nun Appleton, Yorkshire

Know thyself

Delphos

It is the hour for well-doing

Nice

Know the Season

Ely Cathedral

Stick to your promises

Niddrie Marischal, near Edinburgh

Copyright 2006 www.OutdoorDecor.com

Nate Burke, OutdoorDecor.com Staff Writer

For further reading on sundials, we suggest the following resources:

A Choice of Sundials by Winthrop W. Dolan, 1975

Sundials by Roy K Marshall, 1963

Sundials - How to Know, Use, and Make Them by R. Newton Mayall and Margaret W. Mayall, 1973