Shadow Clok

One of a handful of portable timepieces known from ancient Egypt, this fragment is from the type that told time by measuring the length of the sun's shadow. Preserved here is the block with a sloping face with a series of parallel and oblique lines engraved on its face to mark off the time. The original piece would also have had a perpendicular block set up in front of the sloping face to serve as a gnomon and cast a shadow.