Egyptian royal cubit and graduated measuring rods
Codo real egipcio y varas graduadas de medir
- Date
- c. 1400 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Deir el-Medina, Thebes, Egypt
- Credited to
- Scribes and architects of the New Kingdom
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A wooden or stone rod of about 52.3 cm, divided into 7 palms and 28 digits with marked fractions, which served as the length standard for building works and fields. Complete rods survive from the 18th Dynasty, such as the folding one found in the tomb of the architect Kha.
The royal cubit was already used in the Old Kingdom pyramids (c. 2600 BC): what is dated here is the surviving physical rod, not the unit. Its value (52.3-52.9 cm) varies somewhat between rods.
What it led to
- precise proportions in New Kingdom temples and tombs
- tax surveying of land after each Nile flood
- basis of the cubit and foot in later Mediterranean measurement systems