Measuring rod#Ancient Egypt

File:Gudea 02.jpg of Lagash with measuring rod and surveyors' tools]]

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.{{cite book|author=American Society of Civil Engineers|title=Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGZDAAAAYAAJ|year=1891|publisher=American Society of Civil Engineers.}}

History

=Ancient Sumer=

The oldest preserved measuring rod is a copper-alloy bar which was found by the German Assyriologist Eckhard Unger while excavating at Nippur (pictured below). The bar dates from c. 2650 BC. 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 {{convert|518.5|mm|1|abbr=on}}, although this does not agree with other evidence from the statues of Gudea from the same region, five centuries later.{{cite book|author=Scandinavian Archaeometry Center|title=Archaeology and natural science, p. 118|year=1993 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3CRmAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=9 June 2011|publisher=P. Åströms|isbn=9789170810824 }}

File:Nippur_cubit.JPG

=Ancient India=

Rulers made from ivory were in use by the Indus Valley Civilization in what today is Pakistan, and in some parts of Western India prior to 1500 BCE. Excavations at Lothal dating to 2400 BCE have yielded one such ruler calibrated to about {{convert|1/16|in|mm}}Whitelaw, page 14 Ian Whitelaw (2007) holds that 'The Mohenjo-Daro ruler is divided into units corresponding to {{convert|1.32|in|mm}} and these are marked out in decimal subdivisions with remarkable accuracy—to within {{convert|0.005|in|mm}}. Ancient bricks found throughout the region have dimensions that correspond to these units.'Whitelaw, page 15

The sum total of ten graduations from Lothal is approximate to the angula in the Arthashastra.S. R. Rao (1985). Lothal. Archaeological Survey of India. pp. 39–40.

=Ancient East Asia=

Measuring rods for different purposes and sizes (construction, tailoring and land survey) have been found from China and elsewhere dating to the early 2nd millennium B.C.E.{{cite book|author=Gang Zhao|title=Man and land in Chinese history: an economic analysis, p. 65|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8jKsAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA65|year=1986|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-1271-2|page=65}}

=Ancient Egypt=

File:Measuring ruler-N 1538-IMG 4492-gradient.jpg defining the cubit as 52.3 cm, 1336–1327 BC (Eighteenth Dynasty)]]

Cubit-rods of wood or stone were used in Ancient Egypt. Fourteen of these were described and compared by Lepsius in 1865.{{cite book|last=Lepsius|first=Richard|title=Die altaegyptische Elle und ihre Eintheilung|year=1865|publisher=Dümmler|location=Berlin|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_PRQGAAAAQAAJ|language=German}} Flinders Petrie reported on a rod that shows a length of 520.5 mm, a few millimetres less than the Egyptian cubit.{{cite book |title=Acta praehistorica et archaeologica|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VqYXAQAAMAAJ|year=1976|publisher=B.Hessling.}} A slate measuring rod was also found, divided into fractions of a Royal Cubit and dating to the time of Akhenaten.{{cite book|author=Broadman & Holman Publishers|title=Holman Illustrated Study Bible-HCSB|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dz2QxQUrFxoC&pg=PA1413|accessdate=8 April 2011|date=15 September 2006|publisher=B&H Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-58640-275-4|page=1413}}

Further cubit rods have been found in the tombs of officials. Two examples 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. These cubits are ca {{convert|52.5|cm|abbr=on}} long and are divided into seven palms, each palm is divided into four fingers and the fingers are further subdivided.Marshall Clagett, Ancient Egyptian Science, A Source Book. Volume Three: Ancient Egyptian Mathematics, American Philosophical Society, 1999 Another wooden cubit rod was found in Theban tomb TT40 (Huy) bearing the throne name of Tutankhamun (Nebkheperure).{{cite book|author=Frances Welsh|title=Tutankhamun's Egypt|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rqFwXcf5S6cC&pg=PA7|year=2008|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=978-0-7478-0665-3|page=7}}

File:Coudée-turin.jpg

Egyptian measuring rods also had marks for the Remen measurement of approximately {{convert|370|mm|abbr=on}}, used in construction of the Pyramids.{{cite book|title=Acta archaeologica|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uVA-AQAAIAAJ|accessdate=22 April 2011|year=1969|publisher=Levin & Munksgaard}}{{cite book|author=Martin Brennan|title=The Boyne Valley vision|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e3boAAAAMAAJ|year=1980|publisher=Dolmen Press|isbn=978-0-85105-362-2}}

=Ancient Europe=

An oak rod from the Iron Age fortified settlement at Borre Fen in Denmark measured {{convert|53.15|in|cm|order=flip}}, with marks dividing it up into eight parts of {{convert|6.64|in|cm|order=flip}}, corresponding quite closely to half a Doric Pous (a Greek foot).Tauber, H. (1964): Copenhagen radiocarbon dates VI, Radiocarbon no. 6, pp 215-25. A hazel measuring rod recovered from a Bronze Age burial mound in Borum Eshøj, East Jutland by P. V. Glob in 1875 measured {{convert|30.9|in|cm|order=flip}} corresponding remarkably well to the traditional Danish foot.Boye, V. (1896): Fund av Egekister fra Bronzealderen i Danmark. Et monografisk Bidrag til Belysning af Bronzealderens Kultur. Kopenhagen. The megalithic structures of Great Britain has been hypothesized to have been built by a "Megalithic Yard", though some authorities believe these structures have been measured out by pacing.{{cite book|author=Margaret Ponting|chapter=Megalithic Callanish|editor=Clive Ruggles|title=Records in Stone: Papers in Memory of Alexander Thom|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oZ3JGYd1kJoC&pg=PA431|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-53130-6|pages=423–441}}{{cite book|last=Heggie|first=Douglas C.|title=Megalithic Science: Ancient Mathematics and Astronomy in North-west Europe|year=1981|publisher=Thames and Hudson|isbn=0-500-05036-8|page=58}}{{cite book|author1=David George Kendall|author2=F. R. Hodson|author3=Royal Society (Great Britain)|author4=British Academy|title=The Place of astronomy in the ancient world: a joint symposium of the Royal Society and the British Academy, Hunting Quanta, p. 258|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FHLvAAAAMAAJ|year=1974|publisher=Oxford University Press for the British Academy|isbn=978-0-19-725944-3 }} Several tentative Bronze Age bone fragments have been suggested as being parts of a measuring rod for this hypothetical measurement.

=Roman Empire=

File:Measurement instrument IMG 4398-2.jpg

Large public works and imperial expansion, particularly the large network of Roman roads and the many milecastles, made the measuring rod an indispensable part of both the military and civilian aspects of Roman life. Republican Rome used several measures, including the various Greek feet measurements and the Oscan foot of 27.5 cm. Standardisation was introduced by Agrippa in 29 BC, replacing all previous measurements by a Roman foot of 29.6 cm, which became the foot of Imperial Rome.Soren, D. & Soren, N. (1999): A Roman villa and a late Roman infant cemetery : excavation at Poggio Gramignano, Lugnano in Teverina. Bibliotheca archaeologica (Rome, Italy), no. 23. L'Erma di Bretschneider, Rome [https://books.google.com/books?id=U8Muzx1VrbwC&dq=roman+measuring+rod&pg=PA184 p 184] from Google books

The Roman measuring rod was 10 Roman feet long, and hence called a decempeda, Latin for 'ten-footer'. It was usually of square section capped at both ends by a metal shoe, and painted in alternating colours. Together with the groma and dioptra, the decempeda formed the basic kit for the Roman surveyors.{{cite web

| url = http://www.experiment-resources.com/roman-roads.html

| title = Building Roman roads

| last = Shuttleworth

| first = M.

| accessdate = 2011-05-02

| publisher = Experiment-resources.com

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110421082346/http://www.experiment-resources.com/roman-roads.html

| archive-date = 21 April 2011

| url-status = dead

}} The measuring rod is frequently found depicted in Roman art showing the surveyors at work. A shorter folding yardstick one Roman foot long is known from excavations of a Roman fort in Niederburg, Germany.Main Limes Museum: [http://www.museen-mainlimes.de/content/2-museen/fund.en.php?id=48 Measuring rod]

=Middle Ages=

In the Middle Ages, bars were used as standards of length when surveying land.{{cite book|author1=Charles Blaney Breed|author2=George Leonard Hosmer|title=The principles and practice of surveying|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XsFRAAAAMAAJ|year=1977|publisher=Wiley}}

These bars often used a unit of measure called a rod, of length equal to 5.5 yards, 5.0292 metres, 16.5 feet, or {{Fraction|1|320}} of a statute mile.{{cite encyclopedia

| url =http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictR.html#rod

| title =rod (rd) [1]

| encyclopedia =How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement

| last =Rowlett

| first =Russ

| publisher =University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

| date =2002-04-25

| accessdate =2010-11-01

}} A rod is the same length as a perch or a pole.{{cite web

| url = http://home.kpn.nl/jhm.bonten/tables/anglosaxon/napolangsax.html#linsur

| title = Anglo-Saxon and Biblical to Metrics Conversions

| last = Bonten

| first = JHM

| date = 2007-01-19

| at = Surveyor + Chain + British-Nautical

| accessdate = 2010-11-01

}} In Old English, the term lug is also used. The length is equal to the standardized length of the ox goad used for teams of eight oxen by medieval English ploughmen.{{cite encyclopedia

|url=http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictL.html

|title=lug

|encyclopedia=How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement

|last=Rowlett

|first=Russ

|publisher=University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

|date=2008-12-15

|accessdate=2010-11-01

|url-status=dead

|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016012340/http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictL.html

|archivedate=16 October 2013

}} The lengths of the perch (one rod unit) and chain (four rods) were standardized in 1607 by Edmund Gunter. {{cite web

| url = http://www.unitconversion.org/length/rod-conversion.html

| title = Rod, unit of measure

| work = UnitConversion.org

| accessdate = 2010-11-01

}} The rod unit was still in use as a common unit of measurement in the mid-19th century, when Henry David Thoreau used it frequently when describing distances in his work Walden.

In culture

=Iconography=

File:Milkau Oberer Teil der Stele mit dem Text von Hammurapis Gesetzescode 369-2.png

Two statues of Gudea of Lagash in the Louvre depict him sitting with a tablet on his lap, upon which are placed surveyors tools including a measuring rod.{{cite book|author=Donald Preziosi|title=Minoan architectural design: formation and signification, p. 498|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hdqfAAAAMAAJ|year=1983|publisher=Mouton|isbn=978-90-279-3409-3}}

Seal 154 recovered from Alalakh, now in the Biblioteque Nationale show a seated figure with a wedge shaped measuring rod.{{cite book|author=Dominique Collon|title=The seal impressions from Tell Atchana/Alalakh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RZltAAAAMAAJ|year=1975|publisher=Butzon & Bercker|isbn=978-3-7887-0469-8}}

The Tablet of Shamash recovered from the ancient Babylonian city of Sippar and dated to the 9th century BC shows Shamash, the Sun God awarding the measuring rod and coiled rope to newly trained surveyors.[https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/t/tablet_of_shamash.aspx The British Museum - Tablet of Shamash]{{cite book|author1=William Rainey Harper|author2=Ernest De Witt Burton|author3=Shailer Mathews|title=The Biblical world p. 120|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6YnNAAAAMAAJ|year=1905|publisher=University of Chicago Press}}

A similar scene with measuring rod and coiled rope is shown on the top part of the diorite stele above the Code of Hammurabi in the Louvre, Paris, dating to ca. 1700 BC.{{cite book|author=Amélie Kuhrt|title=The ancient Near East, c. 3000-330 BC|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V_sfMzRPTgoC&pg=PA111|year=1995|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-16763-5|page=111}}

The "measuring rod" or tally stick is common in the iconography of Greek Goddess Nemesis.{{cite book|author=Lucinda Dirven|title=The Palmyrenes of Dura-Europos: a study of religious interaction in Roman Syria p. 329|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_LfXg2r6FT0C&pg=PA329|year=1999|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-11589-7|page=329}}

The Graeco-Egyptian God Serapis is also depicted in images and on coins with a measuring rod in hand and a vessel on his head.{{cite book|author=Johann Joachim Eschenburg|title=Manual of classical literature|url=https://archive.org/details/manualclassical01unkngoog|accessdate=22 April 2011|year=1836|publisher=Key and Biddle|pages=[https://archive.org/details/manualclassical01unkngoog/page/n367 343]–}}{{cite book|author1=Maarten Jozef Vermaseren|author2=International Association for the History of Religions. Dutch Section|title=Studies in Hellenistic religions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=888UAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA199|year=1979|publisher=Brill Archive|isbn=978-90-04-05885-9|page=199}}

The most elaborate depiction is found on the Ur-Nammu-stela, where the winding of the cords has been detailed by the sculptor. This has also been described as a "staff and a chaplet of beads".Jeremy Black, Anthony Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, Rod and Ring, p 156.

=Mythology=

The myth of Inanna's descent to the nether world describes how the goddess dresses and prepares herself:

{{quote|She held the lapis-lazuli measuring rod and measuring line in her hand.cf. [http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.4.1 Inana's descent to the nether world] line 25. The Sumerian has: gi-diš-nindan eš₂-gana₂ za-gin₃ šu ba-ni-in-du₈ i.e. taken literally the rod would have the length of one nindan (6 cubit = 5.94m) and the eš₂-gana₂ the surveyor's line - would be ten nindan in length.}}

Lachesis in Greek mythology was one of the three Moirai (or Fates) and "allotter" (or drawer of lots). She measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her measuring rod. Her Roman equivalent was Decima (the 'Tenth').{{cite book|author=Robert Graves|title=The Greek myths, p. 30|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0DzXAAAAMAAJ|year=1957|publisher=G. Braziller}}

Varuna in the Rigveda, is described as using the Sun as a measuring rod to lay out space in a creation myth.[http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv05085.htm Rig Veda, Book 5, Hymn 85, Verse 5 tr. by Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1896], at sacred-texts.com]{{cite book|author=Edward Washburn Hopkins|title=The Religions of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zeQwFPhwxxkC&pg=PA52|year=2007|publisher=Echo Library|isbn=978-1-4068-1329-6|page=52}} W. R. Lethaby has commented on how the measurers were seen as solar deities and noted how Vishnu "measured the regions of the Earth".{{cite book|author=W. R. Lethaby|title=Architecture, Mysticism and Myth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GTV1B-Z-ytsC&pg=PA16|accessdate=24 April 2011|date=December 2005|publisher=Cosimo, Inc.|isbn=978-1-59605-380-9|page=16}}

=Bible=

Measuring rods or reeds are mentioned several times in the Bible. In the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, a measuring rod and line are seen in a vision of Yahweh in Ezekiel 40:2-3:{{quote|In visions of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, on whose south side were some buildings that looked like a city. He took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze; he was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand.{{cite book|title=BIBLE: New International Version|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CuvrJLhk7O8C|year=1984}}}} One of the eight visions seen by the prophet Zechariah involves a man with a measuring line.{{bibleverse|Zechariah|2:1-5|NKJV}}: NKJV (English verse numbering)

In the New Testament, Revelation 11:1 says that the author:

{{quote|... was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, "Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there."}} The measuring rod also appears in connection with foundation stone rites in Revelation 21:14-15:

{{quote|And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall.{{cite book|author=Foundation Publication Inc|title=New American Standard Bible|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8TjlAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=8 April 2011|date=1 March 1997|publisher=Foundation Publications, publisher for the Lockman Foundation|isbn=9781885217684 }}}}