Length Units of Civilisations: Games and Knowledge

Sumerian Civilisation Units of Length

For the cultural background of the Sumerian civilisation, you may visit our publication by clicking this link: ['Visit Sumer Civilisation Publication']

Here we have listed all known and existing Sumerian length units, each with its detailed description.

Egyptian Units of Length

To learn more about the Ancient Egyptian civilisation and how its development influenced the creation of length units, please read our article by clicking this link: [Ancient Egypt socio-cultural development].

All length units listed below belong to the Ancient Egyptian civilisation and are ordered from the smallest to the largest. Each unit is provided with its spelling, symbols, and values — both in internal relationships and in their metric and imperial equivalents. Egyptians had a well-developed system of measurement, widely approved and standardised. It was closely aligned with social structure and institutional authority, reflecting the centralized control of a single ruler who managed both the state and its administrative tools.

The Ancient Babylon Kingdom and its Length Units

To learn more about the Ancient Babylon Kingdom and how its development influenced the creation of length units, please read our article by clicking this link: [Babylon, So Legendary, As Mystificated].

Here we should note that we intentionally skip the units of length attributed to the Akkadian Empire, and not without reason. There are extremely few reliable archaeological sources that allow us to achieve rigid data about their measurement system. In contrast, the Babylonian Kingdom provides us with firm and rich data related to its administrative system, and all related subjects the measurement systems belong to as well. The Babylonian units of length presented below are listed from the smallest to the largest. Each unit includes a detailed description, its internal relations within the Babylonian measurement system, and its approximate equivalents in both metric and imperial units.

Ancient Persia Units of Length

The cultural background of Persian units of length invention we recommend to visit in our scholar article [navigate to ‘When We Spelling Persia…’ publication].

The Persian civilisation provides us with a broad range of records, and among them we find a highly structured and well-established metrology system. We should note that the Persian civilisation here must be understood only in the context of the Achaemenid Persian Kingdom (c. 550–330 BCE). Here we list only the length units belonging to that epoch. As we prefer, we list all known units in order from the smallest to the largest one, with a brief description of each unit’s usage.

Jewish Kingdom (Biblical) Units of Length

For understanding the units of length, and the processes that influenced how the units were evolved and designed, visit the publication ['The Biblical Measurements, or Israelite Society Metrology, Cultural Background']

The Biblical units, well known and attested by scientists, contain four main units. But here we provide a broader list of them, and if a unit’s existence is not among these four, we mark it with a tomb pink cross (✝️); otherwise, we mark the unit with a flower (🌷) — a well-attested unit of existence. The units below are listed from smallest to largest, each one with its self-rating (within the Jewish measurement system internal ratios), and with values in both metric and imperial equivalents as well.

Ancient Greece's Length Units

For an Ancient Greece culture review, we recommend visiting our article [Ancient Greece, or Diversity of Similarity... ]

To learn more about the socio-cultural and economic structure of Ancient Greece, visit the publication [Ancient Greece: Social Structure, Economy, and Polis Society Overview]

The Greek measurement system is well attested, and among ancient civilisations one of the richest in archaeological artefacts, but here we will propose to you only a few of them. Here we will provide the Athenian well-attested length units. For general information, we should point out to our honourable reader that each city-state among the Hellenic civilisation’s representatives had its own measurement systems, close in naming, but slightly different in values. All units below we ordered from the smallest to the larger one.

Ancient Rome Length Units

Before the measurement system of Rome reached its classical form, the civilisation passed through several stages of development. Its early monarchy was one of them. To read about the monarchy period and Rome’s seven kings, visit our publication [Antique Rome’s Early Stage].

Informally called the Roman Revolution, our authors have explored in detail for our honourable readers the event that marked the failure of the Roman reign. You may read about it in the publication [The Last of the Seven...].

The early Res Publica period is one of the remarkable periods of socio-cultural development in early Roman society. It lasted for about 60 years after the monarchy ended, before the administrative rules evolved into a quasi-state organisation. To trace this period year-by-year, visit our publication [The Foundation of Roman Democracy: The First 62 Years of the Republic].

The event known as the Decemvirate period is very important in the Classical Roman era. We recommend discovering this event here: [The Twelve Tables of Rome].

The cultural background that shaped Rome’s approach to establishing measurement-system standardisations is analysed in our authors’ research. You may explore it in the publication [Rome, Cultural Background Conditioned Its Measurement System].

Many Roman standards were closely related to earlier Greek rules and practices, and the measurement system is not an exception. A lot of interesting facts about Rome await you in the publications listed above, but here we will focus more directly on the Roman system of length units. Below we list all well-attested units of length used in the Roman Empire. In this overview we do not distinguish between the exact dates when these units were introduced, standardised, or later modified. Instead, we simply present them in a clear sequence—from the smallest units to the larger ones.

Indus Length Units

To explore the broader socio-cultural background of the Harappan (Indus) civilisation, please visit our publication [The Shores of the Ind River, and His Brother the Gung River Are Calling Us!...]

The Indus civilisation’s measurement system unification and presentation is not a simple task, because the civilisation consisted of a wide range of kingdoms, with a long time span of their existence, rare real archaeological artefacts, and inconsistent, unsystematic data these artefacts show us. But we took all possible courage we have and list below the units of length firmly accepted by the scientific society as the proven Harappan units of length. Here we should announce a disclaimer. Unfortunately, the original names of the Indus units have not survived to present days, and thus, in describing the Indus measures of length, we employ anthropometric terms widely attested among ancient civilisations — the finger, foot, cubit, step, and related measures.

Length units of Ancient China

The Zhou & Qin dynasty socio-cultural background overview, proceed to the article [As we mentioned, our choice of the initial point is taken from well-established states...]

Shang Dynasty: State Structure and Measurements, to see the publication, visit the article...

This is one of those rare lucky situations when the historical records provide researchers with a mostly complete set of artefacts. The civilisation of Ancient China is well documented, and we may confidently list the units of length that were standardised in that period.