Dark Side of Time

Ticking away
The moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours
In an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground
In your hometown
Waiting for someone
Or something to show you the way
…
You are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun

Lyrics from the song “Time”, by Pink Floyd

According to The World History Encyclopedia’s article about “Ancient Timekeeping ”, the three main ways our ancient ancestors measured time were: using celestial bodies, sundials, and water devices. Tracking the sun and planets was the earliest method. “Early sundials merely indicated months but later efforts attempted to break the day into regular units and indicate the twelve hours of the day and night first invented by the Egyptians and Babylonians.” The earliest water clock may have come from Egypt around 1600 BCE, and the “Greeks used such a device (a klepsydra) in Athenian law courts and it determined how long a single speech could last: approximately six minutes.”

About the author

Time (Pink Floyd song) : “Time” is a song by English rock band Pink Floyd. It is included as the fourth track on their eighth album The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and was released as a single in the United States. With lyrics written by bassist Roger Waters, guitarist David Gilmour shares lead vocals with keyboardist Richard Wright (his last until “Wearing the Inside Out” on the band’s 1994 album The Division Bell).