Album: Ancient Bronze Age Sundial

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Bronze Age Burial Mound

Ukrainian Bronze Age burial mound

(Image credit: Photo courtesy Larisa Vodolazhskaya)

Burial Mound Excavations

Ancient burial mound excavated

(Image credit: Photo courtesy Larisa Vodolazhskaya)

Excavations underway at a Bronze Age burial mound in the Ukraine, where scientists unearthed an ancient sundial in 2011.

Sundial Discovery

Ukrainian bronze age sundial

(Image credit: Photo courtesy Larisa Vodolazhskaya)

Archaeologists pose with a Bronze Age sundial dating back more than 3,000 years.

Sundial Carvings

An ancient Bronze age sundial

(Image credit: Photo courtesy Larisa Vodolazhskaya)

Carvings revealed to be an ancient sundial used by the Srubnaya people of the Bronze Age.

Ancient Sundial

Analemmatic sundial of the Bronze Age.

(Image credit: Photo courtesy Larisa Vodolazhskaya)

Yellow lines indicate the hours on a Bronze Age sundial at the equinox. The shadow-casting gnomon of the sundial would have been fixed at point "EQ" on the equinoxes.

Sundial Grooves

Carvings on a Bronze Age sundial

(Image credit: Photo courtesy Larisa Vodolazhskaya)

A close look at the grooves marking the face of the sundial.

Sundial Hour Lines

Gnomons on a Bronze Age sundial

(Image credit: Photo courtesy Larisa Vodolazhskaya)

The gnomon of a sundial is the object used to cast the time-telling shadow. The Bronze Age sundial used two gnomons. Here, the hour lines for each.

Sundial Side B

Side B sundial

(Image credit: Photo courtesy Larisa Vodolazhskaya)

On the flip side of the sundial, inexpert carvings attempt to recreate the sundial on side A. These markings aren't properly placed for time-telling.

Russian sundial

Russian Srubnaya sundial

(Image credit: Photo courtesy Larisa Vodolazhskaya)

A second Srubnaya sundial, this one discovered in Russia in 1991, is less well-preserved than the Ukrainian find.

Srubnaya Russian Sundial

Srubnaya Russian sundial

(Image credit: Photo courtesy Larisa Vodolazhskaya)

This Russian sundial also belonged to the Srubnaya culture, Bronze Age people known for their timber-framed graves.

Sundial Hour Markings

Sundial from Bronze Age Russia

(Image credit: Photo courtesy Larisa Vodolazhskaya)

Carved-out wells on the Russia sundial show where shadows would fall to mark the hours.

Stephanie Pappas
Stephanie Pappas
Live Science Contributor

Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.