The Water Clock in the Tower of the Winds Essay Example for Free

The Water Clock in the Tower of the Winds Essay Noble and Prices in-depth article examining the specific technical attributes of the water clock in the Tower of Winds in the Roman Agora of Athens purports to be a virtual reconstruction of the Tower of Winds and, specifically, the water-clock and supporting water-tower within. The article is just that and little else. While steadfastly maintaining through out the article that the water-clock and the Tower of Winds have received too little literary and scientific attention over the centuries and lamenting that such a wonderfully curious structure (which has been maintained and continuously occupied over the many centuries since its construction), the authors do little to dramatize the Towers existence or bring the rich archaeological evidence and information made available by the structure into vivid, documentary realization. True enough, the Tower and the water-clock are generally passed over by scholars. An example is G. J. Whitrows mention of the Tower of Winds in his book Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day which states simply: there is evidence of more elaborate instrumentation, such as the Tower of the Winds which can still be seen in Athens, north of the Acropolis. Designed and built by the astronomer Andronicus Kyrrhestes of Macedonia in the second quarter of the first century BC, with a wind vane and complicated sundials on each of its eight walls, its most interesting feature is a reservoir in a smaller building that stood next to its south side 1 with the implication that the rest of the structure was, in fact, of little interest. Ironically, the very concept of a water-clock provokes a sense of mystery and interest. The origin of water-clocks is presumed to be Egyptians who developed the water-clock as a method for keeping track of time at night when sun-dials were, obviously, incapable of functioning: To provide a means of measuring time at night the Egyptians also invented the water-clock, or clepsydra as the Greeks later called it Vitruvius, writing about 30 BC, described a number of types 2 so the history of the water-clock is deep and richly extensive. The Noble-Price article hints at this rich history for the technological and cultural significance of the water-clock, but evades any real crystallization of the possible incarnations of water-clocks which preceded the massive example in the Tower of Winds. Before examining the strengths and weaknesses of the articles largely technical explication, it may be useful to summarize in general what a water-clock is and what it is intended to do. Although the Noble-Price article certainly fulfills this need for preliminary information, the Columbia Encyclopedia does a far better job of stating, succinctly, the overall historical evolution of the water-clock: More elaborate clepsydras were later developed. Some were double vessels, the larger one below containing a float that rose with the water and marked the hours on a scale. A form more closely foreshadowing the clock had a cord fastened to the float so that it turned a wheel, whose movement indicated the time. A further step was the use of gear wheels and a turning pointer. 3 Another key point of the Noble-Price article relevant to the history of clepsydras is that which demonstrates the distinction between the two major types of water-clocks (or clepsydras) which were used extensively in ancient times: the outflow model and the in-flow model. The article mentions that The outflow clepsydra was known as early as the third millennium B. C. in Egypt, [ ] In this type water is allowed to escape from a vessel by dripping from an orifice near its base. Time is then calculated by measuring the fall of the water level, or the entire period taken for all the water to drain away with the subsequent negative outcome that the rate of flow through the orifice depends on the head of water above it; therefore as the water drains away the flow becomes slower. 4 By contrast, with the inflow device, the invention of which Vitruvius ascribes to Ktesibios, water was fed into a tank somehow equipped to provide a constant head of water. From a small orifice near the bottom of the tank, water dripped at a constant rate into a cylindrical container provided with a float; the float indicated the change in water level and therefore the time elapsed 5 and this solution si evident in the Tower of Winds where The cylindrical tower section of the Tower of the Winds is perfectly suited to house such an apparatus 6. Such technical distinctions are seemingly minor, but play a key role in the pursuit of the article under discussion. As Noble-Price indicate in the articles opening paragraph, the intention of the article is to fill this long-standing lacuna 7 where the captivating archaeological evidence of The Tower of Winds is at long last brought to the attention of serious observers by way of the authors practical restoration of the mechanism designed by Andronikos of Kyrrhos in Macedonia, probably near the beginning of the second half of the first century 8 and the authors certainly fulfill this promise. The shortcoming of the article is its dry, technical explication of the water-clock and Tower which does little to improve upon the authors own dry observation that At the outset it must be admitted that literary and historical allusions to the Tower of the Winds or its designer give almost no indication that the building was anything more than an elaborate wind-vane. 9 By contrast, Suzanne Youngs study, An Athenian Clepsydra, narrates an engaging technical explication along with a dramatic recreation of the function of the clepsydra in the practice of ancient law: Our earliest authority for the clepsydra is Aristophanes. One of his chorus of old Acharnians grumbles that it is hardly fitting that youngsters should shame an old mans grey hairs by dragging him into litigation to destroy him at the clepsydra. 10 Young breaks up her technical explication with historical anecdote and humor: In a slightly later play he teases a jury-court veteran (his chief Wasp ) who never sleeps a wink11 or if he doze off the least bit his mind goes fluttering in the night about the clepsydra. Such an approach finds the reader far more prepared to absorb the more demanding specifications of the technical and cultural attributes under discussion. Similarly, Henry Robinsons article The Tower of the Winds and the Roman Market-Place adopts a narrative-historical approach to the interpretation of the water-clock and Tower, concluding that The Tower of the Winds served as a public time-piece for the city of Athens. Its interior instruments, then, like those in the horologium of Scipio Xasica at Rome, should have been accessible to the populace of the city at all times, both night and day. The absence of one cutting on each threshold block and of one on the floor of the Tower indicates that this was the case 12 and leading the reader to understand the cultural significance of the architecture. Perhaps the Noble-Price article might have benefited from a bit of personal introspection or commentary from the authors outside of that which pertains to the dearth of active scholarship in relation to their chosen subject for the article. Unfortunately, the authors vividly miss any opportunity to include such material, or even a bit of comic relief as is evident in Carl W. Blegans article Prosymna: Remains of Post-Mycenaean Date which catelogs a tremendous amount of information on a dizzying array of artifacts and manages to compress this information into an entertaining and memorable package. Perhaps it is necessary for the human mind to punctuate its absorption of information with cutaway moments of emotional reflection, humor, and introspection. If so, the Noble-Price article suffers greatly from its lack of such punctuated emotion. The Blegen article, for example, finishes with a bit of humor and mystery, describing an ancient Egyptian artifact: The arcs and the lines are for the most part accurately and carefully drawn. The zodiacal names and the numerals of the hours are written in fairly well formed letters which seem to belong to the end of the second century B. c. , and we may conclude that the sphere was made about that time. The dedicatory inscription, on the other hand, with its crowded, badly shaped letters, regular use of t for Z, EI for 0, and for R,must be a much later addition, perhaps assignable to the second century A. D. whatever its earlier history, the sun-dial was presumably at that time dedicated to Hera and set up in the sanctuary; from which it must subsequently have rolled down the hill to the place where it was found. 13 In conclusion, while the Noble-Price article does an admirable job of presenting technical details, is deeply researched, and honestly intended, the article lacks any narrative or dramatic intensity which and will likely do little to exhume the Tower of the Winds from scholarly or popular obscurity. NOTES 1. G. J. Whitrow, Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 50. 2 G. J.Whitrow, Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 27. ) 3. The Columbia Encyclopedia 6th ed. , s. v. Clepsydra, 4. Noble Joseph V. ; de Solla Price Derek J. The Water Clock in the Tower of the Winds American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 72, No. 4. (Oct. , 1968), p. 351. 5. Noble Joseph V. ; de Solla Price Derek J. The Water Clock in the Tower of the Winds American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 72, No. 4. (Oct. , 1968), p. 346. 6. Noble Joseph V. ; de Solla Price Derek J. The Water Clock in the Tower of the Winds American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 72, No. 4. (Oct. , 1968), p. 346. 7. Noble Joseph V. ; de Solla Price Derek J. The Water Clock in the Tower of the Winds American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 72, No. 4. (Oct. , 1968), p. 346. 8. Noble Joseph V. ; de Solla Price Derek J. The Water Clock in the Tower of the Winds American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 72, No. 4. (Oct. , 1968), 351. 9. Noble Joseph V. ; de Solla Price Derek J. The Water Clock in the Tower of the Winds American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 72, No. 4. (Oct. , 1968), 352. 10. Young, Suzanne. An Athenian Clepsydra Hesperia, Vol. 8, No. 3, The American Excavations in the Athenian Agora: Sixteenth Report. (Jul. Sep. , 1939), pp. 276. 11. Young, Suzanne. An Athenian Clepsydra Hesperia, Vol. 8, No. 3, The American Excavations in the Athenian Agora: Sixteenth Report. (Jul. Sep. , 1939), pp. 276. 12. Robinson, Henry S. The Tower of the Winds and the Roman Market-Place American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 47, No. 3. (Jul. Sep. , 1943), pp. 295. 13. Blegen, Carl W. Prosymna: Remains of Post-Mycenaean Date American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 43, No. 3. (Jul. Sep. , 1939), pp. 444.