【简译】古代西方计时法

2023-04-06 12:27 作者:神尾智代 0人读过 | 我要投稿

The passage of time has always been a preoccupation of human beings, whether it be a question of satisfying basic needs such as when to eat and sleep, the importance of seasons for migratory and agricultural purposes or a more sophisticated measuring of time into defined periods of weeks, days and hours.

时间的流逝一直是人类关注的问题，无论是满足基本需求的问题，如什么时候吃饭和睡觉，还是季节对于迁徙和农业的重要性，或者是以更复杂的方式，将时间划分为周、天和小时。

天体的运用

The earliest method of measuring time was through observation of the celestial bodies - the sun, moon, stars and the five planets known in antiquity. The rising and setting of the sun, the solstices, phases of the moon, and the position of particular stars and constellations have been used in all ancient civilizations to demarcate particular activities. For example, Egyptian and Minoan buildings were often constructed in orientation to the rising sun or aligned to observe particular stars. Some of our earliest texts such as those by Homer and Hesiod around the 8th century BCE describe the use of stars to specifically determine the best periods to sail and farm, advice which remains valid today.

最古老的测量时间的方法是观察天体：太阳、月亮、星星和古代已知的五颗行星。日出和日落、至日、月相以及某些恒星和星座的位置在所有古代文明中都被用来划定特定的活动。例如，埃及和米诺斯建筑通常面向朝阳或专门用于观星。一些最古老的文本，例如荷马和赫西俄德的文本从公元前 8 世纪左右开始，专门描述了使用星星来确定航行和种植的最佳时期，这些建议今天仍然有效。

Star calendars were created in the Near East, and Greek calendars were likely based on the phases of the moon. The Greek Parapegmata from the 5th century BCE, attributed to Meton and Euctmon, was used to map a star calendar and a calendar of festivals linked to astronomical observations survives in an Egyptian papyrus from Hibeh dated to around 300 BCE. The celebrated Antikythera Mechanism, dated to the mid-1st century BCE and found in an Aegean shipwreck, is a sophisticated device which, through a complicated arrangement of wheels and gears, demonstrated and measured the movement of celestial bodies, including eclipses.

星历产生于近东，而希腊历法可能是基于月相。公元前5世纪的希腊Parapegmata（一种跟踪周期性事件的设备，尤其是星星、天气、季节等，古希腊语 παράπηγμα （parápēgma，“固定或挂起的东西” ）），归功于雅典的默冬（Meton）和Euctmon（马其顿国王和亚历山大大帝的私人医生），被用来创建星历和节日日历。在Hibeh（El Hiba是古埃及城市Tayu-djayet的现代名称，是古时的昵称，意为“他们的城墙”，指的是建造在该遗址上的巨大围墙。在科普特语中，它被称为“ Teujo”，在希腊罗马时期，它被称为“γκυρονπόλις”和“ Ancyronpolis”）的埃及纸莎草纸上还保存着一份与天文观测有关的节日日历，其年代约为公元前300年。在爱琴海沉船中发现的著名的安提基特拉机械装置，其年代为公元前1世纪中期，它通过复杂的轮子和齿轮排列，演示和测量天体的运动，包括日食。

日晷

The sun continued to be the primary source of time measurement throughout the Classical Period. Indeed, sunrise and sunset determined the sessions of both the ancient Assembly of Athens and the Roman Senate, and in the latter, decrees decided after sunset were not deemed valid. Early sundials merely indicated months but later efforts attempted to break the day into regular units and indicate the twelve hours of the day and night first invented by the Egyptians and Babylonians. The origins of the half-hour measurement are unclear but it is mentioned in a 4th-century BCE Greek comedy by Menander and so must have been commonly used. The earliest surviving sundial dates from Delos in the 3rd century BCE.

在整个古典时期，太阳一直是测量时间的主要来源。事实上，黎明和黄昏决定了雅典议会和罗马元老院会议的开会时间，而在后者中，天黑后达成的法令被认为是无效的。最初的日晷只指示月份，但后来有人尝试将一天划分为固定单位，埃及人和巴比伦人首先发明了昼夜12个小时制。半小时测量法的起源尚不清楚，但在公元前 4 世纪米南德 (Menander) 的希腊喜剧中提到过，因此这种测量法曾被普遍使用。现存最早的日晷可以追溯到公元前3世纪的提洛岛。

From Hellenistic times the measurement of time became ever more precise and sundials became more accurate as a result of a greater understanding of angles and the effect of changing locations, in particular latitude. Sundials came in one of four types: hemispherical, cylindrical, conical, and planar (horizontal and vertical) and were usually made in stone with a concave surface marked out. A gnomon cast a shadow on the surface of the dial or more rarely, the sun shone through a hole and so created a spot on the dial. In the Roman Empire, portable sundials became popular, some with changeable discs to compensate for changes in location. Public sundials were present in all major towns and their popularity is evidenced not only in archaeological finds - 25 from Delos and 35 from Pompeii alone - but also in references in Greek drama and Roman literature. There is even a famous joke on the subject attributed to Emperor Trajan, who, when noticing the size of someone's nose, quipped: "If you put your nose facing the sun and open your mouth wide, you'll show all the passerby the time of day" (Anthologia Palatina 11.418). By Late Antiquity (c. 400 to 600 CE) highly sophisticated portable sundials were produced which could be adjusted to as many as 16 different locations.

从希腊化时代开始，由于对角度和位置变化（尤其是纬度）的影响有了更深入的了解，时间测量变得更加精确，日晷也变得更加准确。日晷有四种类型：半球型、圆柱型、圆锥型和平面型（水平和垂直），通常用石头制成，表面凹面并刻有标记。日晷通过在钟面上投下阴影来标记时间，或者更偶尔地，太阳会从一个洞中照射进来，从而在钟面上投下一个点。在罗马帝国，便携式日晷很流行，其中一些带有可互换的圆盘以补偿位移。公共日晷出现在所有主要城市，它们的受欢迎程度不仅来自考古发现（仅提洛岛就有 25 个，庞贝古城就有 35 个），而且希腊戏剧和罗马文学中的参考文献也证明了它们的受欢迎程度。关于这个问题甚至有一个著名的笑话，据说是图拉真皇帝说的，他看到某人鼻子的大小，就告诉他：“如果你面向太阳张开嘴，路过的人就能知道时间是”（Anthologia Palatina11,418）。到古代末期（公元 400 年到 600 年之间），人们已经生产出非常复杂的便携式日晷，可以调整到多达 16 个不同的位置。

水基计时仪器

Time measuring devices were also invented which used water. Perhaps evolving from earlier oil lamps, which were known to burn for a set period of time with a defined quantity of oil, the early so-called water-clocks released a specified quantity of water from one container to another, taking a particular time to do so. Perhaps the earliest came from Egypt around 1600 BCE, although they may have borrowed the idea from the Babylonians. The Greeks used such a device (a klepsydra) in Athenian law courts and it determined how long a single speech could last: approximately six minutes.

人们还发明了水基计时仪器。它们可能是从油灯演变而来的，众所周知，油灯使用特定数量的油会燃烧特定的时间。第一个所谓的水钟在特定时间内将特定量的水从一个容器中释放到另一个容器中。也许最早的水钟来自公元前1600年左右的埃及，尽管他们可能是从巴比伦人那里借用了这个想法。希腊人在雅典的法庭上使用了这种装置（klepsydra），它决定了一次演讲可以持续多长时间：大约6分钟。

The Greek and Roman army also used water-clocks to measure shift-work, for example, night watches. More sophisticated water-clocks were developed which poured water into the device thereby raising a floating drum and consequently turning a cog whose regulated movement could be measured. The first such clocks are attributed to Ctesibius around 280 BCE and Archimedes is largely credited with developing the device to achieve greater accuracy. Large public water-clocks were also common and often measured a whole day, for example in the 4th century BCE agora of Athens there was such a clock which contained 1000 litres of water. The 2nd-century BCE Tower of the Winds in Athens, built by Andronicus, also contained a large water-clock and no less than nine sundials on its outer walls.

希腊和罗马军队也使用水钟来测量轮班时间，例如值夜班。后来，人们开发了更加复杂的水钟，它将水倒入装置中，容器又升起一个浮子来转动一个齿轮，可以测量其运动的规律性。这种时钟的第一个例子归功于公元前 280 年左右的克特西比乌斯，阿基米德提升了这种仪器的精确度。大型公共水钟也很常见，经常测量一整天的时间，例如在公元前4世纪的雅典广场上就有这样一个钟，里面有1000升的水。公元前2世纪由安德罗尼克斯（希腊语：Ἀνδρόνικος）建造的雅典风之塔也有一个大型水钟，其外墙上有不少于九个日晷。