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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.
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.
The megalithic yard is a hypothetical ancient unit of length equal to about 2.72 feet (0.83 m). [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Some researchers believe it was used in the construction of megalithic structures. The proposal was made by Alexander Thom as a result of his surveys of 600 megalithic sites in England , Scotland , Wales and Brittany . [ 4 ]
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]
Flinders Petrie reported on a rod that shows a length of 520.5 mm, a few millimetres less than the Egyptian cubit. [8] A slate measuring rod was also found, divided into fractions of a Royal Cubit and dating to the time of Akhenaten. [9] Further cubit rods have been found in the tombs of officials.
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 ...
Casing stone from the Great Pyramid. The seked of a pyramid is described by Richard Gillings in his book 'Mathematics in the Time of the Pharaohs' as follows: . The seked of a right pyramid is the inclination of any one of the four triangular faces to the horizontal plane of its base, and is measured as so many horizontal units per one vertical unit rise.
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 ]