I think the concept of two parts for the day is Biblical. The Bible makes some reference to dark and light parts of the day.
The "dark" part of the day and the "light" part of the day were two parts of the same 24 h day. The daylight part was measured in hours and the nighttime part was measured in watches. By watches, I am referring to sentry duty and not clocks worn on the arm. The light part of the day did not begin at midnight, but at sunrise and the dark part of the day started at sunset. Noon time held no special position, other then it being the 6-th hour. At least at the time of Jesus' death. I'm not sure how much variation there is in the dark hours and the light hours as the seasons come and go in the region of Israel/Palestine. Being closer to the equator then most of us, the light and dark parts of the day may be only +/- 1 h from solstice to solstice. In the spring time, the light and dark parts are pretty close to 12 h each, give or take. The odd part is both the 24 h period and the 12 h daylight period are both called "day", at least in English. I don't know if that was true in ancient Hebrew. But I'm sure that adds to the confusion. Euric ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Ossipov" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, 2004-01-01 19:30 Subject: [USMA:28081] Calendar, date and time > Does someone if who introduced 12 h plague notation first? > > If the British Empire did, I don't wonder that such crap can be *only* > British. > > bye > >
