page_title: List of Egyptian inventions and discoveries
section_title: Measurement
hierarchical_section_title: List of Egyptian inventions and discoveries / Ancient Egypt / Mathematics / Measurement
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Représentation de la coudée royale égyptienne de Turin
context_page_description: Egyptian inventions and discoveries are objects, processes or techniques which owe their existence either partially or entirely to an Egyptian person. Often, things which are discovered for the first time, are also called "inventions", and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two. Below is a list of such inventions.
context_section_description: System of measurement and Metrology- Ancient Egypt was one of the first civilization to have system of measurement. The Ancient Egyptian measuring system contained measuring units for:
  Length – Egyptian units of length are attested from the Early Dynastic Period. Although it dates to the 5th dynasty, the Palermo stone recorded the level of the Nile River during the reign of the Early Dynastic pharaoh Djer, when the height of the Nile was recorded as 6 cubits and 1 palm (about 3.217 m or 10 ft 6.7 in). A 3rd-dynasty diagram shows how to construct an elliptical vault using simple measures along an arc. The ostracon depicting this diagram was found near the Step Pyramid of Saqqara. A curve is divided into five sections and the height of the curve is given in cubits, palms, and digits in each of the sections.
  Area - Records of land area also date to the Early Dynastic Period. The Palermo stone records grants of land expressed in terms of kha and setat. Mathematical papyri also include units of land area in their problems. For example, several problems in the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus give the area of rectangular plots of land in terms of setat and the ratio of the sides and then require the scribe to solve for their exact lengths.
  Volume
  Weight – Weighs were known since the Old Kingdom and perhaps as early as the Early Dynastic Period. Weights were measured in terms of deben. This unit would have been equivalent to 13.6 grams in the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom. During the New Kingdom however it was equivalent to 91 grams. For smaller amounts the qedet (​¹⁄₁₀ of a deben) and the shematy (​¹⁄₁₂ of a deben) were used.
caption: Cubit rod from the Turin Museum.
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