A very rare medieval pocket sundial has been discovered at an archaeological dig in Germany.
Students at Marburg University had been excavating the site of a church in the town, when they found the sundial, which is about the size of a matchbox, the university said in a statement. The sundial is made from wood and bronze.
It’s believed the ancient clock came from the late medieval period, and belonged to an order called the Brethren of the Common Life, a religious community established in the late 14th century in the Netherlands. The Brethren eventually spread throughout the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland.
Members of the brethren lived in the ancient monastery building from 1527, which is located in the upper section of Marburg.
Felix Teichner
It’s the first time an object like this has been found in Hesse, the Germany state.
Professor Dr. Felix Teichner, of the Department of History and Cultural Studies at the Philipps University of Marburg, said in the statement that it provides a “spotlight like insight” into what people know about astronomy and mathematics, as well as their craftsmanship during this time.
The professor told local news outlet Hessens Chau that there aren’t many of these sundials left.
Sundials are ancient devices that were used to tell the time by measuring the position of the sun throughout the day. They consist of a flat plate and a gnomon, which casts a shadow on the plate when the sun shines.
The length of the shadow cast by the gnomon roughly indicated how high or low the sun was in the sky, revealing the time of day.
The oldest known sundial in the world was made in Egypt and dated back to 1500 BC.
This particular sundial opens to reveal a hole, which would have been for a stick, that would have marked the shadow of the sun.
To identify the object, archaeologists compared the rare find with a similar one found by archaeologists in a ministry in Switzerland. Teichner told Hessens Chau that they aren’t yet sure why the sundial was found in this particularly area.
“We’re digging here at the monastery’s probable rubbish dump and are pulling up much that we need to examine first to identify,” Teichner said.
Excavations at the site are continuing, in the hopes of unearthing more rare finds. Anything else recovered could provide additional clues into this time period, and perhaps explain more about the sundial’s origins.
Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about this story? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.
