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IrishFlukey t1_ja9jfim wrote

Reply to comment by intrinsicrice in Eli5: How did people know how long a year was in olden times? by Slokkkk

Simple things like lengths of shadows. The same kinds of simple things that we can do now.

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annomandaris t1_jaantsm wrote

put a stick in the ground, at noon on each day, measure the shadow, the higher the sun is in the sky, the closer to the stick the shadow will be. On the day the shadow is the farthest from the stick, that means the sun is the lowest in the sky, and that's the shortest day.

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TheSkiGeek t1_jabkzg4 wrote

Hard to tell when it’s exactly noon.

More reliable to mark where on the horizon the sun sets/rises each day. When the movement of that point stops and reverses, that’s either the winter or summer solstice.

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