Ancient Discoveries, the Clepsydra

After watching an Ancient Discoveries episode about ancient technology, Georgia wanted to try to make her own simple water timer like the clepsydras she saw in the show. Clepsydras, like sundials, were probably one of the first time-keeping devices in history. They were used all over the ancient world throughout history, but the name clepsydra comes from the Greeks who used them to time orations made in court so that each side had equal time to state their case. In Greek, Clepsydra means "water thief" or "steal water".

Georgia got out some disposable bowls and straws and went right to work. She used an old cell phone to time how long it took the water to empty into the other bowl.

You can almost see the water dripping out...

We found a site from the History Channel called The Ancient Hobbyist which shows how to recreate and build some ancient inventions. Here's a video that shows how to make a clepsydra as a clock.

And you can download a PDF of step by step instructions on building a clepsydra here.

There are some other interesting projects on the Ancient Hobbyist site that we'll have to try sometime...like a bamboo flute, or a trebuchet!!