ABSTRACT
Although time is an artificial and abstract concept (Diogenes Laertius, Zeno 7.141), its importance to humans is undeniable. For agriculture, husbandry, and hunting the significance of time is obvious. Crops need to be planted and harvested, and animals move or need to be moved at specific times. These are broad observations of time that were easily observed through changes in the seasons through “time-reckoning.” Eventually, however, people required more precise timing, first to celebrate religious festivals in honour of their gods and then to accommodate their increasingly busy, urban life: time had to be measured by using instruments. The change from a rural life-where the general observation of time was adequate-to life in the city-where division of the daylight hours became more and more important-is the basic difference between “timereckoning” and “time measurement”; only the latter requires the accuracy supplied by instruments.
