Ages Without Apps
Short · October 2, 2026
How Did People Tell Time Before Clocks? The Elephant Clock
How did people tell time before clocks? With shadows, dripping water, burning incense and, around 1200, a water powered elephant.
Key facts about how did people tell time before clocks
- Al Jazari's elephant clock used a bowl sinking in a hidden tank; every half hour a bird whistled and the driver struck the elephant.
- Ancient Egyptians used shadow clocks and water clocks with hours that changed with the seasons, and in East Asia incense clocks could even work as alarms.
Sources for how did people tell time before clocks
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "The Elephant Clock," folio from al Jazari's Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (dated 1315)
- Google Arts & Culture / 1001 Inventions, "Al Jazari's Elephant Clock"
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Telling Time in Ancient Egypt"
- Global Egyptian Museum, Karnak water clock of Amenhotep III (JE 37525)
- "The Karnak Clepsydra and its Successors" (Freie Universität Berlin)
- Silvio A. Bedini, "The Scent of Time," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 53:5 (1963)
- Big Think, "Incense clocks: How to measure time with fire and smoke"
Images: the elephant clock pictures come from a manuscript copy dated 1315; the incense clock photo shows a Japanese example from the 1850s.
Questions people ask
What are the key facts: how did people tell time before clocks?
Al Jazari's elephant clock used a bowl sinking in a hidden tank; every half hour a bird whistled and the driver struck the elephant. Ancient Egyptians used shadow clocks and water clocks with hours that changed with the seasons, and in East Asia incense clocks could even work as alarms.
Where can I check the sources?
This page lists 7 sources, including: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "The Elephant Clock," folio from al Jazari's Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices; Google Arts & Culture / 1001 Inventions, "Al Jazari's Elephant Clock"; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Telling Time in Ancient Egypt".
Where can I watch the video?
The Short is on the Ages Without Apps YouTube channel, and you can watch it on this page.
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