I'm doing some research relating to Acadian material culture, and came across a brief mention of domestic sundials. The reference is originally from "Chéticamp, histoire et traditions acadiennes" (CHIASSON, Fr. Anselme, 1961, Moncton). There is a passage describing the construction, layout and furnishing of Acadian homes in Chéticamp, Nova Scotia. The houses being described were built rather hastily by Acadians returning after the Deportations*. The period of construction would have been the late 1700s. Fr. Chiasson mentions that a few of the original houses remained standing until the end of C.19th. They were simple one room structures built of wood, with a loft used for storage and as a bedroom for children. Although he doesn't mention the roof materials, I think it is likely to have been straw thatch since that was the norm in the period before the deportations, and so the eaves would presumably have been too uneven and fuzzy to act as the style of a sundial.
The fragment of interest translates to "There were notches in the window sash by which it was made possible to tell the time according to the sun's rays". The document gives the impression that it was normal for Acadian homes to have these devices. They were peasant homes, but it seems to me that the notches were more than a simple noon mark. After all, it says "there were notches", not "there was a notch". Can anybody tell me or hazard a guess as to what type of sundials these would have been? Also, based on C.18th practices in North America or in France, is the assertion that most Acadian homes had such a dial likely to be true? Thanks, Steve * That's when the English expelled the Acadians (descendants of French settlers) who refused to give allegiance to the King of England. Under the Treaty of Utrecht, France had ceded Nova Scotia to the English and assigned the population to be English ever more. Unfortunately the Acadians didn't agree that the King of France had any business turning them into English people. Years later some were able to return to the region but not to their original homes, hence the establishment of a new community at Chéticamp on Cape Breton Island, which still under French control. Others migrated south and became the Cajuns.
