The Skill and The Wit (spoilers all RotE books)

[redchild]

Interesting that you mention clocks. I don't know who Sayntanns is, possibly a divine/mythological figure or even a specific place, but I'm more interested in the actual contexts of clocks in relation to your earlier post about stars.

Clocks that tell the time of day are in general instruments that measure cosmic intervals. Mechanical clocks, ones that use gears and pendulums, were first constructed in Europe during the Middle Ages in order to keep time for when church bells were to ring at certain times of day. This meshing of scientific astronomy and religious allusions connected to it are quite fascinating.

From Wikipedia:

"Most of the first clocks were not so much chronometers as exhibitions of the pattern of the cosmos . . . Clearly the origins of the mechanical clock lie in a complex realm of monumental planetaria, equatoria, and geared astrolabes."

Besides demonstrating a drive to understand the intricacies of the cosmos, astronomical clocks also reflected the philosophy of an "ordered, heavenly-ordained universe."

I haven't delved into this very deeply, but perhaps this could be of interest.