Early Timekeeping Devices
See also: History of calendarsMany ancient civilizations observed astronomical bodies, often the Sun and Moon, to determine times, dates, and seasons. Methods of sexagesimal timekeeping, now common in Western society, first originated nearly 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia and Egypt; a similar system was developed later in Mesoamerica. The first calendars may have been created during the last glacial period, by hunter-gatherers who employed tools such as sticks and bones to track the phases of the moon or the seasons. Stone circles, such as England's Stonehenge, were built in various parts of the world, especially in Prehistoric Europe, and are thought to have been used to time and predict seasonal and annual events such as equinoxes or solstices. As those megalithic civilizations left no recorded history, little is known of their calendars or timekeeping methods.
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