One of the first things that a
large State pays attention to is creation of a uniform and practical measurement
system. Here we learn that the early
Egyptian system for measurement of volume was related to the royal cubit
through the circumference of a spherical vessel. It actually sounds pretty practical as anyone
would have a cubit tape with which to test out the measuring bottle itself. Such a bottle could then be used as the
standard filling device for larger vessels.
Variations on this method likely applied across the ancient world.
Relating fluid volumes to the
volume of solids would not have been particularly critical either.
Let us not forget that we used barrels
for bulk shipment for centuries and those containers would have been tested in
exactly the same way.
As an aside, the cubit was
related to the circumference of the Earth and represented some neat efforts in
measuring time and large distances. This
was ultimately the precursor to the English foot. Mankind’s original ancient measurement system
adjusted to local latitudes was based on the Earth’s circumference as is the
present metric system. The only
difference happens to be in the mathematics.
I cover this topic extensively in my manuscript ‘Paradigms Shift’
Israeli scientists reveal ancient measuring system
No, vendors didn't just guess. Ancient Middle East
markets were ruled by a precursor to the metric system, which let haggling
shoppers exactly how much oil or wine they were buying.
By Asaf
Shtull-Trauring | Jul.01, 2012 | 7:53 AM
Shoppers in the ancient Middle East
had a system of measurement in place remarkably like the metric system to know
exactly what they were buying, according to a quartet of Israeli researchers.
In a ground-breaking collaboration, archaeologists and mathematicians
from Tel Aviv University
Scientists believe the system, which was discerned after analyzing
dozens of clay artifacts from Israel ,
Cyprus
Consider it a precursor to the metric system.
The metric system, as we know, revolves around a fixed relationship
between volume and length, which is based on the cube and offers round,
easily-summed numbers for calculations. How much liquid can go into a
cube-shaped container? It's simple to measure: A cube that measures 10
centimeters in length, width and height will have a volume of one liter.
In ancient times, however, oval-shaped clay vessels were regularly used
for commerce. So how did savvy market hagglers measure the quantities of wine,
oil or any other jug-based product?
Until recently, researchers just figured they guessed.
“Modern archeology assumed that traders of the ancient world could
estimate the volume of oval vessels without emptying them, only with their
eyes,” said Professor Itzhak Benenson, a mathematician who led the research together
with his colleague Elena Zapassky and archeologists Professor Israel
Finkelstein and Dr. Yuval Gadot.
It turns out, however, that the vendors of yore were much more precise.
"The people of antiquity were just as smart as we are,” said
Benenson, who also heads the department of geography at Tel Aviv University
The revelation was recently published in the journal PLoS ONE.
The researchers claim that starting approximately 3,500 years ago,
(14th -10th centuries B.C.E.), Egyptians and Phoenicians used units of
length and volume that were inherently related, just as the units of our modern
metric system. The twist? Unlike our current system, this ancient system for
calculating mass was based on a sphere, not a cube.\
The pharaoh's pint
The researchers had their eureka moment while constructing 3-D virtual
models of hundreds of vessels discovered over the past few decades. Among them
were vessels from Megiddo , an ancient city in Israel
They knew that ancient Egyptians used the royal cubit equivalent to
approximately 52.3 centimeters, as a unit of length. Their baseline unit of
volume was the hekat– approximately 4.8 liters.
Rather than calculate the shape and volume of the vessels in the
centimeters and liters used today, Zapassky was attempting to analyze them in
terms of those ancient units. As she did so, she realized something fascinating:
Vessels with a circumference close to one royal cubit had a volume close to
half of a hekat.
The correlation was too common not to mean something.
Half a hekat, it turns out, was a standard-issue size for an
Egyptian jar of beer. Call it a pharoah's pint, if you will.
The relationship between units is quite clear. Egyptians created units
by dividing by two, Benenson explained, in the same manner that the metric
system's centimeter is a meter divided by 100. So half a hekat is its own round
number, just as a centimeter or millimeter is to a user of the metric system.
"As far as I know, this is the first time in history that such a
measuring system appears,” said Benenson. “Everyone has always assumed that if
there were a system of volume in place in antiquity, it was based on the cube,
just like our system is."
Indeed, ancient Egyptians did use a cube-based system for measuring
large volumes of soil excavated during construction of buildings or channels.
But its use stopped there. Above ground, in the markets and homes and bustling
streets of antiquity, the sphere ruled the ruler.
"There was a completely different system of measurement
units," Benenson said. "And it's related, as long as we base our view
of a unit on a sphere rather than a cube. We were so bounded by the idea of a
cube that no one ever thought of it."
The scientists wanted to be sure that the perceived relationship
between the royal cubit and the hekat was not a matter of mere coincidence. To
test their theory, they also analyzed oval vessels of Assyrian origin. These
jars and containers served similar purposes but were constructed in
Mesopotamia, where the units of length and volume were different than in Egypt
The project archeologists were impressed by the fact that the
Egyptian system was adopted by Phoenician traders and used by them even after
the New Kingdom of Egypt, which exerted its influence on the region, collapsed
in the late 12th century B.C.E.
Like the great ancient Egyptian civilization itself, the sphere-based
system of measurement eventually vanished.
"We also discovered vessels of a very different form – tall,
narrow storage jars called 'torpedo' that were filled with liquids and loaded
on Phoenician ships in the 8th century B.C.E.," said Gadot. "The
torpedo vessels had a volume close to four hekat, and their height and
circumference were expressed in round numbers. When the Assyrians conquered the
region and brought their own measuring methods, the Egyptian system gradually
disappeared."
The ancient measuring system, said Finkelstein, has implications much
deeper than the transport and trade of olive oil.
"Standard measuring systems represent bureaucratic systems,"
he says, "which in turn show political and cultural influence. The use of
the Egyptian method over time exemplifies Egypt
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