Water clocks were used as time keeping instruments in ancient Egypt from at least the New Kingdom until the end of pharaonic history. Most of the surviving full-sized water clocks are made of stone and are inscribed inside and out. All but one of them are 'outflow' water clocks, meaning that time was indicated by the water level falling past scale marks as the water ran out of the vessel. The remaining one is apparently an inflow water clock (water level rising past scale marks as the water ran into the vessel). Most water clocks have been found in pieces; fragments of the same vessel may currently be in different collections. The list below does not include smaller water clocks without scales, which may be models rather than real vessels.

The ID column gives a sequential number for each vessel (fragments are referred to by an additional lower-case letter, Fr.) based on the system of Lodomez (2007). Most objects are poorly provenanced, but the inscribed name gives a date reference. The exterior decoration of outflow water clocks sometimes included an astronomical representation (AR). These vessels are cross-referenced to the relevant page in the astronomical representations section of the database. 

Outflow Water Clock

ID	Inscribed to	Notes	AR?	Fr.	Current location	Catalogue No.
WCO 1	Amenhotep III	Temple of Karnak, New Kingdom	Yes		Egyptian Museum, Cairo	JE 37525
WCO 2	Nekau II	Late Period, 26 Dynasty	Yes		Egyptian Museum, Cairo	JE 67096
WCO 3	Alexander the Great	Tell el-Yahudiya, late 4th C BC. Fragment a is actually two attached fragments.	No	a	British Museum, London	BM EA933
				b	Musée du Louvre, Paris	E 30890
				c	Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin	ÄM 30508
				d	In private hands	-
WCO 4	Alexander the Great		No	a	Hermitage, Saint Petersburg	ДВ-2507a
				b	Museo Nazionale, Naples	2327
WCO 5	Alexander the Great		No		Brooklyn Museum, New York	57.21.1
WCO 6	Philip Arrhidaeus	Tell el-Yahudiya, c. 320 BC	No		British Museum, London	EA938
WCO 7			No	a	Museo Egizio, Turin	Supp. 8
				b	Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels	E.04782
WCO 8			No		Pushkin Museum, Moscow	I.1.a.5955
WCO 9			No		Ephesus	Unknown
WCO 10	Ptolemy II		Yes	a	Musée du Louvre, Paris	N 664
				b	Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen	H351
WCO 11	Ptolemy II	Found in Rome in the Iseo Campense area, according to the museum label	No		Museo Barracco, Rome	MB 27
WCO 12			No		Hermitage, Saint Petersburg	ДВ-2507b
WCO 13	Hadrian	Found in ruins in Villa Bonelli, outside Porta Portese, Rome (Porter & Moss 1960)	No		Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin	ÄM 19556
WCO 14			No		Museo Archeologico, Florence	2613
WCO 15		Temple of Serapis in Alexandria. Assigned a find number in Rowe & Drioton (1946).	No		Unknown	P.9619
WC? 16		This fragment seems to be curved. The decoration is consistent with other outflow water clocks.	No		Museo Egizio, Turin	Supp. 3524
WCO 17		Unknown, possibly Saqqara?	Yes		Museo Archeologico, Florence	12290
WCO 18	?Nectanebo		No	a	Petrie Museum, London	UC55487
				b	In private hands	-
WCO 19			No		Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago	E16875
WCO 20		Described by Borchardt (1920)	No		Unknown	-
WCO 21	Ptolemy II	Nineveh, acquired by Frankfort in 1930 (Ritner 2016)	Yes		Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago	A7125

Inflow Water Clock

ID in this catalogue	Provenance	AR?	Current location	Catalogue number
WCI 1	Edfu	No	Egyptian Museum, Cairo	TR 2.12.26.16