Some historians argue that the standards of weights
and measures used in ancient Europe, as well as around the
Mediterranean Sea and among the Slavic peoples of east-
ern Europe and Russia, all descended from a common root
system, probably that of the ancient Babylonians. Th us, as
people spread northward and westward throughout Europe,
they based their system of weights and measures on an ear-
lier one. Historians base their argument on sophisticated
mathematical analysis that shows that these systems oft en
had common arithmetical factors. Mathematicians refer to
the science of weights and measures as metrology, and an
important component of metrology is the notion that a par-
ticular unit of measurement is divisible into smaller units
or can be multiplied into larger units. Ancient Europeans
may have developed diff erent standards of measurement,
but those standards were convertible into the standards used
by other cultures in much the same way that, for example,
American dollars can be converted into Japanese yen ac-
cording to an agreed-on exchange rate. Without common
arithmetical factors, it would have been nearly impossible
for far-fl ung communities to engage in trade or determine
the value of gold and silver coins.Many of the measurement units known to us from
historical accounts in medieval Europe probably had their
roots deep in antiquity. In Europe, as elsewhere in the an-
cient world, early units of measurement typically had some
relationship with the physical world. Th e ancient Europe-
ans started with the human body, using such standards as
hand spans, the width of a fi nger, the length from the elbow
to the tips of the fi ngers, and the length of a foot to mea-
sure linear distance. In this regard, their units of length
were little diff erent from those of the ancient Egyptians
and Babylonians. Th us, for example, the ancient Irish had a
unit of measure called the troigid, which was the length of a
man’s foot, so a troigid was a “foot.” A troigid was made up
of 12 ordlochs, or inches, with 1 ordloch being the width of
a man’s thumb. Sometimes objects were used. Th e Germans
measured length by the ell, which was the length of a bolt
of cloth.
Also commonly used to measure distance was the stride.
Th e Romans, for example, used the pace of a marching sol-
dier, based on two consecutive positions where the right foot
landed, to measure a Roman mile, which consisted of a thou-
sand paces. Th is measurement was imposed throughout the
empire, and it remains fairly close to the British mile that
survives in modern life. Evidence also suggests that ancient
peoples had a fairly accurate understanding of such large
measurements as the circumference of the earth and the dis-
tance between the poles. Th ese measures were then broken
down to provide smaller units of measurement that were
used, for example, in determining the length and width of
monumental buildings. Again, the ancient Europeans inher-
ited some of these systems by a process that historians do not
fully understand.
To measure weight, the ancient Europeans used the ma-
terials that surrounded them. In the British Isles, for example,
the stone, or 14 pounds, is still commonly used to measure a
person’s weight, though in the past the stone was probably
more like 16 pounds. Further, agricultural commodities,
oft en the basis of trade, were used to determine weights.
Th roughout the ancient world people were able to develop
growing, stable civilizations because of a major staple crop.
In Asia the crop was rice. In the Americas it was maize, or
corn. In Europe and around the Mediterranean wheat was
the staple crop, so grains of wheat were oft en used to form a
common standard of weight. Th us, for example, the weight of
a certain number of grains of wheat equaled a certain mea-
sure of silver; in turn, these measures were used to determine
such measures as the ounce, from the Latin word uncia. Th is
system is preserved in modern medicine, where pharmaceu-
ticals are still oft en measured in grains, as well as in modern
measurements of precious metals. Th e carob seed was oft en
used to measure silver and gold, giving rise to the modern
word carat.
Grains of wheat were also used to measure length. Again,
in ancient Ireland measurements based on wheat ran as fol-
lows: Th e length of three grains of wheat equaled 1 ordloch,Bronze steelyard with lead weights from Roman Britain, fi rst to second
century c.e.; such weights were used by shopkeepers and traders. (© Th e
Trustees of the British Museum)1178 weights and measures: Europe0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1178 1178 10/10/07 2:31:21 PM