Cubit

Last updated

Egyptian cubit rod in the Liverpool World Museum Cubit rule Egyptian NK from Liverpool museum.jpg
Egyptian cubit rod in the Liverpool World Museum
Cubit rod of Maya, 52.3 cm long, 1336-1327 BC (Eighteenth Dynasty) Measuring ruler-N 1538-IMG 4492-gradient.jpg
Cubit rod of Maya, 52.3 cm long, 1336–1327 BC (Eighteenth Dynasty)

The cubit is an ancient unit of length based on the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. [1] It was primarily associated with the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Israelites. The term cubit is found in the Bible regarding Noah's Ark, the Ark of the Covenant, the Tabernacle, and Solomon's Temple. The common cubit was divided into 6 palms × 4 fingers = 24 digits. [2] Royal cubits added a palm for 7 palms × 4 fingers = 28 digits. [3] These lengths typically ranged from 44.4 to 52.92 cm (1 ft 5+1⁄2 in to 1 ft 8+13⁄16 in), with an ancient Roman cubit being as long as 120 cm (3 ft 11 in).

Contents

Cubits of various lengths were employed in many parts of the world in antiquity, during the Middle Ages and as recently as early modern times. The term is still used in hedgelaying, the length of the forearm being frequently used to determine the interval between stakes placed within the hedge. [4]

Etymology

The English word "cubit" comes from the Latin noun cubitum "elbow", from the verb cubo, cubare, cubui, cubitum "to lie down", [5] from which also comes the adjective "recumbent". [6]

Ancient Egyptian royal cubit

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 (TT8) in Thebes. Fourteen such rods, including one double cubit rod, were described and compared by Lepsius in 1865. [7] These cubit rods range from 523.5 to 529.2 mm (20+5⁄8 to 20+27⁄32 in) in length and are divided into seven palms; each palm is divided into four fingers, and the fingers are further subdivided. [8] [7] [9]

CubitCubit
Cubit		Cubit

Hieroglyph of the royal cubit, meh niswt

Cubit rod from the Egyptian Museum of Turin Cubit rod Turin Museum.PNG
Cubit rod from the Egyptian Museum of Turin

Early evidence for the use of this royal cubit comes from the Early Dynastic Period: on the Palermo Stone, the flood level of the Nile river during the reign of the Pharaoh Djer is given as measuring 6 cubits and 1 palm. [8] Use of the royal cubit is also known from Old Kingdom architecture, from at least as early as the construction of the Step Pyramid of Djoser designed by Imhotep in around 2700 BC. [10]

Ancient Mesopotamian units of measurement

The Nippur cubit-rod in the Archeological Museum of Istanbul, Turkey Nippur cubit.JPG
The Nippur cubit-rod in the Archeological Museum of Istanbul, Turkey

Ancient Mesopotamian units of measurement originated in the loosely organized city-states of Early Dynastic Sumer. Each city, kingdom and trade guild had its own standards until the formation of the Akkadian Empire when Sargon of Akkad issued a common standard. This standard was improved by Naram-Sin, but fell into disuse after the Akkadian Empire dissolved. The standard of Naram-Sin was readopted in the Ur III period by the Nanše Hymn which reduced a plethora of multiple standards to a few agreed upon common groupings. Successors to Sumerian civilization including the Babylonians, Assyrians, and Persians continued to use these groupings.

The Classical Mesopotamian system formed the basis for Elamite, Hebrew, Urartian, Hurrian, Hittite, Ugaritic, Phoenician, Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, Arabic, and Islamic metrologies. [11] [ full citation needed ] The Classical Mesopotamian System also has a proportional relationship, by virtue of standardized commerce, to Bronze Age Harappan and Egyptian metrologies.

In 1916, during the last years of the Ottoman Empire and in the middle of World War I, the German assyriologist Eckhard Unger found a copper-alloy bar while excavating at Nippur. The bar dates from c. 2650 BCE 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 518.6 mm (20+13⁄32 in). [12]

There is some evidence that cubits were used to measure angular separation. The Babylonian Astronomical Diary for 568–567 BCE refers to Jupiter being one cubit behind the elbow of Sagittarius. One cubit measures about 2 degrees. [13]

Biblical cubit

The standard of the cubit (Hebrew : אמה) in different countries and in different ages has varied. This realization led the rabbis of the 2nd century CE to clarify the length of their cubit, saying that the measure of the cubit of which they have spoken "applies to the cubit of middle-size". [14] In this case, the requirement is to make use of a standard 6 handbreadths to each cubit, [15] [16] and which handbreadth was not to be confused with an outstretched palm, but rather one that was clenched and which handbreadth has the standard width of 4 fingerbreadths (each fingerbreadth being equivalent to the width of a thumb, about 2.25 cm). [17] [18] This puts the handbreadth at roughly 9 cm (3+1⁄2 in), and 6 handbreadths (1 cubit) at 54 cm (21+1⁄2 in). Epiphanius of Salamis, in his treatise On Weights and Measures , describes how it was customary, in his day, to take the measurement of the biblical cubit: "The cubit is a measure, but it is taken from the measure of the forearm. For the part from the elbow to the wrist and the palm of the hand is called the cubit, the middle finger of the cubit measure being also extended at the same time and there being added below (it) the span, that is, of the hand, taken all together." [19]

Rabbi Avraham Chaim Naeh put the linear measurement of a cubit at 48 cm (19 in). [20] Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz (the "Chazon Ish"), dissenting, put the length of a cubit at 57.6 cm (22+11⁄16 in). [21]

Rabbi and philosopher Maimonides, following the Talmud, makes a distinction between the cubit of 6 handbreadths used in ordinary measurements, and the cubit of 5 handbreadths used in measuring the Golden Altar, the base of the altar of burnt offerings, its circuit and the horns of the altar. [14]

Ancient Greece

In ancient Greek units of measurement, the standard forearm cubit (Ancient Greek: πῆχυς, romanized: pēkhys) measured approximately 460 mm (18 in). The short forearm cubit (πυγμήpygmē, lit. "fist"), from the knuckle of the middle finger (i.e., fist clenched) to the elbow, measured approximately 340 mm (13+1⁄2 in). [22]

Ancient Rome

In ancient Rome, according to Vitruvius, a cubit was equal to 1+1⁄2 Roman feet or 6 palm widths (approximately 444 mm or 17+1⁄2 in). [23] A 120-centimetre cubit (approximately four feet long), called the Roman ulna, was common in the Roman empire, which cubit was measured from the fingers of the outstretched arm opposite the man's hip. [24] ; also, [25] with [26]

Islamic world

In the Islamic world, the cubit (dhirāʿ) had a similar origin, being originally defined as the arm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. [27] Several different cubit lengths were current in the medieval Islamic world for the unit of length, ranging from 48.25–145.6 cm (19–57+5⁄16 in), and in turn the dhirāʿ was commonly subdivided into six handsbreadths (qabḍa), and each handsbreadth into four fingerbreadths (aṣbaʿ). [27] The most commonly used definitions were:

A variety of more local or specific cubit measures were developed over time: the "small" Hashemite cubit of 60.05 cm (23+21⁄32 in), also known as the cubit of Bilal (al-dhirāʿ al-Bilāliyya, named after the 8th-century Basran qāḍī Bilal ibn Abi Burda); the Egyptian carpenter's cubit (al-dhirāʿ bi'l-najjāri) or architect's cubit (al-dhirāʿ al-miʿmāriyya) of c. 77.5 cm (30+1⁄2 in), reduced and standardized to 75 cm (29+1⁄2 in) in the 19th century; the house cubit (al-dhirāʿ al-dār) of 50.3 cm (19+13⁄16 in), introduced by the Abbasid-era qāḍī Ibn Abi Layla; the cubit of Umar (al-dhirāʿ al-ʿUmariyya) of 72.8 centimetres (28.7 in) and its double, the scale cubit (al-dhirāʿ al-mīzāniyya) established by al-Ma'mun and used mainly for measuring canals. [27]

In medieval and early modern Persia, the cubit (usually known as gaz) was either the legal cubit of 49.8 cm (19+5⁄8 in), or the Isfahan cubit of 79.8 cm (31+7⁄16 in). [27] A royal cubit (gaz-i shāhī) appeared in the 17th century with 95 cm (37+1⁄2 in), while a "shortened" cubit (gaz-i mukassar) of 6.8 cm (2+11⁄16 in) (likely derived from the widely used cloth cubit of Aleppo) was used for cloth. [27] The measure survived into the 20th century, with 1 gaz equal to 104 cm (41 in). [27] Mughal India also had its own royal cubit (dhirāʿ-i pādishāhī) of 81.3 cm (32 in). [27]

Other systems

Other measurements based on the length of the forearm include some lengths of ell, the Russian lokot (локоть), the Indian hasta, the Thai sok, the Malay hasta, the Tamil muzham, the Telugu moora (మూర), the Khmer hat, and the Tibetan khru (ཁྲུ). [28]

Cubit arm in heraldry

A heraldic cubit arm, dexter, vested and erect Complete Guide to Heraldry Fig268.png
A heraldic cubit arm, dexter, vested and erect

A cubit arm in heraldry may be dexter or sinister. It may be vested (with a sleeve) and may be shown in various positions, most commonly erect, but also fesswise (horizontal), bendwise (diagonal) and is often shown grasping objects. [29] It is most often used erect as a crest, for example by the families of Poyntz of Iron Acton, Rolle of Stevenstone and Turton.

See also

Related Research Articles

Biblical and Talmudic units of measurement were used primarily by ancient Israelites and appear frequently within the Hebrew Bible as well as in later rabbinic writings, such as the Mishnah and Talmud. These units of measurement continue to be used in functions regulating Orthodox Jewish contemporary life, based on halacha. The specificity of some of the units used and which are encompassed under these systems of measurement have given rise, in some instances, to disputes, owing to the discontinuation of their Hebrew names and their replacement by other names in modern usage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hand (unit)</span> Unit of length

The hand is a non-SI unit of measurement of length standardized to 4 in (101.6 mm). It is used to measure the height of horses in many English-speaking countries, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It was originally based on the breadth of a human hand. The adoption of the international inch in 1959 allowed for a standardized imperial form and a metric conversion. It may be abbreviated to "h" or "hh". Although measurements between whole hands are usually expressed in what appears to be decimal format, the subdivision of the hand is not decimal but is in base 4, so subdivisions after the radix point are in quarters of a hand, which are inches. Thus, 62 inches is fifteen and a half hands, or 15.2 hh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Median nerve</span> Nerve of the upper limb

The median nerve is a nerve in humans and other animals in the upper limb. It is one of the five main nerves originating from the brachial plexus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulnar nerve</span> Nerve which runs near the ulna bone

The ulnar nerve is a nerve that runs near the ulna, one of the two long bones in the forearm. The ulnar collateral ligament of elbow joint is in relation with the ulnar nerve. The nerve is the largest in the human body unprotected by muscle or bone, so injury is common. This nerve is directly connected to the little finger, and the adjacent half of the ring finger, innervating the palmar aspect of these fingers, including both front and back of the tips, perhaps as far back as the fingernail beds.

The pyramid inch is a now discredited unit of measure formerly claimed by pyramidologists to have been used in ancient times.

The following systems arose from earlier systems, and in many cases utilise parts of much older systems. For the most part they were used to varying degrees in the Middle Ages and surrounding time periods. Some of these systems found their way into later systems, such as the Imperial system and even SI.

The megalithic yard is a hypothetical ancient unit of length equal to about 2.72 feet (0.83 m). 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. Thom also proposed the megalithic rod of 2.5 megalithic yards, or on average across sites 6.77625 feet. As subunits of these, he further proposed the megalithic inch of 2.073 centimetres (0.816 in), one hundred of which are included in a megalithic rod, and forty of which composed a megalithic yard. Thom applied the statistical lumped variance test of J.R. Broadbent on this quantum and found the results significant, while others have challenged his statistical analysis and suggested that Thom's evidence can be explained in other ways, for instance that the supposed megalithic yard is in fact the average length of a pace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digit (unit)</span>

The digit or finger is an ancient and obsolete non-SI unit of measurement of length. It was originally based on the breadth of a human finger. It was a fundamental unit of length in the Ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Hebrew, Ancient Greek and Roman systems of measurement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palm (unit)</span> Anthropic unit of length, based on the width of the human palm

The palm is an obsolete anthropic unit of length, originally based on the width of the human palm and then variously standardized. The same name is also used for a second, rather larger unit based on the length of the human hand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ell</span> Unit of length

An ell is a northwestern European unit of measurement, originally understood as a cubit. The word literally means "arm", and survives in the modern English word "elbow" (arm-bend). Later usage through the 19th century refers to several longer units, some of which are thought to derive from a "double ell".

The ancient Egyptian units of measurement are those used by the dynasties of ancient Egypt prior to its incorporation in the Roman Empire and general adoption of Roman, Greek, and Byzantine units of measurement. The units of length seem to have originally been anthropic, based on various parts of the human body, although these were standardized using cubit rods, strands of rope, and official measures maintained at some temples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of measurement</span>

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 lengths, areas, volumes and masses. Often such systems were closely tied to one field of use, so that volume measures used, for example, for dry grains were unrelated to those for liquids, with neither bearing any particular relationship to units of length used for measuring cloth or land. With development of manufacturing technologies, and the growing importance of trade between communities and ultimately across the Earth, standardized weights and measures became critical. Starting in the 18th century, modernized, simplified and uniform systems of weights and measures were developed, with the fundamental units defined by ever more precise methods in the science of metrology. The discovery and application of electricity was one factor motivating the development of standardized internationally applicable units.

Dimensional metrology, also known as industrial metrology, is the application of metrology for quantifying the physical size, form (shape), characteristics, and relational distance from any given feature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Measuring rod</span> Tool used to physically measure lengths

A measuring rod is a tool used to physically measure lengths and survey areas of various sizes. Most measuring rods are round or square sectioned; however, they can also be flat boards. Some have markings at regular intervals. It is likely that the measuring rod was used before the line, chain or steel tapes used in modern measurement.

The se'ah or seah, plural se'im, is a unit of dry measure of ancient origin found in the Bible and in Halakha, which equals one third of an ephah, or bath. In layman's terms, it is equal to the capacity of 144 medium-sized eggs, or what is equal in volume to about 9 US quarts. Its size in modern units varies widely according to the criteria used for defining it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elbow</span> Joint between the upper and lower parts of the arm

The elbow is the region between the upper arm and the forearm that surrounds the elbow joint. The elbow includes prominent landmarks such as the olecranon, the cubital fossa, and the lateral and the medial epicondyles of the humerus. The elbow joint is a hinge joint between the arm and the forearm; more specifically between the humerus in the upper arm and the radius and ulna in the forearm which allows the forearm and hand to be moved towards and away from the body. The term elbow is specifically used for humans and other primates, and in other vertebrates it is not used. In those cases, forelimb plus joint is used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Egyptian geometry</span> Geometry emanating from Egypt

Egyptian geometry refers to geometry as it was developed and used in Ancient Egypt. Their geometry was a necessary outgrowth of surveying to preserve the layout and ownership of farmland, which was flooded annually by the Nile river.

A number of different units of measurement were used in Sri Lanka to measure quantities like length, mass and capacity from very ancient times. Under the British Empire, imperial units became the official units of measurement and remained so until Sri Lanka adopted the metric system in the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ezekiel 40</span> Book of Ezekiel, chapter 40

Ezekiel 40 is the fortieth chapter of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet and kohen (priest) Ezekiel, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. The Jerusalem Bible refers to the final section of Ezekiel, chapters 40-48, as "the Torah of Ezekiel". This chapter describes Ezekiel's vision of a future Temple.

References

  1. ↑ "Definition of CUBIT". 2 February 2024.
  2. ↑ Vitruvian Man.
  3. ↑ Stephen Skinner, Sacred Geometry – Deciphering The Code (Sterling, 2009) & many other sources.
  4. ↑ Hart, Sarah. "The Green Man". Shropshire Hedgelaying. Oliver Liebscher. Archived from the original on 17 January 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2017. On the roadside the finish is clean and neat, a living fence of intertwined branches between stakes placed an old cubit (the length of a man's forearm or approximately 18 inches) apart.
  5. ↑ Cassell's Latin Dictionary
  6. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary , Second edition, 1989; online version September 2011. s.v. "cubit"
  7. 1 2 Richard Lepsius (1865). Die altaegyptische Elle und ihre Eintheilung (in German). Berlin: Dümmler. p. 14–18.
  8. 1 2 Marshall Clagett (1999). Ancient Egyptian science, a Source Book. Volume Three: Ancient Egyptian Mathematics. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. ISBN   978-0-87169-232-0. p.
  9. ↑ Arnold Dieter (1991). Building in Egypt: pharaonic stone masonry. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-506350-9. p. 251.
  10. ↑ Jean Philippe Lauer (1931). "Étude sur Quelques Monuments de la IIIe Dynastie (Pyramide à Degrés de Saqqarah)". Annales du Service des Antiquités de L'Egypte IFAO 31:60 p. 59
  11. ↑ Conder 1908, p. 87.
  12. ↑ Acta praehistorica et archaeologica Volumes 7–8. Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte; Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut (Berlin, Germany); Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Berlin: Bruno Hessling Verlag, 1976. p. 49.
  13. ↑ Steele, John M., A Brief Introduction to Astronomy in the Middle East (SAQI, 2008), pp. 41–42. Steele does not elaborate on the relationship between the cubit as a unit of length and a unit of angular separation.
  14. 1 2 Mishnah with Maimonides' Commentary (ed. Yosef Qafih), vol. 3, Mossad Harav Kook: Jerusalem 1967, Middot 3:1 [p. 291] (Hebrew).
  15. ↑ Mishnah (Kelim 17:9–10, pp. 629, note 14 – 630). In the Tosefta (Kelim Baba-Metsia 6:12–13), however, it brings down a second opinion, namely, that of Rabbi Meir, who distinguishes between a medium-sized cubit of 5 handbreadths, used principally for rabbinic measurements in measuring the bare and untilled ground near a vineyard and where there is a prohibition to grow therein seed plants under the laws of Diverse Kinds, and a larger cubit of 6 handbreadths used to measure therewith the altar. Cf. Saul Lieberman, Tosefet Rishonim (part 3), Jerusalem 1939, p. 54, s.v. איזו היא אמה בינונית, where he brings down a variant reading of the same Tosefta and where it has 6 handbreadths, instead of 5 handbreadths, for the medium size cubit.
  16. ↑ Cf. Warren, C. (1903). The Ancient Cubit and Our Weights and Measures. London: The Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. p.  4. OCLC   752584387.
  17. ↑ Tosefta (Kelim Baba-Metsia 6:12–13)
  18. ↑ Mishnah with Maimonides' Commentary (ed. Yosef Qafih), vol. 1, Mossad Harav Kook: Jerusalem 1963, Kila'im 6:6 [p. 127] (Hebrew).
  19. ↑ Epiphanius' Treatise on Weights and Measures – the Syriac Version (ed. James Elmer Dean, The University of Chicago Press: Chicago 1935, p. 69.
  20. ↑ Abraham Haim Noe, Sefer Ḳuntres ha-Shiʻurim (Abridged edition from Shiʻurei Torah), Jerusalem 1943, p. 17 (section 20).
  21. ↑ Chazon Ish, Orach Chaim 39:14.
  22. ↑ Vörös, Gyozo (2015), "Anastylosis at Machaerus", Biblical Archaeology Review, vol. 41, no. 1, Jan/Feb 2015, p. 56
  23. ↑ H. Arthur Klein (1974). The Science of Measurement: A Historical Survey. New York: Dover. ISBN   9780486258393. p. 68.
  24. ↑ Stone, Mark H. (30 January 2014). Kaushik Bose (ed.). "The Cubit: A History and Measurement Commentary (Review Article)". Journal of Anthropology. 2014: 489757 [4]. doi: 10.1155/2014/489757 .
  25. ↑ Grant, James (1814). Thoughts on the Origin and Descent of the Gael: With an Account of the Picts, Caledonians, and Scots; and Observations Relative to the Authenticity of the Poems of Ossian. Edinburgh: For A. Constable and Company. p.  137 . Retrieved 1 January 2018. Solinus, cap. 45, uses ulna for cubitus, where Pliny speaks of a crocodile of 22 cubits long. Solinus expresses it by so many ulnae, and Julius Pollux uses both words for the same... they call a cubitus an ulna.
  26. ↑ Ozdural, Alpay (1998). Necipoğlu, Gülru (ed.). "Sinan's Arsin: A Survey of Ottoman Architectural Metrology". Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World. 15. Leiden, The Netherlands: 109. ISSN   0732-2992. ... Roman ulna of four feet...
  27. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Hinz, W. (1965). "Dhirāʿ". In Lewis, B.; Pellat, Ch. & Schacht, J. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume II: C–G. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 231–232. OCLC   495469475.
  28. ↑ Rigpa Wiki, accessed January 2022, ""
  29. ↑ Allcock, Hubert (2003). Heraldic design : its origins, ancient forms, and modern usage, with over 500 illustrations. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications. p. 24. ISBN   048642975X.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.