In order to ensure that the plaintiff and defendant
would have an equal amount of time to make their cases, the Athenian courts
employed water clocks. The speaker could tell when his time was running
out by a change in water pressure. The two pots above are reconstructed
models of pots that were used, not in the courts, but in the Bouleuterion
(Council House). They are marked with the name of an Athenian
tribe (Antiochis) and were probably used to time speeches while
that the representatives of that tribe were serving as presiding officers
(prytaneis).