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Time

From Sumerian time to modern-day clocks, the number 60 has stood the test of time. Source: (Samantha/CC BY 2.0), nebula NGC 1788 Orion constellation (ESO/CC BY 4.0), Zodiac of Dendera (Alice-astro/CC BY-SA 3.0)

Sumerians Invented the System of Time 5,000 Years Ago – And We Still Use It Today!

One might find it curious that we divide the hours into 60 minutes and the days into 24 hours – why not a multiple of 10 or 12? Put quite simply, the answer is because the inventors of time did not...
Neolithic stone balls in the British Museum. Source: British Museum / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Neolithic Stone Balls: The Northern Rosetta Stone?

Neolithic stone balls are mysterious petrospheres found in Scotland, Ireland, and Norway that have puzzled archaeologists for centuries. But an explanation for these objects may finally be revealed,...
Tzolkin section in the Dresden Codex, starting from the day 1, Manik'. (Lacambalam /CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sacred Calendars and New Years: Cycles of Time and Ages

The global holiday of a new year symbolizes all we have experienced for the duration of the year, and all our hopes and dreams for the year ahead. Such observances date back over 4,000 years, often...
‘A Dance to the Music of Time’ (1634-1635) by Nicolas Poussin. Source: Public Domain

Humans Have Been Making New Year’s Resolutions for Over 4,000 Years

New Year’s resolutions are a popular practice. Countless people begin to consider them every year as December 31st rolls around. Although big plans and ambitious goals can be difficult to follow...
Intricate incense clocks were developed in Qing Dynasty China.	Source: Science Museum Group / CC BY SA 4.0

Ancient Incense Clocks: A Timely Glow

Checking the time hasn’t always been as easy as glancing at your smartphone. In ancient times, humans would determine the time by using devices made of sand, stone, shadows, wheels, and more. One...
The mythological painting Cronus and his child by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, which in some myths has Cronus eating his children to take their "time,” because he somehow ended up as the “model” for Father Time. Source: Giovanni Francesco Romanelli / Public domain

Cronus: The Titan Harvest God and Erroneously The Titan Time God

Cronus, the Titan of Time is often depicted today as Father Time. However, the original Greek myth has few, if any, actual links between Cronus and time. Whilst he is never named in the records of...
Is time travel possible? Source: rolffimages / Adobe Stock

Time Travel: From Ancient Mythology to Modern Science

Time travel and time machines have been a topic of science fiction and countless movies for many decades. In fact, it appears that the possibility to travel in time, either into the future or into...
Understanding the Stonehenge calendar is easy if you follow Stephen Childs’ thinking in this article and in his book “Stone Circles Explained.” This image shows sunrise at this ancient site.		Source: Gail Johnson / Adobe Stock

The Stonehenge Calendar: A Prehistoric Approach to Time’s Passing

Readers will probably know that Stonehenge’s design highlights the longest and shortest days of the year, but it is not always understood that its strange configuration was designed to enable every...
New Years Fireworks over a golden temple.

How Have Ancient New Year’s Traditions Influenced Festivities Today?

January 1st, New Year’s Day, is often ushered in with fireworks and festivities beginning on December 31st. Although this practice is the norm in many places around the world, not every culture has...
Golden Age By Juan Carlos Barquet

Long Lost Golden Age - Just a Myth?

The myth and folklore of ancient cultures speak of a vast cycle of time with alternating dark and golden ages; Plato called it the Great Year. Most of us were taught that this cycle was just a myth...
Where Death Rings in the Hour: The Amazing Medieval Astronomical Clock of Prague

Where Death Rings in the Hour: The Amazing Medieval Astronomical Clock of Prague

The technical sophistication of the Middle Ages tends to be underestimated. Near the end of the High Middle Ages, mechanical technology such as clocks and water mills, for example, were becoming...
Uncovering the history of timekeeping through archaeological exploration and historic research. Source: jozefklopacka/Adobe Stock

A History of Timekeeping: Mankind’s Obsession With Time

From our humble hunter-gatherer beginnings to the most advanced of ancient civilizations, the sun and moon have always held a particular fascination for humanity. Several forms of tools, monuments,...
Radiocarbon dating needs fine-tuning if scientists and archaeologists want a more accurate historical timeline. Source: Elnur /Adobe Stock

Fine-Tuning Radiocarbon Dating Will Rewrite History!

Radiocarbon dating, invented in the late 1940s and improved ever since to provide more precise measurements, is the standard method for determining the dates of artifacts in archaeology and other...
Days were shorter during the time of the dinosaurs.  Source: Kovalenko I / Adobe Stock

Days Were Half An Hour Shorter 70 million Years Ago

Earth turned faster at the end of the time of the dinosaurs than it does today, rotating 372 times a year, compared to the current 365, according to a new study of fossil mollusk shells from the late...
Detail of ‘The Number of the Beast is 666’ (1805) by William Blake. Source: Public Domain

The Number 666 – A Blessing in Disguise?

The number 666 has been linked to scary scenes and hideous demonic beasts which have spooked the fraught nerves of the laity for almost two thousand years. Superstitions have abounded at the sight of...
A representation of what human teleportation could look like.

One Step Closer to ‘Beam Me Up’? Teleportation is Possible…At Least at the Quantum Level

Have you ever seen Star Trek? If so, you must be familiar with characters being ‘beamed’ from one spacecraft to another, or to a planet. While Star Trek is fictional, there are some concepts...
The 10,000-year-old pebble which is believed to be the oldest lunar calendar in the world. Source: SAPIENZA, Università di Roma

10,000-Year-Old Engraved Stone Found to be World’s Oldest Lunar Calendar

A new study, coordinated by Sapienza, claims to have discovered the oldest lunar calendar in the world in a pebble that was carved during the Upper Paleolithic period. The remarkable find has been...
Teleportation

Teleportation: Will Quantum Physics Make Star Trek Tech a Success?

Most of us have seen the science fiction series Star Trek and are familiar with their concept of teleportation, in which characters are ‘beamed’ off the ship to another spacecraft or to the surface...
Example of an ancient calendar. The ancient Egyptians created a calendar with 365 days in a year.

Why Are There 365 Days in a Year? Organizing Dates with an Ancient Egyptian Calendar

The calendar is one of mankind’s most important inventions. Calendars allowed societies to organize time for religious, social, economic, and administrative purposes. The calendar, or rather, two...
Sun Stone - Part of the Aztec Calendar

The Aztec Calendar Wheel and the Philosophy of Time

The Aztec or Mexica calendar wheels have been a source of fascination for centuries. It was not just a way to keep time - it was a complete philosophy of time in which every day had a religious...
Deriv; A drowned land of Kasskara - Hopi.

Kásskara: Sunken Land of the Hopi Ancestors

There used to be a fable, commonly imposed as fact on schoolchildren in the United States, that in Columbus' time nearly everyone believed the Earth was flat. Fortunately, this untruth has been...
The Roman sundial

Archaeologists Uncover Rare 2,000-year-old Roman Sundial and it Tells Them More than Just the Time

A 2,000-year-old intact and inscribed sundial – one of only a handful known to have survived – has been recovered during the excavation of a roofed theatre in the Roman town of Interamna Lirenas,...
Detail of Alexandre Cabanel’s ‘The Birth Of Venus.’

Linking the Planets and Human Life: Venus Calendars Helped Track Pregnancy in Neolithic Greece

Back in 4000 BC women of the ancient Aegean civilization may have used a calendar tracking the movement of the planet Venus to follow their pregnancy milestones. This is an intriguing explanation for...
Part of an ancient Egyptian statue

Boats, Bowling and Moldy Bread: Curious Achievements Ancient Egypt Shared With the World

Ancient Egypt is one on the oldest civilizations in the world and it was also home to many of the ancient world’s greatest achievements. Without their creativity and innovative approach to the world...

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