Longer distances were probably measured by human ac-
tivities. Th us, for example, distances corresponding to mod-
ern miles were probably measured in a way that gauged the
amount of ground a person could walk in a certain period of
time. Similarly, a unit of area probably was measured by the
amount of ground, for instance, that a farmer could plow in a
given period of time.
Ancient Africans undoubtedly used natural objects in
the calculation of weights. Indeed, the modern word grain,
still used in weighing precious metals, refl ects this ancient
heritage. Th us, any African culture probably would have de-
veloped a system that used small stones or quantities of seed,
such as wheat seed, as a unit of weight. Other objects included
items such as bird claws, feathers, and, for large weights, ele-
phants. Th e ancient Egyptians used a system of weights called
beqa weights to measure quantities of gold. Examples have
been found of beqa stones, which standardized weights, and
some of these bear royal insignia. Given Egypt’s dominance
over much of northern Africa, this system for weighing pre-
cious metals and perhaps other commodities probably was
imposed on trading kingdoms to Egypt’s south and west.
Such a system would have governed coinage, which ancient
Africans would necessarily have had to accept.
Another natural object that played a role in ancient
weights and measurements was water. Th us, for example, a
cubic foot of water represented a unit of weight called the tal-
ent, divisible into various units. Th e Romans divided the tal-
ent into 60 minas, and various Mediterranean cultures that
accepted the talent and the mina subdivided the mina into
varying numbers of shekels. Th ese units were used by Syr-
ians, Phoenicians (the ancestors of the African Carthagin-
ians), and others, who carried them into Africa for purposes
of trade and exchange.EGYPT
BY AMR KAMEL
With the emergence of the centralized government in the Nile
Valley as early as the Th ird Dynasty (ca. 2649–ca. 2575 b.c.e.),
Egyptians formed accurate systems of weights and measures.
Th ey developed methods for weighing grain, counting cattle,
drawing up building projects, and sizing huge slabs of stone
as well as issuing rations and materials to workmen and,
above all, measuring the level of the annual Nile fl ood, on
which the levying of taxes depended. Th is system was valid
throughout the whole country and remained active until the
Greco-Roman Period (332 b.c.e.–395 c.e.), without real sig-
nifi cant changes. In general, the system that the Egyptians set
up included three main subsystems that measured capacity,
length, and weight.
In their literary texts ancient Egyptians frequently ex-
press quantities of products counted either by the piece or by
a usual grouping of pieces, such as bunches of fl owers, jars of
wine, baskets of grapes, pots of honey, bundles of vegetables
or fl ax, handfuls of reeds, and even pairs of geese. Nonethe-less, ancient Egyptians used many other measures that are
still obscure, such as the gsr, which was used only for milk,
the g3t, which was used for cream, and the thab, which was
used for salt.
Several pieces of textual evidence suggest that the mea-
sures used for offi cial purposes, such as tax payments, were
checked on a regular basis. In conducting personal business
Egyptians apparently preferred to use their own measures.
For example, Hekanakhte, a farmer of the Eleventh Dynasty
(ca. 2040–ca. 1991), sent a messenger to his family in the delta
to bring to him his own corn measure to use in measuring his
grain in Th ebes (modern-day Luxor) rather than using other
local measures, which might not be wholly accurate.
Th e Egyptian capacity system was apparently grounded
on the hnw for measuring fl uids, now reckoned convention-
ally at around 1 pint. Th e Egyptians used multiples of 10 hnw
to describe greater units: 40 hnw, 50 hnw, 100 hnw, 160 hnw,
and 200 hnw. Th e basic unit for cereals and other dry goods
was the hekat, or bushel, of 4.3 quarts. In the Old and Middle
Kingdoms (ca. 2575–ca. 1640 b.c.e.) 10 ghar made the larger
unit khar, or sack, of 11 gallons. With the beginning of the
New Kingdom (ca. 1550–ca. 1070 b.c.e.), the value of the khar
was increased to equal 16 hekat, or 17.5 gallons. Th is increase
refl ected not an economic crisis but rather the change of a
decimal system to a new binary system, which made account-
ing easier. Th ese 16 hekat were later subdivided into units of 4
hekat, 4.36 gallons each.
Smaller quantities were expressed as fractions of oipe,
more precisely as one of the fractions of the geometric pro-
gression ½, ¼ (the former hekat), ⅛, 1⁄16, 1⁄32, and 1⁄64. Th e last
quantity equaled 0.2 quarts and was divisible into 5 ro, or
parts, of 0.05 quarts each, refl ecting the ancient division of
the hekat into 80 and of the 4-hekat into 320 ro. In the Greco-
Roman Period the artabe, a Persian unit, played a major role,
varying in size from 29 to 40 of the Greek choinix, a capacity
unit of about 0.9 quarts.
For general length measurement the standard unit was
the royal cubit. Th e cubit represented the length of the fore-
arm, from the elbow to the tip of the fi ngers, estimated con-
ventionally at 18 inches. Th e measure was composed of 7
palms, (the hand’s width without the thumb), each consisting
of 4 fi ngers, ¾ inch each. Apart from the cubit of 7 palms,
there were the small cubit of 6 palms (about 17.64 inches),
the remen of 5 palms (14.7 inches), the djser of 4 palms (11.76
inches), the great span of 3.5 palms (10.29 inches), the small
span of 3 palms (8.82 inches), the dopple or double palm (5.88
inches), and the fi st of 1.5 palms or 6 fi ngers (4.4 inches). Fur-
thermore, Egyptians of the New Kingdom sometimes used
a larger unit, called a nebi (“pole”); its length has been esti-
mated at 1.25 cubits.
Land surveying required a longer unit than the cubit;
thus, the ancient Egyptians seem to have used the khet, or
“rod,” of 100 cubits (160 feet) as the base, since a land-mea-
suring rope was 100 cubits long, stretched between two rods
driven in the ground. A larger unit, itrw, or “river,” measured1174 weights and measures: Egypt0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1174 1174 10/10/07 2:31:20 PM