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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.
It was usually used to measure depth, tunnel driving and the size of mining fields; it was also used for contract work. In mining in the German-speaking countries, it was the primary unit of length. Ligne – a French unit of length, roughly equal to 2.25 mm (0.089 in), or 9 points
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.
One official government standard of measurement of the archaic system was the Cubit of Nippur (2650 BCE). It is a Euboic Mana + 1 Diesis (432 grams). [ citation needed ] This standard is the main reference used by archaeologists to reconstruct the system.
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]
The bar dates from c. 2650 BC. and Unger claimed it was used as a measurement standard. This irregularly formed and irregularly marked graduated rule supposedly defined the Sumerian cubit as about 518.5 mm (20.4 in), although this does not agree with other evidence from the statues of Gudea from the same region, five centuries later. [2]
The digit, also called a finger or fingerbreadth, is a unit of measurement originally based on the breadth of a human finger. 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]
Historic standard units of the city of Regensburg: from left to right, a fathom (Klafter), foot (Schuch) and ell (Öln). Prussian ell. An ell (from Proto-Germanic *alinō, cognate with Latin ulna) [1] is a northwestern European unit of measurement, originally understood as a cubit (the combined length of the forearm and extended hand).