Joseph Henrich

Yeah, that was a world governed by sunrise and sunset, where there were still 12 hours in a day, but the length of those hours varied.

There were seasonal rhythms that helped people organize farming.

And it was just a very different world than the constant interest in time and saving time and getting more time and thinking of time as money.

Yeah.

I mean, everything was organized around sunrise.

And of course, that varies if you're not along the equator.

That changes throughout the year.

There were no electric lights.

Candles were expensive.

So people had to adapt to the availability of light.

And of course, everybody was farmers, or almost everyone.

So that meant that the seasons really mattered a lot.

The weather mattered a lot.

And you had to organize your work around those cycles.

That's right.

They began spreading in northern Italy, so places like Milan and Parma.

But then they were very popular, so they rapidly began spreading amongst urbanizing parts of Europe, so getting to Paris and London.

And initially, there wasn't a clock per se.

It was just tied to bells.

So the cities and towns, everybody was within earshot of the ringing bells.