Replica of Arundel Metrological Marble
date: label: date made
content: 1961
name: label: maker
content: Archer, Cowley & Company
notes: label: Description
content: This plaster cast is a full-sized replica of the Arundel metrological marble at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The original relief was probably made around 460–430 BCE in western Asia Minor or Greece. It illustrates traditional units of measurement based on the human body, including a fathom (the width of the outstretched arms) and an ell (the distance from the elbow to the fingertip). In this example, the fathom is 6 feet, 9-57/64 inches long in modern English units, and the ell is 20-15/32 inches. It is very faint in this replica, but a human foot is shown above the figure's right arm. Seven of these feet are equal to one fathom on the relief. The Smithsonian received the replica in 1961. Earlier cataloguing suggests the British firm of Archer, Cowley & Co. made the replica.
label: Description
content: Reference: "The Metrological Relief," ref. no. AN.Michaelis 83, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, http://www.ashmolean.org/ash/faqs/q002/.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, Oxford
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Scale Rules
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Department of Antiquities, Ashmolean Museum
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.319896
label: accession number
content: 239611
label: catalog number
content: 319896
objectType: label: Object Name
content: rule
label: Object Name
content: bas-relief
label: Object Name
content: Replica
label: Object Type
content: bas-relief
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plaster (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 25 in x 65 in x 8 in; 63.5 cm x 165.1 cm x 20.32 cm