Ancient Egyptian units of measurement

The ancient Egyptian units of measurement are those used by the

At some point, lengths were standardized by

Surveying and itinerant measurement were undertaken using rods, poles, and knotted cords of rope. A scene in the tomb of Menna in Thebes shows surveyors measuring a plot of land using rope with knots tied at regular intervals. Similar scenes can be found in the tombs of Amenhotep-Sesi, Khaemhat and Djeserkareseneb. The balls of rope are also shown in New Kingdom statues of officials such as Senenmut, Amenemhet-Surer, and Penanhor.^[2]

Units of Length^[6][2]

Names					Equivalents
English	Egyptian		Coptic		Palms	Digits	Metric[10]
Digit[11] Finger[12] Fingerbreadth[11] Tebā[13]	[a]	ꜥ	ⲧⲏⲏⲃⲉ[15][16]	tēēbe	1⁄4	1	1.875 cm
Palm[11] Hand[17] Shesep[18]	[b]	šsp	ϣⲟⲡ[19][16] ϣⲟⲟⲡ[19] ϣⲱⲡ[19] ϣⲁⲡ[19]	shop shoop shōp shap	1	4	7.5 cm
Hand[20] Handsbreadth[18]	[c]	ḏrt	ϩⲱϩϥ[21][22]	hōhf	1+1⁄4	5	9.38 cm
Fist[18]	[d]	ꜣmm[14]	ϭⲁϫⲙⲏ[23] ϫⲁⲙⲏ[23]	qajmē jamē	1+1⁄2	6	11.25 cm
Double Handbreadth[14]	[e]	šspwy			2	8	15 cm[14]
Small Span[18] Pedj-Sheser Shat Nedjes[18] Little Shat[12]		p ḏs[18]	ⲣⲧⲱ[24][22] ⲉⲣⲧⲱ[25]	rtō ertō	3	12	22.5 cm
Great Span[18] Half-Cubit[14] Pedj-Aa Shat Aa[18] Great Shat[12]	[f]	pḏ ꜣ[18]			3+1⁄2	14	26 cm
Foot Djeser[18] Ser[13] Bent Arm[18]		ḏsr			4	16	30 cm
Shoulder Remen[18] Upper Arm[18]		rmn			5	20	37.5 cm
Small Cubit[20] Short Cubit[18] Meh Nedjes[18]		m ḏs mḥ šsr	ⲙⲁϩⲉ[26][16] ⲙⲉϩⲓ[27]	mahe mehi	6	24	45 cm
Ell[26]	[g]	mḥ			7	28	52.3 cm[11] 52.5 cm[17]
Pole Nebiu[28]		nbiw			8	32	60 cm
Schoinion[29]	[h]	ḫt	ϩⲱⲧⲉ[31] ϩⲱϯ[31]	hōte hōti	100 cubits[11]		52.5 m[29]
Schoenus[14] River-Measure League[14] Ater[11] Iter[20] or Iteru[14]	[i]	i͗trw	ϣϥⲱ[32] ϣⲃⲱ[32]	shfō shvō	20,000 cubits[11]		10.5 km[11]

The digit was also subdivided into smaller fractions of 1⁄2, 1⁄3, 1⁄4, and 1⁄16.

During the

Old Kingdom

:

Units of Area

Names					Equivalents[38]
English	Egyptian		Coptic		Setat	Square Cubits	Metric
Sa[20] Eighth		z ꜣ			1⁄800	12+1⁄2	3.4456 m2
Heseb Fourth Account Unit[20]		ḥsb			1⁄400	25	6.8913 m2
Remen Half Shoulder[20]		rmn			1⁄200	50	13.783 m2
Ta Khet[38] Cubit[39] Cubit of Land[39] Land Cubit[14] Ground Cubit[39] Cubit Strip[39] Land Unit[20]	[k]	t ꜣ ḫt mḥ mḥ itn	ϫⲓⲥⲉ[40][22]	jise	1⁄100	100[38]	27.565 m2
Kha Thousand[20]		ꜣ			1⁄10	1,000	275.65 m2
Setat[38] Setjat[38] Aroura[38] Square Khet[38]	[l]	s ꜣt[38]	ⲥⲱⲧ[41][22] ⲥⲧⲉⲓⲱϩⲉ[42][22]	sōt steiōhe	1	10,000	2,756.5 m2

During the

New Kingdom

, the "eighth", "fourth", "half", and "thousand" units were taken to refer to the setat rather than the cubit strip:

Sa Eighth	[m]	s ꜣ			1⁄8	1,250	345 m2
Heseb Fourth	[n]	hsb r-fdw			1⁄4	2,500	689 m2
Gs Remen Half	[o]	gs	ⲣⲉⲣⲙⲏ[22]	rermē	1⁄2	5,000	1378 m2
Kha Thousand	[p]	ꜣ			10	100,000	2.76 ha

During the Ptolemaic period, the cubit strip square was surveyed using a length of 96 cubits rather than 100, although the aroura was still figured to compose 2,756.25 m².[17] A 36 square cubit area was known as a kalamos and a 144 square cubit area as a hamma.^[17] The uncommon bikos may have been 1+1⁄2 hammata or another name for the cubit strip.^[17] The Coptic shipa (ϣⲓⲡⲁ) was a land unit of uncertain value, possibly derived from Nubia.^[43]

Volume

Units of volume appear in the mathematical papyri. For example, computing the volume of a circular granary in RMP 42 involves cubic cubits, khar, heqats, and quadruple heqats.^[6][9] RMP 80 divides heqats of grain into smaller henu.

Units of Volume^[6][2]

Names			Equivalents
English	Egyptian		Heqats	Ro	Metric
Ro		r	1⁄320	1	0.015 L
Dja		dja	1⁄16	20[44]	0.30 L
Jar Hinu		hnw	1⁄10	32	0.48 L
Barrel Heqat Hekat		hqt	1	320	4.8 L
Double Barrel Double Heqat Double Hekat		hqty	2	640	9.6 L
Quadruple Heqat ( NK)[45]		hqt-fdw jpt[20] ipt[45]	4	1,280	19.2 L
Sack Khar		khar	20 ( NK)[47]	6,400 ( NK )	96.5 L ( NK)[47]
Deny Cubic cubit		deny	30	9,600	144 L

The oipe was also formerly romanized as the apet.^[48]

Weight

Weights were measured in terms of

Units of Weight^[2]

Names			Equivalents
English	Egyptian		Debens	Metric
Piece Shematy		shȝts	1⁄12
Qedet Kedet Kite		qdt	1⁄10
Deben		dbn	1	13.6 g ( NK )

The qedet or kedet is also often known as the kite, from the Coptic form of the same name (ⲕⲓⲧⲉ or ⲕⲓϯ).^[49] In 19th-century sources, the deben and qedet are often mistakenly transliterated as the uten and kat respectively, although this was corrected by the 20th century.^[50]

Time

The

's 2nd-century works.

Units of Time^[6][2]

Name			Days
English	Egyptian
hour	[r]	wnwt	variable
day	[s]	sw	1
decan decade week	[t]	"ten-day" sw mḏ[81]	10
month	[u]	ꜣbd	30
season		ı͗trw[v]	120
year	[w]	rnpt	365 365+1⁄4

See also

• Egyptian hieroglyphics and Transliteration of Ancient Egyptian
• Ancient Egyptian mathematics and technology
• Egyptian calendar and astronomy
• Hebrew, Persian, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine units of measurement
• Modern Egyptian units of measurement & Metric system

Notes