Editing Hour (section)

===Egypt===
{{Further|Egyptian calendar|Decans|History of timekeeping devices in Egypt}}

The [[ancient Egypt]]ians began dividing the night into ''{{lang|egy|wnwt}}'' at some time before the compilation of the [[Dynasty V]] [[Pyramid Texts]]<ref name=comeandlisten>{{harvp|Clagett|1995|p=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_8c10QYoGa4UC/page/n57 49]}}</ref> in the 24th{{nbsp}}century{{nbsp}}BC.<ref name=toastory>{{harvp|Clagett|1995|p=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_8c10QYoGa4UC/page/n58 50]}}</ref> By 2150{{nbsp}}BC ([[Dynasty IX]]), diagrams of stars inside Egyptian [[coffin]] lids—variously known as "diagonal calendars" or "star clocks"—attest that there were exactly 12 of these.<ref name=toastory/> [[Marshall Clagett|Clagett]] writes that it is "certain" this duodecimal division of the night followed the adoption of the [[Egyptian civil calendar]],<ref name=comeandlisten/> usually placed {{c.|2800}}{{nbsp}}BC on the basis of analyses of the [[Sothic cycle]], but a [[Egyptian lunar calendar|lunar calendar]] presumably long predated this{{sfnp|Parker|1950|pp=30-2}} and also would have had 12 [[month]]s in each of its years. The coffin diagrams show that the Egyptians took note of the [[heliacal rising]]s of 36 stars or [[Asterism (astronomy)|constellations]] (now known as "[[decans]]"), one for each of the ten-day "weeks" of their civil calendar.<ref name=amannamedjed>{{harvp|Clagett|1995|p=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_8c10QYoGa4UC/page/n58 50–1]}}</ref>  (12 sets of alternate "triangle decans" were used for the 5 [[Egyptian intercalary month|epagomenal days]] between years.)<ref name=poormountaineer>{{harvp|Clagett|1995|p=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_8c10QYoGa4UC/page/n226 218]}}</ref> Each night, the rising of eleven of these decans were noted, separating the night into 12 divisions whose middle terms would have lasted about 40{{nbsp}}[[minute]]s each. (Another seven stars were noted by the Egyptians during the twilight and predawn periods,{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} although they were not important for the hour divisions.) The original decans used by the Egyptians would have fallen noticeably out of their proper places over a span of several centuries. By the time of {{nowrap|[[Amenhotep III]]}} ({{c.|1350}}{{nbsp}}BC), the priests at [[Karnak]] were using [[water clock]]s to determine the hours. These were filled to the brim at sunset and the hour determined by comparing the water level against one of its 12 gauges, one for each month of the year.{{sfnp|Parker|1950|p=40}} During the [[New Kingdom]], another system of decans was used, made up of 24 stars over the course of the year and 12 within any one night.

The later division of the day into 12 hours was accomplished by [[sundial]]s marked with ten equal divisions. The morning and evening periods when the sundials failed to note time were observed as the first and last hours.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Why is a minute divided into 60 seconds, an hour into 60 minutes, yet there are only 24 hours in a day?|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-time-division-days-hours-minutes/|access-date=2022-01-24|website=Scientific American|language=en}}</ref>

The Egyptian hours were closely connected both with the priesthood of the gods and with their divine services. By the [[New Kingdom]], each hour was conceived as a specific region of the sky or [[Egyptian underworld|underworld]] through which [[Ra]]'s [[solar barge]] travelled.{{sfnp|Wilkinson|2003|p=83}} Protective deities were assigned to each and were used as the names of the hours.{{sfnp|Wilkinson|2003|p=83}} As the protectors and resurrectors of the sun, the goddesses of the night hours were considered to hold power over all lifespans{{sfnp|Wilkinson|2003|p=83}} and thus became part of Egyptian funerary rituals. Two fire-spitting cobras were said to guard the gates of each hour of the underworld, and [[Wadjet]] and the rearing [[cobra]] ([[uraeus]]) were also sometimes referenced as ''{{lang|egy|wnwt}}'' from their role protecting the dead through these gates. The Egyptian word for [[astronomer]], used as a synonym for priest, was ''{{lang|egy|wnwty}}'', "one of the ''wnwt''", as it were "one of the hours".{{efn|''{{lang|egy|Wnwty}}'' is written variously as <hiero>E34:N35-G43-X1:Z4-N14</hiero>,{{sfnp|Vygus|2015|p=400}} <hiero>E34:N35-W24*X1-D4</hiero>, <hiero>E34:N35-W24*X1-N14</hiero>,{{sfnp|Vygus|2015|p=408}} <hiero>E34:N35-W24:X1-N14-A24-A1:Z2</hiero>, <hiero>E34:N35-W24:X1-N14-N5:D4</hiero>,{{sfnp|Vygus|2015|p=409}} <hiero>E34:N35-W24:X1-Z4-A1</hiero>, <hiero>E34:N35-W24:X1-Z4-N11:N14-D6</hiero>, <hiero>E34:N35-W24:X1-Z4-N14</hiero>, <hiero>E34:N35-W24:X1-Z4-N14-A1</hiero>, <hiero>E34:N35-W24:X1-Z4-N2-A24</hiero>,{{sfnp|Vygus|2015|p=410}} <hiero>E34:N35-X1:Z4-N14:N5</hiero>,{{sfnp|Vygus|2015|p=412}} <hiero>N14</hiero>,{{sfnp|Vygus|2015|p=1235}} <hiero>N14:W24-X1:Z4</hiero>,{{sfnp|Vygus|2015|p=1239}} and <hiero>N14:X1*Z4</hiero>.{{sfnp|Vygus|2015|p=1240}}}} The earliest forms of ''{{lang|egy|wnwt}}'' include one or three stars, with the later solar hours including the [[determinative#Egyptian|determinative]] [[hieroglyph]] for "sun".<ref name=comeandlisten/>