I found Mario's explanations on Roman and European hour systems most
fascinating: thank you.
I have a tangentially related question or questions; Mario mentioned
that different times were appropriate to different people (country or
city dwellers, perhaps).
I understand (largely from "Heavenly Clockwork" by Needham et al.) that
the Chinese may also have inherited their system of equal hours from the
Babylonians.
Like the Romans, the Chinese reckoned the boundary of the day at
midnight.
Some centuries BC the Chinese were using unequal hours, but around 200
BC their double hour system was perfected and became the only one for
official use. In this, twelve equal "double hour" periods are named
during the day (nychthemeron). Each has two halves and so each half is
equal to one of our modern hours. The midpoint of one of these double
hours was midnight, so the double hours straddle our times of 0000,
0200, 0400, 0600 ... 2200 and the boundaries between them are at 0100,
0300, 0500 ... 2300.
However, a system of unequal hour night watches continued alongside the
use of equal double hours until the 19th century.
So:
Were unequal daytime hours also used for everyday purposes, as opposed
to official ones, during this 2000 year period (from around 200 BC
onwards)?
I am not familiar with Chinese sundials but the only old ones I recall
are equatorial and clearly appropriate for official use. I imagine that
they are marked for equal (double) hours. Is this correct?
Were there also - or are there still existing - old Chinese sundials
which show unequal daytime hours, or were equal hours the only time
shown?
Andrew James
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