Ancient Egyptian royal cubit[edit]

Main article: Ancient Egyptian units of measurement

The ancient Egyptian royal cubit (meh niswt) is the earliest attested standard measure. Cubit rods
were used for the measurement of length. A number of these rods have survived: two 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. Fourteen such rods, including one double
cubit rod, were described and compared by Lepsius in 1865.[6] These cubit rods range from 523.5 to
529.2 mm (20.61 to 20.83 in) in length and are divided into seven palms; each palm is divided into
four fingers, and the fingers are further subdivided.[7][6][8]

Hieroglyph of the royal

cubit, meh niswt

Cubit rod from the Turin Museum

Early evidence for the use of this royal cubit comes from the Early Dynastic Period: on the Palermo
Stone, the flood level of the Nile river during the reign of the Pharaoh Djer is given as measuring
6 cubits and 1 palm.[7] Use of the royal cubit is also known from Old Kingdom architecture, from at
least as early as the construction of the Step Pyramid of Djoser designed by Imhotep in around
2700 BC.[9]

Ancient Mesopotamian units of measurement[edit]

The Nippur cubit-rod in the Archeological Museum of Istanbul, Turkey

Ancient Mesopotamian units of measurement originated in the loosely organized city-states of Early

Dynastic Sumer. Each city, kingdom and trade guild had its own standards until the formation of
the Akkadian Empire when Sargon of Akkad issued a common standard. This standard was
improved by Naram-Sin, but fell into disuse after the Akkadian Empire dissolved. The standard of
Naram-Sin was readopted in the Ur III period by the Nanše Hymn which reduced a plethora of
multiple standards to a few agreed upon common groupings. Successors to Sumerian civilization
including the Babylonians, Assyrians, and Persians continued to use these groupings.
The Classical Mesopotamian system formed the basis for Elamite, Hebrew, Urartian, Hurrian,
Hittite, Ugaritic, Phoenician, Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, Arabic, and Islamic metrologies.[10][full citation
needed]
 The Classical Mesopotamian System also has a proportional relationship, by virtue of
standardized commerce, to Bronze Age Harappan and Egyptian metrologies.
In 1916, during the last years of the Ottoman Empire and in the middle of World War I, the
German assyriologist Eckhard Unger found a copper-alloy bar while excavating at Nippur. 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
518.6 mm (20.42 in).[11]

Biblical cubit[edit]
Main article: Biblical and Talmudic units of measurement

The standard of the cubit (Hebrew: ‫ )אמה‬in different countries and in different ages has varied. This
realization has led the rabbis of the 2nd century CE to clarify the length of their cubit, saying that the
measure of the cubit of which they have spoken "applies to the cubit of middle-size".[12] In this case,
the requirement is to make-use of a standard 6 handbreadths to each cubit,[13] and which
handbreadth was not to be confused with an outstretched palm, but rather one that was clinched and
which handbreadth has the standard width of 4 fingerbreadths (each fingerbreadth being equivalent
to the width of a thumb, about 2.25 cm).[14][15] This puts the handbreadth at roughly 9 centimetres
(3.5 in), and 6 handbreadths (1 cubit) at 54 centimetres (21 in). Epiphanius of Salamis, in his
treatise On Weights and Measures, describes how it was customary, in his day, to take the
measurement of the biblical cubit: "The cubit is a measure, but it is taken from the measure of the
forearm. For the part from the elbow to the wrist and the palm of the hand is called the cubit, the
middle finger of the cubit measure being also extended at the same time and there being added
below (it) the span, that is, of the hand, taken all together."[16]
Rabbi Avraham Chaim Naeh put the linear measurement of a cubit at 48 centimetres (19 in).
[17]
 Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz (the "Chazon Ish"), dissenting, put the length of a cubit at 57.6
centimetres (22.7 in).[18]
Rabbi and philosopher Maimonides, following the Talmud, makes a distinction between the cubit of
6 handbreadths used in ordinary measurements, and the cubit of 5 handbreadths used in measuring
the Golden Altar, the base of the altar of burnt offerings, its circuit and the horns of the altar.[12]

Ancient Greece[edit]
In ancient Greek units of measurement, the standard forearm
cubit (Greek: πῆχυς, translit. pēkhys) measured approximately 0.46 m (18 in). The short forearm
cubit (πυγμή pygmē, lit. "fist"), from the wrist to the elbow, measured approximately 0.34 m (13 in).[19]

Ancient Rome[edit]
In ancient Rome, according to Vitruvius, a cubit was equal to 1 1⁄2 Roman feet or 6 palm widths
(approximately 444 mm or 17.5 in).[20] A 120-centimeter cubit (approximately four feet long), called
the Roman ulna, was common in the Roman empire, which cubit was measured from the fingers of
the outstretched arm opposite the man's hip.[21]; also, [22]with[23]

Islamic world