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The ancient Egyptian royal cubit (meh niswt) is the earliest attested standard measure.Cubit rods were used for the measurement of length.A number of these rods have survived: two are known from the tomb of Maya, the treasurer of the 18th dynasty pharaoh Tutankhamun, in Saqqara; another was found in the tomb of Kha in Thebes.
A span is the distance measured by a human hand, from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger. In ancient times, a span was considered to be half a cubit. Sometimes the distinction is made between the great span or full span (thumb to little finger) and little span or short span (thumb to index finger, or index finger to little ...
A 36 square cubit area was known as a kalamos and a 144 square cubit area as a hamma. [17] The uncommon bikos may have been 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 hammata or another name for the cubit strip. [17] The Coptic shipa (ϣⲓⲡⲁ) was a land unit of uncertain value, possibly derived from Nubia. [43]
One cubit is originally the length from someone's elbow to the tip of their middle finger; it usually translates to approximately half a metre ±10%, with an ancient Roman cubit being as long as 120 cm. One cubit was equal to 6–7 palms, one palm being the width of a hand not including the thumb.
Detail of a cubit rod in the Museo Egizio of Turin The earliest recorded systems of weights and measures originate in the 3rd or 4th millennium BC. Even the very earliest civilizations needed measurement for purposes of agriculture, construction and trade. Early standard units might only have applied to a single community or small region, with every area developing its own standards for ...
[citation needed] Defined as 231 cubic inches, it differs from the later imperial gallon, but is equal to the United States customary gallon. Rundlet 18 wine gallons or 1 ⁄ 7 wine pipe Wine barrel 31.5 wine gallons or 1 ⁄ 2 wine hogshead Tierce 42 wine gallons, 1 ⁄ 2 puncheon or 1 ⁄ 3 wine pipe Wine hogshead 2 wine barrels, 63 wine ...
span of all fingers pous πούς: 16 daktyloi 308.2 mm (12.13 in) foot: pygmē πυγμή: 18 daktyloi 346.8 mm (13.65 in) forearm pygōn πυγών: 20 daktyloi 385.3 mm (15.17 in) distance from elbow to fist pēchys πῆχυς: 24 daktyloi 462.3 mm (18.20 in) cubit: Except where noted, based on Smith (1851). [3] Metric equivalents are ...
In Ancient Egypt it was the basic unit of subdivision of the cubit. [1] On surviving Ancient Egyptian cubit-rods, the royal cubit is divided into seven palms of four digits or fingers each. [3] The royal cubit measured approximately 525 mm, [4] so the length of the ancient Egyptian digit was about 19 mm.