Dialface ID 284

Holder: Archaeological Museum of Nafplion, Nafplio, Greece
Site: Unknown, Unknown
Material: Marble, White
Dating: unknown
Type: Sphere, Spherical-spherical globe
Inventory Number: λ 2481
BSDP/single/0577/0
BSDP/single/0577/1

Abstract

The designer of the Prosymna globe included a north-facing network of lines which also utilizes the sunlight-shadow boundary as it passes through the hour holes used with the south face. Again intersection between appropriately marked boundary and day curve marked the hour. The resulting network is appropriately similar to the network on a roofed spherical dial, for the shadow boundaries which determine the one are orthogonal to the rays of sunlight which cast an image of the sun on the other. A third network of lines stretches between the east and west hour holes across a shallow hole in the globe´s meridian. I interpret it as a secondary south-facing map of the moving boundary between sunlight and shadow. The three great semicircles which form part of the network are divided by points which would lie along the hourly positions of the boundary at winter solstice (lower semicircle), equinox (middle semicircle), and summer solstice (upper semicircle). Three separate networks of lines have been engraved on this spherical stone. Two great circles on the sphere correspond to the meridian and horizon circles. A conical hole with base 100 mm in diameter pierces the globe at the lower pole.

References

  • Blegen, Carl W.: Prosymna, Remains of Post Mycenaean Date, In: American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 43, 1939, 410--444.
  • Bonnin, Jérôme: La Mesure du temps dans l'Antiquité, Paris, 2015, A 556.
  • Gibbs, Sharon L.: Greek and Roman Sundials, New Haven and London, 1976, p. 28 f, 376 ff.
  • Winter, Eva: Zeitzeichen. Zur Entwicklung und Verwendung antiker Zeitmesser, Berlin and Boston, 2013, 508.

3D Models


DOI

10.17171/1-1-3078

Citation

Berlin Sundial Collaboration, Ancient Sundials, Dialface ID 284, Nafplio, Inv. Nr. λ 2481, 2014, Edition Topoi, DOI: 10.17171/1-1-3078

Citable

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DOI: 10.17171/1-1-3078
Title: Dialface ID 284
Creator: Berlin Sundial Collaboration
Publisher: Edition Topoi
Publication Year: 2014
Subtitle: Nafplio, Inv. Nr. λ 2481
Description: Information on the Dialface ID 284 / Object ID 269
Collection: Ancient Sundials
Contributor Name: Gerd Graßhoff, Elisabeth Rinner
Contributor Type: Editor
Resource Type: Dataset
Date (Update): 2014
Origin / Holder object: Archaeological Museum of Nafplion
Inventory Number: λ 2481
Holder digital source: Exzellenzcluster 264 – Topoi
Rights: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE
Subjects: History of Science, Archaeology
Version: 1
  • Blegen, Carl W.: Prosymna, Remains of Post Mycenaean Date, In: American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 43, 1939, 410--444.
  • Bonnin, Jérôme: La Mesure du temps dans l'Antiquité, Paris, 2015, A 556.
  • Gibbs, Sharon L.: Greek and Roman Sundials, New Haven and London, 1976, p. 28 f, 376 ff.
  • Winter, Eva: Zeitzeichen. Zur Entwicklung und Verwendung antiker Zeitmesser, Berlin and Boston, 2013, 508.