I am splitting this thread out of here: [grahamhancock.com]
I am speculating that some form of chronometer was developed either by the first dynasty Egyptians or by the Mesopotamians of the same era. The component parts in Hemaka’s disks (refer [grahamhancock.com] ) along with the silver and copper coils wound like a spring were available at the time. However, we don’t have physical evidence that either culture put these capabilities together and harnessed them in any form of timekeeping capacity. There is a hint though in the Egyptian hieroglyphic record. The following image which comes from Wikipedia provides the hieroglyphs used to denote various units of time in Egypt:
![]()
There are many variants of each time unit, but I noted that the hieroglyphs for hour contains the solar disk, day and decan contain a combination of spiral (V1 or Z7) and solar disk (N5). It was this combination of hieroglyphs that led me to think about what does the spiral glyph V1 or Z7 represent, given the typical classification is that it is a stylised coil of rope. I put that question to the forum in this thread:
[grahamhancock.com]
Dr Troglodyte answered the call comparing the spiral glyph to a maidenhair fern with the following image:
![]()
The spiral glyph is attested to back to the first dynasty - its in the crown on Narmers pallette as well as in the following labels attributed to Den:
[xoomer.virgilio.it]
[xoomer.virgilio.it]
[xoomer.virgilio.it]
[xoomer.virgilio.it]
Having recently read about spirals of copper variously known as Uten or Deben used as currency in Egypt, I set out to find an example of this coil of wire currency. However, I didn’t find any Egyptian examples despite numerous articles attesting to their existence. What I did find was that the Mesopotamians also had a form of coil wire currency. Powell describes the currency and its use:
Below are a couple of examples of these Mesopotamian silver coils from a University of Chicago display:
![]()
![]()
Here we have a culture with well attested trade links to Egypt, in the timeframe of Hemaka that leveraged a currency based on a coil or spiral of wire. This appears to be similar in nature to the Egyptian uten or Deben which has been described as a coil or spiral of wire by various authors. Oddy in his paper notes that Petrie believed that all examples of ancient wires he had seen were hammered rather than drawn. Hammering a cast metal block to a wire form would produce a work hardened metal which once coiled would be less ductile and more likely to act like a spring.
Reviewing the Wikipedia article on Balance Springs, I found this diagram of various types of balance springs:
![]()
Balance springs type 3 and 4 are interesting - type 3 - the chronometer helix is similar to the Mesopotamian coil of money. Type 4 - the early balance spring is similar in design to the Gardiner V1 or Z7 glyphs. In summary, whilst there is no physical evidence of the combination, there is:
1. The manufacture of Hemaka’s disks that provides evidence of the ability to manufacture a disk intended to be spun. The variety of materials and execution shows an interest in mass of the spinning spinning disk which is essential to generate moment of inertia within a balance wheel such as that used in a time piece;
2. The manufacture of coil-wire currency attested to in Egypt and Mesopotamia, with the known surviving examples being spring like and similar in form to a chronometer spring;
3. Hieroglyphic evidence of the spiral (V1 or Z7) and Solar Disk (N5) being used to denote the period of a day. The disks of Hemaka could be seen as a physical manifestation of the solar disk and the spiral glyph is attested to back to the first dynasty; and
4. The V1 or Z7 glyphs which feature in the representation of a day are of a design similar to early balance springs.
If the Egyptians or Mesopotamians did create a chronometer, they would have achieved it several thousands of years prior to the next known invention, that of Huygens in 1681 AD.
References:
Marvin A. Powell, Money in the Orient, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (1996) Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 224-242
Wikipedia article on units, accessed from: [en.wikipedia.org]
Andrew Oddy, The production of Gold Wire in Antiquity, accessed from [link.springer.com]
Wikipedia article on the Balance Spring, accessed from [en.wikipedia.org]
University of Chicago, Commerce and coins in the ancient near east, accessed from [oi.uchicago.edu]
I am speculating that some form of chronometer was developed either by the first dynasty Egyptians or by the Mesopotamians of the same era. The component parts in Hemaka’s disks (refer [grahamhancock.com] ) along with the silver and copper coils wound like a spring were available at the time. However, we don’t have physical evidence that either culture put these capabilities together and harnessed them in any form of timekeeping capacity. There is a hint though in the Egyptian hieroglyphic record. The following image which comes from Wikipedia provides the hieroglyphs used to denote various units of time in Egypt:
There are many variants of each time unit, but I noted that the hieroglyphs for hour contains the solar disk, day and decan contain a combination of spiral (V1 or Z7) and solar disk (N5). It was this combination of hieroglyphs that led me to think about what does the spiral glyph V1 or Z7 represent, given the typical classification is that it is a stylised coil of rope. I put that question to the forum in this thread:
[grahamhancock.com]
Dr Troglodyte answered the call comparing the spiral glyph to a maidenhair fern with the following image:
The spiral glyph is attested to back to the first dynasty - its in the crown on Narmers pallette as well as in the following labels attributed to Den:
[xoomer.virgilio.it]
[xoomer.virgilio.it]
[xoomer.virgilio.it]
[xoomer.virgilio.it]
Having recently read about spirals of copper variously known as Uten or Deben used as currency in Egypt, I set out to find an example of this coil of wire currency. However, I didn’t find any Egyptian examples despite numerous articles attesting to their existence. What I did find was that the Mesopotamians also had a form of coil wire currency. Powell describes the currency and its use:
Quote
“This apparent disinterest in coinage cannot be because Mesopotamia was an economic backwater. On the contrary, by the third millennium B.C., at the latest, Mesopotamia was crisscrossed with trade routes connecting it with the Asian land mass, the Mediterranean, the Indian subcontinent and probably with east Africa.”
“The one form about which there seems now to be some agreement is the so called “ring” silver. “Ring” is a translation of the Sumatran word har corresponding to the Akkadian Semeru. Both words may have also meant ring in the sense of a continuous circular band; however from the Ur III period, through old Babylonian (ca 2100-2600 BC) these terms seem to have denoted primarily bands of silver shaped into coils or spirals.”
“I have since observed wire coils displayed in museums from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, some of which evinced the same kind of beaten off character that I had observed in the Mesopotamian silver coins, probably the result of hacking off a piece to pay for something.”
“In the earliest cuneiform script (ca 3,000 BC) which is the ancestor of the symbol that stands for kug or precious metal in Sumerian may represent a stylised picture of a metal coil or spiral.
Below are a couple of examples of these Mesopotamian silver coils from a University of Chicago display:
Here we have a culture with well attested trade links to Egypt, in the timeframe of Hemaka that leveraged a currency based on a coil or spiral of wire. This appears to be similar in nature to the Egyptian uten or Deben which has been described as a coil or spiral of wire by various authors. Oddy in his paper notes that Petrie believed that all examples of ancient wires he had seen were hammered rather than drawn. Hammering a cast metal block to a wire form would produce a work hardened metal which once coiled would be less ductile and more likely to act like a spring.
Reviewing the Wikipedia article on Balance Springs, I found this diagram of various types of balance springs:
Balance springs type 3 and 4 are interesting - type 3 - the chronometer helix is similar to the Mesopotamian coil of money. Type 4 - the early balance spring is similar in design to the Gardiner V1 or Z7 glyphs. In summary, whilst there is no physical evidence of the combination, there is:
1. The manufacture of Hemaka’s disks that provides evidence of the ability to manufacture a disk intended to be spun. The variety of materials and execution shows an interest in mass of the spinning spinning disk which is essential to generate moment of inertia within a balance wheel such as that used in a time piece;
2. The manufacture of coil-wire currency attested to in Egypt and Mesopotamia, with the known surviving examples being spring like and similar in form to a chronometer spring;
3. Hieroglyphic evidence of the spiral (V1 or Z7) and Solar Disk (N5) being used to denote the period of a day. The disks of Hemaka could be seen as a physical manifestation of the solar disk and the spiral glyph is attested to back to the first dynasty; and
4. The V1 or Z7 glyphs which feature in the representation of a day are of a design similar to early balance springs.
If the Egyptians or Mesopotamians did create a chronometer, they would have achieved it several thousands of years prior to the next known invention, that of Huygens in 1681 AD.
References:
Marvin A. Powell, Money in the Orient, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (1996) Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 224-242
Wikipedia article on units, accessed from: [en.wikipedia.org]
Andrew Oddy, The production of Gold Wire in Antiquity, accessed from [link.springer.com]
Wikipedia article on the Balance Spring, accessed from [en.wikipedia.org]
University of Chicago, Commerce and coins in the ancient near east, accessed from [oi.uchicago.edu]