The Egyptian Metrological System of the Greco-Roman Period as Seen in Archaeological and Textual Evidence

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  • 文字史料・考古学資料からみたギリシア・ローマ時代のエジプトにおける尺度体系の実態について

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<p>This paper elucidates the Egyptian metrological system of the Greco-Roman Period by analyzing a set of archaeological and textual evidence such as cubit-rods, nilometers, building inscriptions, mathematical treatises, and property contracts, which provide information not only about the nomenclature and the length of the units and their subdivisions, but also about the metrical relationship between them. Concerning the nomenclature of the cubit, the data show that the official term had changed from “royal cubit” to “divine cubit” during the Persian Period. Other variants attested from the Ptolemaic Period express the cubit’s relationship with a specific deity, a religious aspect of it, or its function. The introduction of a new unit, the “Ptolemaic foot” of c. 35 cm, is also noteworthy.</p><p>  The mathematical treatises and evidence stating the dimensions of certain monuments and properties denote the length measurements in two ways. One is the traditional method, in which the length is stated in terms of a unit and its sub-units, i.e. “x cubit y palms z fingers.” The second method, which appears from the Ptolemaic Period, uses the cubit as the sole unit and expresses smaller values in fractions, i.e. “x+1/y+1/z cubit.” The fractions here use the division into 6 or 24 parts of the Greek and Roman metrological system rather than the traditional Egyptian division into 7 or 28 parts.</p><p>  The result of the analysis supports the view that the cubit reform in Egypt took place at the beginning of the Hellenism rather than in the Late Period. Although the precise background of this change remains a matter for future research, we may safely state that the introduction of the Ptolemaic foot as well as the 6-division systems from the Hellenistic culture created the need to reconcile the traditional and the recently introduced metrological systems by means of mathematical conversions.</p>

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