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The paper analyses three preserved reports, depicting Gerbert of Aurillac (also known as: of Reims, of Ravenna, of Bobbio, and in 999–1003 as Pope Sylvester II) as a clockmaker. The Benedictine monk William of Malmesbury (died around 1143) writes about clocks Gerbert made in Reims in The History of the English Kings and describes them as arte mechanica compositum. The Benedictine Arnold Wion (died around 1610) mentions clocks from Ravenna, where Gerbert allegedly constructed a clepsydra, in The Tree of Life. In his Chronicle, Thietmar of Merseburg (died around 1018) describes a horologium with an observation tube (fistula) from Magdeburg. These three references are analysed from a historical standpoint and especially Williams’s and Thietmar’s short reports are interpreted as possible references to timekeeping devices – the astrolabe and the nocturlabe.

In the article presents the results of the multidisciplinary study conducted with the help of archaeological, physical and astronomical methods. The aim of the study was to analyze and interpret marks and drawings applied to the surface of the vessel of the Bronze Age (Srubna culture) found near the Staropetrovsky village in the northeast of the Donetsk region (the Central Donbass). The carried out calculations and measurements possible to prove that Staropetrovsky vessel is the most ancient water clock, discovered on the territory of Europe, and have approximately the same age as the oldest known ancient Egyptian water clock. Such vessels - water clocks were needed for Srubna population to rituals related to the determined time of day and to mark sundial, which had recently been discovered in the Northern Black Sea Coast. Staropetrovsky vessel has a marks of heliacal rising of Sirius and it is an ancient astronomical auxiliary instrument for determining the time at night.