Monday, October 6, 2003

Astronomical Surface Decoration on Ceramics, India part II More backgound can be found in Astronomy of Vedic India, by Eirik L. Harris. He notes that water clocks are mentioned in ancient Indian, Vedic, literature. (Perhaps they were made of ceramics?) Indeed, AJ Turner, in The Time Museum, Vol 1 writes that around 400 AD, India invented the sinking-bowl water clock. (Where a bowl with a hole gradually sinks.) (Thanks Darren A. Narayan ) I have not been able to find an image of one of these bowl on the Internet. I did find a bowl from Egypt that was made for water to pour out of at a specific rate. Its decorations are not about how the bowl was used. So I suppose just because a ceramic object was used to measure time (or a more direct astronomical event) the decoration may be about something else. Interestingly, the shape of the Egyption bowl was meant to compensate for the different speeds at which the water would flow. Form follows function. 1:08:13 PM