What's the time? Ask that question in any room today, and everyone will reach for a wristwatch, a phone, a laptop, or a smart kitchen appliance and give you an answer. We've come a long way with technology. But have you ever wondered how ancient people managed to tell time before any of those things existed?
It turns out the answer is more creative than you might think — and it has chapters.
Chapter One: watching the sky
Before clocks were invented, people relied on their powers of observation — watching seasonal changes, the movement of the stars, and other shifts in the world around them — to decide what to do and when. This told them which seeds to sow, when to build shelter before the rains, and plenty more.
When it comes to keeping track of time itself, history tells us that the Egyptians, the Chinese, the Hindus (the people of Bharat, or India), the Babylonians, and the Sumerians all developed and exchanged methods for marking the passage of time.
The sundial
According to the history books, the sundial is considered one of the most ancient methods of tracking time. As the name suggests, it relied on the sun. A huge, tall, vertical, diagonal object was installed in a place, and the shadow cast by the sun showed the current time. By reading the shadow, people could understand how much time had passed. These clocks are mainly attributed to the Egyptians and Sumerians.
Water clocks
As you can probably guess, a sundial is useless at night. To work around that, inventors came up with the water clock. There were two main methods — inflow and outflow. Both used two containers. One container was filled with water and had a small hole; it hung above a second, empty container. As the water dripped down and filled the bottom container, the water level indicated how much time had passed. You could either mark time on the bottom container (for the inflow method) or on the top container (for the outflow method).
The ancient Hindus used a slightly different method too: a small container with a hole was placed in a larger container full of water. When the smaller container filled with water and sank, it indicated that a certain amount of time — say, half an hour — had passed.
Even so, water clocks weren't perfect. They had downsides, like the water freezing in low temperatures, and there was also the question of water pressure when water dripped from the outer bowl.
The hourglass
Similar to water clocks, the hourglass used sand instead of water to indicate how much time had passed. Two rounded glass bulbs were placed one above the other, and sand trickled from the top bulb down into the bottom one. 
These clocks were said to be cheaper to maintain and simple to make, and they were popular on naval vessels. However, the rocking of those huge ships sometimes caused disruptions for the hourglass too.
Chapter Two: arguing about when the day begins
By the 14th to 15th centuries, there were plenty of methods for keeping time. What sparked a huge discussion was a different question entirely: when should the day begin? The Babylonians favoured sunrise, the Italians preferred sunset, and the Germans started the day in the middle. Ultimately, the French idea of two 12-hour periods, starting at midnight, won out.
Uniformity of time was always an issue, and that was eventually improved by using pendulums or pulses, which made it harder for timekeeping to be disturbed by celestial bodies, freezing temperatures, or even a rocking ship.
The takeaway
Slowly, these improvements reshaped how we think about time, until today we can tell it with remarkable accuracy. From having to go to a single place to check the time, we now carry it in our pockets, on our wrists, and around our kitchens.
Now you know how ancient people kept time. But do you know why there are different time zones? If you're curious, this article can shed some light:
Why do we have different timezones?
That's all for today's curious question. Until next time, remember to listen to the curious mind.