this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
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[–] hglman 41 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The reason for 12-hour clocks is most cultures worldwide have variable length hours of over a year. For Western times this comes from Greeks who had 12 day and 12 night hours. Early water clocks in antiquity would attempt to make that adjustment automatically.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It came from the Sumerians, not the Greeks.

[–] hglman 10 points 1 year ago

The Greeks specifically build water clocks with variable length days.