Sundials
On the wall, you can see a timeline showing key dates and events in the history of timekeeping. One of the oldest scientific tools that helped people understand time and space was the sundial. Solar clock first appeared in Ancient Egypt in the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE (Before the Common Era).
In the showcase, you can see a model of an ancient Egyptian sundial (2). It consists of a vertical stick, called a gnomon, and a dial. The gnomon cast a shadow that moved across the dial as the sun changed position in the sky. At noon, the shadow was the shortest; at sunrise and sunset, it was the longest. From Egypt, sundials spread to Babylon, Ancient Greece and other ancient civilizations, and later to countries in East Asia. Over time, a science called gnomonics — the study of sundials — was developed.
From the 9th century onwards, sundials were placed on churches in European cities. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Germany became a major center of sundial production. From there, sundials were exported to Spain, France, England and other countries.
Sundials also came to Belarus from Europe. One of the items in the showcase is a fragment of an 18th-century sundial from the time of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (3). It was discovered in 1986 by a schoolboy, L. Sankov, in Minsk on V. Muliavin Boulevard. This piece was later given to the National Historical Museum of the Republic of Belarus.
You can also see an 18th-century horizontal sundial (1) found in the Grodno region. This sundial has two parts. One half is the actual solar clock. The other half is a small bowl, where liquid was poured. A needle (pointer) was attached to a small post, and the whole thing was covered with glass. Together, it formed a compass. The compass helped to correctly position the sundial and set the time.
In the second half of the 19th century, sundials were no longer used in everyday life due to the mass production of accurate mechanical watches. However, sundials continued to be used for scientific purposes.
In the showcase, you can see a model of an ancient Egyptian sundial (2). It consists of a vertical stick, called a gnomon, and a dial. The gnomon cast a shadow that moved across the dial as the sun changed position in the sky. At noon, the shadow was the shortest; at sunrise and sunset, it was the longest. From Egypt, sundials spread to Babylon, Ancient Greece and other ancient civilizations, and later to countries in East Asia. Over time, a science called gnomonics — the study of sundials — was developed.
From the 9th century onwards, sundials were placed on churches in European cities. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Germany became a major center of sundial production. From there, sundials were exported to Spain, France, England and other countries.
Sundials also came to Belarus from Europe. One of the items in the showcase is a fragment of an 18th-century sundial from the time of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (3). It was discovered in 1986 by a schoolboy, L. Sankov, in Minsk on V. Muliavin Boulevard. This piece was later given to the National Historical Museum of the Republic of Belarus.
You can also see an 18th-century horizontal sundial (1) found in the Grodno region. This sundial has two parts. One half is the actual solar clock. The other half is a small bowl, where liquid was poured. A needle (pointer) was attached to a small post, and the whole thing was covered with glass. Together, it formed a compass. The compass helped to correctly position the sundial and set the time.
In the second half of the 19th century, sundials were no longer used in everyday life due to the mass production of accurate mechanical watches. However, sundials continued to be used for scientific purposes.
