I took a rather conceptual approach to the subject of “past.” I asked myself a series of questions: what does “past” mean, and how do we define it?; “past” is defined by “time”; then, what is “time” and how do we define it? “Time” is defined and kept by the human invention called the “clock.”
I believe that the concepts of "time" and “time-keeping” are something unique to humans. There definitely is a flow of life cycles in the nature, and all organisms and natural elements on Earth follow this biological and environmental factor. Humans are not an exception to this flow, and we follow this cycle of life as well. However, with the invention of clocks, we have created a system of time-keeping, which is convenient but potentially restricting at the same time. Nowadays, our lives almost completely revolve around the clocks and the time they show. How did clocks come to become what they are now, and how did our lives become to depend on clocks so much?
The ancient Egyptians’ invention of the Obelisk could be considered as the very beginning of the human’s time-keeping history. The Obelisk was invented in 3500BC, and the ancient Egyptians used it to divide the daytime into two parts, by indicating noon. The ancient Egyptians placed these obelisks in strategic locations so that the shadows that these monuments casted would indicate noon, plus the year’s longest and shortest days. (They basically worked like the sundial.) The division of time was still vague, but these Obelisks were what really triggered the development of systematic time-keeping methods. 
The next significant step in the history of time-keeping device is when Su Sung, a Chinese engineer, developed a Water Clock in AD1090. As the name of the clock indicates, the water clock uses water as its source of power and regulator. The water is fed to the scoops on the water-wheel at a constant rate, and when the scoop gets full, it causes the water-wheel to rotate till a new scoop comes in position. This clock was one of the first mechanical clocks in history; before then, people had to figure out the time by tracking the movement of the sun and the stars. This mechanism was not perfect, so there were lots of errors, but it still brought the time-keeping system to a whole new level, as people were now utilizing a man-made mechanism to define time, instead of relying on the natural elements.
People attempted to keep time through many different systems. This is a Chinese Incense Seal from around AD1329. This complicated pattern is actually a single continuous groove carved on wood. The groove was filled with incense of several different aromas, and they would let the incense burn from one end to the other, which took approximately 12 hours. People would determine the time by the location of the area that is burning, or by the scent of different aromas. This system did not work so perfectly either, because it was vulnerable to external factors, such as water. But I find this time-keeping device extremely fascinating, as it is such a different way of thinking, and the object that has a cultural and aesthetic value to it, besides its functional aspect. Plus, the incense aromas have their own functional value, too. It is also interesting that the pattern is in a circular shape, just like the modern clocks. 
People since antiquity used the sun and the stars as a reference to tell time. When the sun is up in the sky, people would trace the movement of the sun to keep track of time. When the sun is not available after the sunset, people would rely on the stars to determine time.The image on the top is a Korean sundial, which was created by a Korean scientist Jang Yeong Sil during the fifteenth century. By then, the sundials had become much more systematic and accurate, compared to the Obelisks from several thousand years ago. This sundial has 13 meters to indicate time, with 7 lines going across the meters to compensate for seasonal changes of the course of the sun.
The image on the bottom is a nocturnal from the 16th century, and this device uses the stars (the zodiacs) as indicators. Nocturnal had existed prior to the 16th century, but the older ones were much simpler and less accurate.
At this point in history, people were still using the sun and the stars to keep time. However the devices were much more elaborate and “time” was divided into much more and smaller “segments.” This indicates that the concept of “time” had become much more important to people’s lives.
The 18th and the 19th centuries were all about improving the mechanical clocks. Various sources of errors were analyzed in parts like the escapement mechanism, the balance wheel, and the pendulum, and the accuracy of clocks was improved immensely. As long-distance travel became more common, the role of “time” became very important. “Time” started serving as a promise between people, and it became a crucial part in everyday lives, enhancing efficiency and communication. In the international treaties of 1883 and 1884, the world agreed to establish a system called “time zones.” Nowadays, the world moves on with a standardized measurement of time. We have divided up a day into 24 hours with 60 minutes and smaller units.Defining and keeping track of time do enhance the efficiency and communication in social activities, but they put huge restrictions on our lives. There is an official moment when the day ends and begins, and there are official hours and minutes that we need to follow. Every “present” moment passes by, and “past” is created every second as the second hand ticks. We’re captivated in our own system of time keeping.
Sources:
Richards E.G. - Mapping time : the calendar and its history
New York : Oxford University Press, 1999.
http://www.beaglesoft.com/maintimehistory.htm
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