TIME
           Chronology     Cartography    
  Time Keeping
           Chronometers   Chronometric Temperature Device   Kaissa Sand Clock    Oil Clock    Sand Clock    Water Clock   

TIME

Chronology

"Chronology, incidentally, is the despair of scholars on Gor, for each city keeps track of time by virtue of its own Administrator Lists sometimes cities are willing to add, in their records, beside their own dating, the dating of Ar, which is Gor's greatest city Time is reckoned "Contasta Ar", or from the "founding of Ar."
"Outlaw of Gor" pages 178/9

"Most Gorean cities use the Spring Equinox as the date of the New Year. Turia, however, uses the Summer Solstice. The Spring Equinox, incidentally, is also used for the New Year by the Rune-Priests of the North, who keep the calendars of Torvaldsland. They number years from the time of Thor's gift of the stream of Torvald to Torvald, legendary hero and founder of the northern fatherlands. In the calendars of the Rune-Priests the year was 1,006."
"Marauders of Gor" page 58

"(...) for the Wagon Peoples calculate the year from the Season of Snows to the Season of Snows; Turians, incidentally, figure the year from summer solstice to summer solstice; Goreans generally, on the other hand, figure the year from vernal equinox to vernal equinox."
"Nomads of Gor" page 11

"There are twelve twenty-five day Gorean months, incidentally, in most of the calendars of the various cities. Each month, containing five five-day weeks is separated by a five-day period, called the Passage Hand, from very other month, there being one exception to this, which is that the last month of the year is separated from the first month of the year, which begins with the Vernal Equinox, not only by a Passage Hand, but by another five day period called the Waiting Hand."
"Assassin of Gor" page 78

"on the Vernal Equinox, which marks the first day of the new year in most Gorean cities"
"Assassin of Gor" page 78

"It was now the month of the vernal equinox on Gor, called En'Kara, or The First Kara. The full expression is En'Kara-Lar-Torvis, which means, rather literally, The First Turning of the Central Fire. Lar-Torvis is a Gorean expression for the sun. More commonly, though never in the context of time, the sun is referred to as Tor-Tu-Gor, or Light Upon the Home Stone. The month of the autumnal equinox is called fully Se'Kara-Lar-Torvis, but usually simply, Se'Kara, The Second Kara, or The Second Turning. As might be expected, there are related expressions for the months of the solstices, En'Var- Lar-Torvis and Se'Var-Lar-Torvis, or, again rather literally, the First Resting and the Second Resting of the Central Fire. These, however, like the other expressions, usually occur in speech only as En'Var and Se'Var, or The First Resting and The Second Resting."
"Outlaw of Gor" page 178

"On the first day of the Waiting Hand, the last five days of the old year, the portals of Ar, including that of even the House of Cernus, had been painted white, and in many of the low caste homes, sealed with pitch, not to be opened until the first day of En'Kara. Almost all doors, including that of the House of Cernus, had nailed to them some branches of the Brak Bush, the leaves of which, when chewed, have a purgative effect. It is thought that the pitch and the branches of the Brak Bush discourage entry of bad luck into the houses of the citizens. During the days of the Waiting Hand the streets are almost deserted, and in the houses there is much fasting, and little conversation, and no song. Rations even in the House of Cernus were halved during this period. Paga and Ka-la-na were not served. The slaves in the pens received almost nothing."
"Assassin of Gor" page 211

"He did so late in the spring, on the sixteenth day of the third month, that month which in Ar is called Camerius, in Ko-ro-ba Selnar."
"Assassin of Gor" page 234/5

"One of the inn boys, sitting in an apron, on a bench near the large, cylindrical sand clock, glanced at it. "Past the nineteenth hour," he said. He yawned. He would stay up until the twentieth hour, the Gorean Midnight, at which time he would turn the clock and retire."
"Tribesman of Gor" page 80

Cartography

"Briefly, for those it might interest, all directions on the planet are calculated from the Sardar Mountains, which for the purposes of calculating direction play a role analogous to our north pole; the two main directions, so to speak, in the Gorean way of thinking are Ta-Sardar-Var and Ta-Sardar-Ki- Var, or as one would normally say, Var and Ki-Var; 'Var' means a turning and 'Ki' signifies negation; thus, rather literally, one might speak of 'turning to the Sardar' and 'not turning to the Sardar', some- thing like either facing north or not facing north; on the other hand, more helpfully, the Gorean compass is divided into eight, as opposed to our four, main quadrants, or better said, divisions, and each of these itself is of course subdivided. There is also a system of latitude and longitude figured on the basis of the Gorean day, calculated in Ahn, twenty of which constitute a Gorean day, and Ehn and Ihn, which are subdivisions of the Ahn, or Gorean hour. Ta-Sardar-Var is a direction which appears on all Gorean maps; Ta-Sardar-Ki-Var, of course, never appears on a map, since it would be any direction which is not Ta-Sardar-Var. Accordingly, the main divisions of the map are Ta-Sardar-Var, and the other seven; taking the Sardar as our "north pole" the other directions, clockwise as Earth clocks move (Gorean clock hands move in the opposite direction) would be, first, Ta-Sardar-Var, then, in order, Ror, Rim, Tun, Vask (sometimes spoken of as Verus Var. or the true turning away), Cart, Klim, and Kail, and then again, of course, Ta-Sardar-Var. The Cartius River inciden- tally, mentioned earlier, was named for the direction it lies from the city of Ar."
"Nomads of Gor" footnote of page 3

TIME KEEPING

Chronometers

"Chronometers exist on Gor, but they are rare and valuable. Marcus and I did not have any, of intent, at the time, among our belongs. They would not have seemed to fit in well with our guise as auxiliary guardsmen. In many cities, of course, including Ar, time tends to be kept publicly. Official clocks are adjusted, of course, according to the announcements of scribes, in virtue of various astronomical measurements, having to do with the movements of the sun and stars. The calendar, and adjustments in it, are also the results of their researches, promulgated by civil authorities. The average Gorean has a variety of simple devices at his disposal for marking the passage of time. Typical among them are marked, or calibrated, candles, sun dials, sand glasses, clepsydras and oil clocks."
"Magicians of Gor" page 358

"I drew forth from my robes a small, flat, closed Gorean chronometer. It was squarish. I placed it in the hands of the boy, Achmed. He opened it. He observed the tiny hands, moving. There are twenty hours, or Ahn, in the Gorean day. The hands of the Gorean chronometers do not move as the hands of the clocks of the earth. They turn in the opposite direction. In that sense, they move counterclockwise. This chronometer, tooled in Ar, was a fine one, sturdy, exact. It contained, too, a sweeping Ihn hand, with which the tiny Ihn could be measured."
"Tribesman of Gor" page 61

Chronometric Temperature Device

"In the morning I awoke on the sleeping mat in the corner of my apartment, cold and shivering. It was shortly before dawn. I turned off the power switch on the mat and folded back its blanket sides. It was chilly to the touch now, because I had set the chronometric temperature device to turn to cold an hour before the first light."
"Tarnsman of Gor" page 60

Kaissa sand clock

"These clocks are arranged in such a way that each has a tiny spigot which may be open and closed, this determining weather sand falls or not. When it is open for one player, it is off for the other. These spigots are linked in such a way that when one is open the other must be closed; the spigot turned by a given player closes his own clock's sand passage and opens that of his opponent; when the clocks must be both stoped, as for an adjournment of play they are placed on their side by the chief judge of the match (...).
"Beasts of Gor" page 85

Oil clock

"Typical among them are marked, or calibrated, candles, sun dials, sand glasses, clepsydras and oil clocks."
"Magicians of Gor" page 358

Sand clock

"One of the inn boys, sitting in an apron, on a bench near the large, cylindrical sand clock, glanced at it. “Past the nineteenth hour,” he said. He yawned. He would stay up until the twentieth hour, the Gorean midnight, at which time he would turn the clock, and retire.
"Tribesman of Gor" page 180

Water clock (Clepsydra)

"Typical among them are marked, or calibrated, candles, sun dials, sand glasses, clepsydras and oil clocks."
"Magicians of Gor" page 358

"He glanced at the water clock. It was five Ehn to the fifteen Ahn. The Gorean noon is the tenth Ahn. The shadows were now long outside, on this warm, summer afternoon."
"Fighting Slave of Gor" page 212