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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 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]
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
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]
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. [1] Even the very earliest civilizations needed measurement for purposes of agriculture, construction and trade.
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.
The Public Cubit counted 24 daktyloi and was used mainly in construction, hence was also called lithikos ("stone"), [xylo]pristikos ("[wood]-sawing"), tektonikos ("builder's"). [6] The Imperial or Geometric Cubit counted 32 daktyloi and was used for the measurement of fields for the purpose of tax assessment. [6]
In 1756, the ruling Archduchess of Austria, Maria Theresa, ordered that the Viennese klafter as well as its multiples and fractions, should be the state-defined measure of length in the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Viennese cubit, that is 1 3 ⁄ 4 of the Roman cubit (cubitus or elbow), was also used as a measure of length.