Hi David,
You do provoke the most amazing interest! What sort of clients do you have for your dials? Well, Cyrus the Great (allegedly 576 BC – December 530 BC) might have known (or known of!) Anaximander (610 BC–c. 546 BC) who (I think!) was the one who introduced the sundial to Greece, it having been previously used in Mesopotamia, Egypt and China. Reading fluently from Wikipedia (!) I see that : The Suda relates that Anaximander explained some basic notions of geometry. It also mentions his interest in the measurement of time and associates him with the introduction in Greece of the gnomon. In Lacedaemon, Anaximanda participated in the construction, or at least in the adjustment, of sundials to indicate solstices and equinoxes.[40] Indeed, a gnomon required adjustments from a place to another because of the difference in latitude. In his time, the gnomon was simply a vertical pillar or rod mounted on a horizontal plane. The position of its shadow on the plane indicated the time of day. As it moves through its apparent course, the sun draws a curve with the tip of the projected shadow, which is shortest at noon, when pointing due south. The variation in the tip’s position at noon indicates the solar time and the seasons; the shadow is longest on the winter solstice and shortest on the summer solstice. However, the invention of the gnomon itself cannot be attributed to Anaximander because its use, as well as the division of days into twelve parts, came from the Babylonians. It is they, according to Herodotus' Histories (II, 109), who gave the Greeks the art of time measurement. It is likely that he was not the first to determine the solstices, because no calculation is necessary. On the other hand, equinoxes do not correspond to the middle point between the positions during solstices, as the Babylonians thought. As the Suda seems to suggest, it is very likely that with his knowledge of geometry, he became the first Greek to accurately determine the equinoxes. Does that give you any hopes? Long shots just don't come into this!! Regards Patrick (PS This just has to be another excellent topic for the bar at Exeter!) -----Original Message----- From: David M Brown <[email protected]> To: sundial <[email protected]> Sent: Wed, Mar 10, 2010 1:52 pm Subject: Cyrus the Great and sundials Here's a challenge for all you gnomonical cogniscenti............ Is there any way in which Cyrus the Great (yes, I had to look him up, too) can be linked to sundials. I suspect not, but maybe one or two of you know better. I kid you not - this is a genuine query that has been put to me. I don't have the answer. Do any of you? David Brown Somerton, Somerset, UK --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
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