„The question that people of earlier societies sought to answer, the primary question of humanity, was not: ‚What is the moon or the sun?‘ and certainly not: ‚Are they of mineral, plant, or animal nature?‘ The question was: ‚What does this or that event in the sky mean for us? Is it good or bad for us?‘“ – (Norbert Elias) –

In antiquity, biological and body-inherent timekeepers, as well as the movement of celestial bodies, provided orientation in time. Sundials and water clocks are thousands of years old. The consciously perceived regularities of everyday life were, viewed historically, initially transformed into list-like and tabular ordering systems. The ancient origins and historical contingency of these systems have been known since at least Roman antiquity (e.g., in the works of Ovid).

The rationalization of such ordering systems, using underlying principles, required a form of representation and denotation. Initially, a variety of terms were available, such as the Egyptian Neheh and Djet, or Chronos, Aion, and Kairos in Greek, each addressing different aspects of temporality in a purpose-driven manner. These terms gradually developed in connection with metaphors (e.g., heavenly chariot, moon’s ladder, divine time-keepers). A fourth form emerged alongside personifications, images, and concepts: the systematizing and schematizing correlation with numbers.

Such idealized time orders were understood as reflections of a divine world order and were interpreted as collections of qualitative signs for guiding actions, often in connection with various forms of foresight. It was not uncommon for several purpose-bound time systems to coexist within a single society. With the development of more intense „global“ networks, particularly in the context of emerging cross-cultural dominions, a sensitivity and need arose for comparative representations and synchronizations of differing time concepts, marking the first steps toward a shared language about time.

Literature:

Norbert Elias, Über die Zeit (1988), S. 156
Roland Färber, Rita Gautschy (Hg.), Zeit in den Kulturen des Altertums (2020)

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