A Road Scholar Program by William Iseminger
Humans have been measuring time for thousands of years. Without a cell phone or clock around to tell if one was running late for the hunt or needed to prepare for harvesting season, the earliest human civilizations had to rely on other methods to schedule their days and nights. Discover the various timekeeping methods employed by these ancient civilizations in North America. Whether natural formations on the horizon or artificial, man-made structures, their calendars made use of the sun, moon, and certain bright stars to measure time. Learn about the Woodhenge sun circles of Cahokia Mounds, America’s and Illinois’ first city, other prehistoric Indian sites in eastern North America, the Pueblo structures in the Southwest, and the rock circle “Medicine Wheels” of the Great Plains–all evidence of the great innovators who looked to the sky to know what time it was.