A measuring rod is a tool used to physically measure lengths and surveying areas of various sizes. Most measuring rods are round or square sectioned; however, they can also be flat boards. Some have markings at regular intervals. It is likely that the measuring rod was used before the line, chain or steel tapes used in modern measurement.
History
Ancient Sumer
The oldest preserved measuring rod is a
copper-
alloy bar which was found by the
Germans Assyriology Eckhard Unger while excavating at
Nippur (pictured below). 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 , although this does not agree with other evidence from the statues of
Gudea from the same region, five centuries later.
Ancient India
Rulers made from ivory were in use by the Indus Valley Civilization in what today is Pakistan, and in some parts of Western India prior to 1500 BCE. Excavations at Lothal dating to 2400 BCE have yielded one such ruler calibrated to about
[Whitelaw, page 14] Ian Whitelaw (2007) holds that 'The Mohenjo-Daro ruler is divided into units corresponding to and these are marked out in decimal subdivisions with remarkable accuracy—to within . Ancient bricks found throughout the region have dimensions that correspond to these units.'
[Whitelaw, page 15]
The sum total of ten graduations from Lothal is approximate to the angula in the Arthashastra.
[S. R. Rao (1985). Lothal. Archaeological Survey of India. pp. 39–40.]
Ancient East Asia
Measuring rods for different purposes and sizes (construction, tailoring and land survey) have been found from China and elsewhere dating to the early 2nd millennium B.C.E.
Ancient Egypt
Cubit-rods of wood or stone were used in Ancient Egypt. Fourteen of these were described and compared by Lepsius in 1865.
reported on a rod that shows a length of 520.5 mm, a few millimetres less than the Egyptian
cubit.
A slate measuring rod was also found, divided into fractions of a Royal Cubit and dating to the time of
Akhenaten.
Further cubit rods have been found in the tombs of officials. Two examples 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. These cubits are ca long and are divided into seven palms, each palm is divided into four fingers and the fingers are further subdivided.[Marshall Clagett, Ancient Egyptian Science, A Source Book. Volume Three: Ancient Egyptian Mathematics, American Philosophical Society, 1999] Another wooden cubit rod was found in Theban tomb TT40 (Huy) bearing the throne name of Tutankhamun (Nebkheperure).
Egyptian measuring rods also had marks for the Remen measurement of approximately , used in construction of the Pyramids.
Ancient Europe
An
oak rod from the
Iron Age fortified settlement at
Borre Fen in
Denmark measured , with marks dividing it up into eight parts of , corresponding quite closely to half a
Doric order Pous (a Greek foot).
[Tauber, H. (1964): Copenhagen radiocarbon dates VI, Radiocarbon no. 6, pp 215-25.] A
hazel measuring rod recovered from a Bronze Age burial mound in Borum Eshøj, East Jutland by
Peter Glob in 1875 measured corresponding remarkably well to the traditional Danish foot.
[Boye, V. (1896): Fund av Egekister fra Bronzealderen i Danmark. Et monografisk Bidrag til Belysning af Bronzealderens Kultur. Kopenhagen.] The
structures of
Great Britain has been hypothesized to have been built by a "
Megalithic Yard", though some authorities believe these structures have been measured out by pacing.
Several tentative
Bronze Age bone fragments have been suggested as being parts of a measuring rod for this hypothetical measurement.
Roman Empire
Large public works and imperial expansion, particularly the large network of
Roman roads and the many
, made the measuring rod an indispensable part of both the military and civilian aspects of Roman life.
Roman Republic used several measures, including the various Greek feet measurements and the Oscan foot of 27.5 cm. Standardisation was introduced by Agrippa in 29 BC, replacing all previous measurements by a Roman foot of 29.6 cm, which became the foot of
Roman Empire.
[Soren, D. & Soren, N. (1999): A Roman villa and a late Roman infant cemetery : excavation at Poggio Gramignano, Lugnano in Teverina. Bibliotheca archaeologica (Rome, Italy), no. 23. L'Erma di Bretschneider, Rome p 184 from Google books]
The Roman measuring rod was 10 Roman feet long, and hence called a decempeda, Latin for 'ten-footer'. It was usually of square section capped at both ends by a metal shoe, and painted in alternating colours. Together with the Groma surveying and dioptra, the decempeda formed the basic kit for the Gromatici.[Main Limes Museum: Measuring rod]
Middle Ages
In the
Middle Ages, bars were used as standards of length when
surveying land.
These bars often used a unit of measure called a rod, of
length equal to 5.5
, 5.0292
, 16.5 feet, or of a
statute mile.
A rod is the same length as a
perch or a
pole.
In Old English, the term
lug is also used. The length is equal to the standardized length of the
ox goad used for teams of eight oxen by
medieval English ploughmen.
The lengths of the perch (one rod unit) and
chain (four rods) were standardized in 1607 by
Edmund Gunter.
The rod unit was still in use as a common unit of measurement in the mid-19th century, when Henry David Thoreau used it frequently when describing distances in his work
Walden.
In culture
Iconography
Two statues of Gudea of Lagash in the
Louvre depict him sitting with a tablet on his lap, upon which are placed surveyors tools including a measuring rod.
Seal 154 recovered from Tell Atchana, now in the Biblioteque Nationale show a seated figure with a wedge shaped measuring rod.
The Tablet of Shamash recovered from the ancient city of Sippar and dated to the 9th century BC shows Shamash, the Sun God awarding the measuring rod and coiled rope to newly trained surveying.[ The British Museum - Tablet of Shamash]
A similar scene with measuring rod and coiled rope is shown on the top part of the diorite stele above the Code of Hammurabi in the Louvre, Paris, dating to ca. 1700 BC.
The "measuring rod" or tally stick is common in the iconography of Ancient Greece Goddess Nemesis.
The Graeco-Egyptian God Serapis is also depicted in images and on coins with a measuring rod in hand and a vessel on his head.
The most elaborate depiction is found on the Ur-Nammu-stela, where the winding of the cords has been detailed by the sculptor. This has also been described as a "staff and a chaplet of beads".[Jeremy Black, Anthony Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, Rod and Ring, p 156.]
Mythology
The myth of
Inanna's descent to the nether world describes how the goddess dresses and prepares herself:
Lachesis in Greek mythology was one of the three Moirai (or Fates) and "allotter" (or drawer of lots). She measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her measuring rod. Her Roman equivalent was Decima (the 'Tenth').
Varuna in the Rigveda, is described as using the Sun as a measuring rod to lay out space in a creation myth.[ Rig Veda, Book 5, Hymn 85, Verse 5 tr. by Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1896], at sacred-texts.com]
Bible
Measuring rods or reeds are mentioned several times in the
Bible. In the
Old Testament or
Hebrew Bible, a measuring rod and line are seen in a vision of
Yahweh in
Ezekiel 40:2-3: One of the eight visions seen by the prophet Zechariah involves a man with a measuring line.
[: NKJV (English verse numbering)]
In the New Testament, Revelation 11:1 says that the author:
The measuring rod also appears in connection with [[foundation stone]] rites in Revelation 21:14-15:
See also
-
Ancient Egyptian units of measurement
-
Ancient Greek units of measurement
-
Ancient Mesopotamian units of measurement
-
Distance measurement
-
Levelling rod
-
Rod (unit)
-
Rod-and-ring symbol
-
Ruler
-
Shen ring
-
Surveying
-
Units of measurement
